Each weekend, throughout the Western Cape, the colourful tables,
umbrellas and canopies of countless craft markets blossom like
spring flowers after the first good rains.
Drawing huge crowds eager to haggle and barter for favoured
treasures, Western Cape crafters specialise in crafts ranging
through the visual and culinary arts.
Whether you buy a pair of handmade velskoen, settle down to
a gastronomic feast of melktert, fall for an arresting West
Coast seascape in oils, an inventive piece of urban art fashioned
from wire, a particular piece of embroidery, a posy of dried
wild flowers or merely browse the skills of locals while chewing
on a boerewors roll or piece of biltong, you'll quickly develop
a taste for our essentially Western Cape arts and crafts.
Time and its Tides
A springtide of 17th Century European colonialism brought
a cultural sea change to the western Cape, swamping the ancient
Khoi Khoi and the San, sweeping them to extinction. Today, rich,
ochre-coloured rock paintings throughout the province speak
mutely of an age-old culture of self-sufficiency.
Succeeding European occupations, the migrating Nguni and the
consequences of their interactions voice themselves in our art
galleries, architecture, oral history and house, working and
open-air museums.
Wing your way through the high-speed exhibits propelling Ysterplaat's
SA Air Force Museum and drop anchor in Simon's Town's museum
where a ghost and a pub keep legendary Able Seaman Just Nuisance
on a tight leash.
In the South African Navy's 75th year, make the nearby South
African Naval Museum's life-size dioramas your next port of
call. thereafter, set sail for Stellenbosch's Living Village
Museum where you'll discover that, while everything changes,
the gracious charm of South Africans does not!
Deep in the heart of the province, the Beaufort West Museum
commemorates how, in 1969, Dr Chris Barnard set the world's
pulse racing and Mr Louis Waskanski's donated heart beating.
Reel in a line of costal museums, from Knysna (piscatology and
icthyology), Mossel Bay (the interactive Bartholomeu Dias Museum
Complex) and Bredasdorp (a haunting shipwreck museum) to Cape
Agulhas (the historic Pharos-style beacon lighting the way of
those rounding Africa's southern tip).
The Western Cape has weathered history's storms well. The Bo-Kaap
Museum reflects our marriage of East and West; the Mayibuye
Centre portrays the struggle of South Africans to realise their
birthright and, by illustrating forced removals, the District
Six Museum testifies to the spirit of those subjected to apartheid's
social engineering.
Alternatively, rural Moravian missions at Elim, Genadendal
and Wuppertal show the clergy's commitment to nurturing our
spiritual and educational well-being. Living legacies are all
about us.
So, whether you enjoy a cultural festival or treat the kids
at the historical Victoria & Alfred Waterfront's Telkom
Exploratorium, you'll be adding to our remarkable history as
you share in it.
A Natural and Unspoilt Beauty
Natural beauty surrounds us. Soaring mountain peaks, merging
oceans, enchanted forests, bountiful fauna, spectacular peninsulas
and wildly romantic capes bless us with an embarrassment of
scenic riches.
The smallest, yet most diverse of the world's six Floral Kingdoms,
the Cape Peninsula is home to more than 8 500 indigenous plant
species or fynbos, among them the imperious King Protea and
the provincial flower, the Red Disa.
As the blazing West Coast spreads its cobalt sky over the eastern
interior's rolling plains and rich citrus orchards, the green-and-gold
wheat and sheep-farming Overberg crosses the majestic Swartberge
to the arid Karoo's desert spaces, both regions pushing hard
against the tropical forests and warm ocean gracing nature's
nursery, the mystical Garden Route.
Our sun drenched, sandy beaches coexist with jagged spines
of rock, often replete with the skeletal remains of broken-backed
ships. Broad, lazy rivers meander across wide landscapes or
cascade in misty, rainbow grandeur down precipitous gorges carved
in prehistoric stone.
When all's said and done, how many cities rest beneath a towering
mountain with an ocean to their fore?
Passing Through
Chapman's Peak Drive, between Hout Bay and Noordhoek on the
Cape Peninsula, is one of the world's most breathtaking cliffside
marine drives. Yet it is only one of many spectacular passes
traversing the wave of mountains thrown up by unimaginable prehistoric
forces to separate a narrow coastal plain from the vast continental
plateau.
