"Uniondale" a Uniondale Travel Page by mke1963

If there was a list ot places, worldwide, that I could just instantly return to at one of those mements when life, work or anything looked bleak, for me, Uniondale would be right up there on the list. Probably alongside Luang Prabang in Laos (visited in 2003), Larressingle in southern France (where we have a house), Miandrivazo in Madagascar (where I once worked for a year) and the hills and valleys behind Episkopi in Cyprus (alos where I lived, long ago). Uniondale, has, for me "something" inexplicable that makes me dream of going back. There is, like the other places, nothing particularly special (OK so UNESCO may disagree with reference to Luang Prabang) but Union dale just has "it".

Peaceful, friendly and just mellow, Uniondale just "does" it for me. Pleasant valleys all around, the wide open expanses of the Klein Karoo to the north and west, the heavily bouldered big ridges of seven mountain ranges in sight, the warm gardens, and the deep stark grandeur of the Uniondalepoort to the south-west.
I was fortunate enough to be able to spend time with the local head of tourism, and we spent many hours (some of them in a state of inebriation - it was New Year's Eve) discussing how to bring more tourists to this quiet corner, before agreeing that actually we didn't really want tourists; it would spoil the tranquility. We agreed that the best marketing campaign would simply be to advise tourists not to come. a campaign that advised tourists to go anywhere but Uniondale.
Uniondale remains isolated only be a few hundred metres; like many Karoo towns, it was by-passed by a new road running down the other side of the valley, allowing the coast-bound motorist to avoid the winding high street, allowing the townspeople to keep their old houses, their cold churches and the hillside forts to themselves. We also agreed that a big signboard at the junctions at the edge of town should boldy proclaim "Nothing to see down here, folks!" and another ponting towards George and Mossel Bay simply saying "Beaches, crowds, traffic congestion, expensive restaurants". Our fall back plan was a poster that showed simply a doctor's prescription from a fake Gauteng doctor, with the words "A few days in Uniondale" in a barely decipherable scrawl. (Do doctors actually learn to write badly for prescriptions?)

So please, keep away. There really is nothing to see in or around Uniondale. It's not worth stopping a while. The restaurants and cafes are just rumours. As are the reports of San rock art, hill walking. There are no old characters walking the streets or plying their trade. There never were old voortrekker wagons built here. No watermill, no art galleries, no Boer forts standing lonely on any hillside.There are no Mountain Zebra in the hills, no game reserves. Birds? Didn't see a single one. Walking? Nope. None of that here.

Keep on driving. There really is no reason to stop here. Honest!

North of here is Aberdeen, then Graaff-Reinet