Irrigating the Gamtoos Valley

How often do you wonder where exactly the water in your tap and fruit and vegetables in your kitchen comes from?  We'll, if you live in Port Elizabeth its possible to answer both these questions for yourself by visiting the Gamtoos Valley.  The Gamtoos Valley is often referred to as the food basket of the Eastern Cape as it is one of South Africa's biggest citrus and vegetable producing areas.  The farms get their irrigation water from exactly the same place we get our drinking water from, the Kouga Dam.

The dam is a double curve arch dam with an 82 m high wall and storage capacity of 128,7 million m3.  The catchment area is inside the Baviaanskloof Wilderness Area from where the Kouga River carries the water into the 34 km long dam basin.  Other than for water supply the dam was also built as a flood control mechanism to lessen the impact of a flood on the lower Gamtoos River.  Visitors can get right up to the point where I took the photos from for a view of the dam and dam wall with it becoming an even more exceptional sight when the dam overflows. 

Water is taken from the Kouga Dam to the Loerie Dam via a main canal while irrigation water for the farms in the valley is distributed by means of a series of canals and pipelines.  7400 ha of scheduled ground are irrigated with every irrigator being supplied with at least one draw-off with a self registering meter.  These are then operated by the farmers themselves according to their needs and up to a maximum limit of 8000 m3 per ha per year.

And this is where the irrigation water goes.  Citrus orchards like this and fields of potatoes and other vegetables.  The Gamtoos Valley is the ideal breakaway for city folk in the Port Elizabeth area.  The area offers beautiful scenic views, fresh air, lekker food, genuine farm stalls and real wholesome country living hospitality, with most guest houses and B&B's situated on working farms.

Going nowhere slowly

Just west of Patensie, travellers through the Gamtoos Valley will find the Padlangs farm stall.  It's a favourite with both visitors and the locals and I really have to do a post on it one day, but that day is not today.  Outside the farm stall visitors would find the remnants of transport methods used in the valley in the past.  Parts of an ox wagon and an old bakkie (a Chev perhaps?)

 

I placed a couple of Geocaches in the valley on one of my visits and the bakkie is one of my cache locations.  Finding the cache is a good excuse to stop and stopping is a good excuse to go for a meal or something cold on a hot day at the farm stall.  Across the road from the bakkie you can see the citrus trees that the valley is so famous for and a couple of the trailers used to transport the citrus to the co-ops.

Foggy hills

We are slap bang in the middle of a warm hot sweltering summer spell.  Days are hot and the crows are yawning, every bit of shade gets used by big and small and people, specially the farmers, are keeping their eyes skyward in the hope of a shower to cool things down a bit.  When the sun rises in the east and the hills are covered in early morning fog, like this Gamtoos Valley scene close to Patensie, its a sign that another scorcher is on its way. 

Gamtoos Valley mountain silhouettes

Just after sunset the mountains of the Baviaanskloof west of Patensie turn into silhouettes against the colour changing sky.  Shortly after they turn transparent in the fading light before disappearing into the night.

Phillip's Tunnel in Hankey

Every little town has its interesting sites to visit, being it historic, natural or man-made.  Often visitors pass through without ever knowing about these places and in most cases they slowly become forgotten to all but a few.  One such site in my opinion is the Phillip's Tunnel in Hankey in the Gamtoos Valley.  There is a sign on the main drag through town but in most cases visitors are heading towards the Baviaanskloof and doesn't even notice it.  The road to the tunnel leads through the town's township, over the Gamtoos River and then past some farmlands.  The turnoff from the dirt road takes one up to the tunnel, a yawning mouth in the hillside.  Don't get me wrong, there isn't a huge amount to see.  But what is there is worth seeing, specially if you are into historic sites.

