Chumani Dyanti

JULY2013

EGAP TNETNOC

YOUR JOURNEY STARTS HERE

THE GRAND OLD DAMES OF THE (VICTORIA HOTEL, CRADOCK)

QUEEN’S HOTEL, OUDTSHOORN Ostrich fever

DIE SUIDOOSTERFEES 2014 FESTIVAL CAPE TOWN

www.go.co.za GO MEGAZINE DESIGN.indd 1

1

2013/09/05 01:11:04 PM

CONTENT PAGE

10.

4.

6.

8.

4.THE GRAND OLD DAMES OF THE What has happened to the old Masonic? The Royal? The Commercial? Are there

6.VICTORIA HOTEL, CRADOCK

STILL GOING STRONG Why stay here? Cradock is a good over night Where? Corner of Voortrekker and Mark streets

2

Go megazine

GO MEGAZINE DESIGN.indd 2-3

8. QUEEN’S HOTEL, OUDTSHOORN Ostrich fever

10.DIE SUIDOOSTERFEES 2014 FESTIVAL

Coming to Cape Town at the Art Scape and fugard Theatre City of Cape Town World Design Capital 2014

Where? Baron van Reede Street, next to the CP Nel Museum

www.gomag.com July2013 2013/09/05 01:11:11 PM

THE GRAND OLD DAMES OF THE PLATTELAND

The GRAND OLD dames of the

PLATTELAND replicas of their former selves. What has happened to the old Masonic? The Royal? The Commercial? Are there any country hotels around worth staying at? Join us on a

WORDS & PICTURES WILLEM VAN DER BERG

N

ot very long ago, every platteland town had a hotel. Some were fancy Victorian buildings with broekielace on the stoep and red velvet curtains in the dining room; others were elegant art deco buildings framed by palm trees. Smaller towns had a simple building with a corrugated-iron roof,

These hotels all had a bar around the back, with halfmast swing doors, a counter of solid Burmese teak greying barman with rolled-up sleeves, a packet of Winstons in his pocket and a pencil behind his ear.

And don’t forget the obligatory ladies’ bar, with its wellworn armchairs, potted ferns and crystal ashtrays…

These hotels were once the beating heart of the platteland. They weren’t just places to stay over; they were places where stories were shared at the end of the day, where birthdays were celebrated and tears were shed. You could meet people from the town and really get to know them.

But these days, families on their way down to the coast stay in B&B guesthouses with green palisade fences. Has the era of the country hotel come to an end? I drove a long loop from Cradock to Springbok to pay some classic hotels a visit.

lobby.

4

Go megazine

GO MEGAZINE DESIGN.indd 4-5

www.gomag.com July2013 2013/09/05 01:11:15 PM

TRAVEL PLATTELAND HOTELS

VICTORIA HOTEL, CRADOCK Still going strong

T VICTORIA HOTEL, CRADOCK Still going strong

STILL STANDING (previous spread).

The Victoria Hotel, on the corner of Voortrekker and Mark streets in Cradock, has seen the excitement and dread of both the Great Trek and the Anglo-Boer War. 6

Go megazine

he 173-year-old Victoria Hotel in Cradock (now called the Victoria Manor) is one of the grandest Karoo hotels you’re likely to encounter. In the 1840s Cradock was a busy and dangerous pioneer town – many fortune seekers and adventurers passed through. Voortrekker Street bustled with traders, travellers, could have your wagon wheels serviced in Mark Street.

These days it’s a different story: The hotel towers over the Sav-Rite liquor store, an MTN shop and a KFC. “When we bought the place in 1994 there wasn’t much left of the hotel,”

says owner Sandra Astrobus. “The carpets had even been pulled up.”

Sandra, a former teacher and farmer, likes to rescue old buildings.

The Victoria might be her biggest project, but Cradock can also thank her for restoring 31 houses on Mark Street.

Step inside the cool foyer and it’s like you’re transported back to the 1920s – an elegant time warp of the Delft porcelain kind. But the Victoria also has a wild side.

