Dwars River Escape Route Vision2020
CLICK HERE TO READ THE VISION2020 In late 2015, I was commissioned by Open Africa , a rural tourism route development organisation, to develop a tourism route in the Dwars River Valley. The Dwars River Valley is that stretch of winelands on the Helshoogte road between Stellenbosch and Franschoek, centred by the towns of Pniel, Kylemore and Lanquedoch. It must be one of the most magnificent valleys on earth. Open Africa had started a route 10 years earlier in the valley, but for various reasons the route had fizzled out. So this time around was an attempt to give it another go with 10 years of new learning to draw on, and financing from the European Union over a 3 year period. The work started in late August 2015, and at the time of writing this page, we been on the project for 10 months now. In May 2016, we - myself as route mentor, together with the 9 founding members, all businesses in the valley - started to solidify a vision for the valley, drawing on months of conversati...