Taylored Trips – Vintage Birthday TripIn February 2017 we packed the Kombi and set sail to the Keurbooms River Valley where we were invited to attend the 60th

birthday of Cousin Mark.Cousin Mark has a home away from home

on a farm called K’Buku in the Keurbooms River Valley which forms part of the Langkloof, a very fertile farming valley that produces ton upon ton of fresh produce annually.

K'Buku is the black dot in the red route

Ok, I called it the Keurbooms River Valley because the Keurbooms River runs down the valley but research has proven me wrong again. It is in fact

the Klein Langkloof. I quote from Graham Ross’ book Cape Mountain Passes, “this route continued to follow the Keurbooms River when it ran in a westerly direction up the Klein Langkloof north of the Outeniqua Mountains”. This description is from De Vlugt.En route to the birthday bash we joined up with friends

who were also on their way to the party, at the Ebb & Flow campsite, just outside the Wilderness, on the Thursday afternoon.

Ebb & Flow campsite, Wilderness

Here we celebrated an

age-old tradition called a braai and very bravely discussed doing the 3kms hike up the valley to a waterfall the next morning. Something I had wanted to do for quite some time.The next morning, as discussed Edgar, Jenny and I set off on the hike. It was a beautiful day and perfect for a walk in

the park. The campsite and hike falls within the Wilderness National Park, run by SANParks.A very pleasant walk along a well-defined path, with boardwalks where necessary and a pont for crossing the river, got us to the waterfall. Being February and the middle of summer, a swim was the

order of the day.

Convenient boardwalks

State-of-the-art pont

Beautiful cascading waterfall

On the return trip we chose the more strenuous route which crosses the river via stepping stones and you need to clamber over hills and dales but it

was a good alternative because we got to see both routes.

Stepping stones

When we got back from the walk, we packed up and went our separate ways. Edgar and Jenny

were going to spend two nights at K’Buku and Verine and I were going to spend another night on the road.We went up the hill at the Wilderness village to see the “Map of Africa” and to watch the paragliders take off. There wasn’t any wind so they couldn’t get enough up-draught to get

airborne so they were just hanging around testing the wind until one guy got enough lift and he was off.

Kaaimans River "Map of Africa" sign

Kaaimans River "Map of Africa"

Feeling the wind

Up, up and away. What a view!

From up here we went down to that very same beach in the picture above and took a photo looking back up.

From the beach looking back up the hill

After a stroll along the endless Wilderness beach where we laughed at two guys burning their feet on the scorching hot sand, to some guy taking pictures of a party crowd,

to some other guys catching fish and then burning our own feet on the same sand, we popped in at the village mall and got some supplies for our evening braai. We didn’t know where that would be yet, but we were pretty sure that we would be braaiing!We drove east down the N2 looking

for prospective overnight spots and turned down at the Swartvlei sign. Although we went past a campsite on the way down to the beach we opted not to pull in there but to move on after soaking up the stunning views of Gericke Point and yet another endless beach.

Gericke Point on Swartvlei beach

The view to the left went on even further and in the distance I saw wind kites but none of my photos showed anyone attached to them.

Swartvlei beach

Riderless sails

Sedgefield manage

d to pull us into its web and we stopped to pick up a few more essentials. Just as you leave Sedgefield, heading east, the waters of the Groenvlei become visible and on the shores of the Groenvlei lake we found a pleasant resort called Lake Pleasant. We pulled in and Stuart made us feel at home immediately.

Him and his mom own the place and have done so for what must be quite a number of years because the previous owner, who used to swim to the end of Groenvlei lake and back every morning before breakfast, was the first man to swim to Robben Eiland back in 1910! I can still clearly remember my Uncle Brian talking about

staying over at Lake Pleasant when they used to come to the Cape for their annual holidays when they stayed in Port Elizabeth. That was when Cousin Mark and I were in primary school and now I was going to his 60th

birthday! Anyway, enough of the historic jargon, needless to say we had a lovely time, a super braai

and a very pleasant stay. Here’s a photo to prove it.

