The 3rd oldest town in South Africa!
This was the destiny of our road trip that I posted about previously! Swellendam!
A town that was founded in the early settler days in 1743, in the Western Cape province. The Dutch East India Company established a replenishment station in 1652 in the Cape and trade continued inland as far as Swellendam. Tradesmen and wainwrights settled in Swellendam to provide services to travelers and explorers. Swellendam was the last outpost of civilization on the Eastern Frontier at the time!
History taken from; https:www.hideawaybb.co.za
Dominated by the mountains and this old church that was built in 1911.
It seems that the whole town was built around the old magnificent church!
A cloud of witnesses surrounded me as I stepped into the original, solid redwood pulpit!
This is the main road of the town and I was so glad to see no traffic lights!
This is the counter of a "modern" eatery in the town where we had some lunch and coffee. That is an original Jaguar Car's front section mounted on the wall!
And finally, here is a lovely "Bed and Breakfast" establishment for visitors!
We found that the town is very popular with foreign tourists as at least 3 buses steamed in when we were there and we heard the tourists conversing in German, Italian, French and Dutch. The town is about 2 hours drive from Cape Town City and it is surrounded by the beautifully colored grain fields of the farmers.
We hope you have enjoyed the photos and thank you for visiting a post by @papilloncharity
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Swellendam looks stunning, and that gorgeous church building looks like the grand dame of the town!
@lizelle Thank you Lady Lizelle and they call her the Mother Church. The church was established at a much earlier date on a patch of ground in a flimsy building, which was broken down and replaced with a stronger structure and finally in 1910 it was decided to build this church. Of course the church was at the centre and the town was built around it. What a great story! Blessings!
What a beautiful town, the car feature in the wall is so so cool as well
@tattoodjay Thank you Sir JJ. I think the owner of the place had much love for his old Jaguar and when it reached its end of days, he decided to mount a memory on the restaurant's wall. Blessings!
That sounds like a cool reason for it to be there, :)
Dwarfed by mountains surrounding town, wide roads that appear to be very clean compared to our cities.
The area looks a nice place to live, traveled through a couple of times but never stopped to explore.
Church has architecture to draw one closer to look, many towns have a church right in the center of town, it must be from history of important places being built higher in stature or on a hill.
Happy house hunting Stephen, you are getting to explore every nook and cranny in the Western Cape.
@joanstewart Such truth Lady Joan, spotless streets and really a great place. Sad thing is that the homes are too expensive for us. But soon another road trip will be taken to a few other smaller towns up there. The closer to the mountain and away from noise the better. A good thing is that Papillon can work anywhere in the country and I received a report last night that our trauma training course for child minders had a full house in Paarl. Will do a post sometime, as busy now with a summary of the adult nappy distributions. Blessings and thank you for the kind care. Hope things are slowly returning to normal at your end!
Everything in life is one day at a time, realize this much more the older you get.
Finding somewhere quiet would be what dreams are made of, I looked at prices over the years and yes homes are extremely expensive down there.
Living in the area already has given you some ideas, perhaps help from local residents is forthcoming.
I love your travel posts! I was so excited to see you post about Swellendam. When I was on my way to Oudtshoorn, we made a quick pause at Swellendam but haven't got to explore the town itself. I will definitely come back here.
Wow! I was in the army in Oudtshoorn a long time ago. Never been to Swellendam thought, but wwe will explore all of the small towns around here my friend! Blessings!