Traveller SPRING 2022

Weekend getaway
offered time and inspiration to make the move
immediately. “It’s becoming more and more popular –
workations or semigration – people who come here to
work remotely. A good internet connection makes this
possible. There was a woman today who booked a stay
for a whole month.”
Jens talks about the growing property market – “a
good sign in a small town” – but don’t despair if you
can’t pack up your life and settle in the countryside
yet. Philippolis is located both in the middle of
nowhere and somewhere in the middle of South
Africa, which makes it a popular overnight stop for
people travelling between the north and coastal areas.
The N1 used to meander through Philippolis but
was rerouted in the 1970s. This dealt a financial
blow to several small towns, but Jens likes to
focus on the positive. With no large trucks
speeding through, the town has been
able to keep some of its original charm.
The next time you’re on your way
to Cape Town or the Kruger, turn off
the N1 at Trompsburg or Colesberg
and follow the R717 to Philippolis to
experience this tranquil town.
40
WHY PHILIPPOLIS?
A handful of inhabitants like Jens and his partner live
in Philippolis because lockdown offered them the
opportunity to do so, but the pandemic also ushered
in a group of young people who moved out of cities
and now work remotely from here: creative directors,
marketers, and directors and producers in the TV and
music industry.
Juliette Whelpton now lives here because she
followed the tracks of a horse, more specifically, a
white Arabian called Maharajah. During the South
African War, the stallion assisted the British general
and politician John Edward Bernard Seely (Jack Seely)
in the area.
Maharajah is the fourth horse from the South
African War that Juliette has written a book about.
“Die Helde met Hoewe book series is aimed at children
between the ages of nine and 14, but due to the
historic facts, older readers enjoy them as well,”
she says.
Juliette’s research has taken her to various
battlegrounds in our country, from KwaZulu-Natal
to Mpumalanga and the Free State, where, with
the help of horses, she now offers Healing Hooves
wellness workshops.
Juliette also owns the Karoo Artist’s Café and Starry
Night Karoo Cottages in Tobie Muller Street, easily the
prettiest street in town. The writer Karel Schoeman
hit the nail on the head when he once referred to
Philippolis as “the Stellenbosch of the Free State”,
especially with its “heritage green roofs and white
chalk historic building”.
CLOCKWISE
FROM THE
TOP: The Dutch
Reformed
Church in
Voortrekker
Street.
Nicolene
Gibbons with
her linocut art.
Kets and Adele
Underhay.
Brinley
and Erina
Pritchard’s
racing pigeons.
In this street, you’ll find the Nagmaal Huis, with its
typical Karoo-style flat roof, and the Hartjiehortjiehuis
(the name refers to its heart-shaped wooden shutters)
and both are national historical monuments.
The Karoo Artist’s Café is in a large rectangular
building, apparently built as a classroom in the 1880s,
but Juliette has photos that indicate that the café
could have been a weaving room once. In fact, Emily
Hobhouse started the country’s first spin and weave
school here in 1905.
Today it’s the type of space than can easily host
various types of events, from a book reading to a blues
concert or a movie night. Juliette is fond of screening
movies, regularly gets musicians to perform, and locals
come here to sell their goods at the weekly market,
called the Stoepkletsmark.
Kets and Adele Underhay sell their tomato jam here
on Thursdays at 16:00. They live in Rowelsfontein, a
suburb whose huge lawns were irrigated with water
from the fountains, but these irrigation ditches aren’t
used anymore. Their windmill supplies them with
water for the fresh fruit, vegetables, and nuts they
cultivate in greenhouse tunnels. Adele also cultivates
AA Traveller | SPRING 2022