WHISTLING BRIDGE (in memory of Claudette & Robert)

In memory of Claudette and Robert

Editor’s note: Claudette and Robert Jackson passed away soon after this interview.

Follow this link to read Tim’s new padstalstorie about how their daughter Kim is continuing the legacy started by her parents and her brother Dale.

Read new padstal story

An oasis in the Karoo.

Whistling Bridge. Now that’s a name that conjures up all kinds of romantic thoughts. It’s right up there with Northanger Abbey and Wuthering Heights. Except that it’s not set in the foggy, wily, windy moors of England, but in the unmeasurable landscape of the Great Karoo.

“In the old days, train drivers used to blow the steam locomotive’s whistle as they crossed the bridge just before entering Krom River Station,” says Claudette Jackson, owner of Whistling Bridge Café.

Travelers along the N1 can expect to spot it about 60km South of Beaufort West and 10km south of Three Sisters. They shouldn’t expect to do much shopping there, apart from mohair socks and jackets,  because Claudette is adamant that Whistling Bridge is not a farm stall “It’s a Café” she insists “you stop for our coffee and our lamb pies, and our roosterkoek”. Whistling Bridge also offers wraps and cake “You can’t NOT have cake at a café, that’s crazy”.

Claudette also offers wraps and soon venison pies and cocktail lamb pies (ideal for padkos) will also be on the menu.

Whistling Bridge Café is situated in a building that used to do duty as a farm school on the farm Smokey Grove (another alluring name). “My husband’s father leased the farm for grazing just after the drought in the 1960s,” says Claudette “In 1970 my husband Robert bought it, in 1975 we got married and I’ve been here ever since”.

Claudette’s son Dale opened the coffee shop in December 2018 when he returned from a stint in Sydney. In 2020 – due to Covid – the Café closed and Dale moved on. “And now it’s my responsibility”, says Claudette stoicly.

Visitors to Whistling Bridge are unlikely to bump into Claudette, though. “I’m not good with people” she states flatly “But my team, managed by Chamiella Williams, is”. 

You’re more likely to find her helping manage Smokey Grove’s flocks of Angora Goats and Merino Sheep. “We also farm with lucerne and some Tuli cattle, but that’s not our main focus.”

Claudette is quite excited by the prospect of partnering with Zero Carbon Charge. “The way I understand it, you’ve got a captive audience, while the car is charging” she chuckles “but that’s not a problem, there is lots besides coffee and lamb pies”.

There is a jungle for the kids to get rid of the excess energy built up on the road, there is a walk along the Krom River, a blockhouse from the Boer War to explore, and the friendliest, most photographed alpaca in South Africa.