Vensterklip: A true West Coast gem

A couple of weeks ago while planning a trip to a charming spot about two hours north of Cape Town I last visited in 2012, I Googled its name; Vensterklip.

Towards the top of the list of hits generated by my Web search was the disconcerting response, “Sold on E-Bay”.

Who on earth (let alone on the West Coast of South Africa), I asked myself, sells a guest farm and restaurant on the Internet?

Vensterklip lies just outside Elands Bay, known to surfers as “E-Bay” because they consider it on par with South Africa’s surfing capital Jeffrey’s Bay (“J-Bay” to the board-and-baggies brigade) in the Eastern Cape. It is reputed to have the best left-breaking wave in the country and surfers comprise the majority of visitors to the village.

Spend a few nights at Vensterklip and you, too, will be “sold” … not only on E-Bay but the entire rough-and-ready stretch of the West Coast it epitomises.

Rock-hopping and scrambling. Picture: Jim Freeman

The Verlorenvlei River rises near Picketberg and is one of three rivers to feed the vlei upon which Vensterklip farm is partly located before flowing into the Atlantic at Elands Bay through a narrow estuary. Until recently, the vlei itself covered some 1 500ha and was one of the largest natural wetlands along the West Coast and among the few coastal freshwater lakes in the country.

Declared a Ramsar site in 1991 for its international importance as a wetland, Verlorenvlei was home to about 250 bird species.

What was a lake is now little more than an overlarge puddle. The reason, says Vensterklip owner Kobus Louw, is due to vastly increased water-intensive citrus and table grape cultivation throughout the catchment area above the vlei.

The first building to catch your eye as you turn in to Vensterklip is a stone barn that was built shortly after the first Louws’ arrival almost 300 years ago.

Rough-hewn with weathered and warped wooden window frames and shutters, it’s the heart of activity at the guest farm; one half of the building given over to a restaurant called the Tin Kitchen and the other to a convivial bar known as Old Dirkie’s Pub.

Naturally, the latter is my first stop after turning off the burly Isuzu SUV and I join Kobus in front of the fire with a glass of red wine. The place is packed with exuberant locals but he and I find space for steak and a natter.

Tin Kitchen. Picture: Jim Freeman

Louw’s forefathers arrived in the Cape of Good Hope five years after the arrival of Jan van Riebeek and set themselves up as farmers.

Some acquired land along the banks of the Liesbeek River in what is now Newlands, while others established what are currently acclaimed and exquisite wine estates in Durbanville (Diemersdal) and Paarl (Laborie and Babylonstoren). Much of the family subsequently trekked north, some of them as far as Angola.

“The bottom line is that my family trekked because they lost their farms for one reason or another. Diemersdal is the only one that remains … My branch of the family arrived here in the Sandveld between 1740 and 1745. My son is the 10th generation Louw on Vensterklip.”

Vensterklip gets its name from a rock formation on the farm, a rock arch atop a kopje a few kilometres from the barn. The “Window Stone” is only distantly visible from the road and access is restricted to the public unless prospective visitors have pre-booked a guide through Vensterklip.

It’s a bit of a trek – initially through sand and fynbos, later with some rock-hopping and scrambling – but not a tough one. The view is spectacular, especially in the early mornings or late afternoon when the sun gives depth and colour to the tableau.

“Don’t ask me what kind of rock it is,” says Kobus gruffly. “I’m a farmer not a geologist.”

The ‘Window Stone’. Picture: Jim Freeman

After your hike, ask guide Johnny van Rooyen to show you the Mad Hatter Coffeeshop in Lamberts Bay (just up the R365). Apart from being the perfect place to slake your exercise-generated thirst with something hot, cold or at cellar temperature, the café features adorable trompe l’oeil cats.

Accommodation at Vensterklip is reasonably priced and self-catering, comprising farmhouses, cottages, backpacker facilities and campsites. Two of the self-catering units options, Robertson Huys and Louw’s Manor (built in 1728), are beautifully restored historic farmhouses with three bedrooms each.

I stayed in the manor for two stormy winter nights and, while I loved the antique furnishings, creaking floors and enormous wood-burning stove, I was equally grateful for modern electrics and plumbing.

Facing the two old homes are two semi-detached “fisherman’s” cottages that are simply furnished but colourful and comfortable. There are also two off-site dwellings, Scott House and Left Break Cottage.

Vensterklip might carry a three-star SA Tourism grading but this gels perfectly with the nature and ambience of Elands Bay (as well as nearby Lamberts Bay and Redelinghuys) … anything higher would mean compromising its authenticity as a West Coast destination.

Jane-Frances Louw, Kobus’ wife, is the driving force behind the guest farm operation (though the Tin Kitchen has been run by the perpetually beaming Linda Koli, formerly of Mike’s Kitchen in Durbanville, for the past decade).

Louw’s Manor. Picture: Jim Freeman

“I started the first guesthouse in Saldanha in 1995,” says the former art teacher. “The concept of a guesthouse was very new at the time so, obviously, I knew nothing about operating one. All I had was my background in art and the fact that my mother used to restore historic houses in the Eastern Cape.”

She arrived in Redelinghuys three years later, “taking the first footsteps of a long journey by buying a beautiful old homestead that was more than a century old and gradually restoring it”.

Today the Sandveld Dorpshuys features antique furniture, original paintings and regional memorabilia and is surrounded by an enormous garden teeming with farm animals.

As much as Kobus has farming at the core of his DNA, just as deep runs Jane-Frances’ commitment to not only making Vensterklip and her other properties thrive but also to grow tourism in the area. Goodness knows, the area needs it desperately.

Elands Bay was the epicentre of the cataclysmic collapse of the sub-regional rock lobster (crayfish) industry when unscrupulous Chinese “businessmen” took over a processing factory and deliberately turned local fishermen into drug-addled poachers.

This soon caused the collapse of the rock lobster population. All that goes to show for what was the main source of employment in Elands Bay is the derelict factory – including the weather-worsted dock jutting into the sea – on the road to Cape Deseada.

West Coast oysters. Picture: Jim Freeman

A stark reminder of this tragedy is painted on one of the pillars of the railway bridge over which the kilometres-long Sishen-Saldanha ore train regularly trundles. It depicts a dejected young person and is captioned: “This is how fake people made me”.

There’s no reason Jane-Frances shouldn’t succeed in her efforts to revive the local economy by attracting more visitors: for all that the Sandveld is a hidden gem, it’s one that is hidden in plain sight and part of a regional tourism initiative known as the West Coast Way.

The initiative bills itself as “The road trip with the most twists”, offering six sometimes-intersecting themed options: scenic, berg, foodie, culture, wild and new.

Travellers are encouraged to “explore a unique collection of 101 road trip stops by planning a self-drive trip or guided tour for a nature and adventure-filled Cape West Coast vacation”.

A road trip through the lesser-known parts of the West Coast (beautiful though they are, Postberg, Langebaan and Paternoster can be regarded as West Coast “lite”) should be on every South African traveller’s must-do list.

The scenery and “feel” are completely different from Cape Town and the Winelands. It is superb value for money and can be accessed within two hours with pretty much any vehicle hired at Cape Town airport and the routes are numerous and uniformly stunning in their beauty

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