Graaff-Reinet is one of the few places that are actually better in real life than in the photos you see on social media. Once you’ve turned off the thoroughfare and spent some time in this Eastern Cape town, it becomes hard to leave.
Many of us have driven through Graaff-Reinet – it’s one of those towns at the intersection of major regional routes, without bypasses. If you’ve always just passed through, are you under the impression that there’s not much more to Graaff-Reinet than a slightly chaotic main street and an impressive church?
IT’S ONLY RECENTLY that I found out about all the wonderful things happening in Graaff-Reinet, and how you could easily spend a week there to experience it all. In fact, if it wasn’t for Instagram and a funeral, I might still have been oblivious to the town’s charms.
My wife, Daleen, and I were driving back home to Bloemfontein after attending a funeral in George, but on that vast Karoo plain between Willowmore and Aberdeen, growing fatigue made me decide we had to stay over in Graaff-Reinet.
“Look for Toerboer on Instagram,” I said to Daleen, “and find out whether they have accommodation for us.” This guy and I follow each other’s Insta stories, so I knew he lived in Graaff-Reinet with his wife and son, and that they offer guest accommodation.
We parked in front of the place with a plaque next to the front door indicating it’s a national monument. Somewhere inside the house, the doorbell played “Under the Sea” from Disney’s The Little Mermaid. Dawid and Karlien de Wet and their son, Richter (7), invited us in. First, we had to enjoy vetkoek and wine with them. It became a memorable evening filled with stories, and I realised two things: Toerboer and I had a lot more in common than Instagram had suggested, and I’d known even less about Graaff-Reinet than I did about him.
The De Wets hadn’t known much about Graaff-Reinet either, before they moved here in 2018 from Coligny in North West, wanting to settle somewhere in the Karoo.
“We have lived in various places, and we find it easy to pack up and move,” Dawid says. “In 2018, we felt we needed the Karoo and its tranquillity, and we started looking around. De Rust was a strong contender. Then we stayed over with friends in Graaff-Reinet one night, and they wanted to know why we weren’t looking at their town. So we did – and we’re very glad we made that decision. We looked for an old Karoo house with character and heritage that we could renovate. We found this house, and we’re still busy fixing it…”
The De Wets were quickly assimilated into the community thanks to all their interests and enterprises. Karlien helps a number of businesses and institutions with their marketing
