Tulbagh
Watch out for greedy turkeys at Paddagang. They’re smarter than they look, and will swipe food off your plate if you’re not careful.
For a taste of the real Boland, head out to Tulbagh, a town known for its historical buildings, fruit, wine and mountain scenery.
6 things to do in and around Tulbagh
Tuck into Boland fare
An insistent turkey gobbles away outside the window at Paddagang Restaurant, one of Tulbagh’s best-known restaurants featuring local cuisine. “The waterblommetjie stew (R75) is our famous dish. People love it,” says restaurateur Bubbles van Zyl. There’s also home-made chicken pie and bobotie on the menu. Paddagang (literally, frog’s passage) probably got its name from the frogs that lived in the back garden. During the mating season, they would hop down the path to the river in search of a mate.
At the Paddagang wine shop, Gideon Goosen slowly pours me a glass of Sopkoppie, a sweet red wine made locally. “You see, when a hunter shot a buck he would have to drink a cup of blood called a sopkoppie, and that’s where the name comes from,” he explains.
Bubbles urges me to have a piece of Mister Toad chocolate cake, but I’ve had too much to eat and the roaring fire in the grate is making me sleepy…
Next time!
Where? 23 Church Street.
Cost: Main courses range from R60 to R110.
Contact: 023 230 0242
Ride in the orchards
Tulbagh used to be a little dorpie, but these days it’s very cosmopolitan,” Antoinette Hauptfleisch tells me as we set off on a horse trail on her fruit farm Vrolikheid.
She taps her horse, Samurai, on the rump and we’re off. My horse, Freedom, needs a little nudge in the ribs before he follows.
We ride for an hour through the plum and peach orchards. Dainty pink blossoms show off against the backdrop of the snow-covered Winterhoek Mountains.
“You’re a few weeks early for the wildflowers,” Antoinette tells me. A sheet of mist hides the valley floor. In the distance smoke lingers above a farmhouse chimney. The drone of a tractor breaks the silence. “Môre, julle,” the driver greets us from across the fence.
Freedom stops for a long slurp at the stream, taking time to admire his reflection in the water before I have to give him another nudge to move on.
How to get there: Follow Van der Stel Street straight out of town, heading 8 km north on the Winterhoek Road. You will come to a fork in the road: Bear left and you’ll see the horses and the sign for Vrolikheid farm.
Cost: R120 for an hour’s ride.
Contact: 023 230 0615 or 082 691 0020
Taste the fruit of the vine
There’s apparently a ghost that lives down in the wine cellar of De Oude Drostdy manor. As long as he’s friendly, I think to myself as I follow the creaky staircase down into the cellar with only a flickering lantern to light my way.
A visiting British tourist was surprised when he printed his holiday snaps and found something quite bizarre hovering above a candle in the cellar. He was convinced that the manor was haunted and immediately posted the photo back to Tulbagh. You can check out the picture and decide for yourself whether it depicts a ghost.
Back in the 1800s the building was Tulbagh’s magistrate’s court and the cellar was the prison. But now it’s where you get to taste Drostdy-Hof wines. Even though it’s only 10.30 in the morning, I willingly let Wilmien van der Merwe take me through a selection of reds.
After all the swirling and sipping, I head upstairs to the museum. Here you can page through copies of Die Burger and the Cape Times dating from the last months of 1969.
In one photograph a woman stands in front of a stove amidst the rubble that was her home. The caption reads: “Earthquakes may come and go, but breakfast, even when salvaged from the remains of one’s home, is a permanent feature of life.”
How to get there: Follow Van der Stel Street north out of town and drive about 4 km along the Winterhoek Road. Follow the signs.
Hours: Monday to Friday between 10 am and 5 pm; Saturdays between 10 am and 2 pm; Sundays closed; public holidays between 10 am and 2 pm.
Cost: R10 per person for cellar tasting. Under-18s free.
Contact: 023 230 0203
Chocoholics united
If you can’t resist a good chocolate, head out to Schoonderzicht Farm.
“You can never get sick of chocolate!” says nine-year-old Aïsha de Wolf, her hands dripping in chocolate. She should know. Niki de Wolf is her mother and the resident chocolate maker. Aïsha laughs at her seven-year-old brother Kenan, whose mouth is covered in chocolate. Then she dips her hand into the molten chocolate for another taste.
I take a seat on the veranda under the oak trees. The late-afternoon sun melts like butter over the town below as the streetlights switch on.
I pop a piece of sticky nougat chocolate into my mouth and wash it down with coffee. Other flavours to try are ginger and orange, lavender and marzipan, and Amarula.
“I was a business journalist; can you believe it? Niki says. “When I moved to Tulbagh from Rotterdam I decided I wanted to make chocolate.”
She hands me a spoonful of chilli chocolate to taste. Wise career move!
How to get there: From Van der Stel Street, turn right at the 7-Eleven, and follow the signs to Moniki’s Chocolatier.
Cost: R25 buys you three chocolates and your choice of tea, coffee, port or wine
Contact: 023 230 0673
Picnic at a waterfall
A thin golden haze stretches across the Obiekwa Mountains, the closing curtain of the day. Along the dusty road, a group of farm workers trudge home to town. They wave as I drive past.
A man tells me to park my car at the main gate and walk 500 m along the fence till I reach the waterfall. He left out one minor detail, though: to turn left and not right at the gate. Soon I find myself ankle-deep in mud and leopard-crawling under the fence. I look like I’ve just come short in a mud-wrestling competition.
But I soon find my way and 10 minutes later I’m seated on a cool rock, looking up at the waterfall. A great place for a picnic!
The valley stretches for miles below me and shadows dance across the valley floor in the late-afternoon light. I’m lost in thought until the drum roll of the waterfall shakes me back to my senses as it cascades off the cliff.
How to get there: Waterval Nature Reserve is 12 km out of town.
Cost: Pay R5 at the tourism office on Church Street, collect a map and ask the friendly staff to explain to you how to get there.
Contact: 023 230 1375
go! says: Make a day of it. Wear sturdy takkies and take your swimming costume. There are some lovely pools.
Take in a show, darling!
“Welcome, darling,” Chris van Niekerk (aka Francois of 7de Laan fame) greets me at the door to the Saronsberg Theatre. I follow him through the antique shop, past the snazzy coffee bar and up the stairs to the auditorium.
“Voilà! Can you believe this used to be a run-down apartment?” he says.
Red, velvet curtains drape the stage and the glamorous Victorian balcony is one of the best spots to watch the town go by.
The theatre opened its doors in May this year and has caused quite a buzz. “We have a mix of both English and Afrikaans shows,” Chris tells me. If I stayed in town till Saturday I could catch Derde Party, an Afrikaans comedy.
Chris was asked by his friend Nick van Huysteen, who runs Saronsberg wines, if he would like to manage the place and he couldn’t resist the offer. And just like that he moved to Tulbagh.
“Some nights we’re packed and you can barely move in here,” he says. And there’s been quite a line-up of shows so far from Koos Kombuis to an Abba tribute.
“I do get out now and then,” he adds. “I’m off to shoot some episodes for Binnelanders but otherwise you’ll find me right here at the theatre.”
Where? Van Der Stel Street.
When? Selected weekends.
Contact: 023 230 0707
(Note: All prices accurate in February 2010)
Related articles:
Don’t rush through De Rust
Starstruck in Sutherland
Comments