A fine feast in the East
From desert landscapes to lush gardens, historical towns, well travelled artworks and perfect sunsets, the Eastern Cape is a delight,
DON’T be fooled by road movies and travel writers — touring on a bus with a bunch of strangers is not for the faint of heart. Recently, I did a whirlwind tour of the Eastern Cape from the warm seas and fine beaches of iMonti — that’s East London to you — to the little farming towns and Karoo pleasures of Nieu-Bethesda and Graaff-Reinet.
It started with a night in a guesthouse just off Kidd’s Beach. As a city girl, I was so enthralled by the ocean view from the Breeze Inn that I skipped breakfast and headed straight for the waves.
Then it was onto our bus and on the open road. The seven of us, complete strangers, at first found common ground in our love for a song on the radio. Calvin Harris’s This is What you Came For made the perfect road-trip song as the charm and history of the small towns and villages unfolded before us.
In Hamburg, we stopped to see the Keiskamma Altarpiece, an artwork made by about 130 artisans from the little village. This priceless work of art stirs up strong emotions, with fine details that convey the hardships of women as well as the hope that has kept them going. It embodies all the characteristics of the men, women, children and even the animals that live in the village, using colours and different sequences to tell stories.
The Altarpiece has travelled to North America, the UK, Germany and across South Africa as part of an international exhibition and has been on display in Stellenbosch for the past few years. It is worth travelling a long way to see.
Mzansi’s own version of The Hamptons can be found in nearby Port Alfred. We had a brief taste of the good life while bird watching on a sunset cruise down the Kowie River, before heading to the Royal St Andrews Hotel. The hotel opened in 1925 with its first guest being none other than the Prince of Wales. As King Edward VII, he would abdicate the throne in 1936.
Memorabilia relating to the former king is proudly displayed in the hotel’s corridors and honeymooners regularly request the room where he once laid his head.
One thing you notice when travelling through these little towns is how little has changed over the years, with hotels and houses retaining a distinct English style.
Take the colonial village of Bathurst, where the owners of The Pig and Whistle Inn — home to the oldest licensed bar in the country — have worked hard to keep the inn’s authenticity and home-away-from-home feel intact. They have trademarked the phrase “There is no thirst like Bathurst”, to which end they serve Benn Koppen Craft Beer, brewed down the road in Port Alfred.
We moved on to Grahamstown, otherwise known as the City of Saints on account of its 54 churches, the arty heart of the Eastern Cape. We paused at the Observatory Museum to time-travel through the camera obscura, the only Victorian example of its kind in the southern hemisphere.
Another rare sight for this Jozi girl was a pig crossing the road. We were in Bedford, established in the mid-1900s. Appropriately, this quaint town, with its neat hedgerows and rose bushes hosts a garden festival in October and residents spend much of the year preparing for this, when they open their spaces to the droves flocking to the town for the event.
A main attraction at the festival is 20 minutes from town at Cavers Country Guesthouse, which I’m told attracts around 15 000 local and overseas visitors. We sat down to a fine tea in the garden, gazing
across at the lush green Kaga Mountains, which are, as Cavers’ owner Rose Ross noted, perfectly situated: not too far and not too close either.
In the morning we drove on to Cradock under a clear, blue Karoo sky for an experience lifted straight out of an historic novel, at Die Tuishuise. The hotel — whose guests have included Cecil Rhodes and Olive Schreiner — is a row of unique little houses built in 1848. We couldn’t help but ask why the roads were so wide … to allow an ox-wagon and a full-span of oxen to turn around without trouble.
The next day saw us heading deeper into the Karoo. Sunsets are my favourite part of the day and I have not seen a more perfect one than I did sitting at the top of a hill on a bench at the Ganora Guest Farm. The farm has an extensive collection of fossils found in the Karoo, attracting scientists from around the world.
Its backyard is also home to 10 000-yearold Khoisan paintings, which bring the story to life as one steps into history.
Just 7km from the farm is the village of Nieu-Bethesda, home to the famous Owl House, which artist Helen Martins, who lived there, transformed into a visionary environment, elaborately decorated with ground glass and some 300 statues of owls, camels, pyramids, peacocks and people.
The unexpected waft of coffee and beer greeted us as we explored the village’s modest coffee bar and brewery. We sat on the swings in the shade of trees and tried the brewery’s offerings in a dreamy setting, the taste heightened by the knowledge that the water used in the brewing process is drawn from a stream in its backyard.
Our last stop before heading to Port Elizabeth was the majestic Valley of Desolation in Graaff-Reinet — a national monument and a geological phenomenon.
Too soon, we were at the end of the road. We had a last, fine-dining supper at Ginger, reminiscing on the week that had been, laughter piercing the swanky restaurant as we realised that we were perfect strangers and friends after all.