Cape Town Places

Grabouw is a mid-sized town located in the Western Cape province of South Africa some 65 km south-east of Cape Town along the N2 highway. It is located over Sir Lowry’s Pass from Somerset West in the Elgin Valley, which is sandwiched between the Hottentots-Holland, Kogelberg and Groenland Mountains, with the valley floor still being substantially hilly.

Grabouw is the commercial centre for the Elgin Valley, the largest single export fruit producing area in Southern Africa. The town’s population at last census stands at 15,993.

History – The town was created on the farm “Grietjiesgat”, owned by a man called Willem Langschmidt, who started the community around his wife’s little trading store. Langschmidt named the village after the German town Grabow where he was born. Later, the Molteno family began to buy land in the area – principally two brothers who eventually turned the surrounding region into Southern Africa’s largest single export fruit producing area. They were influential in developing the town, for example donating the land for the town’s railway station. Another influential resident Edmond Lombardi created an apple-juice drink he called “Appletiser”, on his nearby farm Applethwaite, and introduced it to the market in 1966.

Economy – The town’s economy is based on servicing the surrounding agricultural industry, with the Elgin Valley being intensively used for viticulture and the cultivation of apples, pears, plums and other deciduous fruit.
The Elgin Valley produces 65% of South Africa’s apple exports. One of the biggest factories in Grabouw is Appletiser which provides the popular Appletiser soft drinks. Altogether, this has earned it the reputation worldwide as the “valley of apples”.
Tourism is also of importance to the economy. The N2 highway through the valley is extremely busy during the holiday season.

Attractions – Situated by the Palmiet river in the fertile Elgin valley, Grabouw is surrounded by the Hottentots Holland mountains to the north and the Kogelberg Biosphere Reserve to the south. There is wine and cider tasting on the surrounding farms and several routes for exploring the surrounding mountains begin from the town. There is also the annual Elgin Festival, which takes place on the last week-end in October and boasts a wide range of flower displays, fruit, wines and a great variety of local products. Within the town, the Elgin Apple Museum is one of the oldest remaining buildings in Grabouw. It is situated on the banks of the Palmiet River. The Museum depicts the history of the fruit industry in the region. The nearby Grabouw Country Club has scenic views overlooking the Eikenhof dam and pine covered mountains. Applethwaite Farm and Church, was built in the early 1960s by Edmond Lombardi, the founder of Appletiser. The church was built for the use of the farming community and is interesting because of the Italian marbles and wood carvings of the Stations of the Cross.
Climate – The town experiences a very mild Mediterranean climate, more moderate than most other Western Cape locales, with abundant rainfall, mostly in the winter months, although strong summer south-easterly winds can sometimes bring squalls. This wind is known as the “Black South-Easter” for its gusting winds and showers.

Robben Island (Afrikaans Robbeneiland) is an island in Table Bay, seven kilometres off the coast of Cape Town, South Africa. The name is Dutch for “seal island”. Robben Island is roughly oval in shape, 3.3 km long north-south, and 1.9 km wide, with an area of 5.07 km². It is flat and only a few metres above sea level, as a result of an ancient erosion event. The island is composed of Precambrian metamorphic rocks belonging to the Malmesbury Group. It is of particular note as it was here that future President of South Africa and Nobel Laureate Nelson Mandela and future South African President Kgalema Motlanthe, alongside many other political prisoners, spent decades imprisoned during the apartheid era. Current South African President Jacob Zuma was also imprisoned there for ten years.

History

Since the end of the 17th century, Robben Island has been used to isolate certain people — mainly political prisoners. Its first prisoner was probably Harry die strandloper in the mid-17th century. Amongst its early permanent inhabitants were political leaders from various Dutch colonies, including Indonesia. After a failed uprising at Grahamstown in 1819, the fifth of the Xhosa Wars, the British colonial government sentenced African leader Makanda Nxele to life imprisonment on the island . He drowned on the shores of Table Bay after escaping the prison.

The island was also used as a leper colony and animal quarantine station. Starting in 1845 lepers from the Hemel-en-Aarde leper colony near Caledon were moved to Robben Island when Hemel-en-Aarde was found unsuitable as a leper colony. Initially this was done on a voluntary basis and the lepers were free to leave the island if they so wished. In April 1891 the cornerstones for 11 new buildings to house lepers were laid. After the introduction of the Leprosy Repression Act in May 1892 admission was no longer voluntary and the movement of the lepers was restricted. Prior to 1892 an average of about 25 lepers a year were admitted to Robben Island, but in 1892 that number rose to 338, and in 1893 a further 250 were admitted.

During the Second World War, the island was fortified and guns were installed as part of the defences for Cape Town. It was also used as a prison

In the 2009 South African General Election, the Democratic Alliance won the island.

Maritime peril

Robben Island and nearby Whale Rock have been the nemesis of many a ship and its crew. The surf of the open Atlantic Ocean  thunders continuously at its margins and any vessel wrecked on the reefs offshore is soon beaten to pieces and disappears. In the latter half of the 17th century a Dutch ship laden with gold coins earmarked for the payment of the salaries of employees of the Dutch East India Company in Batavia (now Jakarta, Indonesia) disintegrated on these reefs a short distance offshore, in relatively shallow but very restless waters. The gold today would be worth tens of millions of pounds sterling or U.S. dollars. A few coins have washed ashore over the centuries but the treasure itself remains in the ocean. It is protected largely by the almost ceaseless and violent surf. Many other vessels have been wrecked around the island.

