We eventually arrived at Matjiesfontein, lucky we didn't listen to our satnav as that was directing us in completely the wrong direction up some gravel track to oblivion! Did I mention that this place was in the middle of nowhere, it certainly is, even Google maps hasn't got a clue.
Anyway, upon arrival we decamped to our (rather old fashioned) room, in fact in the picture above our room was on the first floor just to the left of the entrance (with the ornate veranda) It was kinda like stepping back to the 1880s, a Victorian time capsule, a mad hotel built by some eccentric Colonel trying to make his mark on Empire!
In reality the hotel (and surrounding compound) was built in 1889 by a Scottish railwayman, James Douglas Logan, it was the centerpiece of a Victoria health spa (there's a small river running through it) and bizarrely Logan was a Cricket fanatic and also built a full size pitch within the compound. It was named after the Governor of the Cape at the time (Lord Milner) and has played host to many famous characters of that era like Cecil Rhodes, Rudyard Kipling and Randolph Churchill. The Cape railway from Cape Town North to Johannesburg runs alongside the compound and apparently touring cricketers used to stop and get some practice in on their way up country! There is still a station here (see below) and the hotel is a popular stop for tourists travelling on the luxury "Blue Train" from the Cape to Pretoria.
During the second Boer war the compound and hotel served at British Army HQ and several of the buildings acted as a field hospital for soldiers, in fact if you walk out onto the Karoo and scuff around in the dusty soil you can still find old cans of Victorian bully beef, it's said that at one point there were 10,000 troops stationed here on their way to fight in the North.
Next to the hotel (in fact joined to the hotel) is a pub, called "The Lairds Arms" it's interior has hardly changed since the 1880s, old fashioned wooden paneling and a solid hardwood bar with the walls adorned with Queen Victoria's portrait, old photos of cricket teams and blokes with handlebar mustaches! (see below)
I snapped this picture of the bar inside the pub (see below), we parked ourselves here for a couple of hours after we arrived, it was a great place to sit and chat with fellow travelers, it felt like we were all Victorian explorers with tall tales of Africa to tell!
The other thing that this hotel is famous for is the shortest bus tour in the world, it's true, there's an old routemaster in the car park (see below) and at 5 'o' clock a trumpet sounds and everyone is summoned to the bus, we of course headed upstairs (for a better view), it pulls away and turns the corner by the hotel, the chap narrating the tour explains that the building next to the hotel served as courthouse, jail, post office and general store, we turn another corner, "here is museum building", another corner, and another and hey presto we're back where we started! Total time 5 minutes, it's a fabulous tour..
After our tour the trumpet sounded again, we were being called to dinner..
The dining room was something else (see below), another Victorian time capsule, everything was either wood (mahogany) or Iron and all the waiters wore suitable red waistcoats and white gloves. I snapped a picture of it (below) the menu was simple, only a couple of main dishes including the famous "Karoo Lamb" which we both had, it was delicious, not Haut Cuisine but a huge slab of perfectly cooked meat with vegetables on the side and a tasty jus. We retired to our rather spooky room with full bellies and happy hearts, this place certainly was a different experience!
Being miles from anywhere in the middle of the Klein Karoo you can image that the light pollution was practically zero, the sky there was amazing, you couldn't help but stare up in awe at the trillions of twinkling points of light, photographs don't really do it justice but I snapped one never the less (below) Not the most luxurious night of our trip but certainly a memorable one!
After a night under the stars we awoke fairly early and headed down for a hearty breakfast, after that we packed up and checked out, we were headed back toward the city and the penultimate stop of our trip and one that I was particularly looking forward to, we were headed to "wine country", read all about it in the next episode.
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