If I had to think of a song about Darling I would say oh oh my darling that song
don't, don't quote me because I can't sing. "oh my darling oh my darling" that one...
[ laughs] I can't sing
My name is Nina Poole, we're in Darling down the West Coast of from Cape Town.
If someone's never heard of Darling before my first question is where have you been. Darling is in the Swartland region
it's a gem of a place it's off the R27, it's i won't say hidden gem, because it's a literal
gem it's got so much to offer, it's got culture, it's got a heritage, and it's got people,
it's the good life, it's good food good people and obviously good wine, what more do you want.
If that's not enough of a selling point man you're missing out on life. my name is Peter Pentz
I'm the communications manager at Groote Post Vineyards, together with my Father and Grandfather
we are currently three Pentz generations on Groote Post.
Land owned by one of the Van Reenen's, I think it was, he donated that to the Dutch Reformed Church for a Church to be built, and they also
made a town around it. The big thing being there was a fountain there at the top end of the town
where the Pastorie is now which fed the town with water, so it became like an official town in 1853
and they named it after this the Governor of the Cape at the time Lord Charles Henry Darling.
I'm John Duckett and we are on Wayland's Farm just outside of Darling about an hour's drive from Cape Town.
I think Darling has always been farming town you know it's where farmers come and
get their supplies and so on and you have a doctor, and a post office and a hardware store and a cafe
and a hotel, and that's been pretty much what Darling has remained
you know all this time. My name is Nicolaas Mauritz, I am a painter and I live in Darling.
You get out here and you and you find those hidden gems, the wine farms are amazing um you
know there's just so many amazing places to spend time and, and slow time, not rushing through Darling
stopping getting out your car and enjoying
and engaging with the community of Darling, and then I think you get to see Darling really shine.
I'm Philipa wood and we are here at Living Colour in Darling.
South African's love a biscuit, and it's a typical South African thing.
But when I think about the people from Darling, I can't think of just one biscuit that would describe them....
it's more as case of there's a bit of everything. From the biscuit that has no sugar to the nicest, sweetest biscuit you can get.
I am Hentie van der Merwe and we're in Darling at Evita se Perron.
Evita se Perron was started by Pieter Dirk Uys in the early 90's. it's actually a Cultural Centre which includes a theatre
which Pieter Dirk Uys uses for his Tannie Evita Bezuidenhout character.
Groote Post has got a very special story it comes back from the VOC days when this was actually a halfway post
between Cape Town and Saldanha Bay where they they used to stop and get refreshments, and these were
called outposts, and of these outposts this was the biggest post, the :Groote Post" (Big Post) Groote Post
we know it, so yeah in this building which hosts our cellar at the moment is an old fort that
was used back in the day and it's also a National Heritage Monument. Everything dates back to 1904
when my great Great Great Grandfather, he was a big milkman in the Tokai area and my Grandfather
took over and at a time we actually moved out to Darling with a, with a with a dairy, and slowly
but surely we planted some vineyards and then at a stage my Granddad made the big decision to move
over from milk to wine, and here we are today, it's uh we've bottled our first one in 1999
and never looked back. My Grandfather always says no one's ever come up to him and said he they had
a bloody good glass of milk last night from, him so with the wine it quite actually happens so
yeah we're on the West Coast, 1 Hours drive from Cape Town, lovely farm offering: wine tastings,
we do game drives, we've got a restaurant, so it's really a tourist attraction for the entire family.
The first time I drove into Darling I have to say that I was actually quite amazed, amazed that
it wasn't beautiful. It's not a beautiful town at all. It's a farm a farm town so there's
plenty of people come in and say why don't you fix up the street and fix up that street you've
got to start looking like Franschhoek. We don't need to do that because it's the people in
Darling, it's the farmer's workers it's the wine farmers it's the milk, Darling milk all those
people that's what darling is it's a huge community, and they all try to work together.
We're sitting at the Old Forge, 1910 the Old Forge, it's an old, was an old derelict barn, four years
ago and we we bought it recently, five years ago to renovate, my husband did all the work completely
and um Darling needed another restaurant there's there's pizza places there's cafeterias but no
restaurants as such that are open in the evenings, so we one that's open in the evenings, we, we
took it on and so far so good very happy. Our best dishes here; we do seafood quite a lot of seafood
there's no seafood in Darling strangely enough even though we're on the West Coast
we only use fresh produce in Darling, we use the Darling milk the Darling cream the Darling yogurt
we, all are greens or vegetables and stuff we buy from a farmer in Darling, all our
salad leaves and flowers for our drinks also come from a farmer in Darling, so
mussels are from up the road, the only thing that isn't fresh produce as far
as local, is our seafood that we bring in, so it's not from local except for the mussels
Living Colour is us, as a family we're always trying to think of ways to spend our weekends
where can we go where everyone's going to be happy, Living Colour is about
exactly that, living every day making sure you maximizing on your weekend and that when you get
there everybody's enjoying themselves, so Living Colour, living not in black and white basically.
I think a lot of people think that Darling's flat especially if you just
had to drive through the village, and then I think if you get into this part of Darling
you'll, you'll realize that it's definitely not, especially if you do it on a bike or
in some running shoes, um but what I love about this spot is that
a lot of people locals have driven past this exact spot and said they've never really appreciated its
beauty and now that we've framed it they're like wow it's such a beautiful spot so um what I love
about this venue is that for all the beauty that Darling has there could be more places where you
can sit and have a good view and I think that's really what people love, sit and have something
beautiful to look at, I love the view from our stop here um but yeah Darling itself the landscape
it's um it's dry but you can enjoy it, it's beautiful I mean I think you do see all the
different seasons we're very excited to see what our garden is going to look like
now when all the rain starts, we've been working really hard on it, and because Darling obviously
just absolutely, when we built this place the entire place was built in these tiny little
yellow flowers which are absolutely beautiful so I can't wait to see what it's going to look like
but having said that I mean I think this time of year has also got its own beauty and and
hopefully it can always be appreciated for for the landscape, the landscape is amazing um
but yeah this time of year obviously very dry.
