Secret Bloemfontein

The capital of the Free State has some natural wonders and cultural gems to surprise visitors. By Evan Haussmann

The capital of the Free State crowds around the highest flat-top mound in the area. It became known as Naval Hill when it was first used as a camp by a British naval brigade in 1900. Today it’s a good starting point for visitors to get their bearings.

Take a drive around the ring road at the top and stop at the many viewpoints to check out the surrounding city. There’s a good chance of spotting giraffe or small game as the hill forms part of the 198-hectare Franklin Game Reserve. Bloem is one of very few cities in the world where wildlife occurs in the centre of a major urban environment. It’s a great pity that its facilities are a bit worn. Although proudly recommended by locals, everyone added a footnote regarding the danger of going up there at night to enjoy the city lights.

Natural wonders

Here kitty kitty
When the opportunity to interact with a predator comes around, grab it but gently. At Bloem’s Cheetah Experience, visitors have a rare chance to interact safely with their regal, hand-reared orphan felines. Apart from the cheetahs, there are a couple of wolves, a very sweet young lioness and two cubs competing for the spotlight. There’s a llama too, which for some reason stays well clear of the action.

Cheetah Experience operates from the grounds of the 260-hectare Emoya Estate which offers game drives and hosts a popular restaurant – Die Spookhuis (The Haunted House). The cheetah preservation project is dependent on the income generated by entrance fees and donations. You can help by donating R7,50 by SMSing CAT to 37990, or donate via their website.

Getting there: From Nelson Mandela Drive (heading north out of the city), turn right onto Tempe/ Kenilworth Road and then right again into Maluti Avenue. It’s on your left 1 km from there.
Contact: Tel 072-905-3457 or 072-020-0570, e-mail info@cheetahexperience.com, web http://www.cheetahexperience.com

Stop and smell the
Even if orchids aren’t your thing, the fine examples at Orchid House are sure to impress. Most of the specimens on display in the diffused light of the domed greenhouse structure are exotics, such as cymbidium and phalaenopsis. The structure and the collection are being refreshed and by 2010 Isabelle Dannhauser, who tends the delicate plants there, says they will have clivias and ericas to represent Africa.

Entrance is free and the doors open at 10h00 and close at 16h00 Monday to Friday, Saturdays and Sundays until 17h00.

Getting there: It’s in Hamilton Park, off Union Avenue.
Contact: Tel 051-405-8488 or 051-412-7010

For the culture vulture

They don’t build ‘em like they used to
Architecture buff s won’t want to miss the walk along President Brand Street. The homestead of the farm on which the city developed became the Free State president’s house. Today the Old Presidency building, in its simplified ‘Scottish baronial’ style, hosts a tea garden in the old stables at the back.

On either side of the historic street are fine examples of late 19th and early 20th century buildings. These include the City Hall, National Afrikaans Literary Museum, Magistrate’s Court, Supreme Court and the Fourth Raadsaal, regarded as the architectural jewel of the Free State. A walking route pamphlet, available from Tourist Information, describes this building as ‘characterised by the successful blending of Greek, Roman and Renaissance elements (with) sandstone and red brickwork.’

Getting there: President Brand Street is between St George’s Street and Nelson Mandela Drive.
Contact: Bloemfontein Tourist Information Office at 60 Park Road, Willows. Tel 051-405-8489/490, e-mail information@bloemfontein.co.za, web http://www.bloemfontein.co.za.

I can see my relatives from here
One block east of President Brand Street is the Bloemfontein National Museum. Completed in 1912, it houses well-maintained and engaging anthropological and cultural displays, as well as natural history and astronomy installations. Some notable highlights are:

• The complete fossil skeleton of the oldest known dinosaur – Euskelosaurus;
• The world famous 250 000-year-old Florisbad skull;
• The Malvern meteorite, thought to be from Mars;
• An entire wing depicting a typical 1900s Bloemfontein street scene, complete with soundtrack.

Getting there: 36 Aliwal Street
Contact: Tel 051-447-9609, web http://www.nasmus.co.za

Kids, please ride the artworks
Oliewenhuis Art Museum is a 1930s neo-Dutch mansion in park-like gardens. Former South African President PW Botha made the government building available to the National Museum for artworks. The artists represented are diverse and the exhibitions are progressive and thought-provoking.

