Worcester – the town that fell off the map

orcester – the town that fell off the map

I can under­stand why the recent edi­tion of Time Out Cape Town Weekend Breaks chose to shun Worcester. The town, which is eas­ily three to five times the size of other little towns in the val­ley, like Robertson and McGregor, fails hor­ribly to excite the vis­itor — whether this is the town's prac­tic­ally non-existent tour­ism, or a dis­tinct iner­tia that has settled like a palour over the town, isn't imme­di­ately obvious.

As one approaches the major inter­sec­tion on the N1 just past the huge Shell City that indic­ates that one has reached the town of Worcester, there are no sign boards indic­at­ing the beau­ti­ful 'old town' that is the centre of Worcester, no sign that there is a Worcester Wine Route just wait­ing to be dis­covered, that the town is part of Route 62, or that the Karoo National Botanical Gardens is a slight detour off the N1 well worth tak­ing, although in this case there is at least the oblig­at­ory brown board sig­nalling the way.

Instead, the length of Worcester along the N1 is lined with 1950s and 1960s houses that are bland, unima­gin­at­ive and a sadly midlead­ing estim­ate of what Worcester is about. Considering that Worcester is the unof­fi­cial 'cap­ital' of the Breede River Valley (that gor­geous val­ley one enters after passing through Du Toitskloof tun­nel), that it has 360 degree moun­tain views, and an impress­ive cul­tural her­it­age, there should be more to draw the aver­age vis­itor to explore its reaches.

To crown it all, the town has an improb­ably unsolv­able curi­ous­ity. There is no res­taur­ant worth men­tion­ing. No café cul­ture spill­ing out onto its more than beau­ti­ful old town streets, which cry out for black boards advert­ising café au laits and Mediterranean fare accom­pan­ied by local wines. Nada.

Despite its 75 000 res­id­ents, the only res­taur­ant that man­ages to exude some­thing close to 'ambi­ance' is St Gerain and its menu is severely lim­ited to sea­food and steaks (at least it was hum­ming to the strains of Midnight Oil, rather than David Essex's Winter's Tale to which we were sub­jec­ted dur­ing our jun­ket at De Kelder, in the town's mono­lithic mall perched next to the N1!).

We jok­ingly blamed the pre­dom­in­ance of churches in the town — there are at least five dif­fer­ent denom­in­a­tions and reli­gious orders — for the derth of res­taur­ants, but it remains an anom­aly (and a busi­ness oppor­tun­ity for any­one brave enough to take on the town).

Worcester is beau­ti­ful. It is sur­roun­ded by the Brandwacht, Overhex and Langeberg Mountains, whilst tree-lined Church, Russell, Trappes, Tulbagh and High street (which ends at the Drostdy, home of Worcester's first magis­trate) are lined with charm­ing, gabled build­ings that date back to the 1840s and 1850s. Such is its unique archi­tec­ture that the Worcester gable is now recog­nised in its own right. The width of its streets hint at the wagon drawn car­riages that graced the aven­ues, and the size of some of the build­ings, par­tic­u­larly uptown, indic­ate a former wealthy and pros­per­ous community.

Worcester was the site of the new magis­terial seat dur­ing the 1820s, after Tulbagh, and its houses have Victorian and Cape Dutch char­ac­ter­ist­ics, typ­ical gables and won­der­ful ver­andahs. Whilst many of the thatched roofs have been replaced, most of the build­ings are in beau­ti­ful con­di­tion, and there are his­tor­ical walks one can take through the town – down­load one here on their tour­ism web­site http://www.worcestertourism.com/worcester.html The Dutch Reformed Church, also a national monu­ment, is a par­tic­u­larly beau­ti­ful example of Gothic revival archi­tec­ture, com­plete with a peaked steeple made of tin that was added later. But head down to the down­town end of Worcester and there is as much char­ac­ter, such as the mosque and the old syn­agogue on Durban Street.

Worcester's Wine Route that includes around eleven dif­fer­ent cel­lars is divided along the R60 to Robertson and R43 to Villiersdorp from town. Neither of these routes is adequately sign-posted or advert­ised, unless you stop off at the town's Info to pick up bro­chures (assum­ing there are any), even if it is closed on much of Saturday after­noon and Sunday. Neither is the fact that the Worcester Wine Route is not only the largest wine route (pro­du­cing a fifth of the country's wine), but also one of South Africa's most import­ant wine-making areas, and home to the world's largest brandy cel­lar in the form of KWV.

We left Worcester via the R43 where it heads up the val­ley through beau­ti­ful, unfre­quen­ted parts of the coun­try that are not nearly as well mar­keted to the well trod­den lanes of the Franschhoek Wine Route, for instance. For those of you who enjoy the 'not so well trod­den' routes, this is well worth explor­ing. It con­tin­ues through Villiersdorp, their claim to fame is a tractor museum, and on where one can either head off to Franschhoek and bey­ond, or on to Grabouw.

Our host­ess for the week­end sug­ges­ted we dine at the Kokerboom res­taur­ant at the Karoo Desert National Botanical Garden, when we pressed her for res­taur­ant ideas. This beau­ti­ful, if small, garden lies off to the left of the main inter­sec­tion at Worcester. We were to dis­cover that this part of Worcester is as lovely. Out here lie vari­ous farms and sub­urbs about which one is totally unaware when on the N1. Most people only pass through Worcester, turn­ing right briefly through the old town, over the bridge and en route to Robertson.

The Karoo Botanical Garden, in the heart of the Small Karoo, is quite beau­ti­ful, although we chose the worst time of year to visit – gust­ing winds and the hot­test weather of the year are prob­ably not con­du­cive to a thriv­ing garden. Come here in spring and it will be a dif­fer­ent story. Nonetheless, it was still worth explor­ing and alive with suc­cu­lents, aloes, quiver trees, and over 300 spe­cies of rare and endangered plants. The garden's path­ways are thick with shale stone from the area, and we stopped briefly to explore the tra­di­tional cook­ing shel­ter, used in the arid Richtersveld area.

Suffice to say that the Kokerboom's kit­chen was closed by 5pm.

Restaurants and cof­fee shops aside, Worcester, des­pite the winds, is well worth vis­it­ing at any time of year.

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