The ghosts of Prince Albert past
This vivacious, historic Karoo town has something for everyone
“So are you like a doctor or lawyer,” a burly blond man asks me outside the off-sales.
I tell him I’m just a simple travel writer and he says: “I’ve got a lot of stories for you, boet. I was a warder at a prison; there you see things you never forget.”
After enduring a tale of how the prison gangs made knives out of stainless steel trays and how they sharpened them — along with shippa-shippa sound effects — in the exercise yard,
I tell him I have an appointment in town and escape into the sanctity of the bottle store.
The fact the appointment is a sundowner with myself, in the lee of Prince Albert’s western ridge where my guest house lies, is neither here nor there. And besides, after 478km in the saddle, much of it on gnarly dirt tracks, I think the achievement deserves some cold libation.
On the way to my guest house, a rare budget find in this upmarket tourist town, I pass a sign pointing to Gordon’s Koppie. Robert Jacob Gordon, the prolific 18th-century explorer and commander of the Cape garrison from 1780 to 1795, has a number of landmarks dotted around SA’s interior named after him — an indicator of the respect in which he is held.
The one I’ve just passed marks the place where Gordon painted the farm Queek Valley (Kweekvallei) on his first visit to the site of presentday Prince Albert in 1778.
At this time, Gordon was on his third journey of discovery into SA’s hinterland, and it was he and governor Van Plettenberg who spent time enjoying the hospitality of the recently widowed wife of the first European farmer in the area, Zacharias de Beer.
Both Gordon and Van Plettenberg were amazed at how this industrious family had turned a veritable desert into a verdant farm, with burgeoning orchards and vineyards — and some good wine, too. When Gordon visited the farm for the second time in 1786, De Beer’s widow was then married to Johan Adam Raubenheimer.
Besides clearly being attracted to the same sort of woman, De Beer and Raubenheimer shared another characteristic: they were the founding fathers of all the De Beers and Raubenheimers in SA.
Such became the reputation of
Kweekvallei as an oasis in the otherwise barren and scarcely populated Karoo that many early European explorers, like Barrow, Lichtenstein and De Mist, availed themselves of the De Beers’ and Raubenheimers ’ hospitality.
Another such explorer — albeit one with a reputation for the vagueness and, on occasion, farfetchedness of his accounts — was the controversial French explorer and naturalist Francois le Vaillant.
He’d garnered a reputation for being a womaniser, and it was perhaps no wonder when he stayed at Kweekvallei in the early 1780s that Raubenheimer’s daughter, Dina — “one of the most beautiful Africans he had ever seen”, according to The Truth in Masquerade by Jane Meiring (1973) — became the object of his affections.
I set out the next morning to explore Prince Albert with a spring in my step. Marching determinedly out of the adjoining veld and right across my path is a red Roman “spider” (also known as baardskeerders and Kalahari Ferraris). Classed as a solifugae, these awesome arachnids are not true spiders, but their fearsome looks, size (the one I saw was about 10cm long), agility and the fact they often try to escape the sun or artificial light by running into your shadow can make them a bit intimidating. Yet they are not venomous.
After this segue into the natural world, I’m ready for some coffee. I buy a cappuccino at the coffee bar in the foyer of The Showroom Theatre and read up about this standout community-driven enterprise.
I learn it’s been recently acquired by the Prince Albert Community Trust (PACT) to showcase local talent, as well as to educate community members in the areas of marketing, management, administration and behind-the-scenes activities. Unfortunately, I’m not in town for the next day’s Slam Jam live band performance, but may well return for the Journey to Jazz Festival on May 1-5.
Continuing down the town’s attractive main road (Church Street), I pass many well-restored Victorians, Cape Dutch homes (many sporting the unique “Prince Albert gables”) and Karoo flat-roofed houses, a number of which now house enticing-looking shops, galleries, restaurants and other businesses.
As an art lover, I’m soon drawn into the commodious hall space that is the Prince Albert Gallery. It’s an Aladdin’s cave of every art form you can imagine, representing a vast range of artists and styles. With a penchant for Karoo landscapes and one eye on affordability, I’m particularly taken with Janet Dirksen’s large canvases selling for R15,000.
