The power of flowers: slow travel in the Overberg

To a casual observer, it must be a curious scene: two new acquaintances in a coffee shop, both with watery eyes. We could just blame the pollen count. It is early October, after all, and the small town of Stanford, Western Cape, smack bang in the middle of the Cape Floral Kingdom, is bursting with blooms, even more than usual. 

It is also so heaving with visitors that you’d think the Beatles had come to town. The big attraction, though, is an exhibition of flowers. So really it’s more bees, butterflies and actual beetles causing the buzz. Titled “Chelsea Flowers in Stanford”, it’s a replica of the display that won South Africa all the major prizes at the “World Cup of landscaping” in May, the RHS Chelsea Flower in London. Now people are pouring into a hall on the main Queen Victoria Street to admire a magical sea of fynbos — about 100 different species included in the display — on an undulating clay frame representing the Cape Fold mountains. 

The man fighting back his, um, allergies in the coffee shop is just across the street. Michael Lutzeyer, the owner of Grootbos Private Nature Reserve, which helped get the SA team to London and fronted the funds for the Stanford encore, despite having no idea how it would be received. The woman is me, moved by Michael’s account of its surprise success.

“I don’t know how many ladies have come up to me and said, ‘My dream was going to Chelsea. I could never have afforded it.’ And the tears are flowing, and they say, ‘Now I’ve seen it.’ ”

The other thing he hears a lot is thank you. “ ‘Thank you for highlighting our heritage!’ They are so proud.”

Earlier, walking me round the flower show, Chris Lochner told a similar story of people getting all the feels. And I get it. If you don’t, think of how South Africa stirs when Tyla wins a Grammy or Chezzy scores a try. The Unesco-listed Cape Floral Kingdom has a mind-boggling variety of plants living together in a small area. Of the world’s six floral kingdoms, it is the smallest, yet the most diverse with over 9,500 species, more than 70% of which are found nowhere else. And it’s the only one entirely in one country. As a point of national pride, it’s basically the Bokke for botanists. Just prettier.

With the flower display in the centre, the long walls of the hall are lined with delicately detailed watercolours from the Grootbos Florilegium. My guide, Lochner, is a resident artist at Grootbos who participated in this — a big, fat beauty of a book that gathers 120 illustrations of plants found on the reserve, plus the pollinators and other creatures associated with them. Altogether, it took 44 local and international artists who were invited to spend time there studying their subjects. The specific plants were selected for their stories: for being rare or endangered; having medicinal properties or interesting pollination mechanisms.

As we linger over the paintings and displays, Lochner shares some of these stories. How the Victorians went wild for and overpicked the shy marsh rose, making it now very rare. How so many plants and pollinators work like puzzle pieces, each with a perfect partner. How some need fire to be reborn. 

ROOM TO BLOOM 

As for the rest of the village, the seed of the daring idea has caught on so wildly that there is a whole side festival going on, called Stanford in Bloom and billed as “a celebration of floral heritage”. The village has rallied with offerings including fynbos walks; wreath workshops; talks; markets; and sporting events. Even the Christmas lights are up. There are bands and botanical cocktails in the bars; and so many proteas for sale that every second person seems to be dawdling along Queen Victoria street with one in their arms. 

With the thread of flowers running through, it’s all a real life realisation of a so-called rising “trend” in travel: taking it slow, staying longer in fewer places, experiencing destinations at a relaxed pace, sustainably and with a host of benefits to local businesses and communities.

If you missed the floral fanfare, take heart. The “organisers are talking”, Lutzeyer says, with high hopes for a repeat in 2025. Anyway, many of those meditative, flower-centric experiences are still there. Most notably, there is Grootbos itself, 13km away towards Gansbaai. If the accommodation there is beyond your reach, you can book a half-day flower safari or a guided tour of the gallery, which displays works from the florilegium.

SLOW AND STEADY WINS

Forty-five kilometres from Stanford in the other direction, a gentle drive between the mountains and sea into Hermanus and then on to the Hemel-en-Aarde Valley, is another lovely reason to linger a while: Creation Wines. 

Just this week, it was named third best vineyard in the world (and number one in Africa) for wine tourism by the World’s Best Vineyards, which raises a glass to wineries that provide “unforgettable wine experiences”. That’s one up from last year, when it was in fourth place. 

Everyone involved at Creation is clearly a disciple of the slow travel concept, along with its “sister” movement, slow food, which focuses on quality, traditional ingredients and sustainability. 

With 80% of its suppliers within an 80km radius of the farm, Creation has just launched a new experience, through which visitors can delve into the region through its makers — of everything from food to ceramics to glass. 

I get a taster of the Stanford experience on foot, with Susan Mann from Eat Like a Local Hermanus, who worked with Creation on the route. 

