A French Canadian lured by a Canada Dry sign, a cheesemaker taught by a priest, a one-time diplomat with a bistro that hit the Top 500 list, a Christina Martin-trained chef, a Silwood alum with a droll sense of humour. Butcher. Baker. Coffee roaster. The unexpected happens as a road trip leads to a dorpie flavoured with convivial eccentrics.
Why Wakkerstroom?
For the birds? The quest to spot Rudd’s Lark, Botha’s Lark and the Yellow-breasted Pipit is why many a twitcher descends.
For the Anglo Boer War history? There’s a cemetery that is a lure for those keen to call back the past.
For hiking and mountain biking? Some regular weekend trippers say this is the draw.
Why did I make the six-hour-plus road trip from Durban and book a four-night stay at Crabtree Cottage whose owner, it emerged, was returning to Durban after two years in Wakkerstroom? Warm if you guessed culinary! Culinary, plus a bit of a back-story.
It all began with Mark Kotze, who trained “back in the year dot” as a chef at the 60-year-old (next year) Silwood School of Cookery in Cape Town. Since qualifying he has never cooked in any kitchen other than his own, which for the past few years has included the kitchen of his 20-seater “intimate dining” by-appointment-only eatery at DeKotzenhof, the guesthouse with restaurant he and his wife, Karen, have in Wakkerstroom.
After Kotze messaged asking to meet me during the 2022 Travel Indaba in Durban. “Why me? To come and meet you?” I ask, genuinely curious, when I get to the small Wakkerstroom stand at the appointed time.
“Because you write about food and Wakkerstroom is the culinary capital of South Africa,” he says. My mouth, I am sure, falls open. Then we both laugh. Pretty uproariously.
But I take his map, stash the name Wakkerstroom in my head.
Until finally last month, while planning a solo road trip in my tiny townie car for other reasons, I see I can easily side-track into Wakkerstroom. Visit this culinary capital, which epithet makes me laugh every time I think of it. There, it just happened again.
Read the full story: Loving Wakkerstroom, where the unexpected happens in the Daily Maverick.
