ADVENTURE BREWING
Shellee-Kim Gold follows a tourism trail centred on SA’s most famous tea
Following the rooibos tea route in the Western Cape
CAMP close by and you’ll see it hip-high, growing wild, waving in the wind of the Cederberg’s untamed bush — the only location on Earth you’ll find it.
It comes in more than 100 flavours and blends. You can drink it, have a massage with it, eat dishes infused with it and enjoy a wine-and-food pairing with it. You can also wash your hair in shampoo made with it.
Clanwilliam is the hub of rooibos country. You’ll find it growing along the mountain tops as well as in fields from Citrusdal to Nieuwoudtville. Harvest season is January to March.
Clanwilliam is also the birthplace of the Rooibos Route, established in 2014 by sisters Sanet Stander and Marietjie Smit.
Designed to give visitors an overview of all things rooibos in the region, its offerings including teainfused foods, factory tours and 4x4 trails on a rooibos farm.
Then there’s the tasting of the red — and sometimes green — tannin-free, healthy beverage at the world’s only rooibos teahouse, the heart and soul of the route.
DAY ONE:
NetMar Rooibos Tea House The NetMar Rooibos Tea House in Clanwilliam remains momentarily obscured in this house with its multiple businesses. When you do find it, you’ll discover tea for Africa — or rather the rest of the world, since most are exported.
One of the novelties at the tasting house is that few of the teas are available locally but they can be purchased here.
There’s natural tea, green unfermented and flower tea, such as chamomile and jasmine. Fruity flavours include apple and peach, then there are medicinal ones, such as lemongrass and buchu. Vanilla and liquorice are some of the sweeter choices and then there are the uberpopular spicy teas.
Put an hour aside for the ritual of tasting your seven selected blends or flavours. What’s the difference? Blended varieties come from natural flavourants, which are chopped and added to the tea leaves and have a lingering effect on the palate, like wine. Flavoured teas involve an essence, oil, artificial spray or extract sprayed on to the dried tea prior to packaging.
Elandsberg Eco Tourism With your palate’s preference established, head off to do some field exploration. Although not affiliated to the Rooibos Route, Chris du Plessis of Elandsberg Eco Tourism runs a 90-minute “tea safari” on Groenkol Rooibos Tea Estate, west of Clanwilliam.
From seed to crop to, finally, the cup, you’ll learn about various aspects of this fynbos plant and perhaps see some harvesting if you’re there at the right time.
You won’t smell the rooibos as “rooibos” until it’s been oxidised. At the processing plant, tea is chopped, heaped on the floor and ridden over with tractor wheels to bruise it. Once sprayed with water, it’s left overnight in 40°C heat to oxidate or sweat. That’s when the green plant turns red-brown, readying it for cleaning and packaging.
Big sellers at the shop here are the spicy chai mix and the rooibos/buchu, says Du Plessis, who guides around 1 000 people annually and also runs a fynbos tour.
Saint Du Barrys Guest House At the four-star Saint du Barrys Guest House you’ll be greeted by your hosts, Joan and Wally Willies, with a glass of icy, spiced rooibos — and find both red and green rooibos in your room, as well as a range of honey-and-rooibos toiletries.
The cold buffet breakfast includes orange rooibos syrup, muffins and rooibos-infused stewed fruit and the cool, thatched-roofed rooms include hairdryers and free wifi.
The modern-traditional rooms open onto a century-old banyan tree that seems to greet and guard guests, who come to bask in its shady offering.
DAY TWO:
The Old Gaol Museum Once the town’s jail and worthy of a short stop, the converted prison cells at the municipally controlled Clanwilliam Museum each tell a story about different aspects of the region’s past.
Tea cartons used over the past century, an original box of rooibos tea samples and old cultivating hand tools are among the displays in the rooibos room. A Victorian combined harvester and old farming implements can be seen at the back of the museum.
Marcuskraal 4x4 Route
Adrenaline junkies will need to set aside four hours to master their manoeuvres behind the wheel on the Marcuskraal 4x4 trails. Spectacular Cederberg mountain views are yours when you follow the winding trails on this working rooibos farm to the death-defying Dwarsrug clifftop. Some are suitable for novices, while the obstacles on others will leave even the skilled satiated.
Bushman’s Kloof There’s only one place to unlock those knots in your back after your offroading spell — all within earshot of a running river and birdsong. The Bushman’s Kloof treatment gazebo is a perfect spot to have your body professionally prodded and pampered during the Cederberg Soul-ution spa treatment. This is a rooibos-rich treat in which both the foot soak and scrub contain the plant. Rooibos also features in the body-massage oil.
Hebron Coffee Shop With your gastric juices already so stimulated, it would be a cuisine sin not to stop at Hebron Coffee Shop, where rooibos-infused meals are prepared with passion by owner-chef Steve Oldroyd. Once you’ve sampled his tea-smoked snoek samosas, you won’t be surprised to hear well-travelled guests have rated him among the world’s best chefs. How about a pannacotta with rooibos roast plums for dessert? And with your cuppa? A slice of rooibos, grape and olive oil cake, rooibos scones or apple pancakes with rooibos syrup. Breathtaking valley views from the lush gardens enhance digestion.
Hebron also offers rooibos foodand-wine pairing.
DAY THREE:
Wuppertal Part-gravel roads between mountain boulders make the spectacular journey between Clanwilliam and Wuppertal, a three-hour round trip.
The one-time mission station is now home to the Red Cedar range, a community-upliftment project that makes shampoo, foam bath, shower gel and soaps, all from rooibos, natural ingredients and essential oils.
Wuppertal and surrounds also feature some of the Cederberg’s most famous hikes, such as the 100km trail and the four-day, fully-catered Gabriel trail.
Germans say the rich rooibos fragrance reminds them of Christmas cake and glühwein. South Africans might say it’s quintessential South African bush — in a cup! —© Shellee-Kim Gold