While holidaying in Cape Town over the festive season,
my partner and I decided to take a trip to Swellendam and to overnight at Sharon's
Hideaway - a quaint Victorian heritage house situated in a garden of 600 rose bushes
that Adin and Sharon Greaves have turned into an award-winning five-star guesthouse.
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Situated at No.10 Hermanus Steyn street, the house is listed as one of the eighteen
heritage sites in Swellendam, dating back to circa 1890 (and was one of the dorps
huise in the vicinity) It accommodates ten guests, and we occupied one of the three
large garden suites - equipped with all the mod cons - but the bellybutton warmers
that were placed on each of our pillows really gave us something to talk about!
The Dutch East India Company founded the town in 1745 and is the third district
recognized after Cape Town and Stellenbosh. It was specially established in order
to exercise control over independent frontiersmen who migrated over the Hottentots
Holland Mountains at the beginning of the 18th century. The Drostdy(the focus of the new settlement)
was erected in 1747 and served as the official centre of the district for one hundred years.
In time, a village flourished opposite the Drostdy and by the beginning of the 19th
century, the British settlers had colonized the eastern districts of the Cape.
Swellendam then became a flourishing metropolis, serving as a useful refreshment
station on the long journey up the coast.
The main drag, Swellengrebel street, was named after the Cape governor and his wife
Helena ten Damme and is the main attraction in Swellendam where most of the towns history
can be observed. The open-air complex of the Drostdy is probably one of the finest museums
in our country and consists of several historic buildings, which include the Old Gaol and
Ambagswerf, Mayville, Zanddrift and No.18 Swellengrebel Street, which today houses the offices
of the museum.
The Drostdy farmhouse gives an appropriate description of life in the Cape, with its collection
of fine furniture and artifacts on exhibition, and covers the period 1747 to 1846. It includes
several different styles that were popular during that time. The piece de resistance in the
Drostdy farmhouse is the large blue and white Imari porcelain vase, which originated in Japan
and is today safely stored in a glass showcase
We also visited the Old Gaol and Ambagswerf (an Afrikaans word implying a 'trades yard') and
exhibits the original tools and equipment that were used during that period. The old gaol's most
famous prisoner was a Hottentot man by the name of Jan Pearl who tried to overturn the Drosdty.
An open-air brick-oven in the trades yard is still used, and bakes fresh bread on Fridays and
gridle cakes on a daily basis. The museum and coffee shop that was once the home of the deputy
sheriff of the old goal, serves the most delicious home-baked milktart.
We arrived back at Sharon's Hideaway just in time to freshen up and have drinks with our hosts
before being personally chauffeured by our host Adin to Kornlands on Swellengrebel street, where
we enjoyed a fine meal in this old establishment, turned restaurant.
We ventured on a brisk hike the following morning to conjure up an appetite before tucking into
Sharon's hearty breakfast! Coffee that is specially ground in Port Elizabeth for the guesthouse
and cold meats made to order by their butcher as well as home made seed loaf bread, scones, muffins
and the largest croissants I have ever eaten are just a few of the items that breakfast has to offer.
After safely packing three of Sharon's home made jams into my suitcase, we set off in our newly
washed car, and I made a list of the many things 'to do' on my return visit to Swellendam - one
of them being a visit to the nearby Bontebok National Park.
For further information on Adin and Sharon's Hideaway contact (028)5143316 or visit their website www.adinbb.co.za
For more information on Swellendam visit www.swellendamtours.co.za
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