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Wander the World: Guide to the Cederberg · Wander the World with Pippa Hudson

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: This is Cape Talk.
• 0:05
  Speaker 2: Well, perhaps you're lucky enough to be heading to the Cedarburg,
• 0:08
  Speaker 2: not just over the festive season, but in the coming
• 0:10
  Speaker 2: weeks and months. We are traveling to that part of
• 0:13
  Speaker 2: the world today to explore what it has to offer
• 0:16
  Speaker 2: from magnificent rocky landscapes to some of the best hiking
• 0:19
  Speaker 2: and climbing opportunities in the country today. and also the
• 0:22
  Speaker 2: perfect place for a spot of stargazing. But there's more
• 0:26
  Speaker 2: to the Cedarburg than that. And someone who's done a
• 0:28
  Speaker 2: wonderful job of capturing some of its highlights and making
• 0:31
  Speaker 2: it easy for us to go and explore this part
• 0:34
  Speaker 2: of the world is travel journalist David Bristow, who has
• 0:37
  Speaker 2: just published a new book on the subject called Guide
• 0:40
  Speaker 2: to the Cedarburg, It's published by Stryk Nature and has
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: just hit the shelves. And for those who don't know,
• 0:45
  Speaker 2: David is a renowned travel writer and photographer, a former
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: editor of travel magazines, an environmental scientist and tour guide.
• 0:53
  Speaker 2: And he's written more than 30 books on travel and
• 0:55
  Speaker 2: heritage in Southern Africa. But I understand that Cedarburg is
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: one of the spots that really holds a very special
• 1:02
  Speaker 2: corner of his heart.
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: So it's a pleasure to have.
• 1:04
  Speaker 2: Him joining us this afternoon to talk about his advice
• 1:07
  Speaker 2: on how best to navigate this part of the world.
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: David, a pleasure to have you on the show.
• 1:11
  Speaker 3: Welcome. Hi, Pippa. My pleasure.
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: Thank you. I mean, it's a big area.
• 1:18
  Speaker 2: It's a sizable location and it's got so much to offer, David.
• 1:21
  Speaker 2: I think for somebody who's never been there, it can
• 1:24
  Speaker 2: feel a little intimidating knowing where to start. So for
• 1:27
  Speaker 2: those who aren't too familiar with the Cedarburg, do you
• 1:29
  Speaker 2: want to give us maybe just a sort of a
• 1:30
  Speaker 2: big picture overview of its rough location and sort of
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: the markers for the area we're talking about? And then
• 1:36
  Speaker 2: we can dive down into some of the individual routes
• 1:40
  Speaker 2: and destinations you think are worth highlighting.
• 1:44
  Speaker 3: Yeah, the cool thing about it is that it's for Capetonians,
• 1:48
  Speaker 3: so it's sort of our backyard. Yeah. Three to four
• 1:53
  Speaker 3: hours driving, depending on where you're headed. The most popular
• 1:59
  Speaker 3: frequently used route is up the N7, the Namibia Highway.
• 2:04
  Speaker 3: So that's kind of Malmesbury, Pickettburg, Pickeneerscliff Pass to Citrustal.