Our first stop is a bit of an oddity on a residential street. A huge shed, a bit like an airplane hangar, with a little vineyard — actually it’s 500 vines of pinot noir — and a cute, red vintage car outside in the “front yard”. 

Turns out it is both a home — to Lyle Bewsher and family — and the huge open-plan HQ of the family business, Go Slow Bakery & Deli. With years under his belt in a big commercial bakery, Bewsher decamped to Stanford some years ago and now makes artisanal pastries, breads and cured meats for local businesses, as well as individuals on his “what we’re making” broadcast list (you have to have met him to get on it). 

Go Slow is Creation’s go-to for things like salamis and biltong carpaccio — and actually uses their wines in the curing process.

There is a pop-up-restaurant aspect too. When I visit, it’s a Wednesday and Bewsher is in the middle of a “Decision-less Breakfast”. Every week, between 9am and noon, patrons can come by and eat whatever he’s decided to cook that day. No repeats allowed for a whole year, is his personal goal. Occasionally, there are local partnerships and long-table dinners. “We pop up when it suits us,” Bewsher smiles. Which is just part of the Go Slow philosophy. 

“More of a mindset than a business name, it’s about slowing down and finding the best stuff around you. Don’t just run past [big chain grocery store] and pick up a white bread. Rather say, ‘Where can I get a good bread? Where can I get the best cheese? The best milk?’ It’s all about the best, quality ingredients, working with what’s available, and not being in a hurry.”

After a taster of some sour dough breads and salamis, I make sure to get myself on the broadcast list before we go.

TIME FOR TEA

But now it’s time to pop in for tea on Christine Stevens’s stoep. Not just any tea, mind you. And not just any stoep. Stevens makes a range of organic teas and vinegars under the label “Christine Stevens Harvest” including special blends that will perk you up or chill you out, depending on what you need. I try both, so end up just right, as we gaze over her bounteous garden. 

With a backstory in organic wine farming and working with chefs on kitchen gardens, she says she has always made teas and vinegars for herself, which slowly turned into a business as people have become more health conscious and concerned about ultra-processed food. 

Even commercial tea bags, she says, contain microplastics, bleach and glue. “So it’s nice to get a bit of authenticity back into the food industry”. 

Naturally, she is an encyclopedia on the plants in her garden (and beyond) and their effects. Rosemary is invigorating. Verbena and rose are calming. Whatever your ailment, there is a tea for that, especially if it's loose-leafed and organic. Besides the effect of the ingredients, the ritual matters too.

“Pouring a pot of tea at the end of a crazy day transports you to a garden,” Stevens says. “It takes you to a place of comfort and that’s real comfort food for me rather than an ice cream. It’s time for tea to have its moment.” 

BEST (IN AFRICA) FOR LAST 

While you can do the supplier visits without going to the vineyard, each taster on the full tour is paired with a wine. So the ideal ending would be a visit to The Best Vineyard in Africa, for an experience that can only be enriched by what you’ve seen. As Mann says, “When you have context, the whole experience changes. So [the supplier visits] give context to a meal that you’re having in that way we are showing the landscape, the people and the principles that we all share.” 

My adventure does end there, over the spring biodiversity menu, a five-course food-and-wine-pairing. Creation changes the menu every four months and this latest one, incidentally, was inspired by the Chelsea win. Fynbos thus floats through several dishes, all exquisitely presented and paired with some heavenly wines. Stevens is there in her blood-sugar balancing vinegar. On an even slower trip, I’d have liked to have visited the glass blowers whose works twist in the garden; and Corinne de Haas, the ceramicist who made the exquisite plate cast from a pinot noir leaf on which one of the "chapters", as they call courses, is served. 

From the food to the canvases on which they are served to the views and of course the wine, there is an artful intention and thought to everything here. It’s the kind of details and cross-connections that really must be savoured. A long lunch, and relish flavours that will linger long after you’ve left. Slow and steady, as it should be. 

NEED TO KNOW

Grootbos Private Reserve: Tour the reserve, visit the gallery and enjoy lunch at Bellavista Country Place. R3,900 for two. See details and more options at grootbos.com. 

Creation suppliers routes: The guided option in Stanford includes tastings at Christine Stevens Harvest and Go Slow; lunch at Agteros; and dessert at Madres, all paired with wine. R1,700 per person. There is also a guided option in Hermanus and a self-drive. E-mail susan@eatlikealocal or call 078-239-9512 for more information. 

Creation Tasting Room: The seasonal wine and food pairing is from R1,285 per person (plant-based is from R1,185).  For more, see creationwines.com.

Stanford Tourism: See stanfordinfo.co.za.