I am extremely cynical about community tourism developments funded by any government department. This is tourism by committee, and I have yet to see a successful example.  Tourism development only works when a champion steps forth, an individual who has bought into the project lock, stock and barrel, and is prepared to spend sleepless nights, buckets of energy, and his or her own time and money to get something off the ground. A tourism development cannot take place during office hours with salaried employees answering to a faceless bureaucracy – and this is where all institutionalised tourism projects come unstuck. 

To make matters more difficult, community tourism initiatives are invariably built close to the community that they are meant to serve, with no attention being paid to whether tourists would actually want to go there or whether there is anything else for them to do or see. A remote area with a nice view, perhaps some scenic walks, where visitors can sit on a verandah with their feet up - this has limited appeal for travellers on time limits, and if they still have to travel for four hours on a dirt road to get there…. The result is an expensive set-up mouldering out in the sticks, running on empty, eventually closing down and then being looted for building material. The list of failed government tourism enterprises goes on and on. But there is one community tourism development that really deserves to succeed. It appears to have had some thought put into it, and it takes advantage of an area that already has a large cult following among people who don’t do tourism, they do Lifestyle. That region is the Cederberg, that almost mystical outcrop of tumbled rocks on the equally mystical West Coast. The West Coast is the kind of place where the Really Cool people go – to enjoy the seafood, the surfing (triple-layer-wetsuit stuff, brrr), Lamberts Bay, crayfish, Bird Island, the Cederberg.  It’s not that easy to get to, but perversely that is part of its charm.  Thus it appeals to the kind of people to whom inaccessibility is a virtue, not a drawback.  Funnily enough, Cape Town (an hour’s drive away) is rather full of those kind of travellers. People who are prepared to make the less-obvious trip are rewarded by the out-of-time experience of Wuppertal, the red velskoen shoes made famous by David Kramer, the sweet wines of the drylands, the oranges of the river valleys, the farm stalls selling honey, the rooibos tea,  the mist coming in from a cold sea over a hot landscape.  The air is clear as wine, the people speak with slow humour, the pace is relaxed and infinite.  So how could you go wrong with a donkey cart trek through this ageless landscape? The Cederberg Donkey Cart Route is into phase 2 of its development.  Phase 1 was an old vacant school that was turned into a backpacker lodge, operated by the townspeople in the tiny settlement of Heuningvlei.  This was the anchor part of a proposed Cederberg Heritage Route, which links all the attractions of the Cederberg for those who are Really Cool. Phase 2 will upgrade the whole thing, adding new campsites at Kleinvlei and creating a more vibrant tourism centre. The finished article will be a hiking trail between Heuningvlei and Wupperthal with an overnight camping site at Kleinvlei.  The project is called the Donkey Cart Route because this is the preferred mode of travel in this timeless part of the world.  Hiking trails are not a new idea for community tourism but why a hiking trail deserves to work in the Cederberg is because a lot of hikers go there already, and this is another notch on their webbing.  It will be part of a whole bouquet of activities not more than a few hours’ drive from Cape Town.  En route there is a windmill museum, the rooibos tea tour at Groenvlei Farm, the Victorian hot-spring baths and the sweet wine cellars at Citrusdal, the farm stalls at Piekenaarskloof. The people who live on the West Coast are renowned for their dry sense of humour, in a typical laconic Afrikaans fashion.  An example:  the owner of the bakery in Clanwilliam used to be known as Jan Brood (Bread), until his bakery burned down.  Now he is known as Jan Toast. And a visitor to a country lodge in the area, while sitting down to dinner, heard the hostess round the corner in the kitchen scolding what he thought was a dog. “Get out!” she cried, “You know you are not allowed in here!”  He peeped round the door – and discovered a fully-grown gemsbok standing hopefully at the kitchen table.  Bokkie had got tired of waiting for dinner and decided to come indoors to collect it.  The hiking trail, both with and without gemsbok, will open in 2011.  In the meantime, though, don’t put off a visit to the eternal Cederberg, especially if you are thinking of visiting the flowers in August.  You can get information from any of the myriad tourism offices on the West Coast.