South Africa is full of beautiful places but to my mind, Churchhaven is the most alluring of all.
I still recall the day I discovered it, nearly 40 years ago, driving along an unmarked gravel road (a good tip for would-be adventurers) in the West Coast National Park. It was wash day in this small hamlet on the edge of the lagoon and women in kappies (bonnets) bustled between washing lines holding bundles of clothes. Somewhere a rooster crowed, and I was enveloped in a sense of peace, the profundity of which I have never quite regained.
This group of ‘lagooners’, some of whom in those days had never travelled the 100kms to Cape town, were – and some still remain – a small community of people who live in hamlets clustered along the east side of the Langebaan Lagoon on the West Coast of the Cape. It is an Afrikaans community that worships at an English church, a small white-washed Anglican church with its picturesque graveyard where one of the graves is inscribed. ‘Sakkie Pieterse, a man who would give his last fish.’
It was here that a man called Johann beamed his dream seven years ago, but unable to afford a house, he bought a plot, while he dreamed of the house he would one day build. But time passes and it is now his son and daughter-in-law who have built their dream house and named it after Johann.
Johann’s Beach Cottage is a simple L-shaped structure much in keeping with the first houses on the lagoon. ‘We built it within the strictures of the Stofbergsfontein Homeowner’s Association. We weren’t allowed to have big windows so we glassed in the top of the stable doors, things like that.’ There are framed views of the lagoon from almost all the rooms.
The house was designed along simple lines, cement floors, four bedrooms and three bathrooms, an irony in a place where the toilets were once not so long ago all uithuisies (outhouses) and were not numerous. ‘We have made use of modern conveniences but kept the overall feel of the place. It is completely off-grid with solar heating and running water,’ says the owner.
The turf could not be more enticing, situated on the famous Sandveld between the ‘big sea’ (on quiet nights you can hear the Atlantic roar) and the lagoon, it edges the wetlands.
Walking along the sandy paths and dirt road amongst the veld you will see plants you have never seen before, springing from the soil in strange shapes, some like pink ice cream cones, others a cluster of scarlet spikes.
Living here you become part of the intense narrative of untapped nature. This house is on the edge of the wetlands (considered by Ramsar, the intergovernmental treaty on wetlands protection, to be one of the most valuable in the world). The place is host to about 45,000 migrant birds from the Palearctic regions.
As twilight falls one can still see the lanterns burning on the small boats on the lagoon and catch a glimpse of a rooikat (caracal) as it tracks through the undergrowth. Within eyeshot are ostrich and elands grazing on the succulent lagoon peripheries. It is here samphire can be found, now a trendy accoutrement used by famous chefs.
A sandy path leads down to the sea, where kids can play. It is completely safe and there are great walks and cycle rides. It is a short – and stunning drive around the lagoon – to Langebaan if you run out of supplies.
Family time, cherished memories forever
The couples who now own it, Tanya and Andre, Tony and Lisa Hansford have two children each and want it to be a family home that everyone can enjoy. ‘We like simple things, and that is how we have made the house. We want it more than anything to be a family home for people who love the outdoors. There is so much to do here and yet we feel it has still retained the atmosphere of a village with a community feel.’
Certainly the ghosts of the ancien regime, of Winnie and Kitnooi and Joey and Sally, all the people who made the place what it is today, still linger in this paradise which is hard to leave, even for heaven.
Reviewed by Lin Sampson
Edited by Michelle Snaddon