Footprints in the sand

From a hill next to the R365–the road that winds from Lambert’s Bay through the Sandveld to Eendekuil and then Porterville–Leipoldtville does not look like a town. The only indication that a handful of people are going about their daily business here is the weathervane on the church steeple that reaches out of the greenery and pecks at the heavy clouds.

Indeed, Rina Theron, who has lived in the area for yonks, writes in her self-published book Sandveldkos that this hamlet does not have official town status.

On a grey winter’s morning, the view from the hill is breathtaking. The scrub and blue gums that shroud Leipoldtville glisten in the sunlight bursting through the clouds. On the other side of the hamlet, the sandy plains stretch into the distance, and on the opposite hill a few rings are visible that look a little like fairy circles. Then, as if the scene is not idyllic enough already, a perfect rainbow forms above the Leipoldtville road sign.

LEIPOLDTVILLE

Harsh but beautiful

The turn-off to Leipoldtville is as unpretentious as it gets: no gateway or arches or welcome messages in more than one official language. Just the sign directing you to the dirt road that takes you through the hamlet with its two churches, two shops, two guesthouses, two eco-friendly houses, a massive potato packing shed and a garage where you can have anything from a car to a clothes iron repaired–as long as you don’t expect to find fuel. There is an almost solemn quiet in the streets, which are devoid of people; and the grass verges are already dotted with yellow sorrel and other wildflowers.

The hamlet is not, as one might think, named after poet C Louis Leipoldt but after his father, Ds Friedrich Leipoldt, who, while he was an NG dominee in Clanwilliam, played a major role in the founding of the church here.

It was a harsh environment back then, and, beauty aside, it remains a harsh environment today. And Rina–first a farmer’s wife and later a farmer on Aan het Berg farm–is a woman who understands this all too well. This is what she writes about farming in the region in : “Leipoldtville lies in an area with marginal agricultural land and can be classified as a semi-desert, with an annual rainfall of 100mm-250mm,” and “The Sandveld isn’t called that