Discovering familiar routes and familial roots

We decided to embark on our yearly road-trip in the week before Christmas rather than the week after Christmas as we usually do every year. We planned to do an AAAA (Antiques, Art, Architecture and Ancestry) trip. From experience, we have found that in the week between Christmas and New Year, most shops are usually closed in country towns.

Route62 between Barrydale and Ladismith

With the Queens hotel in Oudtshoorn as our base, we decided to explore the towns of Oudtshoorn, George, Mossel Bay, De Rust, Klaarstroom and Prince Albert. In addition, on our way to Oudtshoorn we explored the towns of Barrydale, Ladismith and Calitzdorp.

Detail of the old parsonage in Barrydale

We both love the vernacular architecture of the Klein Karoo and through our genealogical research into our own families have discovered how strong our family bonds are with most of these towns.

Familiar pilars and picket fences in Ladismith

Keith’s family on his mother’s side were mostly from Mossel Bay, George and Oudtshoorn. My family from my father’s side from Prince Albert valley and my mother’s side from Gamkaskloof, Prince Albert, Calitzdorp and Barrydale. That might explain our love of the region and our yearly pilgrimage back to our roots. I suppose the places from where one’s ancestors originate, is somehow imprinted in one’s DNA.

Ladismith curches: LtR - Lutheran, Dutch Reformed, English and Lutheran at Amalienstein

A typical Karoo flatroof house in Ladismith

Every time we visit the familiar places, we look at them through new lenses, informed by new information discovered through genealogical, architectural and Africana research.

A Victorian style house with carpenters lace in Ladismith

A Victorian style house with elaborate fretwork in Ladismith 

Every year, there is much to be celebrated in the restoration and preservation of architecture in the region but sadly also there are many buildings neglected to a state of imminent loss. Each yearly trip leaves us both with a sense of hope and despair in what we find.

The synagogue in Ladismith in desperate need of repair

The summer heat made us choose to travel in the air-conditioned car rather than the vintage Toyota bakkie without air-conditioning. It meant that if we did find antiques that we would like to take back to Towerwater, we would have to arrange for them to be transported. After spending the morning visiting an amazing antique shop and photographing buildings in Barrydale, we moved on to Ladismith and Calitzdorp where we captured some of the familiar architecture. On our way out of Calitzdorp we stopped at an antique/bric-a-brac shop.  Among an eclectic collection of chairs Keith spotted a familiar design and after confirming the maker’s mark on the back, he excitedly showed me the BW van Dyk stinkwood chair.

Karoo style houses in Calitzdorp

Karoo style houses in Calitzdorp

It was clear that he did not want to leave the chair behind. After a lot of discussion, we decided to take the chair on the backseat of the car. It meant that for our entire trip we would be traveling with an antique BW van Dyk chair on the backseat. We have done crazier things in the name of rescuing antiques and besides, the chair was well priced and clearly wanted to get back to the Robertson area, from where it originated.

Architecture styles and colours in Calitzdorp

The B W van Dyk chair that went on a road-trip

On a hot afternoon, we departed for Oudtshoorn with a stinkwood chair as our new road-trip companion. After booking into the Queens Hotel, we realized that the chair would have to sleep in the car as we could not risk looking suspicious walking in and out of a hotel that is also furnished with antique Cape furniture, carrying an antique chair.

Sandstone buildings in Oudtshoorn

A Sandstone feather palace in Oudtshoorn

We spent our days admiring antique furniture, art, architecture and visiting ancestral homes. What is left of ancestral homes gave us glimpses of how our great-great grandparents lived. Walking in their footsteps and seeing the familiar architecture styles and crafts made us realise  that there must be a deeper link to one’s past and the people that came before us. Towerwater and the way we live there, seems familiar with what we experienced on our trip and certainly our forefathers would have felt very much at home in the Towerwater buildings.

On the N9 to George from Oudtshoorn

in George, a flight of chairs? 

An antique superstore in Mossel Bay

Blue and white crockery seems to be a standard favourite in country antique shops

Our decision to do the road trip before Christmas paid off. We found most of the galleries, antique shops, and museums open. Although we have been to  these towns many times before, each trip seems to be different because one tends to view buildings, art, and furniture differently with the new knowledge one gains in the course of time.

The Munro cottages in Mossel Bay, built by Alexander Munro, Keith's maternal great-great-great-great grandfather

Keith exploring his ancestral roots at the Munro cottages

One of the Munro cottages in desperate need of TLC

View from the Roberson pass between Mossel Bay and Oudtshoorn

Driving back to Oudtshoorn from mossel Bay on the R328

I for one, learnt of the original way the riempies on Cape chairs were threaded with knots and splicing to form one continuous riempie. The knots being at the starting and ending points of the matting of a chair. Done properly, it is the neatest craft. It made complete sense, as nails or upholsterer’s tacks would not always have been readily available to furniture makers living on isolated farms. These knots and joins are best made if one uses raw leather thongs for the chair matting.

Houses in De Rust, some in need of TLC

Entering Meiringspoort from De Rust side on the N12

The incredible rock formations in Meiringspoort on the N12

The trip was inspiring, with many vernacular buildings restored and preserved. Each town had its positive and negative aspects. It’s easy to despair of the destruction of a building through ill-informed restorations or renovations. However, if more people shared their experiences with vernacular building restoration, correct information would be more readily available. I believe more of the simpler buildings would be rescued and conserved in this way along with the traditional skills and materials.

A classic Karoo cottage with windpump and Pepper trees in Klaarstroom

The former St Lukes Anglican Church in Klaarstroom

The R407 between Klaarstroom and Prince Albert

Prince Albert Valley on the R407

More than thirty years ago, we went to look at cottages in the little village of Klaarstroom outside Meiringspoort on the Prince Albert side, with a view to the possibility of buying one to restore. The neglected, almost derelict buildings were beautiful, but as a restoration project it would have been too far from Cape Town to be a viable regular commute. Today, thankfully, most of the buildings have been restored and the village looks prosperous and authentic to its history.

A glimpse of the Angeliersbosch homestead, my paternal ancestral home, in Prince Albert Valley

Classic flatroof Karoo houses in Prince Albert with their familiar pebbledash plaster

Classic Prince Albert, with bridges over leivore and victorian chimneys competing with the church steeple

The blue Karoo sky captured in architectural details in Prince Albert

Tourism has given most of the old farm houses a new lease on life, like Angeliersbosch, the former family farm of my Hattingh great-great-grandfather in the Prince Albert valley.  Although in part of the museum complex in Mossel Bay, some of the Munro Cottages, built by Keith’s great-great-great-great grandfather on his mother’s side, that were not under private curatorship, were sadly neglected.

Rust brown doors and shutters of a flatroof Karoo house echoed in metal garden sculptures and main gate 

Heading home on the R407 from Prince Albert to the N1

The Koo on the R318 towards Montagu, a welcome and familiar route

A taninery of ALB Brown Betty teapots

Home sweet Towerwater, offering a respite after a hot day

We returned home with new insights, one BW van Dyk stinkwood chair from Calitzdorp, three ALB teapots and a set of seven cocktail glasses, bought at different antique stores in Mossel Bay. After exploring the Klein Karoo and Garden Route via the R60, R62, N9, N2, R328, N12, R407, and N1, we finally wound our way back on the R318 through the Koo, via Montagu to find ourselves back where we started, at Towerwater.