DWARS RIVER ESCAPE ROUTE VISION2020

A placemaking project in the Dwars River Escape Route

August 2016 to August 2019

THIS REPORT WAS WRITTEN IN 2016, AND SET IN THE FUTURE, IN 2020, REPORTING ON THE SUCCESSES OF THE PROJECT BY THAT POINT

Click here to listen to the audio report

Overview

In the mid 2000s, the non-profit tourism development agency Open Africa initiated a route development programme in the Dwars River Valley, the beautiful conflicted space between Stellenbosch and Franschoek. It was in Open Africa’s early days, and the Dwars River programme lost traction, while their other projects in rural areas took off quickly.

In 2015, with funding from the EU, Open Africa decided to make another attempt in Dwars River, applying all the learnings from their first attempt, and their areas of success.

Iain Harris of specialist tour operator Coffeebeans Routes was contracted as a mentor for the project, and he started a process with business owners in the three towns of Pniel, Kylemore and Lanquedoc to create a vision for the valley that could be achieved.

“Pniel, Kylemore, Lanquedoc and Johannesdal are no longer the invisible towns in the winelands. They are its new centre.”

Sarah Khan, New York Times

In the period 2016 to late 2019, the Dwars River Valley Escape Cooperative, made up of a collective of small enterprises in the valley, worked hard and smart to manifest their vision for the valley.

Now, four years since inception, we have the opportunity to reflect on the project, its successes, and the impact it has had on the winelands and the city as a whole.

New York Times writer Sarah Khan summed it up nicely in her December 2018 piece about the valley and the project: “In a matter of 3 years, through the work of an inspired group of business owners, a bland transit zone has became the most visually stimulating, sensory rich precincts to visit in the region. History, home food, a tasting centre, hospitality, street art, a zipline, one of the city’s most authentic markets, and the home of the best cakes in the country… Pniel, Kylemore, Johannesdal and Lanquedoc are no longer the invisible towns in the winelands. They are its new centre.”

Street art

We started with the debut street art competition in August 2017, as part of the Open Africa Challenge Fund, together with funds raised in the valley. Working loosely with the model that Tony Elvin implemented at the Langa Quarter in Langa, the idea was that a range of street art in Pniel, Kylemore, Johannesdal and Lanquedoc, would be arresting, and would compel people to stop. A big part of our challenge was to get people to stop in the region, and not just drive through. Even with compelling product, you need to give people a reason to stop and discover the layers of product.

A big part of our challenge was to get people to stop in the region, and not just drive through.

We brought in graf artist Jason Redman ak Dfeat One, a young artist skilled in working with aspirant young mural painters, to run the competition. At the time, he was already working with a Kylemore resident on a mural there, so the fit was a natural extension of what he was already doing. He commissioned two well known artists, Mak1One and Falko to do a couple of pieces each, and to be judges, and then got young local graffiti artists to participate in the competition. Apart from the competition generating enough really strong works, the press value was huge, and the competition day itself brought a lot of new eyes to the valley.

After three years of competition, with some of the local artists from year one becoming judges, and an international artist featuring annually from the 2018 competition, the Dwars valley street art has became an attraction of its own. The depth of the works, especially those works relating to the history of the valley, is compelling. The street art walking tours have been amazing in activating many of the young people in the valley, not only from a job point of view - some 15 site specific guides have been trained to guide street art tours between the three communities in the valley, and are earning regular income - but from the point of view of helping create connection, purpose and meaning. The street art projects got young people so excited about being in the valley, being connected to something contemporary and somewhat futuristic, having their own expression splashed all over the valley and not just being subjected to the historic narratives. The street art project has been powerful in giving young people a sense of what is possible. So the benefit is greater than just the arresting impact of the works, it has been an inspiration to youth in the valley. Lanquedoc in particular has benefited, with a range of works on homes in the area drawing new audiences into the community and creating ancillary opportunities, not least of all is added spend in the area. The amount of local traffic that has visited because of the street art has been significant in opening up the area physically and narratively.

Tasting Centre

This project was initiated and lead by Da Vinci Walduck. Visitors can taste wines from the valley, local food, local deli products, indigenous foods and drinks. It is also a physical centre point of connectivity to the activities in the valley: tours start and end here, bikes are rented from here, self-guided walks and rides start here. It is a tasting centre for the many senses of the valley.

Initially the project was funded through the Open Africa Challenge Fund and member wine estates, including Clouds, Boschendal, Delaire Graff, Tokara, and Meerlust, all who paid a fee to have a presence in the centre. All the estates wanted a piece of the centre, and we were careful to restrict access, rather than making it open season, to make it something desirable for the estates. Ongoing running costs are funded by subscription fees from the estates, as well as tasting fees and sales in the Tasting Centre shop and from the travel desk.

The Centre was opened in 2019, taking about a year longer than we would have liked, but land is a complex thing, not just in this valley. In agreement with the landowner, the site was prepared for usage, considering waste management and environmental impact and a 3 year lease was signed. After 3 years, hopefully in 2022,  the centre moves to it’s permanent home, on the main road at the entrance to Lanquedoc. This site allows for large bus parking, a larger tasting centre and other expansion opportunities, developed in the same aesthetic as the original tasting room.

The stop-and-stare factor of the Tasting Centre combined with the street art has achieved the objective of turning a transit zone into a destination.

Visitors are taken by the design of the Tasting Centre. It is bold and post-modern and arresting, it is an architecturally unique structure not only in the Winelands but in the broader city of Cape Town, and many are coming just to see what we have created structurally. The stop-and-stare factor of the Tasting Centre combined with the street art has achieved the objective of turning a transit zone into a destination. We have a good foundation to build from.