• 2:11
  Speaker 3: There's a much nicer way. Yeah. And, in fact, it's
• 2:14
  Speaker 3: the way most people have to use it now because
• 2:18
  Speaker 3: there's a central pass called the Eight Cake Pass from
• 2:22
  Speaker 3: the Algeria Cape Nature Conservation to what I call the
• 2:26
  Speaker 3: Central Valley. So, Dwarth Raffia, Cedarburg Wines, Crom Raffia, all
• 2:30
  Speaker 3: the popular places, Wolfburg, Osh, the Crackers. Yes. It got
• 2:33
  Speaker 3: washed away this winter. Uh-huh. And although the local farmers
• 2:38
  Speaker 3: are fixing it, it's really only for their use, like
• 2:41
  Speaker 3: emergency use. So what you have to do is you've
• 2:45
  Speaker 3: got to go via the Coe of Bockefeld. And it's
• 2:48
  Speaker 3: a magnificent drive, but it's mostly gravel. So you go
• 2:52
  Speaker 3: to head for Ceres. Ceres is on top of the
• 2:57
  Speaker 3: Mitchell's Pass. From Ceres, you go up to Bergh. make
• 3:02
  Speaker 3: sure to turn right. If you don't, you'll end up
• 3:06
  Speaker 3: in Citrustal. So you turn right and then first left
• 3:09
  Speaker 3: and you start going over these incredible passes, the Blunkberg Pass,
• 3:14
  Speaker 3: the Grootrofiet Pass, these rolling, rolling passes with magnificent peaks
• 3:19
  Speaker 3: on either side. And for me, the beauty is that
• 3:22
  Speaker 3: it is gravel. So you slow down and you get
• 3:26
  Speaker 3: into the vibe of the place. Um, there's a little
• 3:30
  Speaker 3: farm store called Ankom's or Welcome. Yeah. It's really the
• 3:35
  Speaker 3: beginning of the beginning of the southern Cedarburg. So, yeah,
• 3:41
  Speaker 3: slowing down for me is the biggest part of the thing.
• 3:45
  Speaker 3: You know, you leave Cape Town on a Friday afternoon,
• 3:48
  Speaker 3: you zoom up the N7 double lane highway and you
• 3:51
  Speaker 3: get there with city fog messing up your brain. And
• 3:57
  Speaker 3: I say, no, Turn off those devices. Turn off the
• 4:00
  Speaker 3: Stravas and the GPSs and turn on to Radio Nature.
• 4:03
  Speaker 3: Slow down. Stop at a farm stall. There are really
• 4:07
  Speaker 3: wonderful farm stalls along the way. Pitstop, Cardusi, Ditol, Dikrut Lamun.
• 4:15
  Speaker 3: And once you do that, you're already getting into the
• 4:19
  Speaker 3: spirit of the mountains because it's local produce, freshly baked fruits,
• 4:29
  Speaker 3: So slowing down for me is the most important thing.
• 4:35
  Speaker 3: So that you come to the mountains with respect. People
• 4:38
  Speaker 3: are living there. They've been farming there for nearly 300 years.
• 4:42
  Speaker 3: Animals have the right of way. There's tortoises, never mind leopards. So, yeah,
• 4:47
  Speaker 3: I think I've kind of pushed that side of it.
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: You've sold it really well, David, and I agree with you.
• 4:52
  Speaker 2: It's half the reason we seek out these wilderness areas
• 4:56
  Speaker 2: is to get away from the rat race, to have
• 4:58
  Speaker 2: that feeling. of reconnecting with nature and stepping aside from
• 5:01
  Speaker 2: all of the noise. And yet increasingly we see people
• 5:04
  Speaker 2: asking for all the mod cons to go with them
• 5:06
  Speaker 2: and wanting uninterrupted Wi-Fi, et cetera, when they get there.
• 5:11
  Speaker 2: It's always a balancing act, isn't it? The need for
• 5:13
  Speaker 2: development to make it comfortable to go to a place
• 5:16
  Speaker 2: without developing it to the point that it becomes the
• 5:18
  Speaker 2: very thing you're trying to get away from. How do
• 5:20
  Speaker 2: you think that's being balanced in the Cedarburg?
• 5:24
  Speaker 3: Well, it has been. To a large extent, that there's
• 5:27
  Speaker 3: very little Wi-Fi. I think that's a good thing. There
• 5:31
  Speaker 3: are some places, I mean, I'm not saying this in
• 5:34
  Speaker 3: a negative way, but Kromerfeer Farm, which used to be
• 5:37
  Speaker 3: the home of mountaineers in the Cedarburg, has gone very modern.
• 5:43
  Speaker 3: They've got what they call luxury villas, glamping sites, and
• 5:47
  Speaker 3: a restaurant right out of the Frank Lloyd Wright catalog,
• 5:50
  Speaker 3: even with a little river running through it. So there
• 5:53
  Speaker 3: is that. And you can't stop progress. You know, I
• 5:55
  Speaker 3: say Nysa was once a little fishing village and Shepherd's
• 5:58
  Speaker 3: Bush was once a little bush under which a shepherd
• 6:01
  Speaker 3: took shelter. So you can't stop that. Where to stop it?
