Paarl at your leisure — heritage, big rocks, big flavours and big cats

In 1657, Jan van Riebeeck sent Abraham Gabbema, the public treasurer for the Dutch settlement in Table Bay, to scout the interior.

While out and about he saw a giant granite outcrop glistening in the sun after a rainstorm, and named it “de Diamondt en de Peerlberg” (Diamond and Pearl Mountain). People being what we are, it eventually became simply Paarl.

The Khoikhoi folk who already lived there called it !hom !nāb/s (Tortoise Mountain), because it looks like a tortoise.

I sent myself off to scout the interior, too. I saw mist, rain, sunshine, a big rock and lots more besides.

But first, a nip round the geology department: Paarl Mountain has three main granite outcrops – Paarl, Bretagne (or Kettingsklip) and Gordon’s rocks – and it’s one of the world's largest granite features in the world (along with Sibebe Rock in Eswatini and Stone Mountain in the US).

And a pit stop at the toponymy department: unusually, Paarl is pronounced differently in English and in Afrikaans. Also unusual, it’s customary for Afrikaners to talk about die Pêrel (the Paarl) rather than simply Pêrel.

Paarl is the birthplace of Afrikaans, which celebrates its centenary this year – its official birthday was 8 May – so block off some time in your itinerary to take a turn at the Afrikaans Museum on Pastorie Avenue and to drive up to the Taal Monument. It’s beautiful and the views are spectacular.

Check the Afrikaans 100 website for anniversary-related events. Afrikaans 100-Makietie is on 25 October at the monument. It’s a great big party with traditional food, wine and fun to celebrate the language’s diversity and growth.

The museum is in the old house of Gideon Malherbe, one of the founding members of the Society of True Afrikaners (Genootskap van Regte Afrikaners) in 1875. An aside: the driver behind the formation of the society was Arnoldus Pannevis, a poly­glot who first recognised Afrikaans as a language all of its own.

Did you know? Arabic Afrikaans is generally accepted as the first written version of the language.

The museum is open on weekdays from 8am to 4.45pm. The Taal Monument is open every day from 8am to 5pm.

If you take the dirt road to the right before the monument, you land up at Paarl Mountain Nature Reserve – good for mountain biking, hiking, picnicking and general hanging about in nature. I did not do this. Because rain.

One must eat

Dinner was at Brookdale Bistro, the fabulous restaurant under executive chef Gary Coetzee at Brookdale Estate, where I happened to be staying. It made rolling down to bed easy afterwards.

A word to the wise: Brookdale is a gorgeous place, a working wine farm producing some outstanding wines – the Brookdale Twenty 2024, a field blend of 20 varieties, is young (this is its maiden vintage), but it is a sign of where the wine is going.

Accommodations at the estate’s Manor House are top-shelf – luxurious, elegant, understated. You want for nothing.

The breakfast will set you up for the day as well, but still, you’ll want to stop at some of the other eateries. As befits a Winelands town, Paarl is not short of options.

I lunched at La Grapperia Pizza & Bistro, a hospitable German-Italian set-up at Spice Route Destination on Suid-Agter Paarl Road. It’s attached to Wilderer Distillery, which makes grappa, eaux de vie, liqueurs, gin, rum, vodka and moonshine.

All a bit strong for my delicate constitution, especially at lunchtime. Instead, I settled for a carafe of Spice Route Rosé and a margarita pinsa and felt suitably Italian.

The weather was positively northern, however, and the fire-warmed interior was more inviting than the terrace (though there were some hardy souls braving it out there).

Spice Route Destination, on a historic wine farm, has restaurants, arty boutiques, distillers, brewers, ceramic painting and tastings. You can get a Spice Route Passport and rove around to all the tasting venues on the property. There are also activities for children: a Spies Route Spy Adventure, play ­areas, pump track, chocolate tastings and painting.

Big cats

I spent a day occupied by conservation things. Because it’s a few minutes down the road from Brookdale, first stop was Ashia Cheetah Conservation. It’s an impressive under-the-radar cheetah research and conservation centre on Sonstraal Road.

Part of Ashia’s phased reintegration and reintroduction programme involves the rescue and rehabilitation of cheetahs from the wild where necessary (for example, if the mother is killed) that culminates in the cat being released back into the wild. This is critical: Ashia is not a petting zoo. There is absolutely no human-cheetah interaction, not with volunteers and not with visitors. All reintroduction is carefully planned and undertaken with receiving reserves to expand the gene pool and preserve the population.

Tours of the facility include walks outside the large fenced enclosures to witness the cheetahs do their cheetah thing. Time it right and you can watch them in the running field.

Booking is essential; no under-16s. Ashia is only open for tours on Wednesdays, Saturdays and Sundays.

From cheetahs to lions, and a tiger. A leisurely 15-minute drive down Old Paarl Road brought me to the Drakenstein Lion Park, an altogether different experience, but one also guided by animal welfare.

Again, this is critical: the lion park is not a petting zoo. There is zero interaction with the cats, which are captive-born and rescued from appalling conditions in zoos or private homes around the world and brought to Paarl where they live out their days in happier circumstances.

Each lion has its story on a board on the fence of its (big, green) enclosure: Pythagoras, for example, was “rescued from a social media influencer in northern Lebanon” who taped its mouth shut and abused it.

Pi’s fieldmate is Freya, who was also rescued from Lebanon. They’re both about 18 months old and play like overgrown kittens. Seriously cute.

There’s even a tiger, abandoned in a closed-down zoo in Argentina, called Tana. Tana declined to so much as raise its head for a photo.

More steps were got in at Olive Valley Walks at Waterfall Valley. I rambled with co-owner Maika Goetze along the stream, past the waterfall and through some of her olive groves, to end with an olive oil tasting.

It was misty and overcast in the lush, green valley, absolutely beautiful. And a welcome change from the general Winelands landscape, which has mountains and valleys, sure, but is mostly monoculture vineyards and open stretches of fynbos. The tasting was sumptuous, with various olive-y treats and breads, fynbos salts and herbs as well as cheese and charcuterie.

Maika also offers Harvest Tables under the olive trees, and an itinerary of walks. These include swimming in the dam, tasting wines, visiting Ashia and learning about fynbos.

Her Walk to Workshop ends in a lesson in making marzipan, using almonds grown in southern Paarl.

History lesson

Another night was spent in Brookdale splendour before more walking: this time on the Paarl Heritage Route, which is essentially a 2km trek down Main Road, a stretch with 34 stops along the way.

I did a guided tour with Hybré van Niekerk from Paarl Historical Walk and Tours, who really does know her stuff. It starts at Het Gesticht Church, the original slave church, and ends at Paarl Museum, which charts the region from the time the Huguenots arrived.

As well as history, the walk is a trip through the architectural styles of South Africa, including neo-Gothic, Cape Dutch, Cape Georgian, Victorian, Edwardian, vernacular, Cape Dutch revival, Dutch Renaissance revival, neoclassical and yes, even art deco.

Gimnasium, the primary school built in 1858, was one of only three buildings in the Cape with Egyptian decorations – it has plaster figures of Hathor, Ra, sphinxes, scarabs and lotus flowers. Yet another unexpected but pleasant Paarl surprise. DM

Disclosure: Accommodation was courtesy of Brookdale Estate.

This story first appeared in our weekly Daily Maverick 168 newspaper, which is available countrywide for R35.