Dwars River Escape Route
The Dwars River Escape Route has had some wonderful advances since it was launched in 2003.
Updates and successes on the route:
The Imbali Live Craft and Art Centre in Kylemore is doing exceptionally well. There are individuals who are excelling because they are entirely committed to generating an income for themselves, while others are a little slower but are getting there with additional skills training. The crafters managed to earn R120 000 in 2004 – they started from a zero base in 2003!
A children’s feeding scheme has been put into place by concerned local people. An extraordinary German couple, Steffi and Thomas Curry, who have a small wine export business in South Africa, have chosen the feeding scheme as their community project and are supporting the baking of the enriched 'carotino' muffin (made daily in the bakery that has been built in the Kylemore Secondary School). With their sponsorship and the help of Sasko Milling and Baking, the scheme is giving 640 children a muffin daily in the Kylemore Primary School. It is hoped that the scheme will extend to include another 54 children in the creche.
There is a soup kitchen in place at the primary and secondary schools from May to November. Arrangements are being made for a pot of soup to be served at the creche daily – ingredients are not a problem, it’s the shortage of volunteers to prepare the vegetables for the pots.
The children’s art exhibition that Ken and Allan Forrester hosted at their 96 Winery Road restaurant has been a marvellous success. With Alexis Hanslo and her educators from the Children’s Art Centre in District Six, Cape Town, as well as the support of the Kylemore Community Crafters, 150 children are now receiving art education on a purely voluntary basis once a month. This has grown from the original 60 children in 2002 and the art produced by these children under the guidance of this amazing teacher, Alexis, is quite remarkable.
Michele, who owns Gallery@157, Jan Smuts Avenue, Johannesburg, has managed to sell 70 pieces of their art to interior designers in Johannesburg. A further 27 paintings were sold at an exhibition. All the paintings were beautifully framed. The frames cost R350 each, but were worth it as each piece was sold for R600. The project now has R24 250 to go towards the purchase of art materials for the project. It costs R30 000 annually to sustain the project.
The Dwars River Escape Route continues to move forward with energy, enthusiasm and a wonderful community spirit.
The Dwars River Escape Route has a wealth of spectacular scenery, cultural features, places of historical significance, activities and comfortable accommodation options as well as a fascinating mix of established businesses, entrepreneurs, small businesses and community projects. There is quite a story behind the development of the Dwars River Escape Route.
The Development of the Dwars River Escape Route:
The Dwars River Escape Route was initiated by some locals in the area who are supporters of the Open Africa vision. When the first workshop was held in the community, Open Africa called on Dale Isaacs (then chairperson of the neighbouring highly successful Sonke Cape Route) to address the participants. Dale, in her usual bubbly and excited manner, told the workshop attendees of some of the successes of the Sonke Cape Route – a route located in the townships around Cape Town. Eventually, after becoming more and more excited and vociferous, Dale ran out of words to express how much the development of the Sonke Cape Route meant to her. Frustrated, she threw her hands in the air and said in Afrikaans, “Al wat ek nog kan sê is, lig julle gatte en spring aan die werk!” Which, directly translated, means “All that I have left to say is, lift your behinds and jump to work!”
After this memorable beginning, the Dwars River Escape Route went from strength to strength. Despite some problems along the way and the delaying of the route launch, the people of the Dwars River Valley never lost faith and became more determined than ever to develop new businesses and create income-generating opportunities for themselves.
With the support of local government and some of the well-established businesses on the route, as well as the determination of the people involved, the Dwars River Escape Route is set to become a highly successful route in the Open Africa network.
The Dwars River Escape Route covers the entire Dwars River Valley, located near the university town of Stellenbosch in the Western Cape of South Africa. The route stretches from the Helshoogte Pass just outside Stellenbosch to the Groot Drakenstein area at the turnoff to the famous winelands and culinary village of Franschhoek. The route covers a relatively short distance, but it is a valley packed full of attractions and activities for the tourist. The participants on the route are listed under their area or village and the route is described from the Helshoogte Pass – the Banghoek area – to the Wemmershoek area, where the valley widens out and the Dwars River joins the Berg River.