The 129 000 square kilometres making up our province contain
many tributes to the road engineer's art, with successive mountain
passes offering panoramic vistas of seemingly endless tracts
of land stretching to forever.
Leaving the Cape Peninsula, cross either Sir Lowry's Pass into
the Overberg or Du Toit's Kloof Pass into the Breede River Valley.
Although the futuristic Huguenot Tunnel offers you a smoother,
faster alternative, avoid it. From within, mountains are singularly
unspectacular!
Travel on to the magnificent Cederberg Mountains over Middelberg
Pass or approach them from Piekenierskloof Pass. Both are particularly
impressive when spring paints the mountainside with broad brushstrokes
of brilliant flowering colour.
Beyond the Overberg, over Tradouws Pass, the Klein Karoo Kannaland
and the Central Karoo - divided by the Swartberge (Black Mountains)
- are joined by the challenging Swartberg Pass and the equally
awe-inspiring Meiringspoort and Seweweekspoort Passes.
South of the Swartberge, the Garden Route's densely forested
and wonderfully circuitous Bloukrans, Grootrivier and Homtini
Passes will sate your senses with nature's mastery of creative
invention.
Wonderment is every traveller's companion in the Western Cape.
From our privileged vantage points above the towns and valleys
we visit, we're able to place them in unique and unforgettably
picturesque perspectives.
The Wine Routes
No visit to the Western Cape is complete without a visit to
at least one of our fourteen world-renowned wine routes. Among
the blue-tinged mountains and emerald-green vineyards graced
by elegantly stark white farmsteads, our Cape Dutch and Huguenot
heritages have combined to blend a cultural cultivar of fine
wines and warm, gracious people.
Developed over three hundred years, the fourteen gems in the
Cape vintner's crown include the Constantia, Stellenbosch, Franschhoek,
Paarl, Wellington, Worcester, Tulbagh, Robertson, Durbanville,
Helderberg, Overberg, Swartland, Olifants River and Klein Karoo
wine routes. Each is unique, yet equally rich in the fruits
of its vines.
Stellenbosch, with twenty-two private cellars and five cooperatives,
is at the heart of the original wine route. Franschhoek, influenced
by French settlement, Wellington and Paarl, headquarters of
KWV, the wine industry's umbrella organisation, comprise the
wine routes falling in the Winelands region. The smaller Durbanville,
the recently opened Helderberg and the Constantia wine routes
lie closer to Cape Town. Constantia houses South Africa's oldest
wine estate. The Swartland, Olifants River and Overberg routes
take their names from the regions in which they fall, and the
relatively far-flung Klein Karoo route produces pleasant, fruity
wines, cleverly reflecting the strong contrasts of the region.
Although you'll be tempted to visit wineries and sample cultivars
throughout the Western Cape, be wary - your holiday will sip...
er, slip by before you know it!
Food for Thought
Cape cuisine, as we know it today, has its roots in a year-long,
enforced holiday spent here 350 years ago by members of the
Dutch East India Company vessel, the Haerlem, wrecked off Milnerton
in March 1647.
Rescued in 1648, survivors spoke avidly of the Cape as ideal
citrus country. Following their excellent advice, the Company,
on 25 March 1651, ordered that 'a general rendezvous be formed
at the Cape of Good Hope' to 'provide that the East India ships
may procure herbs, flesh, water, and other needful refreshments'.
Since then, lovers of fine food have not looked back.
The combined influences of Europe and the East now come to
you in delectable, unique dishes including bobotie, waterblommetjie
bredie and mosbolletjie bread. Sweets including koesusters and
melktert are found nowhere else in the world.
A long coastline - which we must thank for the Haerlem's fateful
visit - offers a plentiful supply of seafood delights such as
calamari, smoked snoek, prawns and crayfish.
Whether you dine on nouvelle cuisine in a chic restaurant high
above the city's twinkling lights; indulge in a fresh lobster
while watching sleek yachts carve finely slivered wakes in the
bay; savour a mountain view along with a rack of Karoo lamb,
or enjoy a West Coast 'fish braai' on one of our many beaches,
spare a thought for those discerning connoisseurs of 350 years
ago. They obviously shared your taste for the finest foods.