Living Colour is a trail center that's five kilometers outside Darling towards
the Yzerfontein direction, and we are trail center with 25 kilometers of walking, running and cycling
and restaurant with loads for the kids to do. the whole district is really that of a mixed mixed
The whole district is really that of a mixed mixed, agriculturally as a mixed area, but it also means from in the veld's perspective the felt is
then a, um is probably one of the richer areas within the Cape flora, as far as flora is concerned
I know there are something like 12 there's 15 000 species of wildflowers in the Western Cape flora
and of those I think a thousand at least a thousand two hundred,
I know Rondeberg that they did a thing that they found 1 200 species of flowering plants
on Rondeberg, and that now if you take that as being sort of an average zone the Darling is about
85 000 hectares, the Cape flora is about 85, 8 500 square kilometers, what 100th of the area has
10 percent of the flora, and and that's huge if you think about the Amazon basin which has 850 000
square kilometers, has 800 species of flowering plants in it
and that is a, reckoned to be a flora rich area. I mean they just don't compare to Darling
I was born with a brush in my mouth, and it's not something you can deny, it. it
takes hold of you and then you become you become the artist, it's a calling
If I could have rather chosen something that would have made me rich
I may have thought differently when I started out but
you know, so far so good
um yeah, it's difficult to it's difficult for an artist to say what they do
specifically by way of description you know I can give a
physical description of it, so I do painting at the moment I'm very involved with sculptures
making sculpture three-dimensional work
and I suppose I'm better known as a painter of say landscapes Cape landscapes or Namibian landscapes
This this property started as my living accommodation
and then I thought well I better turn it into a gallery um which sounds as if people can come here
and buy something maybe, um and then after a while it became so full of things or you know over years
that I thought this place is becoming to look it's beginning to look like a museum,
but it's a joke really it's it's slightly satirical. I suppose the idea of a museum is also
that many people think only very valuable things are museum worthy, but I don't think so I think
almost anything can be in a museum, it doesn't have to have monetary value, so
um a kilim carpet or a nice piece of stinkwood furniture or a nice piece of ceramic
ware by a local potter or something like that, which appeals to me
and fits into my idea of what is beautiful say, um I think that's worth including or showing
in a museum. People experience this place as a museum, or they can't see it at all
do you know what I mean they're come in here, they can't see the fact that it's a museum.
Fritz and I took over the Perron a couple of years ago
we use it primarily for our bakery, the Swartland Rusk and biscuit range we started about one and a half years ago..
we still have the Tannie Evita shows every Sunday, we also have the fine dining restaurant Nkosi Sikelele that is open Friday, Saturday and Sunday,
and the cafe that you can enjoy light meals daily.
We start baking at about 8am in the morning, we are a team of 6 women from the local community
the smell of the biscuits baking is wonderful, it fills the whole Perron, people who come in love it
it inspires them, the thing about rusks, it's a typical South African thing, so when you bake rusks you feel part of a tradition that is years old.
In the morning when I walk through Darling, the quiet surrounds me, the town is peaceful and there is a grounded feeling, but by 8am it
is lively, as a typical town should be, a working town, and the great energy of Darling that is inspiring.
[laughing]
If the people of Darling were a trail it would be very rude to say they're a park run
so um I've got a an event coming up the Jonkershoek mountain challenge, Darling people would be,
no you know what people people of Darling they make a plan and make things work, I mean, I think
where Darling is at the moment with all, as I've mentioned before, the
amazing entrepreneurs I think we are a fabulous fabulous town that that um
yeah we're ever changing um and whatever the the mountain is we get up it and enjoy the down,
the downhill when it comes, but yeah I think it would be a mountain challenge and not a park run.
I think if you need to compare Darling to a wine and the people of, it's quite
a difficult question and probably a daunting question because the answers might differ
but I think the answer is quite simple it's Sauvignon Blanc, not just because the fact
that Sauvignon Blanc does well in in in Darling and Sauvignon Blanc is a top cultivar in South Africa,
it's got layers of fruit, it's got layers of of structure to it, it's it's quality it's good
it's the favorite varietal of South Africa, so make your own assumptions what I'm trying to
do with that but people love it uh it's well accepted everywhere it's classy it's just nah
I mean more than that have a glass of Sauvignon Blanc think about what I said
about Darling and you'll see the connection.
It's a kind of paradise, a kind of eden
but it's got its own description, it is not a paradise like elsewhere
I think the only um similar area in the world is maybe the West Coast of
America sort of California or you know the West Coast of Australia it's got a west coast feeling
um it's not the prettiest of places but it is very livable and very rewarding,
and just lately I must say that the best champagne that you could possibly wish to taste comes from
some of the local wine estates, I mean they're three estates now making uh
champagne you know cap classique champagne and it is fantastic and it is uh reasonably priced
so um yeah Darling keeps getting better.
The beauty of the trails out in the Swartland is
the absolute deafening silence that you're going to have up there, and the beauty of the Swartland
climbs and hills that you never even imagined were there with views of the sea
views of Table Mountain and just beauty and space and skies for days.
There was a Charles Backhouse he was a guy that that rode around the Western Cape in the
early times of the English settlement here he said "there are no flowers, like those in Darling"
I think there's lots of misconceptions about small platteland dorpies, I think it's time to break them
it's time for people to come out and see the true platteland and what they've got to offer, come see
what you country hospitality is, come see what's fine dining, and can experience the good life.
You know you're on a great adventure when the first person you bump into says, Hello Darling.