KwaZulu-Natal’s Midlands Meander is surely South Africa’s most successful tourist meander. A measure of this is that it is being copied in many other areas in South Africa.
Nonetheless, many visitors view the Midlands Meander as an extended rural mall to stop and shop at on the way to bigger attractions like Big 5 nature reserves.
Cycle and hiking touring of this area – as of any other area – is a way to more thoroughly savour and understand its history, people, and peculiarities.
For the Spekboom Tours Midlands Cycle Tour, the area stretching from Balgowan to Kamberg was chosen by its director, Howick-based Julia Invernizzi.
The places visited might have been just as fascinating in another area of the Midlands Meander which stretches over a vast area from Pietermaritzburg to Estcourt and the Drakensberg.
The Spekboom tour was all along quiet country roads. On the first night riders met at farm-stay accommodation in the historic village of Rosetta. But there was no opportunity to flake as wine tasting at the specialist wine shop was on the menu.
The next morning some cyclists were cloudy headed because of overenthusiastic tasting; others had new clarity about their objectives because of the crisp winter air.
The ride continued through gentle farmland bordering the well-known Usher Crane Conservancy dedicated to rehabilitating blue and wattled cranes, which are some of South Africa’s most critically-endangered birds.
There followed a gentle downhill ride through cool, forested backroads of this outer colony of the Midlands Mist Belt to arrive for a none-too-soon regmaker at the Balgowan Brewery. This small brewery which specialises in ales was started by a young, enthusiastic couple who are typical of many entrepreneurs in the Midlands implementing their dream projects. Most of these entrepreneurs originate from small town or farms in the Last Outpost.
After some more earnest testing and tasting, it was time to re-alight velocipedes and point them in the direction of lunch. This was at the historic Caversham Mill, overlooking the Lions River.
The overnight stop was in the beautifully-restored historical Lemonwood cottages, in the Dargle Valley. That night, the group was entertained by typically South African celebrity performer Lara Kirsten. She specialises in exquisite classical music combined with her own passionate English and Afrikaans poetry – as well as occasional naked cycle rides to probably simply to express her freedom and agency. The group was very approving, especially its male members.
The third day, Sunday, started with a 6km walk in the Lemonwood mist forest, then a ride to Bramleigh Manor farm near Fort Nottingham through a patchwork of picturesque farms and green rolling hills.
Another dynamic young couple here, Kaitlynn and Andre Kauerauf, have turned a conventional bed-and-breakfast establishment into an exemplar of an ethical and nature-attuned farm-accommodation establishment.
The farm tour included explanations of the use of regenerative biodynamic principles (no pesticides, fertilisers or growth enhancers) so that farm animals grow slowly, naturally and seasonally. The tour included viewing of foraging pigs and truly free-range chickens.
The chickens are moved every few days through the use of an “eggmobile” – a modified caravan chassis. Their scratchings and fertilisation of ground leaves it prepared for plantings.
Of course, not everything can be absolutely natural – for instance the area has many caracals and the chickens have to be protected by an electrified perimeter. A stressed hen is not a happy hen.
Once upon a time this area teamed with springbok which migrates in their many thousands over the uplands. That obviously no longer exists but the Kaueraufs have tried to emulate their live-stocking as closely as possible.
The cyclists agreed that Bramleigh was the best accommodation and most delicious food of the tour. After providing for their own needs and those of their lodge and their staff, the Kaueraufs sell all of their remaining produce on REKO markets.
Kaitlynn introduced the REKO system of selling farm produce direct to the consumer in November 2018 and in less than a year, three “markets” have been established for it – in Nottingham Road, Howick and Hilton.
The system uses social media to facilitate a market for ethical and environmental producers within a maximum of about 100km. The system is entirely based on a closed Facebook group. Orders are placed online by customers; farmers within the group then fulfil the order at a price determined by offer and acceptance.
Importantly, Bramleigh’s success after only two years in operation has demonstrated that smaller scale farming, done correctly, can produce such high quality food that producers can make a reasonable living – rebutting the narrative that only mass farming methods can result in a reasonable living for producers.
Invernizzi says that in Howick an increasing number of people are beginning to want to know who is producing their food and that it is being produced in an ethical way.
In the morning the brave cyclists faced the long climb to Highmoor and the Kamberg caves. After the 35km ride, using a local guide, the group walked another 4 km to the Game Pass Shelter cave, so named because it lies along the former migratory route of antelope.
The cave, part of the Ukahlamba Drakensberg World Heritage Site, has some of the best preserved San rock art paintings in southern Africa. Prof David Lewis-Williams called the cave the ‘Rosetta Stone’ of rock painting because it was instrumental in his work in unlocking the meaning of most Bushman paintings.
Whereas previously Bushman paintings were thought to be simple records of daily life with a few ‘mythical’ images thrown into the mix, Lewis-Williams came to understand them (and other prehistoric paintings elsewhere) as images created by shamans or others who were able to contact the spirit world through trance-dance and ritual. The half-human, half-animal images in Game Pass Shelter, and many other caves in the Drakensberg thus reflect the spiritual beliefs of the Bushman as experienced in trance states – just as countless images in cathedrals in Europe depict the religious beliefs of those people.
The final night was at Glengarry a traditional Midlands family-run farm with characteristic trout fishing lakes and more recently added cycle tracks through the forests.
Next morning, participants were tired from the cycling of the past few days as well as from their filled-up brains. Their bicycles were pointed downhill towards Rosetta to collect their cars where the tour ended – except for those who had no time restrictions, for whom there was a stop-off for cheese and preserve tastings at a local cheese farm, followed by lunch at Rosetta Hotel.
