The Karoo's Prince Charming

"Prince Albert takes the Karoo’s open spaces, stars, and silent nights, and sprinkles it with old-fashioned cinema houses, jaunty vintage stores, and art. Where else will you find a dairy and a gin bar in the same street?"

- By Kyra Tarr

In Prince Albert, the locals say that rain is “more precious than gold”. During my visit in early October, the heavens burst open for what I was told was the first time in nearly three years. As the leiwater furrows beside the high street gathered a steady flow, the whole town seemed to sigh with relief.

If you grew up in arid country, you’ll know the smell of rain hitting dry earth: warm and somewhat metallic. And although rain is always a cause for celebration, Prince Albert is more fortunate than many other Karoo towns when it comes to water. Even though it’s on the southern edge of the Great Karoo, its proximity to the foot of the Swartberg means that it can tap into the mountain’s streams and springs all year-round for its leiwater network.

Before the 18th century, the Swartberg was home to Khoi and San people. Trekboers arrived in the 1740s. A man named Zacharias de Beer registered his farm, De Kweekvallei, in 1762, and it’s here where the settlement of Prince Albert – named after Queen Victoria’s consort, Prince Albert Saxe-Coburg – would be proclaimed a town in 1842.

In its early days, the settlement was known as a place of great beauty and agricultural industry. Before Beaufort West was established in 1818, it served as the main stopover point between the magisterial districts of Cape Town and Graaff-Reinet.