Located about 250 km north of Cape Town, the Cederberg nestles between Citrusdal and Clanwilliam. To the west, you’ll find the Sandveld, famous for its potato spud farms; Pakhuisberg lies to the north with its haunting allure of ghost stories; and eastwards stretch the Springbok Flats and the tranquil Tankwa Karoo.
“Inlanders dream of the Bushveld. We Capetonians from the green south, we dream of the mountains. And among mountains chiefly, the Cederberg,” muses Jan Rabie in his Afrikaans language book Droomberge – Sederberge.
This is a place where you’ll encounter a Nieuwoudt around every bend, where poets Boerneef and C Louis Leipoldt penned their most beautiful prose, and where Jan Rabie wore holes in his boots. OUR JOURNEY KICKS OFF from Clanwilliam. If you spent the previous night in the town’s caravan park within the Ramskop Nature Garden, you’ll want to swing by the Strassberger Shoe Factory near the caravan park’s turn off on Old Cape Road. Founded in 1837 in Wupperthal by Reverend Johann Gottlieb Leipoldt (grandfather of C Louis), the factory was relocated to Clanwilliam during the 1950s.
By the way, Clanwilliam owes its name to Governor John Cradock who named it after the Welsh Williams clan and the town’s layout was coincidentally drawn up by a Captain Williams.
Next on our list is the Old Gaol Museum at the intersection of Main Road and Park Street. Admission is R30 per adult, R10 for teenagers, and R5 for kids. Here, Herschil Pieterse takes you through a rich history filled with personal anecdotes about the late Tolla van der Merwe, a local much-loved legend. The very bar counter where Tolla told his jokes in the Clanwilliam Hotel now stands in a jail cell along with many photos and tributes to
