The Crags

Between the Tsitsikamma forest and Keurbooms river on the Garden Route, lies the community of the Crags.

The Crags is inhabited by a group of very artistic and creative individuals.

Here you’ll find lots of arts and craft markets, a monkey, elephant,  bird and snake sanctuary, as well as a rehabilitation center for wild cats. You can go on many pristine nature walks and indulge in the excellent cuisine on offer in the area.

Accommodation comes in all styles from top end hotels, bed and breakfasts, country lodges to backpackers and camping. You can get a variety of cheese, home produce and farm milk at the Nature’s Way farm stall or taste the local wines at the Bramon Wine Estate.

For adrenalin junkies there’s the world’s highest bungee jump at 216 meters and polo for the aristocrats. The Barnyard theatre has regular shows, with South Africa’s finest  showing off their talent on stage.

Nearby is the town of Nature’s Valley with some of the most beautiful beaches in the country, which also marks the end of the famous otter trail. With its moderate climate, pristine nature and eco-minded community it is definitely one of those places worth a visit on this planet.

The first white settlers in the Crags referred to the plateau east of the Keurboomsriver as the Keurvlakte or Keur flats. The name the Crags was later derived from the precipitous rockface which perennial streams had cut into the wooded mountainsides. The greatest assets of the area were the forests which had magnificent stinkwood and yellowwood trees and many other indigenous varieties.

It was no wonder then, that the first settlers attracted to the area were the woodcutters, with their primitive saws and axes, ruthlessly cutting down the forests to get the best and biggest trees.

Those they sold, or exported by boat from Plettenberg Bay, from an area where the 'Timber Shed' now stands. As the trees were felled, farmers and woodcutters cultivated the fertile patches of open land.

Farms were allocated to approved settlers by the colonial government, on the basis of leases or loan farms paying quit rents. Some freehold farms were also granted. The original land grants were large tracts of land. These were later subdivided into small holdings, which were adequate for subsistence farmers.

Most of the farms were initially occupied from the middle of the nineteenth century, predominantly by woodsmen, some of whom had their own saw pits.

On the whole the Keurvlakte plateau was a poor area where hard work in the forests was the order of the day. The Reverend Peter Gibbs of St. Peter’s church in Plettenberg Bay relates in his letters how he made long journeys on horseback, trying to help the woodcutter families who were living in object poverty. There were no doctors or medical services so that he often had to act as doctor as well as priest. There are still some descendants of the pioneer families living in the Crags.

With all the logging, the old hardwoods started disappearing, and quotas of one tree per annum got enforced, which wasn’t good news for the settlers. On top of that a great fire in 1869, that destroyed hundreds of kilometers of forest, saw the farmers running for their lives. With the fire pushing them into a corner, they all raced for shelter at  the newly built home of William Newdigate, called Forest Hall.

Newdigate lived a  life of english grandeur, entertaining bishops, archdeacons and the famous Thomas Bain, who was responsible for constructing many of the first roads and passes in South Africa. All the farmers gathered anticipating the worst, when suddenly the wind turned, saving them from the fiery furnace. Forest Hall today is owned by an Italian family trust and declared a heritage site.

In the 1940s baron Ulrich Behr von Kurland  fled the Bolshevik revolution from the Baltic province of Russia, bought up the four farms of Woodlands, Loredo, Redford and a piece of Forest Hall in the Crags.

Combined, these farms were then dubbed Kurland, which a portion of today has been transformed into a grand Hotel with a polo field.

Source: Redford Conservancy, C Noble, JS Kroesen