Latest / Wander the World with Pippa Hudson / Wander the World – Lost Trades Fair returns to McGregor
Transcript
- 0:07Speaker 1: Right.
- 0:11Speaker 2: In Wonder the World today, we are heading to the
- 0:13Speaker 2: little village of McGregor, a town village perfectly suited to
- 0:17Speaker 2: an event that is happening this coming weekend, celebrating the
- 0:20Speaker 2: way things used to be made. This event is called
- 0:23Speaker 2: McGregor's Lost Trades Fair, and it celebrates... traditional skills and
- 0:27Speaker 2: craftsmanship and the people who are working to keep them alive.
- 0:31Speaker 2: We're going to find out more about what sort of
- 0:33Speaker 2: skills and crafts we're talking about, but we're also going
- 0:35Speaker 2: to find out more about visiting McGregor, something I'm embarrassed
- 0:39Speaker 2: to say I still have never done after living in
- 0:41Speaker 2: Cape Town since 1997. I've never made it to McGregor
- 0:45Speaker 2: and I wish you could see the look of shock
- 0:47Speaker 2: on the face of my guest who is standing by
- 0:49Speaker 2: on Zoom today.
- 0:50Speaker 1: To chat to us.
- 0:51Speaker 2: Helena Block is the chairperson of McGregor Tourism, joining us
- 0:54Speaker 2: this afternoon with reasons to come and I suspect reasons
- 0:57Speaker 2: to stay and linger a little longer.
- 0:59Speaker 1: It's great to have you with us. Welcome to the show.
- 1:02Speaker 3: Thanks, Pippa. Thanks for having me on the show.
- 1:04Speaker 1: It's a pleasure.
- 1:05Speaker 2: For someone like me who's never been to McGregor before,
- 1:08Speaker 2: start with a sort of an overall picture.
- 1:09Speaker 1: What is it that makes it the special place that
- 1:12Speaker 1: it is?
- 1:14Speaker 4: Well, I think in link with the Lost Trades Fair,
- 1:17Speaker 4: we are one of the best preserved Villages, I think,
- 1:20Speaker 4: in South Africa. It is an old village, dates back
- 1:24Speaker 4: to about 1860, 1865. The buildings are in nice condition.
- 1:30Speaker 4: Everything's quite nicely preserved. We also have a heritage society
- 1:32Speaker 4: that looks after.
- 1:33Speaker 3: Things like that.
- 1:34Speaker 4: And it's just a very nice, quiet place to come
- 1:38Speaker 4: for a long weekend.
- 1:40Speaker 1: Okay.
- 1:40Speaker 2: Now, the one thing I always hear about is the market.
- 1:43Speaker 2: I think it's on a Saturday morning. A lot of
- 1:45Speaker 2: people make a special trip to the town or the
- 1:47Speaker 2: village for the weekend just to go and shop at
- 1:49Speaker 2: the market.
- 1:50Speaker 1: Tell us what happens there.
- 1:53Speaker 4: It happens every week between 9 and 12. There's fresh produce.
- 1:56Speaker 4: There's freshly made breads and cookies and things like that, vegetables.
- 2:01Speaker 4: It's just also a very, very good atmosphere. So most
- 2:04Speaker 4: of the locals go every Saturday. They hang together. They
- 2:08Speaker 4: talk to each other. They exchange the latest news and
- 2:11Speaker 4: you can sit down for a nice cup of coffee nearby. So, yeah,
- 2:16Speaker 4: it's an event that gets visited quite a lot.
- 2:18Speaker 3: Yeah. That's on the morning.
- 2:20Speaker 1: Okay, on a Saturday morning.
- 2:22Speaker 2: Now, Helena, you talk about the locals getting together to
- 2:24Speaker 2: swap stories and catch up on news. What is the
- 2:27Speaker 2: nature of the locals look like in 2026? Because we
- 2:31Speaker 2: know now with availability of Wi-Fi and remote work, etc.,
- 2:35Speaker 2: a lot of people who might once have seen McGregor
- 2:37Speaker 2: only as a place to visit for a weekend away
- 2:41Speaker 2: or maybe an overnight stay, suddenly have the option of going,
- 2:43Speaker 2: you know what, I'm going to live here and work
- 2:46Speaker 2: from here remotely.
