Man in the middel

11 December 2011 - 03:16 By © Nick Yell
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The dusty roads of the Karoo. File photo.
The dusty roads of the Karoo. File photo.
Image: NICK YELL

Nick Yell visits an outpost founded in 1860 by a travelling merchant

'I've seen the smouses go mad before. You come to our land, you understand nothing about our climate . that isn't the sun, that's Satan's eye hanging in the sky, man!"

Such was the warning issued by a farmer to "Smous", the effete travelling merchant in Sir Antony Sher's 1988 novel, Middlepost. After recently reading it, I just had to experience this small, privately-owned town for myself.

Before reaching the one-track Gannaga Pass that rises over the 700m-high Roggeveld escarpment, we crossed some 200km of mind-expanding Tankwa Karoo. The veld still displayed a few clumps of bright purple, hardy remnants from the proliferation of blooms that colour the normally grey-green Karoo landscape in spring.

When we'd entered the Tankwa Karoo National Park about 30km back, the change in fauna and flora from the lands grazed by sheep outside its borders was immediately apparent. Even the untrained eye can see how the variety of succulents increases - and they're packed together so tightly in places that the dry Karoo earth is hardly visible.

But it was the fauna that got most of our attention. Within 5km we'd witnessed a mature puffadder lying on the side of the road, a Cape cobra crossing our path, legions of large beetles, lizards and agamas, a small herd of grey rhebok and a bat-eared fox.

The outpost of Middelpos was founded in 1860 by a travelling merchant, or "smous", as they were known in those days, named Daniel Tomlinson. After establishing a trading post, he later built a bigger, better stocked shop, and the current hotel was completed some time later. The name Middelpos was garnered from the neighbouring farmers, who saw it as a conveniently placed refreshment stop and trading outlet servicing the barren reaches between Calvinia, Sutherland, Ceres and Williston.

It was some time during the Anglo-Boer War that Sher's grandfather, also a "smous", took over the hotel. His uncle carried on the family business until 1975, when it was bought by Messrs Steenkamp and Geldenhuys. The Wrights took over in 1980 and today their daughter, Helena van der Westhuizen, and her husband Koos own and manage this nostalgic country hotel, as well as Middelpos's other amenities.

Sher's childhood experiences of visiting his cousins at Middelpos became the canvas on which he let his fictional characters loose. Even Major Quinn, a fictional leftover from the British garrison stationed in these parts, has tentative roots in fact. Bearing this out is a grave in the back yard of the hotel with the remains of members of the Imperial Yeomanry. They were part of a 13-soldier detachment ordered to defend "to the death" a field-gun on an outlying ridge under attack from Smuts's commando. Eleven of the se brave British soldiers paid the ultimate price.

Stepping into the darkened old hotel, I saw an elderly woman sitting on a couch in the lounge, her face lit up by the flickering blue cast from the TV. She turned out to be the owner's mother and she tore herself away from 7de Laan to summons her daughter. As Helena showed us to our cosy en suite rooms, I found myself thinking of Sher's novel and almost expected Major Quinn and Smous to come weaving down the corridor, reeking of their illicitly distilled "Bokswater".

At dinner that night, my companion and I waded through mounds of succulent Karoo lamb, roast chicken, rice and platters of vegetables. I was suddenly very grateful that the nightly flatulent outbursts of Mrs Breedt at the Middlepost dinner table were only figments of Sher's imagination.

WHERE IT IS: The Middelpos Hotel is in the centre of the village, which is accessible from the R354 running between Sutherland and Calvinia, or the Gannaga Pass, which leads up from Ceres to Calvinia on the R355 through the Tankwa Karoo.

WHAT IT HAS: The hotel has 10 comfortable rooms, some of which are en suite and all of which are redolent of a more genteel era. There's also a bar, TV lounge, formal lounge and dining room.

WHY GO THERE: The hotel is a good base from which to explore some of the best back roads, passes and attractions of the Bo-Karoo - try any of the lesser secondary roads leading to Calvinia (Keiskie se Poort is particularly good); visit the museum and Hantam Huis, Williston or organise a trip to the Gansfontein paleosurface through the museum. But it's also a good place to just kick back, read, stroll over the fragrant veld and make a wish on a shooting star.

THE FOOD: We were spoilt with a dinner of Karoo lamb, roast chicken, rice, potatoes and pumpkin fritters, followed by an apple steamed pudding. Breakfast was a full English affair preceded by fruit juices, cereals and, for me, the coup de grace, oats porridge - all included in the rates.

RATES: We paid R320 per head for dinner, bed and breakfast.

CONTACT: Helena or Koos on 0273412505/7, e-mail mpos@hantam.co.za or visit www.middelpos.com.

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