It was the name that lured. A restaurant called The Barking Frog would surely be something out of the ordinary. So I peeked inside. On a couch lay a man, barefoot, with long curly hair, wearing a hat, head nodding to guitar music. Clearly he was a character.
For that matter, it seems most of the folk who live in Vanwyksdorp are characters. No doubt, a town still trapped in yesteryear would appeal to those who have divorced themselves from the hurly-burly of city life.
We came across tiny Vanwyksdorp, about 40km from Ladismith, when we decided to travel over the Rooiberg Pass, en route from Heidelberg to Calitzdorp, rather than go via the tar road.
Here, the owner of The Barking Frog said her stocks were rather low, as there had been a party there the previous night. A large contingent of friends had arrived to celebrate a wedding anniversary.
So we settled for some of her lavendar shortbread… and a bit of a chat.
I remarked that I was surprised at how many people spoke English in the village (I had popped into another small shop to get a feel for the place, and the people had spoken impeccable English).
“That’s because we are English,” she laughed. “Many of us moved here from Johannesburg or Cape Town, deliberately choosing the quiet lifestyle.”
The roads are unpaved and I didn’t notice any street lights. It made me think of hill-billy country in America, but clearly the inhabitants of Vanwyksdorp are not uneducated, country boffins.
The town was founded in 1838, on the farm Buffelsfontein, which was owned by Gerrit van Wyk. The population is still under 1 000 people, a few of whom are direct descendants of Van Wyk.
We learned that the inhabitants depended on fruit, sheep, cattle and ostrich farming. Water was never a problem, as this came from a mountain spring, which flowed summer and winter.
Leaving the town, we headed for the Rooiberg Pass – constructed during the Depression by the inhabitants of Vanwyksdorp, using just spades and wheelbarrows.
We had been told the spring flowers there were spectacular and, and as we wended our way steadily upward, we came across glorious splashes of colour amid the scenic delights.
At the summit of the pass, earlier travellers stopped to give thanks every time they did the dangerous and difficult trip, and prayed for help with the steep descent. Each deposited a stone on a prayer heap.
Though the route is much safer nowadays, we felt the young man hurtling down the road, obviously showing off his driving skills to his girlfriend, needed a guardian angel to help him round the snaking bends.
At the top there is a 360º view. To the south, the Langeberg mountains can be seen, while to the north the Klein Swartberg hold sway over the Karoo landscape. We meandered down to Calitzdorp, delighted we had chosen this route. - Sunday Tribune