- 2:47Speaker 1: Are you starting to see that shift happen?
- 2:49Speaker 3: Definitely.
- 2:50Speaker 4: The demographic has completely changed in the last five years,
- 2:53Speaker 4: I would say. Before that, it was more like an
- 2:55Speaker 4: elderly population, people that were, you know, stepping down into
- 2:58Speaker 4: like a slower pace of life. And they were moving
- 3:01Speaker 4: here permanently or they had a guest house before or
- 3:04Speaker 4: property before and moved there when they got older. Now
- 3:06Speaker 4: we have young couples. We have young people, have young children.
- 3:10Speaker 4: It's more of a vibrant community these days. And we
- 3:13Speaker 4: have fiber, by the way, not just Wi-Fi. So people
- 3:17Speaker 4: can work remotely very easily.
- 3:19Speaker 1: Good to know.
- 3:20Speaker 2: That also means then you start seeing people asking questions
- 3:23Speaker 2: about schooling and what do you find? What's available in
- 3:26Speaker 2: the village or where do people, if they choose to
- 3:28Speaker 2: base themselves there and actually live there full time, what
- 3:31Speaker 2: does a family do? Do they homeschool? Do they go
- 3:33Speaker 2: elsewhere or is there schooling available in Begrego?
- 3:38Speaker 4: No, the schooling is quite nearby. We have like a
- 3:41Speaker 4: primary school. The Afrikaans medium primary school.
- 3:43Speaker 3: Has always been here.
- 3:44Speaker 2: Okay.
- 3:45Speaker 4: But we have very good schools in Robertson and that's
- 3:47Speaker 4: only 17 kilometers away.
- 3:49Speaker 1: Is it that close?
- 3:49Speaker 4: So we have an English-speaking school there. We have an
- 3:52Speaker 4: Afrikaans high school there. So, no, schooling is sort of sorted.
- 3:55Speaker 4: There's an international school at the moment as well.
- 3:57Speaker 1: Okay.
- 3:58Speaker 3: So that's not a problem down here, yeah.
- 4:01Speaker 2: I didn't realize the distance was that short. I was
- 4:03Speaker 2: driving through Robertson this past weekend. I didn't realize you
- 4:05Speaker 2: were that close by. So that's good to know.
- 4:08Speaker 3: Now, yeah.
- 4:10Speaker 2: I should have popped in, yeah. What is the easiest
- 4:12Speaker 2: way to access McGregor from Cape Town? If somebody wants
- 4:14Speaker 2: to do a self-drive weekend away, say, what's the route?
- 4:18Speaker 4: There's definitely Vipal, Viral Tunnel, go to Worcester, go to
- 4:21Speaker 4: Robertson and just Take that little turn off to McGregor.
- 4:24Speaker 1: That's the easiest way. I will definitely take the turn
- 4:26Speaker 1: next time. Thanks for the heads up.
- 4:29Speaker 2: We're in conversation with Helena Block, who is the chair
- 4:31Speaker 2: of McGregor Tourism. And if you've already spent a lot
- 4:34Speaker 2: of time there or maybe recently paid a visit and
- 4:37Speaker 2: would like to flag for us what you saw, what
- 4:39Speaker 2: you did, what you enjoyed most about the character of
- 4:42Speaker 2: the village or the places you visited, we'd love to
- 4:44Speaker 2: hear your input with a WhatsApp to 0725671567. Most importantly, though,
- 4:50Speaker 2: we want to encourage you to go this coming weekend.
- 4:53Speaker 2: And I know a lot of people are making it
- 4:54Speaker 2: a long weekend because the public holiday on Thursday.
- 4:58Speaker 1: Tell us more. It's called the Lost Trades Fair.
- 5:01Speaker 2: Let's start with what those lost trades are and what
- 5:04Speaker 2: will be featured and then tell us a little bit
- 5:06Speaker 2: more about who's participating.