Lake (very) Pleasant

We took a walk around the place. It is enormous. There is a day picnic area, a boat launch/slipway area (no power

boats allowed), squash courts, tennis courts, a swimming pool, a restaurant and shop, wooden chalets and double story brick chalets. A short drive down a gravel road gets you to another beautiful endless beach much like the previous one at Swartvlei.There is an annual event just outside Sedgefi

eld and although we knew we could not attend it because of Cousin Mark’s birthday, we still wanted to go and look at the venue. The event is a dirt bike trick jump event called DarkFEST on a farm in Barrington just north of Sedgefield called The Garden Route Trail Park. This park is a massive MTB

mecca with trails all over the farm but once a year Sam Reynolds and the rest of the international daredevils bring their bicycles out here for huge monster jumps. (excuse the pun)We met up with Schalk, Smitty and Cornel who were there for the event. You see I have a vested interest in this sport because part of my farm

has been converted into a jump track of note. Schalk started it off a few years ago and he was later joined by Cornel and Smitty in the building and maintenance of the circuit. To give you an example, my farm looks like this,

Treylor Park, Wellington

And the international arena looks like this.

DarkFEST, Barrington

I had a video clip posted here of

my guys in action at home so that you can see what I’m talking about but it’s 9mb and I couldn’t zip/compress it so it makes this story too big to post. If anyone wants to see it I will gladly mail it to you, just give me a shout. Alternatively, there is a super professional video of the guys in action at home on my

Taylored Trips Facebook page so you can ask your kids or grand-kids to find it for you and sit back and enjoy a super video of Schalk, Smitty and Cornel at Treylor Park, Wellington. It will blow your mind, I promise you.Travelling north from the N2 up to Barrington to see the jumps put us in a perfect

location to revisit some back roads that we haven’t travelled on for quite some time, namely the eastern end of The Seven Passes road.

Seven Passes Road

Homtini Pass

Travelling through

this beautiful landscape quickly reminded me why I love this part of our country so much. It’s not called the Garden Route for nothing!

We wanted to go and see

Millwood Creek and the old gold mine again but time was few and distance was many so we pressed on until we got to this inviting farm kitchen in Rheenendal.

The menu in the picture below tells the story of “Tottie” van Reenen. A story which is probably not read too often but it is very interesting and well worth the read so I have written it out below for you to read.

Florence

Eleanor

van Reen

enFlorence Eleanor

van Reenen

(nee Cross)

was born in

Dunedin, New

Zealand in 1878. She arrived in

South

Africa as a ‘Florence Nightingale’ nurse

during the Anglo-

Boer War. Affectiona

tely named

‘Tottie’ by the Van Reenen

family as she used

to call her grandchildren ‘Little Tots’. In 1922 she started

the original general dealer

store and butcher shop in

Rheenendal, which serviced

the needs of the

staff from her

husband’s sawmill

and woodcutters from

the Millwood district. It

was

Tottie’s idea to

call their farm

‘Rheenendal’

instead of the

suggested ‘Fescue

Meadows’ – so to have some

connection with the

family name and also with the place Rheenen

in Holland,

which had family

connections with

her husband’s forebears. 2012 was

the centenary

of the arrival of the Van Reenen family in

the Barringto

n and Rheenendal district.

Totties

Farm Kitchen

remains in the family

and is now run by her great-

grandson and his wife.

So, whatever you do when you are in the area, be sure not to miss this charming spot. It is delightful.Outside on the corner stands a very intriguin

g old wagon/lorry which caught my eye. It has a steel frame with leaf springs which is kind of from the fairly modern era but it has wooden wheels with solid rubber tyres and it was chain driven! Both back wheels have massive sprockets on them. There’s no diff so it must have pulled on both back

wheels. Whatever engine it had in there must have been started by a “slinger” by the look of that hole in the cross-member in the front. Must have been a big boy to crank that thing. I’ve been to the odd museum but I’ve never seen anything like this. Take a look.