Hankey was started as a mission station on behalf of the London Missionary Society by Dr John Phillip.  The main purpose was to grow corn and mielies for the mission station at Bethelsdorp as well as to carry out evangelistic work in the valley.  Dr Philip's son, William Philip, came to the mission station in 1841 and during his time there the area experienced a serious water shortage.  The best way to get water from the Gamtoos River to the settlement's farmland was to dig a tunnel through the cliff that stood in-between the two.  A formidable task indeed but not one that put William off in any way.  In 1843 he started the project with the help of Khoi labourers and in just more than a year they completed the 228 meter tunnel.  William drowned in the river just after the official opening of the tunnel which was used for over a century.  These days the tunnel is no longer in use because of irrigation canals criss crossing the valley and but has been declared a national monument.

Biggest sundial in the Africa

The biggest sundial in Africa and the Southern Hemisphere can be found somewhere in South Africa.  "Where in South Africa?" I hear you ask. Cape Town? You're cold.  Johannesburg? Very cold. Durban? Still cold. Port Elizabeth? Getting warmer. Where then? Its located in the humble Gamtoos Valley town of Hankey.  The Hankey Sundial was completed by local farmer Mr Dirk Schellingerhout in 1989 to commemorate the town's 160th anniversary.  The dial is located at the entrance to the town and just below Vergaderingskop, the final resting place of Saartjie Baartman. The Hankey Sun Dial has a diameter of 34.6m and the gnomon is 18m high, and weighs one ton.

Dusk in the Gamtoos Valley

Dusk in the beautiful Gamtoos Valley with the Cockscomb Mountains on the horizon.

Orchard rainbow

An afternoon shower washed off the dust of a day exploring the Gamtoos Valley along some dirt back roads.  As the sun came out we went for a walk through the citrus orchard at Nikalandershoek where we were staying and a rainbow appeared over the trees.  The perfect end to the day.

Patensie Plaasbasaar - the epitome of church bazaars

Most people have been to their local church or school bazaar where the old tannies man tables with vetkoek, curry and rice and pancakes and kids run around while their parents buy food and chat to their neighbours who they never get to see due to the 6 foot wall separating their homes.  Last weekend I got to go to the Patensie Plaasbasaar, the NG Kerk Gamtoosvallei-Oos annual bazaar and I have to be honest here.  It was the mother of all church bazaars and makes our little city church bazaars look like a Micky Mouse tea party. 

 

The Gamtoos Valley is a major citrus and vegetable growing area and is often referred to as the food basket of the Eastern Cape.  Knowing that the first question people asked me when I came back was if there was fruit and vegetables on sale. Seriously?  Is the sea wet?  There was lots of fruit and particularly vegetables on sale.  So much so and at such low prices that people bought wheel barrows full with the farm workers assisting going flat out all day, wheeling people's purchases to their cars (or bakkies as is the case in most of the people from the valley who came).  And making some seriously good tips along the way.  

 

Coming into the Endulini Citrus packhouse where the bazaar was held the first thing you saw was the tea garden and all its cakes, and tarts, and cakes and... did I mention tarts?

 

  

 

I don't just mean any cakes and tarts, but cakes and tarts that would make most bakeries and coffee shops green with envy.  Green I say. Lime green with some frog in a blender green thrown in for good measure.  These cakes weren't just thrown together, they were made with exceptional skill and effort by people living in a farming community.  For the sake of the tea garden the cakes were cut up and in plates already, selling at R15 a piece.  The only problem was deciding which one to choose.  Not quite a piece of cake.    

 

One of my favourite things at the bazaar was watching these ladies making rooterkoek.  Roosterkoek, for those who don't know it, is bread rolls made over the coals and normally prepared along with a braai.  The roosterkoek table was where I bought my lunch of warm roosterkoek with farm butter melting and running over my fingers, topped off with whole fig jam and cheese.

It truly was a treat watching these experts at work.  They were churning out dozens of roosterkoek and as fast as they were making them, people were buying them.  During the auction later on they stopped making roosterkoek because they thought people were done buying and suddenly found themselves out of stock.  Didn't take long for the next batch to be rolled, cut and made though.

 

Other tables at the bazaar was heavily laden with all kinds of traditional bazaar goods. 