- 5:08Speaker 4: So lost trade fair basically refers to the trades that
- 5:12Speaker 4: are basically at risk of being lost. Things that are
- 5:15Speaker 4: dying out, skills that are dying out that people don't
- 5:17Speaker 4: do anymore or used to do in the past and
- 5:19Speaker 4: it's sort of watered down a bit. There are very
- 5:21Speaker 4: few people who can do these things. So what we
- 5:25Speaker 4: try and encourage is sort of a local pride in
- 5:27Speaker 4: the village and the skills we have, we still have,
- 5:29Speaker 4: and we need to preserve. And also, you know, get
- 5:33Speaker 4: the youth informed of how it all used to be and,
- 5:37Speaker 4: you know, So we are having like demonstrations of building
- 5:42Speaker 4: techniques from yesterday. So if a building here is in
- 5:46Speaker 4: bad state, we cannot repair it just with a cement plaster.
- 5:49Speaker 4: It needs to be done with a lime plaster. So
- 5:50Speaker 4: we're doing a demonstration of that. We're doing a demonstration
- 5:53Speaker 4: of thatching. We're doing brick making. The bricks that used
- 5:58Speaker 4: to be made here, most of the houses are built
- 6:00Speaker 4: from the bricks that were made from mud from the
- 6:02Speaker 4: river here. But they get made into moulds. They dry
- 6:05Speaker 4: in the sun. So there's no oven baking of the brick.
- 6:09Speaker 4: They're obviously not as super strong as modern cement bricks.
- 6:12Speaker 3: But that's how all these old houses were made.
- 6:15Speaker 1: And they're still standing.
- 6:15Speaker 4: So it's very nice to be able to see that.
- 6:17Speaker 4: And then we're doing craft things like a wool spinning demonstration,
- 6:21Speaker 4: drop spindle spinning demonstrations. There's going to be making of
- 6:25Speaker 4: soap by hand, yourself, all natural materials. Then there's dyeing
- 6:30Speaker 4: of wool with eco-dye, so that's with plants and herbs.
- 6:34Speaker 3: And not necessarily with synthetic dyes.
- 6:37Speaker 4: We're going to have somebody doing a demo on doing
- 6:40Speaker 4: a stone wall without cement in between. So it's things
- 6:43Speaker 4: like that that we're trying to demonstrate that were done
- 6:46Speaker 4: all those years ago and we're trying to preserve it
- 6:49Speaker 4: by giving it more publicity.
- 6:50Speaker 1: I mean, it's not just about nostalgia.
- 6:53Speaker 2: Helena, there's been worldwide a sort of a shift back
- 6:56Speaker 2: towards reclaiming those skills. I mean, we've even seen it
- 6:59Speaker 2: where you see celebrities who've taken up knitting and crochet again.
- 7:03Speaker 2: you know, something my granny did, passed on to my
- 7:05Speaker 2: mom to some extent, and she absolutely could not get
- 7:08Speaker 2: me interested for love or money. And now I'm sort
- 7:10Speaker 2: of going, I wish I'd paid attention more closely when
- 7:12Speaker 2: they were trying to teach me because suddenly it is,
- 7:16Speaker 2: and you recognize, you know, the value of doing things
- 7:19Speaker 2: slowly by hand, the pride in the product you've made
- 7:22Speaker 2: at the end of that, but also just the process,
- 7:24Speaker 2: the relaxation, the slow approach, not wanting everything to be
- 7:28Speaker 2: mass produced, the same as everybody else's, as you've pointed
- 7:32Speaker 2: out already, made with ingredients that you're not sure about
- 7:35Speaker 2: or that aren't good for you. There is, I think,
- 7:37Speaker 2: a kind of a global almost reclaiming of these techniques
- 7:41Speaker 2: and skills. Are you hopeful that that shift is going
- 7:44Speaker 2: to be bigger than just sort of the curiosity of
- 7:46Speaker 2: a weekend event, that this might encourage people to say,
- 7:49Speaker 2: you know what, come and live in our village, learn
- 7:51Speaker 2: to build this way, consider building your house this way?
