Lesego Malatsi - SouthAfrica.TO

THERE’S ONE PROBLEM with
the Elgin Valley - it’s just too
beautiful for its own good and now,
word has inevitably got out.
Picture in your mind winding, treelined
roads punctuated by old Ford
tractors and dawdling school children,
weathered signage of varied colour
and design at remote intersections and
along gravel tributaries. In a field, a
wizened ploughman slowly exhales
the smoke of his rum and maple fag
and not far away, farmstalls thick
with the smell of baked bread. See
the undulating countryside of hills
covered in pine forests, vineyards
and orchards, dotted with farm
dams, plain farm worker cottages
and fruit storage warehouses.
The Elgin Valley lies adjacent to
the Cape Metropole, on either side
of the N2 that runs between Sir
Lowry’s Pass over the Hottentots
Holland mountains and Houwhoek.
It incorporates Grabouw and
Botriver at a push, with a border
roughly connecting the Eikenhof
dam, the Palmiet and Krom Rivers,
the Viljoens Pass to Villiersdorp,
and the Highlands Pass that drops
down to the ocean. The expansive
Kogelberg Biosphere Reserve makes
up a significant part of its fringe.
All this, only one hour from Cape
Town, has wholesome country charm.
“Wys hom jou boude (show him
your buttocks)!” comes a cry across
the pear orchard, followed by laughter,
as I’m spotted in my attempt to sneak
INDWE NOVEMBER 2011 35