Bottled onions, bottled beetroot, jams, lemon syrup...

 ... breads, cakes, rusks, koeksisters...

 





 ... pancakes (and what is a church bazaar without pancakes?), jaffles, salamis, cheeses and biltong.

The most popular part of the bazaar was their farm breakfast which was served all day, buffet style.  Bacon, mince, sausage, patties, baked beans, egg, breads with farm butter, jams and cheese served with juice, all for just R40.  This was well topped off with a dessert from the pudding table selling at R10 and R15 per container. Baked puddings, jellies, instant puddings, more baked puddings and custard.  Like Oom Oubaas of 7de Laan on television would say.  "I had to stop myself before I chewed my lips off." 

 

 

 

 

 

 During the day the stage was used for a proper farmers auction with sheep, goats and chickens, kudu hunts, wire cars and several other items up for grabs.  I couldn't really compete with some of the farmers' wallets but did enjoy the banter going on between some of the guys on the floor.  The auction was followed by a boere-orkes. Uhm, ja.  Not sure how to translate that into English.  Its a traditional Afrikaner band led by a concertina player.  Not really something that is popular with the younger crowd these days, but still very special to hear live. 

Outside the kids did the standard jumping castle thing with a sweets and kiddies table nearby to keep them all sugared up.  One of the local farmers did tractor rides into the orchards which clearly was supported more by the city kids than the farm kids who get to ride on tractors whenever they want. 

 

I wouldn't have know of the bazaar if it wasn't for Nichola Uys of Nikalandershoek.  Nichola is the driving force behind the Gamtoos Tourism Association and invited us out to the valley for the weekend.  While we were there we stayed in her cottage on the citrus farm Nikalandershoek.  The cottage is self catering and the ideal spot to base yourself to explore the valley or just chill away from the city rush.  Breakfast at Tolbos in town, lunch at Padlangs just outside of Patensie and late afternoon strolls through the orchards with outings to the Baviaanskloof, Kouga Dam, Queen Victoria profile and Hankey in between.  Truly a plattelandse experience with a good farming flavour in the mix.  Next year we'll definitively be returning for the Plaasbasaar with heaps of our friends in tow.  They didn't want to believe me before hand that its going to be a great experience and now they have to wait a year for the next one.

Queen Victoria in the Gamtoos Valley

 

One of the well known landmarks in the Gamtoos River Valley in the Eastern Cape is the Queen Victoria Profile on the road between Patensie and the Baviaanskloof.  The profile is the result of erosion of the sheer cliff and can be seen when driving towards Patensie.  

 

About 140 million years ago the Cape Mountains were roughly three times higher than today.  A period of high rainfall then eroded them and the Enon Conglomerate, of which much of the Gamtoos valley is composed of this, was the result.  A conglomerate is a rock consisting of individual clasts within a finer-grained matrix that have become cemented together.  The geological strata of this area known as the Enon Formation is the result of boulders, pebbles, sand and clay which were deposited in an early basin of the Gamtoos.  The material was subsequently cemented together to form conglomerate.  The Enon Formation was deposited in the form of alluvial fans by rivers draining the Cape Fold mountains.  In places the Enon conglomerate is quarried to produce crushed aggregate.

 

 But back to Queen Vic.  Have another look at the rock formation and then at this old picture of queen herself.  Kinda looks like her, doesn't it?

Citrus Festival photos gallery

The annual Patensie Citrus Festival took place on 15 June 2013 in the Gamtoos Valley west of Port Elizabeth.  The Gamtoos is mainly a farming area with beautiful scenery, not forgetting true farming hospitality, so I take any excuse I can get to visit.  After really enjoying the 2012 festival we decided to head out there again this year and bundled the family in the car on the Saturday morning, headed out to the countryside.  Here are a some scenes from the festival.

