Matjiesfontein

James Logan, a Scottish railwayman, arrived in the Karoo in the 1870s for his health, took the refreshment concession on the Cape main line, and built a village around it - a hotel, cottages, a station, all in Victorian style, marketed as a health resort for the dry air. The whole village is now a national heritage site and it has survived essentially unchanged: the Lord Milner Hotel with its turrets, a period bar, a London double-decker bus giving tours that last a few minutes because the village is two streets long, and museums of transport and oddities. During the South African War it served as a military hospital and remount camp, and there is a cemetery. It functions today as a stop between Cape Town and the interior - trains still halt, and the village exists mostly for people breaking the drive.

History

The village owes its existence to the Cape Government Railways line from Cape Town to Kimberley: a station named Matjiesfontein opened on 1 February 1878, its name taken from a sedge the Khoekhoen used for mats. James Douglas Logan, superintendent of this stretch of line, settled here for his weak chest and opened a refreshment station, a town was laid out in the 1880s, and the whole town was declared a National Monument on 12 September 1975 (Wikipedia, Matjiesfontein).

What to look for

• The intact village - a Victorian railway settlement preserved whole as a heritage site.
• The Lord Milner Hotel - turreted 1899 building still operating.
• The bus tour - a London double-decker circling a village of two streets.
• The Logan story - a refreshment concession that became a health resort.

When to go

March to May and September to November. Half a day, usually as a stop on the N1.

What to expect

It is small - an hour covers the walkable part. The village is a single private enterprise, so everything is one operation's product. Summer heat in the Karoo is severe. Trains stop at odd hours.

Nearby

Laingsburg is east on the N1; the Karoo National Park is beyond Beaufort West.

Key facts