Elim
In our travels through the Overberg Region of the Western Cape we took a step back in time in yet another little town called Elim (meaning Palm Tree). Situated between Stanford and Cape Agulhas is a town that was established in 1824 as a Mission Station by the Moravian Church to house mostly freed slaves. An interesting fact is that to this day only people who are members of the Moravian Church are allowed to live in the town.
Anyway we nearly never made it to Elim as its a lot further than the guide book states and there was definitely NO petrol station as they indicated. So be warned there is NO PETROL STATION in Elim!!! DO NOT trust the guide books as the authors very seldom travel to places to make sure that their words are correct.
After travelling on long dusty roads to get to Elim we arrived with a bang in a town that seemed dead and deserted as Sunday morning church service had just started, the Police Station was even closed (do criminals only work Monday to Friday 9 - 2pm !!!!!!)
The town streets are lined with fig trees and pretty little white washed cottages with thatched roofs. Nothing really seems to have changed since it was established.
As expected the main feature in this pretty little town is the Church with a courtyard adorned with lovely palm trees. In the court yard you will find the only monument that commemorates the freeing of the slaves back in 1834.
One of the last working watermills in the Western Cape can be found in Elim. It definitely adds a graceful and elegant feels to technology from another era. In 1974 the watermill was declared a national monument but was neglected until it was restored in 1990 and today you can enjoy some of the most scrumptious breads, biscuits and cakes in their tea room.
There are several roads in the Overberg that lead to Elim and we do recommend that you spend a few hours and chat to the friendly locals that went running all over town to find us petrol....