The participants on the route chose the route name for a variety of reasons. “Dwars River” was an obvious choice as the route is basically the entire Dwars River Valley. Incidentally, dwars directly translated means 'transverse', 'across' or 'diagonal' and so the river that runs down the valley was probably so named because it had to be crossed for a journey to continue. The word “escape” was chosen for the route name for some more interesting reasons.
The valley is full of history and the Dwars River that winds through the valley has seen it all. It is the lifeline of the valley and has seen the valley change from the time of roving herders to the time of fruit farmers.
Escape – the connotations of the route name:
The word 'escape' was chosen for the route name for the following reasons:
- Between 1688 and 1702, the French Huguenots wanted to escape from the oppression in Europe and they came to settle in the Dwars River and Franschhoek valleys;
- Slaves in South Africa were freed in 1834 and, through a philanthropic organisation, were allocated land in Pniel, thus escaping ownership and oppression and coming to live in the Dwars River Valley;
- During World War Two, Italian prisoners of war were sent to work on the fruit farms in the valley instead of to concentration camps, and so, in effect, they escaped the horror of the camps;
- Nelson Mandela was incarcerated in Victor Verster (renamed Klein Drakenstein) prison, near the lower end of the valley, for the last few years of his 27 years in prison, and it was from here that he was released on February 11, 1990;
- Legend has it that prisoners from Victor Verster escaped on foot through the valley and over the mountains to Cape Town – the journey taking them a week;
- Locals and visitors alike escape to the Dwars River Valley – to the mountains, the farms and the peaceful village streets.
Cecil John Rhodes and Sir Herbert Baker:
Having resigned as Prime Minister of the Cape Colony after the Jameson Raid, Rhodes turned to fruit farming at the Cape. In consultation with Harry Pickstone (see the Lekkerwijn entry on this route), Rhodes decided to buy old wine farms in the Groot Drakenstein area. Pickstone and a banker were instructed to negotiate – but initially not in Rhodes’s name, for prices would have been much higher! Over a few years from 1897, 29 farms were acquired – mostly in Groot Drakenstein, but others in Wellington and Stellenbosch. The farms bought were having immense problems as a result of the phylloxera virus that attacked the root of the vines. Rhodes bought the farms, ripped out the vines and started the fruit farming in the area – he was apparently the first to send fruit by way of refrigerated shipping to Covent Garden. Twelve managers were appointed, most of whom were trained in California. An impressive total of 200 000 deciduous fruit trees were planted – mostly pears, apricots, plums and peaches.
At the outbreak of the Anglo-Boer War, Rhodes went to Kimberley and remained there during the four-month siege. He continued to show an active interest in the development of the fruit farms, however, and persuaded Alfred Beit and De Beers to become shareholders.
Rhodes’ health deteriorated and he moved to his cottage in Muizenberg. In February 1902, as Rhodes was dying, a new company – Rhodes Fruit Farms Ltd – was born. Harry Pickstone became resident director and technical advisor of the company for its first few years of existence. Also in 1902, construction was complete on Rhodes Cottage, also designed by Sir Herbert Baker. Rhodes Cottage was built (at Rhodes’ instruction) exactly one mile from the Boschendal Manor House, at the foot of the Simonsberg Mountain. There is some doubt as to whether Rhodes ever spent any time in Rhodes Cottage but there is a romantic tale that says he spent one night there. The house originally had a corrugated iron roof and it is said that on the night he spent in Rhodes Cottage it hailed and it was so noisy that Rhodes had the roof replaced with thatch.
Sir Herbert Baker, who designed the Union Buildings in Pretoria and many other famous buildings in South Africa, was the architect responsible for designing labourers’ housing on the farm Lanquedoc – on the opposite side to the village of Pniel on the Dwars River – for the labourers of the some of the farms that made up Rhodes Fruit Farms.
Work began in Lanquedoc in 1898 when the concepts of suburban “garden villages” and industrial housing were only beginning to emerge. The houses built were well proportioned yet functional, reflecting Baker’s combined interests in Cape Dutch architecture and the Arts and Crafts Movement. For church buildings, however, he adopted a traditional English style in sandstone – one such example being St Giles Church in the heart of Lanquedoc.