- 7:55Speaker 3: Yes, it's a possibility.
- 7:56Speaker 4: I mean, we were talking about the crafts. Definitely, it's
- 7:59Speaker 4: very much of an up-swing concept. And worldwide, people are
- 8:01Speaker 4: going back to crafting. People are requesting crochet lessons, knitting lessons.
- 8:06Speaker 4: And it's not about the time spent. It's about the
- 8:09Speaker 4: quality of the time you spend. And I find these
- 8:11Speaker 4: things actually quite meditative as well. So it's almost like,
- 8:14Speaker 4: you know, you get into like a– I do it myself.
- 8:17Speaker 4: You get into a zone and it's very relaxing. It's very, like,
- 8:20Speaker 4: distracting from your daily worries and things like that. So, yes,
- 8:23Speaker 4: I do hope people will get inspired to take up
- 8:26Speaker 4: all sorts of crafts again, because I think it's good
- 8:28Speaker 4: for you.
- 8:29Speaker 3: I think we should be all doing it.
- 8:31Speaker 2: We're in conversation with Helena Block, the chairperson of McGregor Tourism,
- 8:35Speaker 2: and two messages already in from those who've already visited.
- 8:38Speaker 2: Shona is saying, my favourites in McGregor for many secluded
- 8:42Speaker 2: getaways include Busmanskloof, Dicholch and Eagle's Nest. Lovely secluded getaways
- 8:48Speaker 2: is the comment. Caro also asking about the name she's
- 8:51Speaker 2: heard that MacGregor was originally named for Lady Grey and
- 8:55Speaker 2: is worrying if it has any connection with Lady Grey
- 8:57Speaker 2: in the Eastern Cape firstly is that correct that the
- 8:59Speaker 2: town's named after Lady Grey or is that not great
- 9:02Speaker 2: it was called.
- 9:02Speaker 4: Lady Grey for quite a while And it was just
- 9:05Speaker 4: sort of a double up and confusing for the postal service.
- 9:08Speaker 3: So that's why they decided to rename it.
- 9:10Speaker 1: So it was originally called Lady Grey.
- 9:11Speaker 2: Okay.
- 9:12Speaker 1: Didn't know that. Caro, glad that you mentioned it. Thank you.
- 9:15Speaker 3: Okay.
- 9:16Speaker 2: Now, besides the demonstrations of the crafts at the fair
- 9:19Speaker 2: this weekend, there's quite a lot sort of peripheral stuff happening. Helena,
- 9:23Speaker 2: for those who might not be interested in learning brickmaking
- 9:26Speaker 2: but have a partner who wants to come and see
- 9:28Speaker 2: it or learn to make soap or whatever it might be,
- 9:30Speaker 2: what else is happening sort of alongside the demonstrations?
- 9:36Speaker 3: Okay, so we've got live music. It's a jazz band
- 9:38Speaker 3: from Montague.
- 9:39Speaker 2: Okay.
- 9:40Speaker 4: So that is going to be playing all the time.
- 9:42Speaker 4: Then we have real dancers doing a performance for us.
- 9:45Speaker 3: I don't know if you know what that is.
- 9:46Speaker 4: It's a very traditional dance method, mostly young kids doing it,
- 9:51Speaker 4: and they kick.
- 9:51Speaker 3: Up a lot of dust while they're dancing.
- 9:53Speaker 4: So they're coming to visit us as well, which is awesome.
- 9:57Speaker 4: And then we have lots of traditional food. like biryanis,
- 10:01Speaker 4: pickled fish, a roaster cook with lamb's liver. All these
- 10:05Speaker 4: traditional foods will be for sale. We have the local
- 10:07Speaker 4: wines for sale. We have some kids' activities happening as well.
- 10:12Speaker 4: So there's a lot for lots of tastes available. Okay.
- 10:16Speaker 3: And it's just a nice place to hang out and.
- 10:19Speaker 1: Yeah.
- 10:19Speaker 3: Yeah.