Robben Island lighthouse

Jan van Riebeeck first set a navigation aid atop Fire Hill (now Minto Hil,), the highest point on the island. Huge bonfires were lit at night to warn VOC ships of the rocks that surround the island. The current Robben Island lighthouse, built on Minto Hill in 1864, is 18 metres (59 ft) high and was converted to electricity in 1938. It is the only South African lighthouse to utilise a flashing light instead of a revolving light. Its light is visible for 24 nautical miles.

Moturu Kramat

The Moturu Kramat, a sacred site for Muslim pilgrimage on Robben Island, was built in 1969 to commemorate Sayed Abdurahman Moturu, the Prince of Madura. Moturu, one of Cape Town’s first imams, was exiled to the island in the mid-1740s and died there in 1754. Muslim political prisoners would pay homage at the shrine before leaving the island.

Animal life

When the Dutch arrived in the area in 1652, the only large animals on the island were seals and birds, principally penguins. In 1654, the settlers released rabbits on the island in order to provide a ready source of meat for passing ships. The original colony of African Penguins on the island was completely exterminated by 1800. However the modern day island is once again an important breeding area for the species after a new colony established itself there in 1983. The colony has grown to 13,000 and is now the third biggest for the species. The penguins are easy to see close up in their natural habitat and are therefore a popular tourist attraction.

Around 1958, Lieutenant Peter Klerck, a naval officer serving on the island, introduced various animals. The following extract of an article, written by Michael Klerck who lived on the island from a young age, describes the fauna life there:
“     My father, a naval officer at the time, with the sanction of Doctor Hey, director of Nature Conservation, turned an area into a nature reserve. A ‘Noah’s Ark’ berthed in the harbour sometime in 1958. They stocked the island with tortoise, duck, geese, buck (which included Springbok, Eland, Steenbok, Bontebok and Fallow Deer), Ostrich and a few Wildebeest which did not last long. All except the fallow deer are indigenous to the Cape. Many animals are still there including three species of tortoise—the most recently discovered in 1998—two Parrot Beaked specimens that have remained undetected until now. The leopard or mountain tortoises might have suspected the past terror; perhaps they had no intention of being a part of a future infamy, but they often attempted the swim back to the mainland (they are the only species in the world that can swim). Boats would lift them out of the sea in Table Bay and return them to us. None of the original 12 shipped over remain, and in 1995, four more were introduced—they seem to have more easily accepted their home as they are still residents. One resident brought across a large leopard tortoise discovered in a friend’s garden in Newlands, Cape Town. He lived in our garden and grew big enough to climb over the wall and roam the island much like the sheep in Van Riebeeck’s time. As children we were able to ride his great frame comfortably, as did some grown men. The buck and ostriches seemed equally happy and the ducks and Egyptian Geese were assigned a home in the old quarry, which had, some three hundred years before, supplied the dressed stone for the foundations of the Castle; at the time of my residence it bristled with fish.

Recent reports in Cape Town newspapers show that a lack of upkeep, a lack of culling, and the proliferation of rabbits on the island has led to the total devastation of the wildlife; there remains today almost none of the animals my father brought over all those years ago; the rabbits themselves have laid the island waste, stripping it of almost all ground vegetation. It looks almost like a desert. A reporter from the broadcasting corporation told me recently that they found the carcass of the last Bontebok.     ”

There may be 25,000 rabbits on the island; they are being hunted and culled to reduce their numbers.

The Cape Winelands is a region of the Western Cape Province of South Africa. It is the largest wine producing region in South Africa and is divided into six main wine regions, each offering their own unique wine route. Constantia, Stellenbosch, Franschhoek, Paarl, Robertson and Wellington are the most popular. The geographic area is generally referred to locally as the Boland, meaning uplands in Afrikaans.

Constantia Valley wine region is situated in mountainous surroundings, and boasts some of the oldest wine estates and homesteads along with several award winning wines and restaurants. 90% of the farms offer wine tastings and cellar tours.

Stellenbosch wine region is the best known in the Cape. In 1971 the first official wine route was founded by Frans Malan of Simonsig, Spatz Sperling of Delheim, and Niel Joubert of Spier. It is home to a variety of cellars producing some of the country’s most acclaimed wines. Simonsig, Boschendal, Neethlingshof, Delheim, Welmoed, Delair, Spier, Saxenburg, Asara, Blaauwklippen, Warwick, Kanonkop, De Trafford, Thelema, Niel Ellis, Rust en Vrede, Dornier, Watwerford and De toren, to name a few.

Franschhoek valley wine region was settled over 300-years ago by the French Huguenots. Set against the backdrop of the Franschhoek and Drakenstein mountains, this quaint village has over 30 wine farms: Akkerdal Estate, Allée Bleue Farms,Bellingham, Boekenhoutskloof, Boschendal Cabriere, Chamonix, Dieu Donné, Eikehof, Franschhoek Pass Winery, Franschhoek Vineyards, Freedom Hill wines, GlenWood, Graham Beck cellar, Grande Provence, Haut Espoir, La Bourgogne, La Bri, La Chataigne, La Chaumiere Wine Estate, La Couronne Wine Estate, La Motte, La Petite Ferme, La Roche, Landau Du Val Wines, Le Manoir de Brendel, Lormarins, Lynx Wines, Mont Rochelle Mountain Vineyards, Moreson, Plaisir de Merle, Rickety Bridge Winery, Rupert & de Rothschild Vignerons, Solms, Stony Brook, Vrede en Lust.

A number of other excellent wine farms can be found in the Paarl and Wellington regions.