Cape Town - Barrelling up the R27 to Langebaan, we've often passed a turn-off to a place with an unpronounceable name, and just kept driving.
Other people have done the same: when I mentioned it to a colleague, she said: “Oh, that place on the hill, I always wondered what's up there.”
Recently, I took the turn-off less travelled, and am glad I did.
When I say I, I mean we - the we being a group of journalists and travel bloggers who spent that day at !Khwa ttu - pronounced with a click at the beginning.
The day was billed by the public relations people as the #KhwattuFoodies Day - with nature walk, a three-course lunch and a tour of the !Khwa ttu Education Centre.
The assorted foodies were greeted with coffee, scones and a speech by general manager Michael Daiber. So far, so press junket.
But the speech was fascinating, telling the story of how the San Education and Culture Centre started, and what it does now.
One of the first things Daiber pointed out was that Khoisan is not an acceptable blanket name: in the context we are talking San, or Bushmen, are the way to refer to this often marginalised group (and indeed, Bushmen is how our guides on the day universally referred to themselves).
Daiber described the controversies of the 90s, when there were various attempts to give the San a place in tourism.
“There was a need to find a place were 100 000 people from three countries could interact with tourists, a place where tourists could learn,” he said.
In complex negotiations and interactions, Cape Town was settled on as a destination equally far away for all of the San involved.
“ At that time, a Swiss person who had studied anthropology wanted to help, and with his assistance the land as purchased and donated to a non-profit organisation. That was 16 years ago,” he said.
“It was a dilapidated farm – in a long process, a joint venture, the 1850 hectares were cleared; 150km of farm fences were cleared, and buildings were restored.”
A small game reserve was established and the various tourism initiatives were started.
Today, !Khwa ttu focuses on responsible tourism that creates jobs, trains people and “steps soft” as Daiber puts it.
There's a restaurant (open for breakfast and lunch), a craft shop, accommodation, a conference centre, mountain biking. Visitors can also do guided tours, as we did later in the morning.
All this generates income for special projects like the training centre where young San people do an eight month accredited guiding course - with knowledge they then take back to their homes.
Another leg is culture and heritage – they are working on a museum. “This is a dream we are working on, we will get there, we are used to it,” says Daiber cheerfully.
Then we set off for a walking tour with Andre Vaalbooi, a Bushman who has been at !Khwa ttu for several years. He took us through the history of life on the land, dispossession and revival that his people have gone through - and showed us the traditional uses of some of the plants that have been cultivated around the centre.
There was a demonstration of Bushmen artefacts and culture in a mock Bushman village. These can often be a little cringeworthy - but in this case, it was done with humour by the San themselves, speaking their own tongue. A cup of mint tea was handed out as Donika Dala spoke lovingly of clothing and customs in the !Xun-tali language - with translations by Kerson Jackson, who had also been our driver up from Cape Town.
And back to lunch, where we were served dishes that are available on the restaurant's usual menu, accompanied by wines from Ormonde, the neighbouring wine farm.
Chef Jane Wallace introduced each course, and it is clear that the emphasis is on sustainabiility and sourcing local ingredients. The waiting staff come from the training school as part of their experiential learning.
Our first course was a deliciously light cheese souffle with pears and caramelised nuts. The accompanying wine was a cool and flinty Ondine semillon, poured and lovingly described by Adre Rheeder, Ormonde's chief operating officer,
Next up was venison potjie. Wallace said the meat was sourced from the reserve's own animals, which are humanely slaughtered. Local vegetables and mash were washed down with an Ormonde Chip Off The Old Block cabernet sauvignon. The wine was full of berry and vanilla but the venison was little too peppery to my taste.
Then there was small intensely sweet yet refreshing lemon palate cleanser.
The chocolate mousse dessert with a layer of grape jelly was accompanied by the award winning Theodore Eksteen, a shiraz/grenache blend from 2008. The mousse was sublime and the wine a good match: deep, spicy and gorgeous.
There was a final round of homemade limoncello and biscotti - but not for me. I stuck with Theodore.
After lunch, we gathered on the verandah under the trees where frantically busy weaver birds were making their spring nests. We wandered over to the training centre, and had a tour of the small but well-appointed facilities. In the training room we interrupted a session on eco-guiding, and were introduced to the students, some of them from as far afield as Namibia. It looked like good things are happening in the training field.
Then it was back on the bus for the 70km drive back to Cape Town, well-fed and inspired.
Now I know what's up on that hill- and I'm glad I do. It's always good to see dreams coming true.
Website: http://www.khwattu.org/
IOL
@reneemoodie