Cradock was on the diamond and gold routes, visited by all manner of horse into the bar,” Sandra says.

“It would drink beer from a Chev hubcap.”

In the dining room, guests are eating by candlelight. A lonely man in the corner downs a shooter.

uninspired.

After dinner I climb into a castiron bed with copper balls on the headboard. The linen is starched and as white as hail. The Victoria goes quiet and dark. Sometime in the early hours I wake up. Am I imagining it, or did I just hear a horse neighing? And are those hoofs galloping down Voortrekker Street?

Why stay here? Cradock is a good overnight stop if you’re travelling from Gauteng to the Garden Route.

Where? Corner of Voortrekker and Mark streets GPS: S32.17057 E25.61868 Rate: Single and double rooms R500 per person (breakfast included).

Family room (sleeps four) R330 per person (breakfast included).

Contact: 048 881 1322 tuishuise. co.za

The buffet is okay, but a little

KAROO HOSPITALITY. These days, with so many accommodation options available, a sign pointing to the local hotel doesn’t have much impact. But for a certain kind of weary traveller, this scene is heaven.

www.gomag.com July2013 gomag.co.za

GO MEGAZINE DESIGN.indd 6-7

2013/09/05 01:11:27 PM

TRAVEL PLATTELAND HOTELS

MIDDELPOS HOTEL after a beach holiday in Plett.

Where? Baron van Reede Street, next to the CP Nel Museum GPS: S33.59148 E22.20267 Rates: Single R780; double room R1 120 per night (breakfast included).

Contact: 044 272 2101; queenshotel.co.za

C

apital of the back roads Middelpos is not really a town. It’s a cluster of buildings on a farm in the Karoo, somewhere between Sutherland and Calvinia.

In 1860, Daniel Tomlinson bought a part of the Stinkkuil farm and established a trading post here with accommodation for travellers, which he called Middelpos. When Tomlinson passed away in 1877, the Anglo-Boer War. Then came the Sher family and later the Wrights, who bought Middelpos and moved previously owned the Golden Egg Restaurant.

Maatje Wright gets emotional when she remembers how the new owners of the Golden Egg drowned in she says.

Although Maatje still lives in Middelpos, her daughter Helena and son-in-law Koos van der Westhuizen now own the place. The Van der Westhuizens also have a successful goats cheese business. Ducks, chickens, peacocks and parrots roam the yard.

Middelpos is popular with the adventure-bike crowd some of the best views of the Tankwa Karoo.

I’m the only guest so I eat alone in the dining room. chatting in the kitchen. Helena’s mutton chops are fantastic.

After dinner I walk around and look at the moon hanging low over the Roggeveld Mountains. Koos’s prize-winning boerbulls are snoring nearby. I’m not looking forward to saying goodbye tomorrow.

OSTRICH FEVER bags watched by some men sipping coffee on the he foyer of the Queen’s Hotel is airy, with a stoep.

The hotel restaurant is called Die Kolonie and it’s not a place where you’ll be served three peas, a swirl sceptical look. Colonial décor, animal print. This was of sauce and a tiny piece of tuna. This is the Karoo once a very swanky hotel and it still has four stars. and the portions are hearty. You can’t go wrong with The atmosphere is merry and the guests are too. the Cape Karoo Platter: bobotie, samoosas, ostrich A gaggle of boisterous pensioners order second kebabs, boerewors, pumpkin fritters, paptert, bean rounds in the bar and a cyclist in neon spandex curry…

T 8

Go megazine

GO MEGAZINE DESIGN.indd 8-9

Why stay here? Middelpos is about as far as you can get from the trappings of the city. Build this hotel into a backroad Karoo itinerary.

Where? If you’ve found Middelpos, you’ve found the hotel.

GPS: S31.90567 E20.23067 Rate: R380 per person (dinner and breakfast included).

Contact: 027 341 2507; middelpos.co.za

www.gomag.com July2013 2013/09/05 01:11:38 PM

DIE SUIDOOSTER FEES

10

Go megazine

GO MEGAZINE DESIGN.indd 10

2013/09/05 01:11:38 PM