At the breakfast table we implore the waitress to NOT bring us any bacon or eggs! I know, I know, crazy right? But my word, we’ve both tired of that combination over the last week. So we’re quite easy this morning, sticking to the muesli and yo-gurt, fruit salads and coffee.
Checkout all done, back in the Bullet for today, our final drive of our tour. Quite sad, hey? I wasn’t so much sad as elated, I kinda get like that near the end of a long holiday.
As mentioned before, Matjiesfontein is only a few kilometres down the road and we make the left turn off the highway to the inconspicuous looking town.
Our first stop is at the train station, which has now been converted into a museum. A great many artefacts are stored in the glass cabinets and shelves, dating from the late 19th century. One of the coolest exhibitions was in the preserved apothecary (that’s a chemist, kids...) where they had hundreds of really old, ooooold cameras! There was a weird clash of worlds, on my side I was standing with (to my mind) a state of the art professional, digital camera with all the trimmings versus a universe stuck in time; a hundred years worth of history and evolution to get to the point of what I was holding in my clammy paw.
Cool.
The town itself is really tiny, consisting of a short street lined with a handful of detached buildings, with the station/museum on the other side. Our next stop is to explore the set of detached buildings, and we find a coffee house, bar, old post office, the old Standard Bank of South Africa offices and the Lord Milner hotel. All of these buildings have been renovated and restored from about the 1970’s, some like the hotel maintaining their function whereas others like the coffee house used to be a general goods store. That’s actually Matjiesfontein’s original claim to fame: it was a refuelling and restocking outpost. Back in the days of the Kimberly diamond- and later gold rush in the 1800’s, the town was perfectly situated to offer both quality stocks and accommodation, both in high demand. This is technically the middle of nowhere, by most definitions. The Karoo, like I have noted many times before is wide open, mostly featureless and almost barren where it not for the few pieces of flora here and there. And the travel to these parts, you where rocking it with an ox wagon, or on foot.
Jimmy Logan was the man responsible for Matjiesfontein’s fortunes in the early days, having spotted the potential of the town. He started off as a porter in the railway at the age 15 and quickly rose to District Superintendent of the stretch of rail line between the Hex Rover and Prince Albert Road by his 21st birthday. While still in railway employ, he was granted a concession at Touws River station, becoming lessee of the railway-owned Frere Hotel there in the same year. Within 12 months he had resigned from the service to devote time to his own affairs.
Another bonus of the Karoo is the dry, clear air, a big deal back in the days when all sorts of chest ailments where almost always fatal. So in 1883 he decided to move permanently to Matjiesfontein with his family, gaining another refreshment room concession there in 1884. Between the outbreak of the Boer war he developed the village into a delightful Victorian health and holiday resort, catering to Premiers, Governors and leading political figures of the day. Even Cecil John Rhodes was a regular patron (he suffered from ill health all his life).
The village was also used as a staging area during the Boer War, with 10 000 troops and 20 000 horses stationed on the outskirts and the hotel serving as a hospital for British officers; it’s central turret becoming a armed look-out post.
James Douglas Logan died in 1920, at 65 years of age. By the second World War, the town fell into obscurity and decay, but never lost its potential. The whole of it was bought by David Rawdon in 1968 and in 1970 the hotel was reopened as The Lord Milner. The rest of the village too has been restored and renovated into what we saw today, a living monument to a slice of history. Even in the bar, there was a guy dressed in period garb playing a few diddies on the piano (surprising to see, 11:00 in the morning. More surprising was that he wasn’t alone and the bar was full of patrons!).
So that’s it! A very educational little detour.
One last pit stop at the coffee shop for a cappuccino and a muffin before we head out again. We’ve been treated to some amazing sites during our two and a half month sojourn in all the countries but I can truly say that the Hex River valley can give every single one of those a run for their money. It’s almost spring now, so the vineyards are all bare but by no stretch of the imagination can I imagine what this must look like in the full bloom of summer. Deep valleys and rivers cut through imposing peaks, green and blue, littered with wine farms. It was utterly breathtaking. The snow capped mountains of the Cedarburg came into view next. I tried again to take a few decent pictures of it all but I’m not sure I can do it any justice.
So needless to say, it was a most pleasant drive. Not long before we arrive in Worcester and then on into the Du Toits Kloof pass, an equally stunning drive! I’ve mentioned it before but the same applies here: it’s quite weird to experience vertigo looking UP. But here it was again. Before long we dive into the tunnel and exit the other end into quite overcast and damp weather. Welcome home, it said.
The excitement is quite palpable by this stage as the signs go by: Cape Town – 75 ; Cape Town – 50 ; Cape Town – 40....
And so it was, at 13:51 that we finally rolled into Jacqueline Street, Annelie’s home, to greet her parents. I think they were quite pleased to see us :)
We spent the rest of the day chatting about this and that, after we unpacked the Bullet entirely (I am still amazed how much stuff we ferried along with us!) and eating way too much! In the evening we visited my parents for a quick howdy do, again eating and drinking way too much.
Our plans are pretty fluid for the next week or two. Lots of people to meet and greet and quite a few administration tasks to perform. I think mostly we’d like to spend some time with the family for a change, we always give them the short end of the stick when we are down this way.
And of course, I will need to sit down and get to all the pics I took, upload a few. And really think about how I’m going to end this piece! But all in good time :)
Highlights: Well, we’re home! And in one piece.
[G & A], out
we move like shadows
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