Stopped by Deep Gorges
Increasing evidence suggests that Southern Africa’s coastal plains were once home to early humans. Over time they would have moved away, spreading out to populate the rest of Africa and the world, but some remained behind.
Their descendants became the hunter-gatherers we know as the San or Bushmen. Wilderness itself contains little evidence of their story there, however, traces of their tales can still be found in the coastal shell middens, caves and the rock art they left behind in the mountains. The Khoikhoi appeared after this, herding sheep and cattle and it was them who featured in Bartolomeu Dias’s written records when he rounded the Cape in 1488.
More than a hundred years after the Dutch settled in the Cape, in 1652, did settlers make their way to Wilderness. This was due to the deep gorges of the Kaaimans and Touws River that prevented ox wagons from passing through. Only once a proper road to Knysna was built in the late 1860s was the area around the Western Cape’s lakes open for settlement. The road, now known as the Seven Passes Route, made the mission of crossing the river gorges much easier.
From Farmhouse to Guest House
The beginning of Wilderness came about when George Bennett of Liverpool bought a plot of land at the mouth of the Touws River in 1877. He named the farm “The Wilderness” and over the next seven years he and his wife, Henrietta, spent their time building up the farm and their family.
The two had a son and twin daughters before George died in his early thirties. Thereafter, Henrietta moved back to England to marry her late husband’s cousin. Her family kept an eye on the property, letting out the farmhouse from time to time. This went on for over 35 years until a new resident owner was found at the end of the 19th century.
In 1902, at the end of the South African War, The Wilderness was bought by a syndicate headed by Montagu White. Opting to remain living on his other property, Fancourt, White ran The Wilderness as a guest house, developing the area, including building White’s Road up the hills above the lagoon, and essentially putting Wilderness on the map. White died in 1916 and the property was taken over by Wilderness Ltd, headed by Owen Grant, who proceeded to develop the guest house into a seaside resort of international acclaim. Around this time a romantic legend about the foundation of Wilderness began to circulate.
The legend told of a young man who fell in love with a beautiful orphan named Theresa. Wanting to escape the “hauntings of memory”, she sang to him from Haydn’s Creation: “...In the wilderness build me a nest, let me remain there forever at rest…”.
After facing many trials and adventuring through the treacherous Outeniqua Mountains, the pair settled in the area known today as Wilderness. There they wed, Theresa wearing “an ancient bridal gown that once had graced her grandmother in the courts of France”. The story is not true, but it is beautiful nonetheless.
Developing the Village
Among the developments that took place to the old Wilderness farmhouse included upgrading the old building to become a proper hotel, laying out roads, selling plots off and building new houses. When the railway from George to Knysna was opened in 1928, Wilderness became the only stop on the route between the two towns.
In 1932 Owen Grant completed negotiations with Union Airways, South African Airways’ predecessor, in the hopes of arranging an option for Wilderness Hotel visitors to arrive by plane. This was to be added as a method of getting to WIlderness, which up to this point had been somewhat of an issue.
There was no proper crossing over the Touws River other than the bridge on the Seven Passes Route and most motor traffic between Knysna and George still travelled along the inland route. Only after World War II did the necessary machinery and finance get directed towards building the National Road Network. The N2 was finally opened in 1952 and George and Knysna were linked by a tarred coastal road.
Before this road was opened, the Wilderness Village mostly focused itself towards the lagoon. The village shop, petrol pump and post office was located at the bottom of the village green. After the N2 opened, commercial activity was refocused to be accessible to the highway.
A vast new area was also opened to development. During this time, the area known as Wilderness East was built up, followed by Kleinkrans and Die Duine. In the mid-1980s Wilderness National Park was proclaimed, preventing the environment from being destroyed and preserving the natural beauty Wilderness is so loved for today.
The coastal town of Wilderness is an idyllic Western Cape destination along South Africa’s Garden Route. It is a firm favourite among loca...