On my way to the Fransie Pienaar cultural and natural history museum, I chat with Pieter Olckers, the owner of Pajo’s Biltong in the colourful Kredouw Fijnhuis arcade.
He tells me business is a bit slow at the moment and he’s off to visit his wife — she’s still working in Johannesburg — for the weekend. Apparently the Greyhound Bus will take him there and back for R1,600, about a quarter of the price of diesel and tolls if he used his own bakkie.
While the Fransie Pienaar Museum is redolent with interesting relics and personalities of another era as one would expect, it’s the colourful Outa Lappies (Jan Schoeman — 1929-2011) exhibition that blows me away. Like other tourists, I’ve heard his name before, but I had no idea as to the dark tragedy that set him on a long and painful road of forgiveness.
It was in the 1960s, while driving his bakkie loaded with 10 children, that Outa Lappies was involved in a collision with a train. The death of the children sat so heavily on his shoulders that he went on a crusade of self-flagellation, criss-crossing the country for about 16,000km.
After this seminal journey, his philosophy of maak iets uit niets (make something out of nothing) mushroomed when he earnestly started producing lanterns, mobiles and carts from recycled tins, glass, plastic, bamboo and wire. With the metal finely punctured and small pieces of coloured plastic or glass framed by it, his artworks dance readily in the light. As an outsider artist, Outa Lappies is certainly as important to Prince Albert as Helen Martins is to Nieu-Bethesda, and I’m surprised his up-cycling style, particularly at our world’s current consumptive juncture, has not been continued locally as hers has.
Following a late lunch of local cheese (Gay’s Guernsey Dairy mature cheddar) on freshly baked sesame rolls (Lazy Lizard), washed down with a glass of mediumbodied Tinta Barocca (Fernskloof Wines), I doze off before embarking on a Ghost Walk at 6pm.
Local raconteur Ailsa Tudhope has been weaving stories about Prince Albert’s colourful past for about 20 years. The content of her hour-and-a-half walk is less spinetinglingly supernatural and more historical, though from her many corroborated anecdotes; there are clearly some ectoplasmic eccentrics who are not yet ready to leave town.
On my way to the Swartberg Pass the next day, I recall the story of the couple on a horse cart near Tierberg who were saved by the ghost of a murderous innkeeper’s victim, the same inn the couple were heading to when the ghost led them out of harm’s way. Best I keep my eyes peeled.
TRAVEL NOTES
Where it is and routes to get there: Prince Albert lies on the northern edge of the Swartberge, 45km off the N1; it’s 392km from Cape Town and 131km from Beaufort West. For those coming from Cape Town who would enjoy a scenic dirt track detour, take the magical Witteberge road (turn right at the railway crossing 28km east of Touwsriver). After about 65km of dirt, turn left onto the tar and you’ll arrive in Laingsburg after 5km. Even if you’re not going onto Oudtshoorn, George or the R62 to Calitzdorp, driving the Swartberg Pass is a wonderful experience. To “Die Top” and back is about 40km, allow two hours.
What sort of vehicle will I need?: Both the Witteberge dirt track and the Swartberg Pass side routes can be driven in normal sedan cars, but shouldn’t be attempted when wet. What to do in Prince Albert: This historic and well-preserved town is one of the Karoo’s premiere tourist destinations. When you tally its number of good eateries, accommodation outlets, collectables emporiums, pubs and coffee shops, it’s not hard to see why. Along with these, there is an excellent dairy farm (Gay’s Guernsey Dairy — delectable cheeses); a local winery (Fernskloof
— novel varietals, discerningly made); a gallery (Prince Albert Gallery) that has something for everyone; a standout Art Deco-styled theatre (The Showroom) that champions local talent; a day spa (Swartberg Hotel); an olive farm (Swartrivier Farm), which offers guided tours and tastings; a museum (Fransie Pienaar), which reveals the region’s ancient and more recent history; as well as the characters of Prince Albert and an adept “story weaver” (Ailsa Tudhope), who will take you on an informative and entertaining Ghost Walk around town. Unfortunately, the Tourism Information Office closed recently, but for more information on these and other activities, visit www.princealbert.org
Best time of year to go: April to October.
Where I stayed: Teen die Randjie self-catering call Mari or Francois on 082 536 4530.