Small Town Time

by Emma Gass, 11 October 2007

South Africans and overseas visitors alike tend to rank Swellendam a pretty stopover as you rush up the Garden Route. However, as I discovered recently, it's much more than that and deserves to be experienced at a slow, country pace.

As the third oldest European settlement in South Africa (Cape Town and Stellenbosch being its older sisters) this little town is awash with quaint cottages and historic country charm that time - and most of the world - seems to have overlooked.

A Perfect Round Trip

Swellendam is perfectly positioned, about two and a half hours drive from Cape Town whether you approach from the south or the west, making it an ideal weekend base.

So last Saturday I headed up the N1 towards the Robertson wine district and the famed Route 62. This area is scattered with various wine estates (it's the longest wine route in the world) and a day could easily be spent ambling from one to another, tasting wine as you progress towards the Langeberg Mountains.

Spring is probably the prettiest time of year for such a drive. We whizzed past clumps of wild flowers in vivid yellows and purples, and orchards filled with white and pale pink blossom.

I highly recommend breaking the journey there with a lazy country lunch. Just past Robertson, on the banks of the languid Breede River, is the Viljoensdrift riverside tasting room. Here we collected our picnic basket crammed with hot, fresh bread, cheeses, pates and meats and an accompanying bucket of wine. We clambered aboard a double storey raft that quietly chugs down the river past vineyards, flowering trees and farm workers on their lunch breaks - not that I really noticed; I was too busy enjoying the crusty baguette.

Small Place, Long History

We finally arrived at Swellendam, which is tucked in at the foot of the Langeberg Mountains, below the peaks the early settlers used as natural sundials - they're referred to as 10 o'clock, 11 o'clock, 12 o'clock and 1 o'clock.

Founded in 1745 by the Dutch East India Company, for a long time Swellendam was the last supply station before the vast, generally hostile expanse of the African interior. Many of the buildings from these early days are still scattered around the town. The oldest surviving structure is The Drostdy, the first building contructed in Swellendam, followed closely by the Gaol.

I found that a great way to explore the town is to do the history walk that takes you past the old buildings and explains how they fit into the story of the town - it's essential that you stop at one of the restaurants for refreshments, of course.

Get directions for the walk from the Tourist Information Office which can be found in the main street in a low, thatched bungalow. Built in 1838 as a place of religious instruction for freed slaves, the building is easily identified by the clocks that adorn its gables. There's a real, working clock below a plaster one, and the story goes that when the hands of the moving clock matched those depicted above, it was time for the freed slaves to attend their religious class.

By far the most ostentatious building you will encounter on your wander around town is what the locals refer to as the "mother church", a Dutch Reformed Church that replaced the original thatched building in 1911. An amalgamation of styles makes up this great white architectural montage; the gables are baroque, the windows are gothic, the cupola is eastern and the steeple, built from beams of the original church, is a replica of a famous Belgian steeple. I'm sure there is some Cape Dutch architecture in there too.

A Quiet Little Town

Although there is a disproportionate number of bed & breakfasts and guest houses in Swellendam, at no point did the town feel like a tourist attraction. In fact, it only ever felt like a quiet little town. A country town where people water their gardens, where everyone you meet offers you a glass of wine and a town where the scent of flowers greets you as you round corners.

Swellendam has a magical feeling about it - maybe it's the sense of history or the majestic mountains that watch over the valley town. Or maybe it's because the faerie-folk feel at home there. For a sense of peace and childlike delight, visit the Sulina Faerie Sanctuary where fairies and gnomes seem to scamper around the garden, hiding behind shrubs and sleeping in the flowers.

Alternatively, you could search for faeries in the wild by exploring the hiking trails, waterfalls and streams that criss-cross the Langeberg Mountains in the Marloth Nature Reserve. I took the less strenuous way out and did my exploring on horseback.

An hour's trail with Two Feathers Horse Trails through the forest at the foot of the mountains, through clear streams and fynbos with its intoxicating fragrances, was enough to rejuvenate this city-soul and make me want to move to Swellendam permanently.

Moving On

When your time does come to leave this country town, Swellendam is perfectly positioned to start the Garden Route if you're heading north or to take the coastal road back to Cape Town.

The national highway takes you within striking distance of whale watching vantage points on the coast. The entire route back to Cape Town provides beautiful views, especially as you crest Sir Lowry's Pass and False Bay spreads before you, which rather helps ease you back into city mode once again.

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