The permanent exhibition boasts works by Jacob Hendrik Pierneef, Anton van Wouw and Lien Botha, among many others. The life-size works by Norman Catherine are hard to miss. There’s a popular coffee shop in a sculpture garden where you can contemplate your cappuccino foam or ruminate about the state of mind that created some of the irreverent pieces dotted around the Sculpture Park (please don’t ride the ceramic sheep). The African Carousel, however, is designed to be ridden. In an effort to get children to engage with art, the old merry-go-round horsies have been replaced with intricately sculpted, forged or moulded bucking chameleons and googley-eyed products of wild imaginations. This may well be the place from where Barney and those vuvuzela-eared kiddie TV stars escaped.

Getting there: 16 Harry Smith Street
Contact: Tel 051-447-9609, e-mail oliewen@nasmus.co.za, web http://www.nasmus.co.za/OLIEWENH/olwh.htm

Eat is eat and man must meet

Bouquets and banquets
Long tables on the stoep invite you off the quiet street into Iewers Nice. Inside, a huge vintage sideboard painted searing red welcomes you. The shop (it’s not merely a restaurant) is as famous for it’s gourmet 300-gram burgers as it is for flower arrangements and gifts with a difference. The atmosphere echoes the vibrant dcor in an eclectic mix of cheery colours and quirky fusion of food and art.

Getting there: 28 Reid Street, Westdene
Contact: Tel 051-448-2600 or 082-550-6168.

Orgasmic farmers’ market
For an authentic South African experience, don’t miss the Boeremark every Saturday morning.  is farmers’ market is jam-packed with fresh fruit and veggies and you’re sure to find the best biltong and dry wors in the country on sale. The atmosphere is vibrant and there’s not much to beat cruising the stalls and washing down the syrupy sweetness of an ‘egte boere’ koeksuster with some dark, strong moer-koffie. Don’t leave without some sosaties.

Getting there: Bankofs Boulevard, Langenhoven Park

Nocturnal wild life
Ask a local about nightlife in Bloem and even Pietie’s greatgrand- ouma will throw a hand-sign as she tells you that Mystic Boer ‘rocks!’ It’s a legendary hangout that was there with a microphone and some beers when the South African live music infant was finding its voice in the late 1990s. Shoot some pool, drink a beer and immerse yourself in the real sounds of Indie rock or funk-filled beats – no radio cheese here!

Getting there: 84 Kellner Street
Contact: Tel 051-430-2206, e-mail info@diemysticboer.co.za, web http://www.diemysticboer.co.za

More bread kneaded here
Everything, from the wooden floor to the vintage pressed ceilings, is painted white in the Meel Restaurant and Coffee Shop. The colour, or lack of it, draws your eye to the immaculately presented food on cool, irregular, hand-made crockery paired with vintage cutlery. My superstrong filter coffee came with a collector’s spoon topped with the Welkom town crest. Whatever you decide to savour from the blackboard menu, be sure to get a slice of home-baked bread to accompany it and finish your meal off with a slice of cake. It’s all baked on site using stoneground flour – and you can tell.

Getting there: 87a Kellner Street
Contact: Tel 051-448-8836

A touch of magic

Fantasy world
If Middle-earth, Bilbo Baggins and ‘naughty little Hobbits-es’ mean anything to you, you may not be surprised to hear that when JRR Tolkien filled out immigration forms, he wrote ‘Bloemfontein’ as his place of birth. He lived there only for the first three years of his life, but this may explain his vivid descriptions of fantastical mountains and dark forests – things that impressed him after leaving the flat Free State.

Visit the Tourism Office (tel 051-405-8489) for more info on Bloemfontein’s Tolkien Trail which includes the sites of the author’s family graves and buildings relevant to the creator of Lord of the Rings. If you’re obsessed or simply curious, book a night in the Hobbit Boutique Hotel. Guests can expect to be treated as if they’re ‘presh-ussss’.

Getting there: 19 President Steyn Avenue, Westdene.
Contact: Tel 051-447-0663 or 083-305-8434, e-mail info@hobbit.co.za, web http://www.hobbit.co.za

But wait, there’s more…

• Free State National Botanical Garden has, besides the obvious, a medicinal plant garden and walking trails. Tel 051-436-3530, e-mail admin@fsnbg.co.za, web http://www.sanbi.org.
• Bains Game Lodge and Bush Pub is a good place to drink a beer and try some traditional kos. Tel 051-451-1761, e-mail reception@bainsgamelodge.co.za, web http://www.bainsgamelodge.co.za.
• Soetdoring Nature Reserve and Predator Park makes a great day trip. Take binoculars for some of Bloemfontein’s best birding. Tel 051-433-9002.
• Contact Bloemfontein Tourist Information Office at 60 Park Road, Willows. Tel 051-405-8489/8490, e-mail information@bloemfontein.co.za, web http://www.bloemfontein.co.za.