AA Traveller Winter 2022

WORDS&PHOTOSBYMIA LOUW
Bathurst
BIG BANG
Locals have dubbed theirlittlevillage “the centre of the
universe”.Somesay it’s merely amarketing slogan drummed
up overbeers at thebar.Ormaybe it’s because thebucolic
Bathurst offersanexplosion of talents, tastes andtreasures.
Ipaid Bathurst avisit for the first time early in 2010. Iwas afirst-year
journalism student atRhodes University in Makhanda, and the 58kmtrip
to the coast was apopular weekend outing for Rhodents.
Fifteen kmbefore Port Alfred’s sandy beaches, we drove through what
seemed tobeahandful of art galleries, antique shops and apub plucked
from the English countryside and plonked atafour-way intersection.
“It feels like we are in1800s England,” Ishrieked asmyflatmate,
Minette van der Walt, parked her skedonk atThe Historic Pig and Whistle
Inn. We both recently returned from the United Kingdom after two gap years
in the Cotswolds.
Of course, the geography and flora are different. On the sandy slopes
you’ll find adense woodland of succulent trees, shrubs and river euphorbias
(the ecoregion is called the Albany thicket) but grab apint atthe Pig ona
rainy day, and you might aswell beback inold Blighty.
Bathurst was established in 1820 as an administrative centre for British
settlers. The UKwas facing unemployment and poverty during their
industrial revolution. With the promise ofland and abetter future,
immigrants were brought out by the government topopulate what was then
known asthe Cape Colony’s eastern frontier.
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WINTER 2022 | AA Traveller