 

Citrus farm tour

While browsing around the stalls at the Patensie Citrus Festival on Saturday I heard the announcer say something about tractor trips to one of the citrus farms and I immediately went to enquire. Five minutes later the family was sitting in a trailer behind farmer Danie Malan's tractor in anticipation for the tour to his farm to start.

Along the way Danie stopped to tell us about the young citrus trees that we saw and how the sun can easily burn their trunks hence the trunks getting wrapped.  The second stop was at the lemon orchard where I got to hop off and pick a couple of lemons that went into dessert on Father's Day (the next day), lemon meringue.  After another short ride we got to the naartjie orchard, our main destination.

Everybody on board got a bag and could get off the trailer and pic their own naartjies.  Pipless and guaranteed sweet.  This is the type of thing that city folk love to do as most of them have never had the opportunity to walk between the trees and pick their own fruit.  This has great tourism potential for an area with city slickers going there for a weekend to experience the farm atmosphere.  The Gamtoos Valley has a lot of very good farm based accommodation establishments, so perhaps all they need to do is to offer the farm experience along with it and they would be able to attract even more people to the beautiful part of the province.  But I digress. 

The farm tour was by far the Kidz' favorite part of the day.  Especially Drama Princess loved picking the fruit and I'm sure she will enjoy living on a farm so much more than in the city.  The In-Laws joined us at the festival a little later on and also went on the tour with the Kidz tagging along again.  Like the farmer said, "They're my best customers." 

Patensie Citrus Festival 2012

There is just something special to small town festivals which you don't get in the cities and the Patensie Citrus Festival has that something special.  This past weekend the third annual Citrus Festival took place in the Gamtoos Vally west of Port Elizabeth.  The Gamtoos Valley is very much a farming area and produce both fruit and vegetables with potatoes and oranges being two of the major produce from the valley.  In actual fact the valley is often referred to as the food basket of the Eastern Cape.  The festival took place and and around one of the storage sheds in the town and gets organised by Gamtoos Tourism to generate funds to market the valley and create awareness for more visitors to come and experience one of the most beautiful areas in this part of the Eastern Cape.  Festivities started on the Friday evening already with a dance where well known country music star Lance James performed.

Our first stop when we got to the festival and one of the main reasons we went was the fresh produce stall.  Produce so fresh it comes straight from the farms.  Plus we paid less than half what we would have paid for the same stuff in the city.  Rather than trolleys there were farm workers who loaded your purchase onto wheelbarrows and pushed it to the car for you.  Real farm hospitality.

Because the area is one of South Africa's top export citrus producers, citrus is at the core of the festival.  The local Patensie Citrus group had one of the best stalls of the day selling jams, marmalade's and even a cookbook.  Another citrus related highlight was a farm tour on a tractor and trailer with farmer Danie Malan during which visitors were allowed to go in amongst the citrus trees and pick their own naartjies.

Entertainment and exhibits there were more than enough of with Dillon Lerm kicking off the on stage entertainment which went on all afternoon and well into the evening.  Outside there were tractor and farming exhibits, an old car and vintage tractor exhibit, a funfair and even a haunted house for the kids to go and scream in.  Well scream, laugh and giggle.   



Except for the on stage entertainment the stalls at any festival is at the core of things and without good stalls people don't return to these festivals.  And good stalls the Citrus Festival had.  The Gamtoos Tourism food stall were churning our pancakes, breakfast rolls and burgers while the roosterkoek stall on the other side of the isle just couldn't keep up with the demand.  Fresh orange juice squeezed and poured immediately was tops.  You just don't get that in the city much.  Outside another popular stall was the Pomegranate stall where the sold fresh pomegranate juice, something I've never had before.

Oh and cakes.  Did I mention the cakes?  The local church ladies had a table where they sold the most divine lemon tarts, cup cakes, carrot cakes and quiche.  What's a small town festival without the local tannies' cakes?  And in this case nice "hold in the hand bite size" cakes.

The Citrus Festival may not be as big as the more established Kirkwood Wildlife Festival but I kinda like it that way.  I do have a feeling though that in a couple of years this festival is going to be very popular.