- 10:20Speaker 2: So where is it all happening? Where is the place
- 10:22Speaker 2: to direct yourself to?
- 10:24Speaker 4: So we're very lucky to be able to use the
- 10:27Speaker 4: grounds of the old school and the wisdom school. This
- 10:29Speaker 4: old school is a historic building in McGregor down Church Street,
- 10:33Speaker 4: and it's got a huge parking lot there.
- 10:35Speaker 3: So we have a lot of space for all of
- 10:38Speaker 3: our activities.
- 10:39Speaker 4: And also it's nice to be in like old surrounds,
- 10:42Speaker 4: you know, where.
- 10:42Speaker 3: It all started.
- 10:43Speaker 4: It was the old school of McGregor originally. which is
- 10:46Speaker 4: now a holiday accommodation. But it's a very important part
- 10:50Speaker 4: of the village and the heritage of it.
- 10:52Speaker 1: It feels like a very appropriate place to hold this
- 10:54Speaker 1: kind of event.
- 10:54Speaker 3: Okay.
- 10:55Speaker 2: When is it happening? Is it the entire long weekend?
- 10:58Speaker 2: Which days?
- 10:59Speaker 1: What times? What do listeners need to know?
- 11:01Speaker 3: No, it's Saturday afternoon.
- 11:03Speaker 4: So we're setting up on Saturday morning and then you
- 11:06Speaker 4: can go to the market first and then afterwards take
- 11:08Speaker 4: a wander down.
- 11:09Speaker 3: It's in the same street, basically. It's just a couple
- 11:11Speaker 3: of blocks up.
- 11:12Speaker 4: And then it will happen from about 12 o'clock till
- 11:15Speaker 4: about half past three, four, or whenever the wine runs out.
- 11:18Speaker 1: Okay, whichever happens first. Could be sooner rather than later.
- 11:22Speaker 2: Our listener, Stacey, emailing me to say, don't forget a
- 11:25Speaker 2: visit to the donkey sanctuary is an important part of
- 11:28Speaker 2: any visit to McGregor.
- 11:29Speaker 1: Is that the Esselstyn donkey sanctuary? Yes.
- 11:33Speaker 2: Okay, we've spoken to them before on the show. Glad
- 11:36Speaker 2: to hear that they're still going strong. Somebody else saying
- 11:39Speaker 2: they discovered McGregor arriving very tired and dusty on the
- 11:43Speaker 2: Busmanskloof hiking trail, which is one of the very famous trails.
- 11:47Speaker 2: And that links Grayton to McGregor, if I'm not mistaken.
- 11:51Speaker 3: That's correct. It starts, well, Grayton likes to think it
- 11:53Speaker 3: starts there, but it actually starts here. But you can
- 11:57Speaker 3: walk it in a day, a hike. It will take
- 11:58Speaker 3: you all day.
- 12:01Speaker 4: A lot of people like overnight there in Grayton or
- 12:03Speaker 4: get picked up in Grayton and driven back. But literally,
- 12:06Speaker 4: I think the distance literally is 19 kilometers. But to
- 12:09Speaker 4: drive back.
- 12:10Speaker 3: Is an hour and a half.
- 12:11Speaker 1: Okay.
- 12:12Speaker 3: There's no road going there at all.
- 12:14Speaker 2: Okay.
- 12:15Speaker 4: It's a very quiet trail and there's beautiful waterfalls there
- 12:19Speaker 4: where you can swim.
- 12:21Speaker 3: So it's absolutely a thing on the to-do list. Yeah, yeah.
- 12:24Speaker 1: My daughter's done it. I know she's at the same thing.
- 12:26Speaker 1: Absolutely gorgeous.
