Though Matjiesvlei is more easily accessible than its sister valley to the north, Gamkaskloof (Die Hel), and equally photogenic, it’s not as deeply steeped in enigmatic legends and is therefore less well-known. But you get the feeling its handful of residents prefer it that way.
Matjiesvlei may have been easier to get to in the old days, too, but it was not much less wild than Gamkaskloof. The early farmers here also had their challenges with marauding baboons, jackals and leopards, the latter known as tiers to the Dutch-speaking pioneers.
The hamlet was a kind of halfway house for the Kloofers on their way from Gamkaskloof (via Onderstepoort) through the Swartberge — an often hazardous three hour trek dependent on the levels of the Gamka River — to do their monthly shopping in Calitzdorp. Apparently, the itinerant Kloofers would leave their bicycles at “Oom Broer’s” shed in Matjiesvlei to convey themselves and their supplies over the 28km to the town and back.
The Kloofers and Matjiesvleiers were renowned for their ability to stook (distil) witblits, which they called brandewyn (brandy). There are as many stories about these witblits stokers pulling the wool over the eyes of the often-hapless law enforcers as there are about Herman Charles Bosman’s Oom Schalk Lourens and his cronies running away from the tax collectors in the Groot Marico region.
Unlike the Kloofers the stokers of Matjiesvlei didn’t have to worry so much about breakages en route to market (there’s a brandewyngat in Onderstepoort where you had to drink your witblits bottle empty otherwise it was certain to break); but they did need to come up with ruses to disguise and hide their illicit tipple after new liquor laws came into effect in 1924. The most popular it seems was to label it Asyn (vinegar) while others secreted it away in nearby poplar forests, horse feed and even coffins.
I’m off to stay at Bennie and Selma Nel’s Wa-Huis (an old wagon house turned into a comfortable dwelling) on their Matjiesvlei Guest Farm. Bennie’s great-grandfather, Gert le Grange, who owned all of what is known as Matjiesvlei now, was apparently the biggest stoker in the region. Something that helped him in this enterprise was the availability of wild plum trees, which Bennie says provide “even better burning wood than the hardekool found up there in the bushveld”. A few of the tweespoor tracks I will follow on the Bojaankop 4x4 Trail tomorrow were originally made by the sharecroppers who harvested this wood in the mountains, some of which they also sold in town as a side hustle.
In one pre-Liquor Law season before the Anglo-Boer War, it is claimed Le Grange distilled nearly 9,000l of the good stuff. On a sales trip to distant Port Elizabeth (Gqeberha) in a wagon drawn by 16 oxen, his large freight of brandy and dried fruit was almost sold out before he reached the coastal city, causing him to ask his wife, Hannie, to put further supplies on the train from Oudsthoorn, 65km distant. She had the wagon loaded and drove it there herself.
Grit and hard work paid off for these pioneers, yet farming is a mercurial master. When I met Bennie five years ago, the region was going through an eight-year drought, and it is only in the past few years that they have had rain; so much in fact it has caused bad erosion in places.
He tells me he has to farm his 22ha of arable land very intensely to make ends meet. Apart from growing various cash crops and rearing ostriches they also host paying guests like me in a number of accommodation options, on the farm and in the hamlet of Matjiesvlei itself. But apart from this, Bennie is also a networker and trader of note. On the day I’m there, he receives wheat bales from somebody in exchange for lucerne he has just baled, and then butchers a cow carcass for a man from Heidelberg — he has brought it all this way, he tells me, because Bennie is by far the best sausage maker in the Cape.
Selma looks after the guests and was instrumental in organising the renovation of a number of the old buildings now let out as accommodation. She and Bennie also rebuilt the old post office, which now acts as the town museum. When Bennie grew up here, the post office housed the only telephone; it also served the Kloofers who collected their mail there.
Before I check in for my planned two-night stay in the Wa-Huis, I drive down into the valley that is dotted with a few houses and smallholdings. Since I was last here many olive tree orchards have sprung up and most of the sensitively restored dwellings are looking resplendent in their stipple plaster and earthy brown paint.
I have stayed at either end of this valley before, once in Bokwagtershuis to the east and the other time at the cottage on Middelplaas in the west (both recommended). Both times I enjoyed walking the valley road, which is partnered to the north by the folds, contours and peaks of the brooding Swartberg range. In the east, the track is lined with fiery-tipped bitter aloe flowers in winter and, in the west, all the old tobacco crops and most of the vintage bush vines have been replaced with mixed farming, lucerne fields and olive groves.
But the star of the show is undoubtedly the vlei itself. I stop at the spot Matjiesvlei Guest Farm has allocated for its guests to swim and to use the two Native American canoes tied up here. It is 36ºC today and I welcome the chance to dunk my head into the brown-green waters, appreciating the whispering riverine landscape as the water drips off my steaming head. I’ll be back for a paddle and swim at dusk tomorrow.
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I drive further upstream and find an ideal spot in the shade of an acacia tree on a cliff top to place my camp chair and enjoy a cool drink from my icebox. Looking downstream, I’m amazed at the number of fish I see. Small schools of large carp are rising all over the place reminding me what an anglers’ paradise this is.
The next day I head out early up the grade 3+ Bojaankop 4x4 Trail. With the passage of Covid-19 and the heavy rains of the past two years, the well-known trail has not been driven much and I take Lucius, one of Bennie’s labourers to assist me in hacking my way through the undergrowth and invasive branches where necessary.
I’m grateful; because after the first boulder river crossing it is evident we are going to have our work cut out protecting my borrowed vehicle’s shiny red paintwork. After grinding up a number of boulder and scree slopes I have tremendous respect for Bennie’s doughty forefathers who dragged their large bundles of firewood down these steep mountainsides.
Sitting on the stoep of the Wa-Huis later, drinking a cup of coffee and admiring the steep, slippery slope I’ve just driven the bakkie down, I think of the paddling, reading and swimming still ahead today; but I’m asleep in my chair before my list is complete.
Travel Notes
Getting there: The turn-off to Matjiesvlei is 7km west of Calitzdorp on the R62 to Ladismith. The hamlet of Matjiesvlei is a further 7km north on a gravel road.
What sort of vehicle will I need: You can reach Matjiesvlei in a normal sedan car with good ground clearance (150mm+) but if you would like to do the challenging Bojaankop 4x4 Trail, you will need a proper 4x4 with low range and diff-lock.
What to do here: This sleepy hamlet, made up of farms and some independent residences housing city escapees, is the ideal venue to cast yourself back in time; when life was slower and technology was analogue — the ideal place to unwind from modern techno-pressure. But there are also a number of activities on offer here: visit the small Post Office & Museum; fish for carp, black bass, eel and yellowfish; canoe to your heart’s content on the Gamka River; hike one of the numerous trails on offer; sample wine, port and good food in nearby Calitzdorp; go birdwatching on the river banks and look for kudus and bush pigs while hiking; and, if you are a 4x4 nut like me, try to conquer the 12km, grade 3+ Bojaankop 4x4 Trail.
Where I stayed: The Wa-Huis is one of seven accommodation options on Matjiesrivier Guest Farm (call Selma on 073 174 1028), which includes a lovely campsite next to the river. Other accommodation choices in Matjiesvlei include River View Cottages (Call Bronwyn on 073 234 1374) and Matjiesvlei Cottages (call Anke on 066 221 4452).
Suggested further reading: The Hell — Valley of the Lions by Sue van Waart. There is also much about the town’s background and history to read in the Post Office & Museum.
Best time of year to go: April-June and September-November.
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