• 6:07
  Speaker 3: I don't know. There's an ugly side to what is
• 6:09
  Speaker 3: happening there, though. And I don't think it's Cromerfield because
• 6:13
  Speaker 3: I would stay there if I wanted a luxury weekend
• 6:16
  Speaker 3: for sure. But COVID-19. Pushed a lot of people outdoors.
• 6:21
  Speaker 3: There was this huge rush to get outdoors, which was
• 6:24
  Speaker 3: a great thing. But in the Cedarburg, it's led to
• 6:29
  Speaker 3: really severe overcrowding in some areas. Now, the Wolfberg Arch
• 6:33
  Speaker 3: is probably the most popular medium, longish day hike. And
• 6:38
  Speaker 3: on a long weekend or a holiday, there's 40 to
• 6:41
  Speaker 3: 50 tents there. And the litter is appalling. And people
• 6:48
  Speaker 3: are using– they don't walk away for the toilet. They
• 6:52
  Speaker 3: do it there. And, you know, I don't want to
• 6:55
  Speaker 3: get ugly on the radio, but it's a poop fest
• 6:59
  Speaker 3: of note. It's terrible. The farmer has to send out
• 7:04
  Speaker 3: a labor force to go and clean it up. And
• 7:06
  Speaker 3: that shouldn't happen in the mountains. There's so many other
• 7:09
  Speaker 3: places to go. And I think with luck, with hope–
• 7:13
  Speaker 3: my little guidebook. It's not so little, but, um, we'll
• 7:17
  Speaker 3: give people a much better idea of places they can
• 7:20
  Speaker 3: go because there's so much more. Um, I know I'm
• 7:24
  Speaker 3: babbling on, but I really had an underlying mission. Yeah.
• 7:28
  Speaker 3: With writing this book. Um, there's a back road of
• 7:32
  Speaker 3: the Cedarburg. Um, if you're coming from the North or
• 7:36
  Speaker 3: the South, you'll end up at a place called my cheese. Yeah.
• 7:40
  Speaker 3: And it's kind of like a crossroads. Um, And if
• 7:43
  Speaker 3: you go directly north from there, you head for Wippertal.
• 7:46
  Speaker 3: That road is, to me, where the secret old spirit
• 7:50
  Speaker 3: of the Cedarburg lives. The little hamlets like Langkloof and
• 7:54
  Speaker 3: Ierselbank and Heunenvlei, they're satellite settlements from Wippertal Mission Station.
• 8:02
  Speaker 3: And there's campsites there and there's homestays. And in Heunenvlei,
• 8:06
  Speaker 3: there's quite a big, I don't know what to call it, bunkhouse,
• 8:09
  Speaker 3: but really well-appointed campsites. And it's so off the beaten
• 8:12
  Speaker 3: track and very few people go there. I mean, on
• 8:16
  Speaker 3: the one hand, that's great. On the other hand, those
• 8:19
  Speaker 3: communities need us. So if I can push people there,
• 8:24
  Speaker 3: I will have done my job.
• 8:26
  Speaker 2: David, I suspect you are answering Ivan's point because Ivan
• 8:30
  Speaker 2: raises on the WhatsApp line the prices increase that have
• 8:33
  Speaker 2: come with the development. He said, I have been going
• 8:34
  Speaker 2: to the Cedarburg for many years but have found that
• 8:37
  Speaker 2: it is becoming less and less affordable. Are some of
• 8:39
  Speaker 2: those far-flung, off-the-beaten-track places you're mentioning more affordable to access
• 8:44
  Speaker 2: as well as being less congested?
