Tulbagh and its Hidden Secrets

Tulbagh's allure is imme­di­ately obvi­ous. The scenery, which includes the tower­ing peaks of no fewer than three moun­tain ranges, is jaw-droppingly beau­ti­ful, and the obvi­ous seclu­sion of the horse-shoe shaped val­ley in which it lies simply adds fur­ther appeal to the already gor­geous coun­tryside. But scenery aside, the town's secrets are well hid­den, although it takes but a minor delve beneath the sur­face to unearth them, as I soon discover ...

The requis­ite speed reduc­tion to pass through the town reveals little other than the con­ven­tional run of shops and stores that keep small towns like this one run­ning – a spar, a chem­ist, the odd café, a butchery, a shoe fact­ory, a bottle store and other odd mini supermarkets.

But there are also a couple of other items that catch your eye. There's the rather inspir­ing NG church that sits aus­terely on the far edge of Van Der Stel Street (the main road through Tulbagh), a couple of rather obvi­ous estate agents – a sure sign that prop­er­ties in this town are sought after — what looks like a theatre, and an attract­ive look­ing deli known as 'Things I Love' that demands closer investigation.

Already my interest is piqued, and the idea of explor­ing fur­ther heightened when I dis­cover Church Street, in the last rays of sun­light — an almost sur­real light in which to dis­cover a row of incred­ible archi­tec­ture, accom­pan­ied by the calls of vir­tu­ally tame pea­cocks who join me on my trawl down part of the road.

The 32 build­ings that make up Church Street, which runs par­al­lel to Van Der Stel Street, are fam­ous since an earth­quake on 29 September 1969 rent the town asun­der, after which each of them was restored to its ori­ginal form. Each build­ing is a pro­vin­cial monu­ment and the street has the largest con­cen­tra­tion of such monu­ments in one street in South Africa.

Despite sound­ing like a col­lec­tion of museum pieces, Church Street is argu­ably one of the most lovely aven­ues any­where in the coun­try. Both sides of the street are graced with Victorian, Edwardian and Cape Dutch archi­tec­ture, with accom­pa­ny­ing boards explain­ing the year they were built, the style and who ori­gin­ally owned them.

Today most of them are a col­lec­tion of Tulbagh guest houses, upmar­ket res­taur­ants, deli's, gal­ler­ies, home industry, antique shops and enough wagon wheels, and lilac and coral trees to weave a sense of magic to the avenue. Some of the prop­er­ties lie in enorm­ous gar­dens, thick with grasses, orch­ards and flowers that are rarely seen nowadays, because of the rest of the country's love affair with six metre high walls and barbed wire.

But Tulbagh does not start and end with Church Street, although one would be remiss to pass up a stroll down this part of town. Sadly, the rest of Tulbagh did not receive quite the same post-earthquake treat­ment as this par­tic­u­lar avenue. It suf­fers from a rather hotch potch col­lec­tion of pre-fab houses, rather dilap­id­ated sev­en­ties rendi­tions, and other more mod­ern affairs that serve as second homes for Capetonians and the like.

Things I love is a delight­ful deli that runs through from its pos­i­tion on Van Der Stel Street to its back entrance on Church Street. The pretty deli, gift and cof­fee shop has one sal­iv­at­ing on enter­ing, not only because it is par­tic­u­larly well laid out but also because of its delect­able fare that includes organic veges, any num­ber of pes­tos, sauces, wines, cheeses and other deli type delicacies.

Renowned for its dec­ad­ent high teas, break­fasts and scrump­tious lunches, the deli is now on new premises, hav­ing moved from its former pos­i­tion on the Kloofzicht Estate. They're also respons­ible for the monthly Tulbagh Farmers Market that now takes place at the deli on the last Saturday of the month from 10h00 until late. (Things I Love in Tulbagh, 61 van der Stel Street, Tulbagh, Telephone: +27 (0)23 230‑1742).

Chris van Niekerk enthu­si­ast­ic­ally waves me through his theatre. Saronsberg Theatre, also on Van Der Stel Street (I was right, there is a theatre!), is the new baby (open since May 2009) of Saronsberg Estate and Chris van Niekerk of Sewende Laan fame, who also man­ages the theatre, hav­ing cut his teeth on a sim­ilar pro­ject in Rosendal in the east­ern Free State, although I can see by the gleam in his eye, that Saronsberg is his pride and joy of the moment. Whirling me through the minute but more than effect­ive back­stage that includes a dress­ing room where a piano leans up against the back wall, a 'loan' from one of the ladies of Tulbagh, he points out his light­ing and the raked seat­ing with obvi­ous pleasure.

He is hop­ing that oth­ers fol­low the lead of those who already make it a habit to head out here over week­ends from Cape Town to take in a show at the intim­ate theatre on the second floor of this lov­ingly restored build­ing, fol­lowed by a meal at more than one res­taur­ant within walk­ing dis­tance. And he has a more than impress­ive line-up that includes Koos Kombuis, Danie Niehaus, Da Capo and Sandra Prinsloo. (For book­ings call Annelize on +27 (0)23 230‑0707)

Tarzan shoes is any­thing but invit­ing. It sits at the start of the high street in an unim­pos­ing facebrick build­ing and makes it a habit of incon­veni­ently clos­ing for an hour over lunch, but is well worth a visit if you're after a sturdy pair of leather boots that don't cost the earth (they're all made next door in the fact­ory by 60 or so local employ­ees). And there is also a sec­tion of pretty boutique cloth­ing that was a sur­prise, where you can pick up a bar­gain or two. (Telephone +27 (0)23 230‑1083/4)

Be sure to spoil your­self and ven­ture a little way out of town to Moniki Chocolatier. For R25 you can do a chocol­ate tast­ing, com­plete with cof­fee, tea, port or amarula. And Kimilili hand craf­ted farm­house cheeses, on the R46 just out­side of Tulbagh makes all of their cheeses from milk from cows they rear and feed them­selves without the use of  anti­bi­ot­ics or any com­mer­cial dairy feed (organic in all but name and deed).

Their cheeses are matured on the farm and they pro­duce a range of semi-soft to hard cheese types in Swiss and French cheese mak­ing styles. If you can't visit the farm, then taste the cheeses at Padagang on Church Street. Contact Moniki chocol­atier on Schoonderzicht Farm +27 (0)23 230‑0673 and Kimilili +27 (0)23 231‑1503.

And, of course, Tulbagh is part of the Cape Winelands. 13 winer­ies offer sales and informal wine tast­ings that include estates like Waverley Organic Wines, De Heuvel, Manley Private Cellar, Drostdy Hof Wines, Blue Crane Vineyards, Saronsberg, Theuniskraal Wines, and Twee Jonge Gezellen – the House of Krone. Telephone: +27 (0)23 230‑1348.

Useful Tulbagh Links:
If you are plan­ning to visit Tulbagh you may find these links use­ful:
Tulbagh Attractions
Things to Do in Tulbagh
Tulbagh Events (Annual events & fest­ivals)
Tulbagh Hotels
Tulbagh Accommodation