The Tasting Centre links in directly with key heritage sites, such as the Pniel Museum, with a rotating pop-up museum exhibition within the Tasting Centre, together with a heritage tasting menu that has a wine pairing option.

Many of the food products of local residents is available for sale at the Tasting Centre. The tasting centre also has a pop-up tasting station at the monthly Kylemore Market, and it’s been great to see people walking or cycling between the market and the tasting centre.

Homestay Hotel

Originally 30 rooms in and around Pniel, used when Winston Stubbs had his annual US academic group, the Homestay Hotel has expanded under Winston’s leadership and now has almost 80 rooms, spread across Kylemore, Pniel and Lanquedoch. With a mix between AirBnB guests, and direct guests, as well as bookings through agents, the Homestay Hotel has been successful in attracting guests to the region. Off the success of the venture, a new new small 4 star hotel is opening, with 10 rooms, increasing the bednight capacity of the three towns to 96 in total. When we started out in 2016, there were only 6 rooms available at Lumley’s Place. That is significant growth over the last 7 years, and the growth in accommodation has been a big driver of growth in the valley.

Dwars River Market

Originally proposed by Sienna Charles of Kylemore, and developed in co-operation with the Pniel Congregational Church, the market started out twice a year, then became monthly in 2018. It takes place at the entrance to Kylemore, and has room to grow across the road. With the growth in accommodation as detailed in the homestay section, we have seen a huge boost of weekend visitors to the valley, with people booking two nights so that they can experience the market on a Saturday morning for all its very local delicacies, local music and art, together with the walking, biking, street art, adventure activities available in the valley. It has been a valuable addition to the existing winelands markets, offering fresh produce, craft, deli items, fresh-cut flowers, and local food items. It is the only market in the region that really reflects the local cultural flavour, and that has been a big draw card for foreign visitors. Locals are drawn by the traditional food items (potjiekos and roosterbrood en langsous are popular) and the fresh produce. We hope that the market can grow to become a weekly event, and ultimately daily.

Home restaurants

The winelands has been aching for an alternative to the 5 star gourmet circuit, an offering of fine home cooked food, with home hospitality. Since 2016, we have seen 5 home restaurants open and running successfully (not always open every night, sometimes only on a private basis), with the area’s first dedicated restaurant opening as a result of the these successes in September 2020, so we are almost there, I hope you will all come to the launch! Having at least two home restaurants open on a daily, a la carte basis, has kept people in the area, and created alternatives to the dining offerings at the wine estates. When we did our initial workshops in 2016, a key factor was that demand for a dining experience that offered home-cooked meals, Route members indicated that visitors were always asking for this, wanting an alternative to all the fine dining. So it has been rewarding to see the home restaurants become a thriving reality.

Hammie’s Hut

Willie Hamilton’s cake-and-kuier centre has made the valley the cake centre of the city. Sorry Charley’s Bakery! Originally baking at home and selling out of the Tasting Centre (Willie’s cake tasting sessions at the centre, sometimes with wine pairings, are legendary!), in late 2019 moved into phase 1 of his Hammi’s Hut on the property at the entrance to Lanquedoc, just before the bridge, on land belonging to the Boschendal Trust. Hammi’s Hut is now a destination all on its own, and international press has jumped on this venture, with stories on CNN, in the Sunday Times of London and other papers running features on this culinary addition to the region.

Location wise this is great, in 2022 when the Tasting Centre moves to its new site across the road, we will have a really strong hub.

Activities

We’ve covered the infrastructural stuff. Now let’s look at the activities:

Bike hire

Some 20 bikes are available for rental for self-guided journeys in the valley, or for the guided bike tours.

Bike routes

Well signposted, self-guided cycling routes through the valley, connecting heritage sites, nature sites, and sites of contemporary interest

Walking tours

Self-guided and guide, with a strong focus on heritage and history, including a dedicated slave walk. Faith Stubbs has been heading up this portfolio, and taken responsibility for developing young guides to be able to guide these with knowledge and integrity.

On both bike and walking routes, cooking experiences have been very popular, including Fatima Shaik’s Cape Malay cooking workshops.

In 2016, with funding from Open Africa, we installed the first proper signage in the area for the available resources. This was just for things like the Church, the river and some walking routes, very simple, but it increased visibility dramatically and provided a sense of momentum.

Now will several routes marked with excellent signage, and some detailed boards, even local residents have been accessing information they previously were not aware of, especially the young people. The routes in Lanquedoch, telling a far more detailed and contemporary story of the community than currently available on websites, have drawn interest from academic groups, and that has helped increase the academic visitors numbers to the area. Thanks to Quinton Fortuin for the ongoing excellent research and insight to the historical information presented across all routes.  

Conclusions

Through annual membership fees and percentage of sales across all activities, the Dwars River Escape Route is self-sustaining and expanding. It is not without challenges, and certainly in the early stages there were some difficulties with sustained cash flow and commitment. Early successes were achieved with the street art programme, basic signage, and the Homestay Hotel, which helped to sustain involvement enough to sustain the project. This was a key learning - the project is full of big dreams, and to achieve those, you need to keep on realising the little ones. The little dreams falling into place ensure the big dreams become realities. The timelines are not always what are anticipated, but setting the right expectations from the beginning is key.

The founding members of the Dwars River Escape Route:

• Benita Cyster
• Winston Stubbs
• Faith Stubbs
• Willie Hamilton
• Fatima Shaik
• Sienna Charles
• Porchia Schwartz
• Da Vinci Walduck
• Eleanor Pietersen
• David Williams
• Gavin Antonie
• Melvin Meyer
• Moses Muller
• Janine Myburgh
• Yvonne Carolissen
• Doreen Carolissen