The mountainbikers are bright flashes of colour against the distant hillside. Cows watch us, dumb and wide-eyed as we walk past. Hang on, we’re not walking … we’re dawdling as we take in the Drakensberg mountains, blue on the horizon with the green patchwork quilt of fields, farms and forest at their feet. We’re meandering – not caring of time or destination, savouring the moment, attracted by the diversions slightly off the beaten path.
The initial idea was for a rolling exhibition, to be held a few times a year, but that morphed into the year-round “open house”. People coming to view and buy arts and crafts might want to eat, so restaurants sprang up. There were already a number of established hotels in the Meander area and these were joined soon by B&Bs, self-catering cottages and farm stays.The Meander is easily accessible to two important markets when it comes to travel – Gauteng and Durban/Pietermaritzburg.
The family business, started in the 1980s by Frik and Lola Haupt. Culamoya invites the guest to “soothe their soul, relax, feel, listen to the peaceful theraputic sounds.” It then also occurred to me that Covid may well see the Midlands Meander have one of its best years. This is because, let’s face it, international travel is not going to fully recover this year and, when it does, there will be all manner of restrictions – so it won’t be fun. I guess many people who had planned to travel overseas this year have put the plans on the backburner.