The West Coast has always held a fascination for most travellers with its icy water, intense blue skies and enough mussels, lobsters and prawns to keep any seafood-lover satisfied. When imagining the West Coast, one almost immediately envisions a summery, coastal holiday, but the area has more on offer than just sunny days and cool blue water to while away December.
West Coast Way, a tourism organisation aimed at the West Coast, is steadily making it even more popular than it already is. If your idea of the West Coast only comprises the whitewashed fisherman’s cottages of Paternoster, or the long lagoon of Langebaan, you can ready yourself for a fresh take on your favourite Western Cape vacation spot. West Coast Way has just launched a brand spanking new route called the Culture Adventure Way and TravelGround was invited to join in the fun.
The wonderfully enriching #CultureAdventureWay kicks off in Cape Town and winds its way through Mamre and past Darling for a final stop at !Khwattu San Culture and Education Centre. The route is diverse, new and exciting and will not only enrich and educate, but also entertain.
It was all glitz and glamour as we were welcomed at the incredibly fancy Crystal Towers Hotel at Century City with coffee, a tour guide and a red carpet leading us to an air-conditioned minibus which would whisk us away to the West Coast. The bus wound its way through the trademark veld of the West Coast to the small town of Mamre.
The first stop on the #CultureAdventureWay is Mamre Werf, the Mamre Historical Moravian Mission Station. This is where you do the Heritage Walk as part and parcel of the tour, but first we made a stop at the old general store which is now a coffee shop called Tori Oso. The group was treated to tea and scones and a performance by Whaden Johannes. Whaden, the “Boesmanklong”, performed a song he wrote himself entitled “Karookind”. After the performance we headed out to the Werf. It is an open plain surrounded by whitewashed buildings, in the middle of which towers a 300 year old tree alongside a giant rock with a memorial plate.
The tour group was led through the Werf where one of the highlights was the old church with its stunning organ. The impressive Marcusson Organ was brought here from Norway and is still used to this day. Someone was even called to come and ring the original bell dating back to 1818 when the church was built. (It is the fifth oldest building in South Africa!). As you walk between the old buildings, the oldest of which is The Parsonage dating back to 1679, the history of the place is brought to life by the tour guide who has lived in Mamre all her life and knows the stories of this place like the back of her hand.
The tour ends at Tori Oso after a round trip of the Werf. After a last photo opportunity at the ancient oak tree and memorial plate in the centre of the Werf, we were each handed a farewell roll, homemade by Whaden’s mother, and said our goodbyes. The minibus engine hummed to life and so the tour continued all the way to Darling.
The Darling Wine Shop is run by cellarmaster Charles Whitington who prepared a quick tasting for us. The blind tasting involved 4 wines in total ─ 2 white and 2 red. We debated and discussed the differences between each wine and waited for the big reveal. Whitington is an exceptional host with entertaining stories, an unparallelled love and passion for wine and the wine-making process, and more than enough charisma. Our tour group chose to stop at the Darling Wine Shop, but if you are not a wine-lover, you could choose one of the other two options for this stop, namely the Flying Pig cureSmiths for charcuterie, or the Darling Brewery for some artisanal beer.
After the tasting, the minibus continued en route to !Kwhattu Cultural Village and Education Centre. At !Kwhattu the first priority was lunch from a menu that included a hand-reared, free-range eland burger, calamari and chips, and lamb curry. After a delicious meal we were treated to a San experience. This started off with an introduction to the San language, and a quick and fun lesson in producing the various click sounds. Thereafter we headed to the veld where we were shown the tracks of various animals and how the San used the tracks to tell how far away the animal was or in what direction it was going. We were shown how to set a trap for guinea fowl the San way, and we also saw the poisonous melkbos the San used on their arrowheads for hunting purposes.
The walk through the veld winds up at a reconstructed traditional San village where a San woman was waiting in front of a hut on an array of animal skins. We were told stories in the San language and shown how to make jewellery from ostrich egg shells, bone and horn. The presentation also included a demonstration of how they used to make fire. If a San man could make fire, he was worthy of marriage. If he could not, there were other ways of proving his worthiness. A ‘real’ man could build a house, make a fire or kill a male eland in order to prove that he was man enough to marry and provide for a family.
After these interesting and informative talks, we cruised along the bumpy veld track to the highest point on !Kwhattu for a glass of wine and a view to die for. Along the way we were lucky enough to spot a group of bat-eared foxes scurrying along, as well as a group of a few eland and a couple of springboks on the run. On !Kwhattu nature is allowed to run its course and we happened upon the decaying carcass of a springbok, killed by an unknown predator.
The #CultureAdventureWay consisted of a collection of wonderful experiences that is sure to make your next visit to the West Coast one to remember. You can also find out more about West Coast Way and their other routes by clicking here.
Try the Culture Adventure Way to change the way you view the West Coast. Thank you to West Coast Way, the Mamre Heritage Committee, Darling Wine Shop and !Kwhattu for making this trip possible.
Langebaan lagoon photo: Crystal Lagoon Lodge (TravelGround)
Paternoster photo: Mosselbank B&B in Paternoster (TravelGround)
All other photos supplied by TravelGround or West Coast Way.
