Staff Photographer
A couple of hours east of Cape Town (along the Garden Route) is the sleepy town of Swellendam and 10 minutes beyond that is Jan Harmsgat Country House. The guest house, part of a working dairy farm, sits below a vast mountain range that changes colour from mauve and green through gunmetal and pink depending on the time of day. A chic grey swimming pool, surrounded by dry stone walls and lavender bushes momentarily put me in mind of a cool country garden in the south of France. There are only five bedrooms but it has the polish of a much larger establishment.
Convivial pre-dinner drinks threw the guests — plus a few locals from town — together for a spontaneous cocktail party and chance to ruminate over the excellent wine list, from a 3 000-strong cellar. Smoked salmon mousse, beef fillet with wild mushrooms and pecan pie followed. I was genuinely surprised with the results; their tiny kitchen produces quality food, the perfect foil for oenophiles or gluttons (me on both counts).
More surprising though is that head chef Lena Vergotini has no formal training in the kitchen and graduated from making jams and preserves to sell on the farm to producing top-notch restaurant food. Vergotini’s development from housemaid to head chef is the result of a staff policy that won Jan Harmsgat Fair Trade tourism status four years ago. Now it is one of 30 Fair Trade businesses in South Africa — still the only scheme of its kind in the world.
But Jan Harmsgat does not have the feel of a training school — far from it. Owners Judi and Brin have an unswerving commitment to the principles of fair trade but also to running a slick operation where guests feel instantly at home.
Beyond the cosy confines of the guest house, wine awaits — lots of it. The Bon Courage and Springfield vineyards are within staggering distance from Jan Harmsgat and each was happy to offer tastings, prompting me to swig rather than spit my way through them both. A good place to soak up the alcoholic excess is Swellendam’s Old Gaol Café. The restaurant (established by Judi and Brin with the aim of empowering the local community and now 30% owned by employees) sells a delicious fusion of Mediterranean and regional cuisine.
Hog Hollow, Plettenberg Bay
Four hours from Swellendam, near the rolling beaches of Plettenberg Bay is Hog Hollow Country Lodge. Like the other members of Fair Trade it has an admirable reputation among the local community for promotion of staff and exemplary labour standards.
Nearly all 40 staff were recruited from the nearby village of Kurland and all have been given training — which for some involves an annual trip to London — to enable them to move in to senior management.
It also happens to be a coolly luxurious place to stay, with a fab pool overlooking the majestic Matjes River gorge, gorgeous rooms with hammocks on decks — also looking out across that amazing gorge view — and locally sourced grub: fish is a speciality, as are extravagant puddings secured under spun sugar cages.
But Hog Hollow has more going for it than the purely epicurean. There’s a mind-boggling array of activities on offer from whale-spotting trips to nature walks in their private reserve, horse riding to scuba diving. Just reading the list of possibilities is exhausting. I opted for something slightly different. Xolani, the hotel’s resident, fount of local knowledge, took me to the Plettenberg townships instead — a personal alternative to some of the larger township tours more commercially available.
We took no time in hitting a tavern — a focal point for what looked set to be a very long weekend. Unfathomable queues formed for games of pool, cold beers flew from behind the metal grille covering the bar and music pumped.
An early drink required lunch, pronto, so we headed to the outskirts of Plettenberg for Enrico’s. The pizzeria hovers above a spectacular beach misty with windblown sand and iced like a gateau with massive rollers — surfers can hire boards on arrival. Lunch at Enrico’s is as popular with the local trendies as it is with tourists.
In the same neighbourhood is a drive that should be made compulsory. Bloukrans Pass meanders from the highway through spectacular scenery into a thickly forested canyon. You get a wonderful view of Bloukrans Bridge, an elegant curved span that seemingly floats hundreds of feet above the river below it. It is also the site of the highest bungee jump in the world. I watched as the brave and fool-hardy hurtled into the abyss and suffered a violent attack of vertigo that all but reintroduced me to my pizza.
Adrenaline junkies aren’t the only folk who visit this area, although an adventurous streak might help. Tsitsikamma Canopy Tours in Storms River Village have rigged up a system of steel cables to swing Tarzan-wannabes through the treetops for an alternative aerial view of the canopy. Not only does this outfit score highly in terms of its social responsibilities (80% of staff come from the surrounding communities — yep, that Fair Trade badge again), it also does backflips with its eco credentials — the impressive aerial safari can be removed without damaging any of the trees.
Djuma Bush Lodge, Kruger Park
At the other end of the country, in the greater Kruger National Park, lies Djuma Bush Lodge. This is another small operation: eight individual chalets create a sense of informal exclusivity. All the rooms have decks with plunge-pools that look out into bush, so expect to be joined by a variety of wildlife that’s a lot more exotic than the latest Jackie Collins.
The constant thrum of insect noise and the whooping and squawking of birdlife helps set the scene. As do ominous words of warning from the manageress, Pinky: “NO ONE is allowed to walk unaccompanied after dark, a ranger or guide must be present as you never quite know what wild animal might fancy a midnight snack.” Spotting big game seemed to be taken for granted, on our first drive we saw: waterbuck, zebra, kudu, hyena, lion, warthog, giraffe, wildebeest, baboon, buffalo, elephant, mongoose and rhino. I managed to catch cheetahs the next morning as well as a clutch of honking hippos that sounded like bass didgeridoos. The ease with which we managed to spot so many animals was slightly unnerving; I was convinced there were men winding up the reptiles or plugging batteries into mammals and switching them on when given the nod.
A bush walk — a gentle ramble around the lodge with my guide Solly — was the antithesis to the game drive; no big animals here. A wild-looking space-age plant, elegant with post-modern pom-poms turned out to be baboon marijuana and dung beetles put on extraordinary performance, burying turd-gobbits twice their size in a matter of minutes. Yes, it was a lot less flashy than spotting a leopard for sure, yet somehow just as interesting.
But, like its fellow Fair Trade members, Djuma’s trump card is its investment in staff and commitment to community development. Projects include two new local primary schools, a media training centre for disadvantaged communities and a day-care centre.
I admit I was sceptical about the concept of Fair Trade tourism. I may drink the coffee, eat the chocolate and wear the T-shirts but a Fair Trade holiday sounded a tad too virtuous and smug for its own good. But I’m a man converted. The scheme is not a right-on panacea, but a strictly audited badge that guarantees specific values. My fears of two weeks of unbleached cotton and a diet of lentils were utterly unfounded. Community empowerment and environmental conservation go hand in hand with comfort and style. Put simply, this is ethical travel with panache and an inspiration to other destinations.
For info on Fair Trade Tourism in South Africa visit www.fairtourismsa.org.za