Discover Calvinia: A four-day journey through eccentric museums and breathtaking landscapes

Calvinia and its surrounding attractions easily make for a very good four-day travel experience. Using one of the self-catering Hantam Huise as your HQ, this writer suggests that you should embark on a series of day trips beginning with an extended visit to the extraordinary Calvinia Museum.

Day One — Calvinia Museum

This museum isn’t perhaps as expansive as The McGregor in Kimberley, but it’s so eccentric it can leave you smiling for days.

Take, for instance, the section dedicated to the Lombard Quads of Loeriesfontein. Born in Calvinia in 1951: Klasie, De Waal, Jan and De Villiers all turned 70 sometime this year. The Philadelphia Enquirer caught up with the six-year-olds in 1957. The American newspaper reported that the Lombard Quads used to sing and rock each other to sleep at night. Now that’s a show one could sell tickets to.

There’s a Trekboer Corner dedicated to the first European settlers in the area, a Jewish Corner in honour of the museum’s initial designation as a synagogue, and some truly eccentric displays that include a “four-legged ostrich chick”.

Read more: Calvinia — A special, all-year long destination

Day Two — Nieuwoudtville and Beyond

The next morning we head west to Nieuwoudtville, first making a quick stop at the town hall for flower info and then proceeding to the Hantam National Botanical Gardens.

This spread was once called Glen Lyon and owned by Neil McGregor, who found a way to combine sheep farming with the conservation of the land’s botanical treasures. Thus he became one of the founding fathers of the seasonal Namaqualand Flower Tourism Route. 

Afterwards, we drive north to Loeriesfontein, detouring for an hour at a quiver tree forest filling the hillside on Gannabos Farm.  Then it’s on to the Fred Turner Wind Pump Museum in Loeriesfontein, where Vetsak President, Star Dunnell, Defiance Butler, Gearing Self-Oiled and a whole bunch of other old wind pumps await. This astounding collection of “steel wheels” makes for fabulous photographic opportunities.

Day Three — The Tankwa Padstal

Now for some true desert, as we take the R355 to the Tankwa Padstal, about 120km to the south, on what is officially known as the “longest dirt road in South Africa”. 

This little shop-and-bar complex has become legendary with overlanders, bikers and young attendees of the annual AfrikaBurn festival held on the moonscape setting of the Tankwa Karoo.

The shop at the Tankwa Padstal also operates as a vital general dealership for the local community, and stocks everything from guitars to light meals throughout the day.

Day Four — Williston and Cheese

Now we’re heading 120km eastwards to Williston, where, at the local museum, we hear about the legend of Cornelis de Waal, the gravestone engraver of the Upper Karoo. His handiwork, to be seen on farm graveyards all over the district, is folk art at its finest.

We follow that with a drive out to a nearby farm to taste and buy a variety of the famous Langbaken cheese range, produced by the Schoeman family. 

Langbaken cheeses are mostly sold in Cape Town, at various delis and food markets. In the Karoo you’ll find them at the Williston’s Manna Restaurant and Calvinia’s Blou Nartjie.

Know before you go

This is a vast and sprawling landscape, and distances can be deceptive. Don’t tackle too much in one day. Take along food and water, and make sure (especially when travelling to the Tankwa Padstal along the R355 road) that you have a spare tyre and know how to change it. DM

For an insider’s view on life in the South African Heartland, get the Karoo Quartet set of books (Karoo Roads I-IV with black and white photographs) for only R960, including taxes and courier costs in South Africa. For more details, contact Julie at julie@karoospace.co.za