• 8:47
  Speaker 3: Cheap as chips. They really are. And this rise in prices,
• 8:51
  Speaker 3: I don't buy that. Sure. There are a few pricey places,
• 8:57
  Speaker 3: but if I take the very top end, so we're
• 9:00
  Speaker 3: talking Kromdorf here, we're talking Bushman's Cliff, which is aimed
• 9:04
  Speaker 3: at international tourists, and maybe a place like Edenveldt, which
• 9:08
  Speaker 3: is on the Bosch Cliff or Jan Dussel's River Valley.
• 9:11
  Speaker 3: Those are, you know, you're talking for a luxury, a really,
• 9:16
  Speaker 3: really luxury, not Bushman's Cliff, but the other two places. weekend,
• 9:21
  Speaker 3: 1500 Rand a night. Now for the Cederberg, that's a lot.
• 9:25
  Speaker 3: But if you had that in Hermanus or even Pater Noster,
• 9:30
  Speaker 3: you'd be doubling that.
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: Yeah, absolutely.
• 9:32
  Speaker 3: So the Cederberg is still, it's still half the price
• 9:34
  Speaker 3: of everywhere else, no matter what it is.
• 9:38
  Speaker 2: We're in conversation with David Bristow, the author of the
• 9:40
  Speaker 2: new Guide to the Cedarburg, which has just hit the
• 9:42
  Speaker 2: shelves and is such a helpful introduction to this area
• 9:45
  Speaker 2: for those who don't know it, as well as diving
• 9:48
  Speaker 2: deep into advice for those who do want to go
• 9:50
  Speaker 2: back and explore new parts of it. Everything from the
• 9:52
  Speaker 2: routes you'll take to get there to the accommodation options,
• 9:55
  Speaker 2: the hiking trails and so much more. And David, based
• 9:58
  Speaker 2: off your previous comment, I now understand why there was
• 10:01
  Speaker 2: a need for a chapter on minding your peas and
• 10:03
  Speaker 2: poos when camping and hiking. As sad as it is,
• 10:06
  Speaker 2: that chapter includes a very important point, though, around fire risk,
• 10:10
  Speaker 2: because you make the point, please don't ever burn your
• 10:12
  Speaker 2: toilet paper again. thinking you're doing the environmentally friendly thing,
• 10:17
  Speaker 2: you point out that that was actually the cause of
• 10:19
  Speaker 2: one of the most significant fires in recent memory.
• 10:24
  Speaker 3: Yeah, it was a scout, bless his soul. And we
• 10:28
  Speaker 3: were taught long ago to burn our toilet paper, but
• 10:33
  Speaker 3: not in the Fanebos. That fire from one piece of
• 10:37
  Speaker 3: toilet paper being set alight raised the not only about
• 10:41
  Speaker 3: 55,000 hectares of wilderness and farmland, it destroyed almost every
• 10:48
  Speaker 3: last remaining healthy cedar tree. I mean, it was a
• 10:53
  Speaker 3: heartbreaking event. So yeah, fire, the famous likes fire occasionally.
• 11:00
  Speaker 3: And I have just occasionally, but cedar trees hate fire.
• 11:05
  Speaker 3: They're not fire adapted. So trying to, Get the cedars back.
• 11:10
  Speaker 3: There's even a program called Sustainable Cedar where people go,
• 11:14
  Speaker 3: volunteers go and plant. But cedar trees are one of
• 11:18
  Speaker 3: the most slow-growing trees in the world, and it's kind
• 11:21
  Speaker 3: of a battle against the odds. So, yeah, no fires, people.
• 11:25
  Speaker 2: Fire risk, one of the things that the book speaks to.
• 11:28
  Speaker 2: It also speaks to one of the things people get
• 11:30
  Speaker 2: nervous about, which is the snake life in the area
• 11:32
  Speaker 2: and what to do if you encounter one. But let's
• 11:34
  Speaker 2: focus on more pleasant things. Annika would like your advice, David,
• 11:37
  Speaker 2: on where the best pools are for swimming. She says
• 11:40
  Speaker 2: we would love to go in summer, but we're a
• 11:42
  Speaker 2: bit nervous of the heat.
• 11:43
  Speaker 3: Yeah, it gets incredibly hot there. I mean, I've been
• 11:46
  Speaker 3: there in March and it's still 45 degrees in the
• 11:49
  Speaker 3: middle of the day.
