Spectacular Swartland

Swartland

There's a stretch of beach up the West Coast where I always go when I need to think. It may be when I need a little goal-directed think­ing – like the time I decided that I des­per­ately needed to see the world a little and impuls­ively packed my bags and set the gears in motion for some over­seas back­pack­ing. Or even just for some philo­soph­ical time-out, when the day to day grind becomes a little over­whelm­ing and the sand and sea seem like the only logical things left in the world. Whatever the need, it's this little unnamed stretch of beach that I go to to think it out.

Recently, how­ever, I've star­ted to explore a little, and have gradu­ally pro­gressed fur­ther and fur­ther up the coast. This region is actu­ally huge and includes the Swartland and Sandveld as well as the Olifant’s River val­ley. If you restrict your­self to the coastal towns you are doing your­self a huge dis­ser­vice and you miss out on beauty, inter­est­ing places and of course the great food.

The towns and vil­lages of the West Coast often remind me of a spider’s web; everything is linked some­how, either through industry, farm­ing or his­toric bonds and every­body shares the won­der­ful traits of warmth, friend­li­ness, utterly wicked sense of humour and their legendary hos­pit­al­ity to guests and visitors.

Travelling upwards from Cape Town along the N7 you find the Sandveld that sep­ar­ates the coastal towns of the West Coast from the Swartland towns of the West Coast. This area is sparsely pop­u­lated but an import­ant part of the eco-system. Here you find Verlorenvlei (the lost marshes of the Sandveld) and a para­dise for bird enthu­si­asts and I, for one, have developed a deep appre­ci­ation for the bird-life of this region. The mul­ti­tude of bird spe­cies that breed here is amaz­ing and the activ­ity of thou­sands of birds remind you of a very busy inter­na­tional air­port as they stack up on their flight paths into the marshes.

Moorreesburg and Piketberg owe their exist­ence to wheat; as far as the eye can see you will know exactly in which sea­son you are from the col­our of the sur­round­ing land­scape; the green of winter to the gold of summer-ripe wheat. Here, you can feast on the smells of wheat and the hun­dreds of apple, orange, pear and peach orch­ards that is the main­stay of this agri­cul­tural world. The farm­ers encour­age vis­it­ors to spend time on their farms; to come and exper­i­ence their world form the plant­ing of the wheat to the enjoy­ment of freshly baked bread.

Moorreesburg is a pop­u­lar week­end get-away for many Capetonians who enjoy the tran­quil­lity, the unspoilt beauty of the coun­tryside and the warm hos­pit­al­ity of the people. Piketberg on the other hand is grow­ing as people opt out of the rat race to live in the area for it’s an hours drive from cent­ral Cape Town and your laptop makes liv­ing here very appeal­ing. The region is pros­per­ous and eco-tourism and agri-tourism bring many vis­it­ors every year.

Sleepy Porterville nestles below the Olifant’s River Mountains and goes about its daily busi­ness with reg­u­lar dis­rup­tions when para-glider and hang-glider enthu­si­asts from around the world des­cend upon the vil­lage, for the area boasts power­ful thermals that make con­di­tions per­fect for cross coun­try fly­ing. The town’s people wel­come the bust­ling and often loud glider enthu­si­asts with good food, typ­ical coun­try accom­mod­a­tion and excel­lent service.

The hub of the Swartland is Malmesbury, a vibrant blend of rural atmo­sphere and mod­ern day liv­ing. Situated only 40 minutes drive from Cape Town this town is within com­mut­ing dis­tance; an oppor­tun­ity that more and more people are tak­ing to get the best of both worlds as they con­sider a 40-minute drive to work as child’s play. Malmesbury is known for the excel­lent wines it pro­duces and its no won­der they host the yearly Swartland Food and Wine Festival.

Useful Links:
For more des­tin­a­tion inform­a­tion see:
Swartland Attractions & Destinations
Swartland Accommodation
Swartland Wine Route
Swartland Agricultural Show
Malmesbury Accommodation
MOL — Musiek Oppie Lande Festival