go! YOUR JOURNEY STARTS HERE

Alan sells hanmade steam-driven model boats for about R500.

You’re never too old to play. At 83, Alan Raubenheimer has a toy collection that will turn any toddler green with envy. Alan is the owner and curator of the Napier Toy Museum, where you can relive your childhood with Dinky Toys and Meccano sets.

At first glance it’s no more than a small room where you have to watch your step not to knock anything over. But then Alan starts flipping the switches: Model aircrafts suspended from the ceiling start “flying” above your head, model trains steam over miniature landscapes and candle-driven steamboats putt-putt on tiny “dams”.

Alan started building steamboats when he retired 24 years ago. “We played with boats like these when I was small,” he says. Most of the collection belongs to Alan and is not for sale.

Where? On Sarel Cilliers Street.
Cost: Adults R20; children under 12 R10.
Contact: * 028 423 3894

Go! says: Alan sells hand-made, steamdriven model boats for about R500, depending on the cost of materials. His neighbour, Kevin Doveton, builds working model steam engines.

From the Grootberg Hiking Trail outside town you have a commanding view of the Agulhas Plain.

If you’d like to see more of the area, pack a picnic basket and head for the mountains on the Grootberg Hiking Trail outside town. A retired farmer who now lives in town, Pieter Albertyn, built this 8km circular trail about 10 years ago after his retirement, so he could enjoy a stroll on the farm that has been in his family for six generations. You have a lovely view of the town and the Agulhas plain.

You can walk the trail on your own, but if you want to learn more about the birds and fynbos, take qualified field guide Steven Smuts with you. Steven says you should be moderately fit; children of primary school age should manage it. At a relaxed pace, the trail should take you about three-and-a-half hours. You can see all the way to the coast on a clear day.

A great place to stop for a meal and a cup of coffee (or something stronger) is Sopieshoogte, the half-way mark of the trail, and also the halfway mark between Bredasdorp and Struisbaai. “In the old days people stopped here with their wagons and had something to drink,” Pieter says.

After Sopieshoogte the road turns back towards the town and you see all of Napier spread out like a road map.The trail starts at the FM tower outside town. To get there you drive through the Napier conservancy, and en route you can see beautiful fynbos and perhaps also a klipspringer. A leopard was once spotted here.

Where? Drive up Church Street, past the high school and up the mountain along the gravel road to the FM tower (the road is stony; drive carefully). There is parking at the tower.
Cost: Free. Negotiate a price to hike with Steven.
Contact: Napier tourism * 028 423 3325 or Steven Smuts * 028 423 3049

Go! says: Take your binoculars. You have a good chance of seeing a jackal buzzard or perhaps even a black harrier

All sorts has a neat self-catering holiday flat if you're looking for a place to stay.

From outside, All Sorts looks like any small-town coffee shop, but on the ground floor you’ll find an astonishing collection of military memorabilia. Leon Visser has been collecting stamps and toy soldiers since childhood, and in 1975 added medals to his collection.

“I’ve always been interested in military things. After school I went to the army and after university I joined the permanent force,” he says. Through the years he expanded his collection to include uniforms of the old South African Defence Force, Airforce and Navy, as well as German uniforms and chunks of the Berlin Wall that divided that city during the Cold War.

Leon also makes chess sets of lead and pewter illustrating different historical episodes, such as the Crusades and Napoleon Bonaparte’s campaigns. Costs vary according to the materials used and level of detail in the pieces. On the top floor you can browse through the beads, clothing and jewellery. And should the army paraphernalia temporarily overwhelm you, take a break over a cup of coffee and a slice of cake at the coffee shop.

Where? 79 Sarel Cilliers Street, on the left as you’re coming in from the R316, directly opposite Bounty Books.
Cost: Free.
Contact: * 028 423 3861

Go! says: There is also a neat holiday flat if you’re looking for a place to stay.

If you love beer, you’re in luck, because Napier’s beer is delicious. Napier Brewery has been brewing beer for almost three years. It’s the southernmost brewery in Africa (it beats Stanford’s Birkenhead Brewery by a whisker).

Napier can only brew about a tenth as much as Birkenhead – only 3 000 litres per month – because their fermentation tank is smaller. The owners, Mark Humphrey and Craigan Millar, started the brewery with three old brass geysers and taught themselves how to brew beer.

“Our first two tries tasted awful,” says Craigan excitedly. “By the third try we had a good quality beer, but only by the sixth brew were we happy. Since then it has only got better.” They make lager, ale and stout. The brewery is kept as simple as possible, and the beer is unpasteurised and preservative-free. Hence it has to remain refrigerated and lasts only six to eight weeks in the fridge – so you’re unlikely to find it on sale at your nearest Solly Kramer’s.