Perhaps, after dinner, when enjoying a glass of exquisite,
citrus-flavoured Van Der Hum, you might look towards Milnerton's
beach and raise your glass to them.
Carnival Capers
In the Western Cape, New Year arrives with a bang. Party animals
ring in the new with fireworks, street parties and fun fests
before revelling in the joyous sounds, colours and antics of
the Cape Minstrel Carnival, a musical extravaganza of brightly
dressed, parasol-waving troupes wending its way through central
Cape Town.
January sees sport high on the agenda and fashion steps out
at our answer to Ascot and the Kentucky Derby, the J&B Metropolitan
Handicap run at Kenilworth. In February, Maynardville's Community
Chest Carnival celebrates South Africa's diverse cultures. The
fit and healthy compete in the Old Mutual Cape Town Marathon,
the Boland Bank Half Marathon, the National Championship Motor
Races at the Killarney circuit and Worcester's Mountain Bike
Championships.
For the more sedentary, Kirstenbosch's Sunday concerts showcase
musical talent from December to March in the mountain-shaded
splendour of the National Botanical Gardens.
March sees the Argus/Pick 'n Pay Cycle Tour circling the Peninsula,
the Western Cape Yellowfin Challenge reeling in the big 'uns,
the Klein Karoo National Arts Festival canvassing artistic talent
and the University of Cape town's Rag Procession putting forward
the city's prettiest face.
A robust combination of sporting events and wine festivals
dominate April, May and June. In July, Knysna's Oyster Festival
and Worcester's South African Fancy Pigeon Championships highlight
the unusual.
August and September herald spring with a profusion of wild
flowers and many towns hold Wild Flower Shows. October sees
Food and Wine Festivals in Robertson and Stellenbosch while
Bonnievale, Elgin and Saldanha paint their towns red in November.
The year's end lights up the province with goodwill to all,
carollers voice Christmas joy and, across the Western Cape,
everybody gets ready for the inevitable party to end them all,
the New Year's Eve thrash!
A Year of Brilliant Bouquets
Since time immemorial, spring has heralded the rebirth of
life rendered dormant by winter's chill. Nowhere is this more
evident than in the Western Cape. With the advent of spring,
Mother Nature praises the sun's return with a devastatingly
beautiful show of wild flowers from Milnerton on the Peninsula
to beyond the Olifants River.
From mid-July to the end of October, fields, mountains, pastures
and towns are transformed into enchanting landscapes of fairytale
wonder. More than 2 600 species of wild flower burst into broad
palettes of surrealistic colour, each scene varying as if every
corner turned presents a different but stunning canvas painted
by a blazing celestial brush.
Yet, the Western Cape's floral abundance overwhelms even the
splendour of spring. That the Cape Peninsula, with its dense
proliferation of 8 500 indigenous plant species or fynbos, forms
the smallest of the world's six Floral Kingdoms indicates the
province's floral wealth.
Fynbos, usually small, delicate but hardy plants, thrives on
the Western Cape's Mediterranean climate and covers the province's
mountains, coasts and plains.
To really appreciate its diversity and its ability to bloom
at times and in conditions that confound logic, indulge your
senses in a feast of floral fantasy at any of the many reserves
found in each of the province's subregions.
Wild flowers are at their best between 11h00 and 15h00, when
the sun is high. Cold weather and wind stop them opening, so
choose your viewing days well.
Country towns such as Clanwilliam, Darling and Caledon host
flower shows as does the National Botanical Garden at Kirstenbosch
in Cape Town. Flowerline, a seven-day-a-week hotline, will give
you advice from July to October on where best to see the flowers
and offer guidance on accommodation, tours and special attractions.
The Fruitful Cape
Produce from the Breede River Valley, the Overberg and the
Olifants River Valley fills the Cape's heavily laden fruit bowls.
A surfeit of vitamin-rich oranges, apples, pears, peaches, apricots
and table grapes find their way to countries around the globe.
It comes as a surprise to many that most of our national apricot
exports are grown in the supposed aridity of the Klein Karoo
Kannaland's Hoeko Valley, just outside Ladismith, a town famous
for its high-quality fruits.