Many other buildings in the Dwars River Valley were designed by Herbert Baker, including the homestead on Lekkerwijn.
Lanquedoc history:
The history of housing at Anglo American Farms Ltd dates back to 1898 when Sir Cecil John Rhodes, aware of the need to attract and keep labour because of immense demand for labour from the gold and diamond mining industries further north, commissioned Sir Herbert Baker to design an orderly village for the farm workers in a simplified Cape Dutch style. Over 100 houses, a church, a school and a house for the pastor were built at a cost of £27 000, which at equivalent value is approximately R37-million (using a 7.5% interest rate over the 100 years) today. The result was the village of Lanquedoc, which today still stands under its long avenue of oaks. Each cottage included half a morgen of garden for flowers and vegetables, and the keeping of two horses, two cows and pigs. A hundred morgen of commonage was provided for grazing of the livestock. The spirit of Lanquedoc was embodied in 26 regulations, which Rhodes said would govern the village – to name a few:
- A pound would be paid for each child born in the village to the 'wives of tenants';
- Rhodes paid six annual prizes of £5, £3 and £1.10 for the best-kept gardens and houses;
- Drunkenness was not allowed, on pain of one week’s notice.
More than 100 years later things have come full circle and Anglo American is now building another 611 homes in Lanquedoc. The project uses the R15 000 grants to employees and additional donations from Anglo American totalling about R35-million. Employees (current and former) are going to be given full ownership of homes that are worth between R100 000 and R120 000 each. The official handing-over of the first homes happened in November 2003, and they can be seen from the road driving through Pniel.
Some history of the Dwars River Valley:
While there is archaeological evidence of the presence of Early and Middle Stone Age people in the Groot Drakenstein Valley, it is the Late Stone Age people from 30 000 years ago who are linked to the Bushmen, who lived in the valley well into the colonial times. From about 2000 years ago, the Cape herders or Khoi began to use the valley for seasonal grazing. Their tradition was to burn the abundant fynbos vegetation (still visible on some farms today) to make way for new growth to improve the grazing. The wide tracks trodden by their herds of cattle, it is suggested, created the early colonial road system.
The land was allocated to the Dutch free burgher (Vryburger) settlers in 1687. After the revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685 and the arrival in the Cape of the first French Huguenots, significant change began to occur in the landscape as the Huguenots were granted land interspersed with the Vryburgers. Since they were disallowed from teaching it at school, within 40 years few residents in the valley still spoke French.
The settlers adopted some of the Cape herders’ practices of stock rearing, also planting fruit, vegetables and particularly grapes. The livestock were easily driven to Cape Town and the vegetables, wine and brandy, which commanded a high price when sold to passing ships, were the cornerstones of the valley’s economy.
Slavery at the Cape had been introduced shortly after the establishment of the Dutch settlement in 1652. Initially few farmers in the Drakenstein area had slaves, but the demand increased and eventually this region had the greatest proportion of slaves at the Cape. Slaves were valued highly – the most sought-after being artisans (masons, carpenters and wheelwrights). Slave women were employed as cooks, seamstresses, nursemaids and wet-nurses. Children entered service early and were listed separately on estate inventories as 'slave jongetjies' or 'slave meisjes'.
Slavery was abolished throughout the British Empire (of which the Cape was now part) in 1807. Slaves were finally emancipated at the Cape in 1834, but they were required to do another four-year 'apprenticeship' with their former masters before being set free. Many ex-slaves gravitated to the mission stations in the area (Pniel in particular), where they could obtain schooling and learn trades.
The fruit industry became the main economy in the valley when many farms were bought up to make up Rhodes Fruit Farms Ltd. The fruit industry offered employment for many people in the valley and stimulated entrepreneurial skills in others who took up market gardening, became fruit vendors or entered the transport industry.
Rhodes Fruit Farms started in the wake of phylloxera, which infested the Cape vineyards in the 1880s. Recently, the valley has come full circle in that many of the farms in the valley are now re-embracing wine-farming as their business instead of fruit.
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