IN WITH THE OLD
Simon Brooke visits one of the last traditional Karoo villages
ONE of the most isolated villages in the country is also one of the few remaining traditional Karoo dorps. Many small towns have been abandoned and become derelict, while others have become fashionable retreats and so have lost their charm. However, Merweville in the Great Karoo is lost in time.
It remains one of the very few, perhaps the only village, accessible by a gravel road that leads nowhere else.
But all this is likely to change as the last section of road is soon to be tarred. Residents believe development will follow, although they hope this will not lead the village to lose its country charm — as, they argue, has been the case with Prince Albert, the popular retreat for Cape Town’s affluent some 100km away.
From Cape Town, we turn off the N1 at the Prince Albert Road railway siding and head deep into the emptiness of the Karoo, wide open spaces in shades of grey and brown broken only by mountains on the horizon. Occasionally, tumbleweed sweeps across the road. This is South Africa’s equivalent of the Nevada and Arizona deserts — in fact, movie-makers have filmed ads here set on the Mexican border.
The first sign of the village is the tall spire of the Dutch Reformed Church and then the roofs of scattered buildings, nestling beneath a barren ridge of the Nuweveld Mountains, come into view. We have no booking but have heard of the Springbok Lodge, so we drive along the main road looking for it without success. I wave down a bakkie coming in the opposite direction, the only thing moving in the street, and the driver points it out to me. Only a small sign in front of what appears to be an old farmhouse indicates that it is the lodge.
It’s a rustic, rambling building of seven rooms with Oregon pine floors and, yes, they have room for the night, but we are too late for dinner — that must be ordered before 2pm.
Nevertheless, Maryanne and Johan van Heerden welcome us and ask which room we would like as we are the only guests.
Johan says Merweville was formed 100 years ago, when a dominee Van der Merwe established a church so local farmers would not have to travel to Beaufort West, over 100km away. The handsome, grey church building, a national monument, still stands proudly, casting a protective shadow over the flock.
Local parishioner Lena van Schalkwyk offers to show us around the building with its organ, which was rebuilt last year, and new lead-light windows. We climb the winding steps up the spire and watch Johannes Blom as he rotates the clock’s mechanism, a task he performs twice a week to make sure the bells ring out to summon the 70-odd members of the congregation.
Initially, the town thrived. It had a bank, post office and school but gradually people moved to bigger towns. Merweville now has only a store selling basics, a police station and a bottle store, from where deliveries are made by bicycle.
We decide to explore and keep an eye out for dinner. The Sunnyside Up Karoo Café, next to the lodge, holds promise but turns out to only serve meals at the weekends. Still, owner Toby Orford invites us in for a glass of wine.
He and his partner, Petrus Croukamp, have been in Merweville for a year — only those who cannot afford Prince Albert come to Merweville, he jokes — and are developing more upmarket self-catering accommodation.
Orford wants to attract people to Merweville who find Prince Albert too busy.
This village, he says, is a quiet plaas-dorp “where one can experience a true Karoo-farming atmosphere and we want to retain its unique charm while offering visitors comfortable accommodation”.