From May to June, the air around Citrusdal in the Olifants
River Valley is pervaded by the scent of freshly picked oranges
making their way along the conveyor belts of the town's many
packing stations. About two million cases of tangy, natural
goodness leave this small, unpretentious town each year.
The Breede River Valley, visited by warm summers and moist
winters, is the Western Cape's largest fruit and wine producing
region.
The serene, well-treed town of Ceres, fittingly named after
the Roman Goddess of Fertility, lies at the centre of this natural
orchard. Apricots burst into season from mid-November to mid-December,
peaches from mid-February to the end of March and wine grapes
from December through to April.
In the Overberg, the small town of Elgin and its surrounding
farms are known worldwide for their juicy apples and, during
the apple-picking season - which lasts from January until May,
millions of apples are graded, washed, polished, packed, cooled
and sent on the first stage of a journey to homes and tables
around the globe.
The heady scent of apple blossoms is a sensory delight for
visitors welcomed by the district's many packing houses and
picture-perfect farms. Before you visit, though, please make
prior arrangements through the local tourism authority.
High and Low, Fast and Slow
If you're a visiting adrenalin junkie, you've come to the
right place! The Western Cape will set your pulse racing. Serious
rock climbing, gliding, deep-sea diving, bungi jumping, kloofing,
water-skiing, rallying and rubber-ducking are regular features
on our visitors' sporting menus.
If you've not come to holiday on death-defying feats, you're
even better catered for. Hiking, mountain biking and 4x4 trails
are plentiful, river rafting, canoeing and windsurfing conditions
are superb and big-game, deep-sea fishing is, more often than
not, very rewarding.
If you're a surfer, the Western Cape welcomes you to some of
the world's hottest surf: Outer Kommetjie, Victoria Bay or Elandsbaai
to fast, often gnarly point breaks, Kalk Bay to its rip-curling
reef and countless pristine stretches of coast to their longboard-tailored
beach breaks.
Less strenuous, equally fun-filled activities might see you
drifting over the Winelands in a hot-air balloon, taking a helicopter
flip over the city or indulging in a cruise on any one of our
many lagoons.
South Africans are sport crazy and international success in
soccer, cricket, golf and rugby are supported by regular international
yachting, volleyball, boxing and hockey events. You'll find
excellent golf courses, tennis and squash courts, swimming pools
and health clubs throughout our adventurous, sporting province.
The Whale Coast
They say recorded whale songs soothe even the most fragile
psyches. If you're looking for peace and tranquility, the sight
of the world's greatest mammals breaching and lobtailing as
they go about courting, mating and calving a few metres from
shore will give you a new zest for life.
Each year, between June and December, Southern Right whales
migrate to our waters to calve and nurse their young. Their
distinct, V-shaped blows draw tens of thousands of lesser. two-legged
mammals to shorelines and viewing points along the Cape's south
coast.
From Strandfontein on the west coast to beyond Plettenberg
Bay on the south coast, with prime viewing sites at Doringbaai,
Yzerfontein, De Hoop, around False Bay and Walker Bay, you stand
an excellent chance of spotting Humpback and Bryde's whales
as well.
A bonus for lovers of the gentle giants are sightings of schools
of up to fifty of their equally popular cousins, Heaviside,
Common and Bottlenose dolphins. With thirty-seven species of
whale and dolphin calling the Whale Route home - the entire
North Atlantic hosts only twenty-eight species, few eco-tourists
go home disappointed. Beyond Struisbaai, the De Hoop Nature
Reserve has, for many years, been a calving area favoured by
large schools.
Establishing a better connection to the denizens of the deep,
cell phone giants MTN fund the Cape Whale Route Secretariat,
assist with Whale Route promotions at international tourism
conferences and are developing whale-watching activities at
more than fifty centres along the Whale Route. Their Whale Host
Programme will reach whale watchers in South Africa, the Americas,
Europe and the Far East.
Closer to home, at Walker Bay's popular Hermanus seaside resort,
residents and visitors have come to depend on the sound of the
MTN whale crier's kelp horn signalling the whales arrival in
the bay. If you're visiting Walker Bay between June and November
and find yourself beyond the reach of the kelp horn, call the
whale crier on 083 2121074 or, for whale updates, contact the
MTN Whale Hotline toll free on 0800 228222.