- 12:27Speaker 2: Yeah, several people flagging hiking in the area as being
- 12:30Speaker 2: one of the big reasons to go. But obviously, if
- 12:32Speaker 2: you don't want to be on your feet and you're
- 12:33Speaker 2: looking to put your feet up and relax, at least
- 12:37Speaker 2: go and have a walk around the market and buy
- 12:38Speaker 2: some nice things to eat and drink and then go
- 12:40Speaker 2: and put your feet up and relax the rest of
- 12:42Speaker 2: the weekend. Okay, so we've told you about the crafting,
- 12:45Speaker 2: the lost trades element of the fair. You also know
- 12:48Speaker 2: there's food, there's entertainment, there's drink, there's dancing. A lot
- 12:51Speaker 2: of good reasons to go through to McGregor this coming
- 12:53Speaker 2: weekend on the Saturday. Helena, in terms of finding accommodation
- 12:57Speaker 2: for those who would like to make it a long
- 12:59Speaker 2: stay and maybe come for a couple of days, is
- 13:01Speaker 2: there a sort of a central website that's a good
- 13:03Speaker 2: place to start or should they just go onto platforms
- 13:06Speaker 2: like Booking.com and Airbnb?
- 13:08Speaker 4: You can, but you can also go via our website.
- 13:11Speaker 4: The Teresa McGregor website is very easy to find. And
- 13:14Speaker 4: in that website, you will see all the accommodations. And
- 13:17Speaker 4: that will link you straight through to.
- 13:19Speaker 3: Being able to book as well.
- 13:20Speaker 2: Okay.
- 13:20Speaker 4: If you see something there that you like, then it
- 13:22Speaker 4: goes straight to the booking platform from there. Okay. And
- 13:25Speaker 4: have a look at our Instagram account. Every week we
- 13:28Speaker 4: highlight some accommodation places. It might be getting a little
- 13:31Speaker 4: bit full, but like I said, Robertson is literally 17
- 13:34Speaker 4: kilometers away.
- 13:36Speaker 1: You can always stay there.
- 13:37Speaker 2: And a late note in from Carol saying, please go
- 13:40Speaker 2: and visit the revamped McGregor Museum as well. What happens
- 13:43Speaker 2: at the McGregor Museum, Helena?
- 13:44Speaker 3: No. Museum is actually in my tourism office.
- 13:47Speaker 1: Okay.
- 13:48Speaker 4: So it's definitely worth having a look there because that's
- 13:51Speaker 4: only been open for, I think, yeah, it's a year now.
- 13:53Speaker 3: Okay.
- 13:54Speaker 4: And it has a lot of information about really what
- 13:57Speaker 4: has been happening. It's not just stuffy old stuff. There's
- 14:01Speaker 4: information about fossils. There's information about the old trades that
- 14:04Speaker 4: used to be there with little maquettes.
- 14:06Speaker 3: And all that.
- 14:07Speaker 4: And there is also a lot of information about, you know,
- 14:09Speaker 4: the social coherence of the village and how it all
- 14:12Speaker 4: came about. Okay.
- 14:13Speaker 3: So it's the, Worth while visiting.
- 14:16Speaker 1: Carol, thanks for the tip. And Helena, thanks.
- 14:18Speaker 2: You've done a wonderful job of selling the village and
- 14:20Speaker 2: I hope you're going to see some Cape Talkers coming
- 14:22Speaker 2: through to support the Lost Trades Fair this coming weekend
- 14:25Speaker 2: and perhaps staying and lingering a little bit longer and
- 14:27Speaker 2: making a long weekend of it.
- 14:29Speaker 1: In the meantime, though, all the best to you.
- 14:30Speaker 2: Wishing you a successful event this weekend and a happy, safe,
- 14:34Speaker 2: and hopefully the weather is going to play in your favour.
- 14:37Speaker 1: I hope so. Lovely to have you on the show
- 14:39Speaker 1: this afternoon.
- 14:41Speaker 3: Thank you very much.
- 14:42Speaker 2: Helena Block, the chair of McGregor Tourism. She certainly convinced
- 14:45Speaker 2: me next time I will deviate off that road and
- 14:48Speaker 2: go and take a visit. If you'd like to keep
- 14:50Speaker 2: on telling us about the things that you found beautiful
- 14:52Speaker 2: or interesting or worth a trip to McGregor to see,
- 14:56Speaker 2: keep those WhatsApps coming to 0725671567.