A rose by any other name – how Rosendal steals the show in the Free State

Rosendal Country Retreat

Rosendal has man­aged to get onto the map. I'm not sure how, because in search­ing for it you begin to won­der how the aver­age per­son gets there at all, nev­er­mind how the former farm­ing com­munity man­aged to find its way into the social whirl of a 'hap­pen­ing' little town. Nonetheless, there it is. In the middle of the Free State (see, I told you it was in the middle of nowhere).

Getting there from Clarens takes almost two hours because, instead of being able to get there dir­ectly as a crow would fly, roads take you in a rather cir­cuit­ous route via Ficksburg; you can't get there eas­ily from Bethlehem; and the N1 ven­tures abso­lutely nowhere near it ... Despite this, Rosendal is only a three-hour drive south-east of Johannesburg, albeit cir­cuit­ously (boy, the drive from Ficksberg is one of the most beau­ti­ful when it comes to Free State drives), and entirely do-able for the week­end. Infact, to hear Rosendalers speak, this is quite the place when it comes to week­end breaks ...

Rosendal Theatre

The other thing you need to know about Rosendal is Chris van Niekerk (the actor who plays Francois in 7de Laan? Ja, him). Chris not only has a shop – die Our Handelshuis en Koffiestoep — in Rosendal, but he opened a theatre right next door a few years ago that is still going strong. In fact, Chris has done so well with this little ven­ture that recently fea­tured Karen Zoid over the Valentine's week­end, that he's been roped into run­ning the new theatre in Tulbagh too.

What is it then about Rosendale that has every­one gawp­ing? First of all, it isn't Clarens. Despite the fact that we will always LOVE Clarens, the town def­in­itely no longer holds the allure of a 'newly dis­covered' dorp. Artists haven it might once have been, but now everyone's been there and done that. It's a bit passé, darling. Rosendal, how­ever, is brim­ming over with 'dorpness'.

There are dirt roads that intend remain­ing sand rid­den; there is a lot of sand­stone in evid­ence, tin roofs, quaint rus­tic cot­tages, rusty wind­mills, an already admir­able col­lec­tion of artists, and of course, the theatre. The town also hap­pens to have simply beau­ti­ful views. It is sur­roun­ded, just about, by moun­tains (the Witteberge), a healthy num­ber of green wil­low trees line the sides of streams, and wild flowers and grasses lit­ter the road­sides. It's a pic­ture of beauty and quaint­ness. Small won­der that people are talk­ing about it.

Meer-katkolonie Gallery

Fifteen years ago, prop­er­ties in Rosendal went for a song. You could get away with pay­ing around R9,000 for your little peace of heaven. But by 2006 the place was being touted as the 'undis­covered gem' of the Eastern Free State and the tide turned – the likes of Pam Golding moved in, and the rest is history.

Now you'll pay in the region of R200,000 for a  piece of sand, no home, no estab­lished garden – noth­ing – and a 3-bedroom house will eas­ily cost you as much as it would in Johannesburg, if not more. And they're not all the sand­stone 'huis­ies' with a stoep that you have in your mind's eye (although there are enough of these in the vil­lage to make a stay here seem that way).

But then city 'escapes' have become huge for those who can afford to get away over week­ends, and more often if pos­sible. There is some­thing hugely import­ant about being able to breathe fresh air, and the sky here is so blue, it even gives the descrip­tion so often used for the Free State – 'big sky coun­try' – a run for its money. From one end of town the moun­tain views are incred­ible, and from the other you can exper­i­ence heav­enly sun­sets. And one can­not reit­ter­ate enough how beau­ti­ful this part of the Free State is.

NG Kerk Rosendal

The main road through town is the only one to have under­gone the indig­nity of a tar top, and it's where you'll find the heart of town — local artists' gal­ler­ies, Turksvy Trading for antiques, gen­eral bric-a-brac (it's choc-a-block full of inter­est­ing things) and what they term 'retro kit­chenalia'. Suzani's, which sells some pretty unique hand­made cloths, even if they're impor­ted from Uzbekistan and sim­ilar, and the Meer-katkolonie Art Gallery are also here. Make sure you have time for at least a cup of cof­fee at Die Ou Handelshuis, and if you can coin­cide a visit with a theatre per­form­ance, more's the better.

Oh, and make time to drive around the town to look at the archi­tec­ture, beau­ti­ful gar­dens, and the oh-so-dominant, sand­stone NG kerk. It's a typ­ical Free State town with a touch of artistic licence that gives it some­thing people want to hold onto – no sur­prise that it's as pop­u­lar as it is.

Accommodation in Rosendal is still a tad scarce. Most people here either stay here or have a week­end house to escape to, but there is a gor­geous coun­try retreat and the odd gues­t­house in Rosendal that more than adequately cater for those sweep­ing through or scop­ing the place in the hope of find­ing their little 'gem' – I must tell you though, the secret's out, and Rosendal has already been discovered.

Useful Rosendal Links:
Rosendal Attractions
Rosendal Accommodation
Rosendal Guest Houses
Free State Guest Houses

Photo Credits:
The Rosendal Country Retreat (highly recom­men­ded!)
NG Kerk pho­to­graph by Jan de Beer, Saturday Star