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 11:52
  Speaker 3: Cedarburg has got water. Now, there are numerous places that
• 11:57
  Speaker 3: are famous for their pools. And I'd say the main
• 11:59
  Speaker 3: one or the easiest accessible one is in the Rondegat
• 12:03
  Speaker 3: or Hrutlu Valley. That's where Algeria is. Very easily accessible.
• 12:08
  Speaker 3: And it's a place called Jamaka. It's got several pools
• 12:13
  Speaker 3: and the Rondegat River flowing down there. And you could
• 12:16
  Speaker 3: just walk along the riverbank and take a dip in,
• 12:19
  Speaker 3: you know, several pools. Krummerfeer, they've got the Dyser Pool Walk.
• 12:26
  Speaker 3: So it's a good walk, but hey, we go there
• 12:29
  Speaker 3: to walk. Let's say seven kilometers to the Dyser Pool.
• 12:34
  Speaker 3: Sundrift has become one of the most popular campsites. It's
• 12:38
  Speaker 3: where the Cederberg wines are. And the Malchatte is the
• 12:44
  Speaker 3: most popular big pool. Okay. It is magnificent. It's got
• 12:49
  Speaker 3: cliffs on one side. You jump off of the rocks
• 12:51
  Speaker 3: into this deep, deep pool. But they're in the book.
• 12:56
  Speaker 3: I'm not promoting the book, but they are in the Borskluf,
• 13:00
  Speaker 3: where I spoke about Edenfelt, near Clan William. There's a
• 13:04
  Speaker 3: place called the Cederberg Swemgat. It's got cottages. I could
• 13:11
  Speaker 3: go on. Some are harder to find, but those I've
• 13:13
  Speaker 3: mentioned are the easy-to-access ones.
• 13:16
  Speaker 2: OK, so Annika, there are plenty of pools. You just
• 13:19
  Speaker 2: need to know where to find them and do some research.
• 13:21
  Speaker 2: You will be able to find a place with water.
• 13:24
  Speaker 2: And I will add to that, my daughter is a
• 13:26
  Speaker 2: member of the UCT Mountain Club. They've had frequent trips
• 13:29
  Speaker 2: to Beaver Lack and the like and some of the
• 13:31
  Speaker 2: southern areas of the Cedarburg where they have spent the
• 13:33
  Speaker 2: whole weekend in and out the water, even in the
• 13:37
  Speaker 2: heat of summer.
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: So it can be done.
• 13:39
  Speaker 2: Be prepared for the heat, but take your cosy and
• 13:41
  Speaker 2: take lots and lots of sunscreen is the advice. Didi
• 13:45
  Speaker 2: writing in to say, we have just been last weekend
• 13:47
  Speaker 2: at Jamaka and they are busy rebuilding the whole campsite
• 13:50
  Speaker 2: after the floods.
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: So there we go. There is water in the Cedarburg,
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: enough to flood some of the areas.
• 13:56
  Speaker 2: If you ever needed convincing. Okay, we've spoken about the
• 14:00
  Speaker 2: accommodation options. The one thing we haven't touched on, David,
• 14:03
  Speaker 2: is the sort of the heritage value of this area,
• 14:06
  Speaker 2: besides its natural beauty, the hiking, the rock climbing, the
• 14:10
  Speaker 2: fane bores, the trees. We haven't touched on the sand
• 14:13
  Speaker 2: heritage and the rock paintings, which for some people are
• 14:15
  Speaker 2: the key attraction.
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: Anything you'd like to highlight for our listeners in that aspect?
• 14:20
  Speaker 3: Well, I think I spent at least 15 pages in
• 14:23
  Speaker 3: the book explaining rock artists. And now, yeah, it's a
• 14:30
  Speaker 3: major attraction of the Cedarburg is that rock art. There's
• 14:34
  Speaker 3: quite a clear distinction between Koi and San. Koi is
• 14:37
  Speaker 3: more recent, and it's a different group of people. The
• 14:42
  Speaker 3: San are the original rock artists, not only of the Cedarburg,
• 14:45
  Speaker 3: but in fact of the whole planet. Yeah. But their
• 14:49
  Speaker 3: art is, it's not art. Archaeologists use the word paintings
• 14:54
  Speaker 3: because they're not art for art's sake. They are metaphors
• 14:57
  Speaker 3: of a spirit world or a spiritual experience. And there's
• 15:02
  Speaker 3: a couple of things that are quite important to understand.
