Houw Hoek Inn SOUTH AFRICA

FROM WHEELCHAIR NOMAD DIARY...2003 SS At 7.00 pm we were still on N2, about ninety kilometres from Capetown. I noted, Heres a sign for the Houw Hock Inn, Hotel and Conference Centre, to the right. Lets stop here. We pulled into the two story white building, advertised as being in operation since 1834, and charging $135.00 per night, with a fire in our room and breakfast included. We went for dinner right away, passing a box of golden yellow peeping ducklings, in a box next to a warm fire. A big black porter told us, Theyre mine. I love to watch them on night shift since they bring me a lot of pleasure. Wilbert, our fifty-year-old stately waiter who smiled with gold teeth, told me the history. This Inn is on the site of a toll gate, established by the Dutch East Indian Company and is the oldest licensed hotel in South Africa. Cattle trails ran in front of the Inn and in the early 1900s Capetown Circuit Judges stayed here. The ground floor was built in 1779, and the upper storey was added in 1869, with adjoining farm buildings converted and added as dining rooms and conferences centres. The entrance boasts of the biggest blue gum in South Africa, some 250 years old, and nearly three metres in diameter.«