You can, however, enjoy a cold one with a pizza (pick the ingredients yourself) at the Suntouched Inn, where Craigan is also a co-manager. It’s also available at some pubs and restaurants in Hermanus and Greyton.

Where? Ask at the Suntouched Inn on the main road.
Cost: Brewery tours are free; enquire at the Suntouched Inn.
Contact: * www.napierbrewery.co.za; * 083 703 8004 (Mark); * 082 495 6726 (Craigan)

Go! says: Also pop in at The Fox, an English-style bar and eatery with the very Afrikaans motto “’n bordvol kos” . You get a variety of beers on tap, such as Guinness and Forester’s, and a three-course Sunday lunch with two roasts, Yorkshire pudding, four veg and a traditional pudding such as apple crumble (it varies from Sunday to Sunday) for R95 per person (*028 423 3293). A two-course is R75.

Napier is a gardener’s paradise – it has a mild climate and fertile soil, which stays damp all year round thanks to the right combination of soil, rock and clay.

Sarah Foyle of Foyle’s Herbs & Plants started planting herbs after hearing that it’s difficult to get them in Napier. She came out to retire here 12 years ago, and you’ll find it hard to believe her lush garden is only nine years old. When you come shopping for plants here, you also get a wealth of free gardening advice.

“I wanted to come and retire in the platteland, and have never worked this hard in my life!” she laughs. “I don’t claim to be a plant expert, but I’ve been gardening all my life, and I’ve read up a lot over the years and learnt from other people.” Etienne Kriel works at the nursery at the Moerse Plaasstal. “I want to turn Napier into a gardening destination, a real garden route,” he says.

He has helped several townspeople design gardens and specialises in endemic plants such as clivias and gladioli. “A man who can’t look after a flower, can’t look after woman, not so?” he says while showing me the lavender and clivias. I hope he’s wrong…

Where? Foyle’s Herbs & Plants is on the Bredasdorp side of town. Drive past the Napier Farm Stall and follow the signs from Almond Street. The Moerse Plaasstal, Restaurant & Kwekery is to the right of the main road when you drive into Napier from Caledon.
Contact: 028 423 3358 (Foyle’s) 028 423 3334 (MoersePlaasstal); http://moerseplaasstal.blogspot.com/ 

Go! says: Ask Sarah about her herbs if you have a nagging health complaint. She knows which herbs can help a host of ailments.

The signs at the side of the road count down the kilometres to Napier while the car swoops through the lazy turns of the R316 between Caledon and Bredasdorp. Yet I’m still surprised when the town suddenly appears over a hill among the Overberg’s undulating wheat fields.

It’s a hot summer’s afternoon and the surrounding fields are brown and dusty as I drive down the main street. Yet the white, green and creamy white homes with their green gardens welcome me.
I pop in at Gunner’s, one of a number of eateries on the main street. At the table next to me a man is talking on his cellphone: “Look, I’m not coming to work tomorrow. I think I’ll just stay another night.”

And over the next few days I quickly realise why people get stuck here. It’s difficult to go into a shop or restaurant without someone starting a chat. Abré Smit, who has lived here for 34 years, says: “When we were kids, my friends and I would lie in the main street to catch some sun on a Sunday afternoon. We could easily lie in the road for two hours without a car ever bothering us.”

Nowadays you wouldn’t dare. Over the past decade, this once sleepy farming town has turned into a popular weekend spot for Capetonians. It’s also ideally located as a stop on the drive back to Cape Town after a weekend at the coast.

And some people get stuck here for a long time – like Mike Hall and his wife, Janet, who stopped here for coffee 10 years ago. “We often stopped here en route to Hermanus, but one day when we came back, our favourite coffee shop had closed down,” Mike says. “Then an estate agent came up to us and said: ‘Unfortunately, I can’t help with a cup of coffee, but I can sell you a house.’”

And so they bought one…

In the late 1830s, opposing groups argued about where to establish a new church in the district. One was in favour of the farm Langfontein, where Bredasdorp is today, and another, led by Pieter Voltelen van der Byl, wanted the town to be laid out on the farm Klipdrift.

In 1838 Napier’s founding fathers sold 39 erven within a month, thereby winning the race to become the first church town south of Caledon. That was, however, the last race Napier ever won against Bredasdorp – it took Napier’s residents another 10 years to get their congregation approved, and then another four years to find a dominee.

The locals say the place is prettiest in winter and spring,when the wheat and canola fields are green and gold. I admire the valleys and hills rolling away to the north. In winter, you could easily get your Springbok colours in stoep-sitting right here.

* Source: Old Towns and Villages of the Cape, by Hans Fransen

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