• 15:06
  Speaker 3: And I talk about a couple of the well-known rock
• 15:09
  Speaker 3: art sites in the Cedarburg to explain what they're about.
• 15:14
  Speaker 3: Very quickly, most of them are ritualistic about the coming
• 15:17
  Speaker 3: of age of men and women. blood events, blooding, but
• 15:24
  Speaker 3: it's also about the shaman, another aspect of it, the
• 15:27
  Speaker 3: shaman going on a spiritual journey into the world of
• 15:32
  Speaker 3: spirit gods, animal spirit gods, to seek the word of
• 15:37
  Speaker 3: these spirit gods, to come back and explain to the people,
• 15:41
  Speaker 3: the clan of hunter-gatherers, what it's about, why drought, why flood,
• 15:48
  Speaker 3: why meteor, why any of those things that would seem supernatural.
• 15:55
  Speaker 3: There's a very strong supernatural element. The most popular and
• 15:59
  Speaker 3: easy to get to piece of rock art is the Stotzal.
• 16:04
  Speaker 3: You have to pay a little bit of money to
• 16:05
  Speaker 3: get in there, but it's well worth it. And there's
• 16:07
  Speaker 3: the elephant frieze. Now, there's a group of people, and
• 16:10
  Speaker 3: you could say, okay, people are hunting the elephants. But no,
• 16:13
  Speaker 3: people with little bows and arrows don't hunt elephants. The
• 16:17
  Speaker 3: amazing thing about that association is that elephants and humans
• 16:21
  Speaker 3: have about the same lifespan. They have about the same
• 16:24
  Speaker 3: gestation period for the embryos, the young. They follow the
• 16:29
  Speaker 3: same migratory routes. I could go on, but basically a
• 16:33
  Speaker 3: San or Bushman clan living in that area would have
• 16:36
  Speaker 3: migrated with those elephant herds and they became family. They
• 16:41
  Speaker 3: became kin. And a lot of it is about the
• 16:45
  Speaker 3: teaching young women about matriarchal responsibilities about childbirth, which is
• 16:53
  Speaker 3: one of the ritualistic coming of ages metaphors that are
• 16:56
  Speaker 3: used throughout. So it's not about elephants walking down the
• 17:00
  Speaker 3: Uli Fons River. It's about these are family. The younger
• 17:03
  Speaker 3: looked after by the matriarchs, by the woman of the herd,
• 17:07
  Speaker 3: as in a hunter-gatherer clan. So there's much deeper meanings
• 17:12
  Speaker 3: behind all of the paintings. And yeah.
• 17:16
  Speaker 2: Thanks for framing it like that for us, David, because
• 17:18
  Speaker 2: it's an aspect I think many people don't know unless
• 17:20
  Speaker 2: you've had the privilege of seeing them with a guide
• 17:22
  Speaker 2: to explain what you're looking at and understand that significance. David,
• 17:26
  Speaker 2: I mean, this book is it's a fantastic resource, whether
• 17:29
  Speaker 2: you are going for the first time or a lifelong
• 17:31
  Speaker 2: visitor who is going back and wants to find something
• 17:34
  Speaker 2: new to explore. You've done a wonderful, very accessible format
• 17:38
  Speaker 2: in this book of helping people plan their trip. David,
• 17:42
  Speaker 2: a huge pleasure to have you on the show today.
• 17:44
  Speaker 2: Thank you so much for your time. And thank you
• 17:45
  Speaker 2: for the gift of this wonderful book.
• 17:48
  Speaker 3: Pleasure, Pippa. Thank you.
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: Great to chat to you. David Bristow on the Cederbergs.