Namaqua West Coast
Vredendal
302km from CT
The region’s largest town, Vredendal is the go-to place for stocking up whether you’re a visitor on a roadtrip or a farmer on remote land. Its economy is based on agriculture and mining of minerals from sand. As you explore, look out for the produce – grapes for wine, raisins and table grapes, olives, potatoes, tomatoes, onions, pumpkins, watermelons and sweet melons: all made possible by the development of the water-transporting Olifants River Irrigation Scheme.
Vredendal has one of the country’s largest co-operative wine cellars, a modern grape juice concentrate plant, and thriving dried fruit and food canning industries. The town was originally known as Bakkeley Plaats, apparently due to an altercation between the Dutch and the Khoi in 1668. Once peace had been declared, the name was changed to Vreedensdaal – valley of peace. Places of interest include Namaqua Wines – one of the largest wineries in South Africa, and the old Roman Catholic Church.
West Coast wines regularly feature as medal winners, enjoying consistent high-level ratings in authoritative publications. On the wine route, you’ll be able to appreciate just where these champion wines are made and even purchase most of them right at the cellar door.
Maskam
Brewing Company
Contact: 082 501 3895
Website: maskambrewing.co.za
Namaqua Wines
WineMakers
Website: www.namaquawines.com
Vanrhynsdorp
Is the gateway to Namaqualand and on route to Namibia and the Richtersveld. Here too, is the path to the Hantam Karoo and the Cederberg. This is famous as flower-land, but there’s so much more to see and do. Vanrhynsdorp is situated on the Troe-Troe River and was once an outspan for travellers. The settlement became known as Troe-Troe, and was renamed Vanrhynsdorp in 1881 in honour of local dignitary Petrus Benjamin van Rhyn.
Doringbaai
Is a picturesque fishing hamlet that was once an anchorage from here provisions were transported to in-country towns by camel train. In 1925 the North Bay Canning Company built a crayfish packing factory in the town.
The factory closed in 2007 and has since been converted into a business hub that includes the first black community owned abalone farm, a restaurant, a winery with wine tasting facilities and a function venue. Other prominent buildings include the Doringbaai lighthouse that was built in 1963, and the Roman Catholic Church.
Thornbay
Accommodation
Contact: 083 632 2205
Website: Thornbay Facebook
Strandfontein
Think ice-cream and sandcastles; long strolls on the beach and family fun. Strandfontein has a population of less than 200 permanent residents, but bursts at the seams come holiday time. Most of the houses are holiday homes, B&Bs and guesthouses.
Strandfontein isn’t just a summer destination though. During late winter and early spring the town’s sandy cliffs provide excellent lookout points for whale watchers. The Wandering Whale Labyrinth, just south of the town, is a place for solace and contemplation built that features a path lined with blue mussel shells and pink rose quartz.
Ebenhaezer and Papendorp
Are two fishing hamlets situated on the Olifants River. One of the oldest towns in the district, Ebenhaezer was founded by the Rhenish Missionary Society as a mission station in 1834. It was originally the site of a Khoi kraal. When James Backhouse visited Ebenhaezer in March 1840 he wrote that several people were living in huts built of reeds and mud, and that residents were building a windmill on a low hill outside the town.
Today these old clay buildings and riethuise add to the town’s unique charm. Papendorp lies nearby, at the mouth of the Olifants River, and was originally known as Viswater. Fishing boats, nets and bokkoms are characteristic of its cultural landscape. Residents also make a living harvesting salt from pans that may be visited by appointment. Activities in the area include the Bird Hyde Walk and the Labyrinth of Memories.
Hardeveld
True gems of experience await the traveller who ventures into this arid, sparsely populated hinterland where donkey carts the means of transport for many families. The Hardeveld lies north of the Knersvlakte; it comprises Bitterfontein as its commercial centre and the settlements of Molsvlei, Stofkraal, Nuwerus, Rietpoort and Putsekloof. Bitterfontein’s name is derived from a brackish fountain near the town. Farming is mostly limited to raising goats and sheep. Rietpoort was founded as a Roman Catholic mission station in 1913.
According to legend, Father Van’t Westeinde lived in a nearby cave while the church was under construction. Its clock originally hung in a Dutch town called Roosendal in Holland, and was donated after the church was bombed in WW1. Nuwerus was once an important outspan called Erdvarkgat and before motorised transport, a halfway station between Vanrhynsdorp and Garies. The hamlet has a population of less than 600 people.
Where the Hardeveld meets the ocean is an expansive, wild and desolate coastline. The raw beauty of the landscapes attracts a particular kind of traveller who enjoys camping in the rough and the solitude of going off-road. It’s here that you’ll find soul-replenishing hideaways like Brand-se-Baai and Skaapvlei among the many remote bays and inlets.
Klawer & Trawal
The landscape surrounding the villages of Klawer and Trawal falls across low, undulating hills where farmland and fertile river banks adjoin arid scrubland. Likewise, slow accompanies fast in a place you can take it all in on a slow drive or join one of the seasonal river rafting expeditions down nearby Doring River. Trawal is the southern gateway to the Namaqua West Coast, and lies on the Olifants River. The settlement’s economy is largely based on table grape farming. Nearby Klawer is home to amongst others the Klawer wine cellar.
It developed around the railway station servicing the Olifants River Valley and got its name from the Afrikaans word for sorrel. Their shared histories are tied by the gradual opening of trade routes. The coming of the railway in 1914 was one of the events that sparked intensive farming into life. For a decade, the station at Klawer was the end of the line in the rail connection between Cape Town and the Namaqua West Coast.
Lutzville & Koekenaap
The area around Lutzville was originally known as Vlermuisklip, a reference to a rocky overhang near the town called Vleermuijsklip. The cave was often used by early travellers as a shelter, and was first named by Pieter Everaerts in 1661.
Other visitors included Governor Simon van der Stel, and Pieter van Meerhof, who was the first European to reach the Troe-Troe River near Vanrhynsdorp. British soldiers also used the shelter during the SA War (1899-1902). The town Lutzville was established in 1923 and named after Johan Lutz, an irrigation engineer who worked on the Clanwilliam Dam and also surveyed the Lutzville area for agricultural development.
The town has a population of just over 5 000 and services a farming community that produces wine and cultivates beans and tomatoes for the canning industry. Lutzville’s popular visitor sites includes a national monument Vleermuijsklip Rock, Lutzville Wine cellar and Gholf Course. The Sishen-Saldanha railway bridge over the Olifants River is worth a brief stop on your journey too. Completed in 1975, the bridge is 1 035m high, supported by 22 pillars that each extend 45m into the river bed. Nearby lies the small village with the memorable name of Koekenaap. It was first settled in 1928.