The road from Rheenendal goes directly down to the N2 but hey, we seldom take the direct route especially when there’s a pass on the alternate route. The

Phantom Pass turns off to the left and takes you down a steep valley to the shores of the Knysna Lagoon and squirts you out at the N2 bridge where the Lightley’s river boats used to be. I see they call it the Passes Road but I know it as the Seven Passes Road and I’m sticking to it. There are seven rivers that the

road crosses so maybe that’s where I got the seven from. The Phantom Pass (named after the Phantom Moth in the area) doesn’t cross the Knysna River but it is in fact the eighth pass along this 75kms stretch from George to Knysna. This road took Thomas Bain and his brother-in-law Adam

de Smidt sixteen years to build, although De Smidt did most of it because Bain was sent to build the Tradouw Pass and then on to Hermon to plot the railway line through the Nuwekloof to Tulbagh. The records do state though that Bain travelled extensively to keep in touch with his various

responsibilities. One other point worth mentioning is that Bain and De Smidt disagreed about the route of a certain section of the road and their argument was so serious that they never spoke to each other again.

The old Lightley's mooring with the N2 bridge in the background

We zipped right through Knysna without stopping once

and turned left at the top of the hill on the R339 bound for De Vlugt. Along this road we stopped opposite the Diepwalle turn-off where Verine made us some gourmet sarmies and we went to go see the King Edward big tree.

King Edward Vll tree

How did this tree become the King Edward Vll tree?

Legendary forester John Phillips had been stationed at Diepwalle in the 1920’s. When the British Parliamentary Association visited Diepwalle in 1924, he was given the task of entertaining them and he chose this site for the official picnic.During the proceedings, the tree was named in honour

of Edward Vll, who became ‘King of the United Kingdom, Emperor of India and King of the British Dominions’ on the death of his mother, Queen Victoria in 1901.Here’s an extract from a letter that Prof. Phillips wrote to his nephew in 1981.“On the occasion of the visit to SA (and to the Deepwalls forest) of the British

Parliamentary Association, we arranged for Granny to give about 200 people lunch (chops, beef etc. on coals, cost nothing in those days); the Dept. of Forestry provided the liquor; my staff made coffee, tea etc. I chose the site because it was really accessible on an old (then still used) elephant trail; we made rustic seats out of tree stumps and I worked out a tale,

which my father, a gifted man with a piece of chalk, put on a big slab of wood, all about the tree. I gave a short ‘waffle’ about the old tree. Many later wrote to me from abroad to say how unique the setting and the tale were. General Smuts also wrote to thank me. About 11 elephants were in the vicinity that day and I arranged with my men to ensure that they

did not intrude on the party! There are now said to be only three.”

After the sarmies and the walk-about it was just a hop and a skip and we were at De Vlugt where we turned left and then it was just up the road to No.1 Lower-K’Buku.

De Vlugt

No.1 Lower-K'Buku

And then the party started!

Cousin Mark's 60th Birthday Bash

The next morning we all departe

d for home at various stages of our awakening and on our way home we pulled in to Smitswinkel Farm Village in Oudtshoorn for a look around. This place is still relatively new, having started up out of town before moving into Oudtshoorn itself and already it has become an iconic landmark.

Smitswinkel

Smitswinkel

Smitswinkel

I saw the other day that Smitswinkel has opened another branch just outside George in the old train coach that has been there for years at the traffic circle by the George

Country Resort and the two fuel stations. Can’t wait to pop in there when we go to George Country Resort again.

Smitswinkel outside George

Anyway, back to Oudtshoorn and here are a few more interesting landmarks which

remind us of the legacy of the ostrich feather boom of yesteryear.

CP Nel Museum

St Jude Anglican Church

Gorgeous sandstone home

Historic suspension bridge right in the centre of town

The only other point worth mentioning of the trip home is the devastation of veld-fires all the way from the Langkloof right up to the Du Toit’s Kloof Mountains above Paarl.

And so it came that we celebrated the 60th

birthday of Cousin Mark at his home away from home at the lovely Klein Langkloof farm of K’Buku.Until next time,

“Keep on Tripping!”