Keep going south, Pa would bellow, and wave hello to Antarctica!
Who is our town named after? my first grade teacher would ask.
Simon van der Stel, we'd chant, rolling our eyes at the obvious answer. The first governor of the Cape! Who in the world wouldn't know that?
Well... many folk actually.
In the 1690s, at the time of van der Stel's tenure, the great world powers were otherwise occupied. Britain was about to embark on the Second Hundred Year's War against her old foe, France. In North America, the two powers were jousting over frontier territory and influence. Nevertheless, in the tiny Dutch Cape colony of the time, van der Stel was an important figure and his name lives on in Simon's Town, Simon's Bay, Stellenbosch, Simonsberg mountain... and, some two-and-a-half centuries after his demise, the naval vessel SAS Simon van der Stel.
Along the way he acquired a beautiful estate in the Constantia valley where he built a grand Dutch homestead called Groot Constantia and established a tradition of wine-making that saw Constantia wines gracing the finest tables of Europe - even reaching Napoleon in exile on St Helena in the 1800s. Simon's son became Governor after him, and continued the family practice of wine and governorship... albeit with a dose of controversy... but more of that next time.
When our world opens up again, and you happen to find yourself near the spiny tip of Africa, why not take a walk through Simon van der Stel's tranquil vineyards and his gracious homestead, then sample a glass of the estate's finest. Cheers!
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