Taylored Trips – Interesting Places – Darling

Darling

Like most places in South Africa, they are named after someone or someplace where the someone comes

from. Darling is named in the former category. No, not Tannie Evita, but Sir Charles Henry Darling who came to the Cape as Lieutenant Governor in 1851. Darling became a town in 1853.Even though the town is not named after the satirist Pieter-Dirk Uys or shall I say the darling of South African political

jibing, Evita Bezuidenhout, no visit to this town is complete without calling in at Evita se Perron, whether it be to watch one of her shows, to sit down for a meal or simply to laugh your stomach muscles into a knot at the depiction of the Gravy Train. The Perron is a must visit.

The Perron (the platform) The Gravy Train

We popped in to the museum, which used to be the town hall, to have a look around there and passed two lovely churches on the

way. The predominant church in this town being rather ugly and not conforming to my ideology of what a church should look like. So, on this rare occasion, here are two not so prominent churches that fit my ideal better.

The museum is under-going some renovations in the barn so we were not able to see the collection of agricultural machines that I

would have liked to see but the main building was very interesting. No photos are allowed inside but I sneaked these two pictures below to give you an idea of the display. I hope I’m not in trouble.

Besides the three “hotels” that Darling had or has (not for the faint-hearted), they now also have The Granary

Petite Hotel with a cheese shop called Chicory Cheese and a cafe. By the way the museum also has a shop/café inside. Right next door to the Granary Petite Hotel is The Old Forge Bar and Restaurant which I would have loved to check out but unfortunately we didn’t have enough time. And then right next

door to the Old Forge is Darling Sweet where they make a range of delicious toffees right there on the premises. They have been going for four years already and distribute their toffees all over the country.

The Granary / Chicory Cheese The Old Forge

Darling Sweet Darling Sweet

Down the road there is also Darling Meat Market and the Darling Wine Shop and up the road there is the Flying

Pig Cured Meats.

Darling Meat Market Darling Wine Shop

As it was now heading towards 1.00 o’clock we thought that it was time to

visit the Darling Brewery. What an impressive setup this is, tucked away in the industrial area. It is a very trendy, vibey, upbeat establishment that one would expect to find in the V&A Waterfront. So, to me it’s lovely to see that they and other businesses like Darling Sweet, Flying Pig and the others mentioned have

kept to their roots and breathed a breath of fresh air into Darling, attracting tourists and local visitors to this special little town.

They have a taste room, bar, clothing line, kitchen and the brewery all on the premises and it invites you in and doesn’t let you go. According to their philosophy, they support local, so wherever possible, what is availabl

e on site, comes from the area and so doing uplifts the area as a whole.We decided to have a bite to eat here, as well as savouring the delicious flavours of the brew.

After lunch we found a very pleasant olive and wine farm about a kilometre out of town on the Yzerfontein road where we bought a whole 5kg tub of

olives. Now Verine adds olives to all sorts of dishes and we are drying them in the biltong dryer as well. Very nice.

Darling Olives Olives Darling?

Going back

through town Verine spotted a blockhouse in the cemetery. This seemed a strange place for a blockhouse so we pulled in to have a look. It was not a blockhouse as such but a memorial for those that had fallen during various wars who were from the area. I thought we had a lot of thorns on our

farm but wow, this place had kazillions of them. I was walking in a cushion of them wondering when they were going to penetrate my plakkies.

Darling cemetery

Well, that was Darling, a town which is fast becoming a must-visit tourist attraction on the West Coast. I know we missed a lot and we have already said that we must go back and explore some more. Next time you are in the area, take some time and pull in to this lovely town. It is not far from

Malmesbury or the N7 West Coast road.Oh, and don’t forget if you are trying to find an excuse to go to the area, Rocking the Daisies Music Festival is featured annually on a farm just outside town so I have just given you a few reasons to get there.

Until next time, “Keep on Tripping!”