Hang out in Hangklip

Remember that famous David Kramer song where he belts out “Hier sit die manne in die Royal Hotel”? It’s a folk tune that describes a common scene in small towns: men coming together at the local bar after a day’s work. It’s about masculinity, and testosterone, and bar songs, and that ‘last one for the road’. The guys have known each other since they were laaities in school, and they come to the bar to lament about the Springboks losing to the All Blacks or the one that got away, or to cheer Bafana Bafana on to score a goal and stay in the African Cup of Nations. It’s an institution that is part of the fabric of small-town living.

The Hangklip Hotel is cut from the same cloth. Here, the size of the crayfish or the fish that just wouldn’t bite sets the trend of the conversation at the rough-and-tumble bar called Plankies.