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5 reasons Bathurst may be South Africa's most eccentric town

By Kate Whitehead, for CNN
May 29, 2014

(CNN) -- It's a village not a town.

So say residents of Bathurst, a magnet for the creative and curious located in the Eastern Cape of South Africa, approximately 12 kilometers from Port Alfred.

Residents are proud of the eccentricity of their town.

Or village.

"You've got to have certain things to be a town, like a bank and full-time doctor, and we don't have any of that," says one longtime resident who gives her name only as Mrs. Lens.

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1. World's Largest Pineapple


The town's quirky venues include a giant pineapple building and an agricultural museum

There's no missing the town's 17-meter-tall pineapple.

It's not as random as it seems.

The Big Pineapple represents the region's pineapple industry -- the settlers who arrived in the 1820s struggled to grow crops until the first pineapple was planted in 1865.

Inside today's three-story fiberglass pineapple there's a museum devoted to the fruit.

From the top there are great views of the surrounding pineapple fields and countryside.

Tractor farm tours and pineapple tastings are also available.

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3. Offbeat and eccentric stores

As a community of artists, academics and musicians, many residents say they were attracted by the village's creative spirit.

Some came for a weekend and never left.

The Coathanger, a retro and vintage clothing store specializing in "shabby chic," is one aamong a group of art galleries and craft shops with funky collections.



The store feels like a museum -- old suitcases are stacked beside a 1970s toaster alongside piles of vinyl records and "Boys Own" annuals dating to the 1950s.

Out front, the small lawn is bordered by lavender bushes and features a white ceramic toilet topped with a pair of black stilettos.

"The toilet? I'm going to plant strawberries in it," says owner Lindi Pieterse, as if it's the most obvious thing in the world.

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4. Cheesy humor and kitsch memorabilia

Visitors encounter plenty of the village's cheesy humor.

An advertisement for the Pig and Whistle boasts: "There's no thirst like Bathurst." Meanwhile, the pub door is inscribed with a bon mot of its own: "Bathurst is a drinking village with a farming problem."

Inside, a wall is dedicated more wisecracks: "Marriage is a relationship in which one person is always right and the other is the husband."



A leftover from early settlers, this is British wit at its silliest -- the sort found on old school seaside postcards and one-liners that might've gotten a rise out of Benny Hill.

Souvenirs of these gags can be found at The Corner Art Gallery, which sells shirts that can be printed with the customer's name alongside the line "Instant Idiot -- just add alcohol."

The gallery also sells beautiful ceramics, art and fabric prints.

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