Taking a Smellwalk of Cape Town

As I continue my stroll towards Fish Hoek’s main drag, I remind myself of McLean’s pointers for a first-time smellwalker: Drink lots of water, smell your own skin every now and then to recalibrate your receptors and, whenever you think you can smell something, stop and take a huge whiff. Also, don’t try to cover too much ground: Limit your smellwalk to 45 minutes. “Humans are very out of practice when it comes to using smell as our primary sense,” she explains. “And it’s exhausting.”

You can say that again. I’ve never been particularly good at smelling things — my wife occasionally accuses me of being anosmic (loss of smell) — and as a city dweller with a desk job, I fall into the least proficient subset of our species. “People who live closer to the land are definitely better at using their sense of smell,” explains McLean.

And, as I soon discover, smelling things is only half the battle. Trying to describe them is equally challenging. Here, McLean urges, “It’s important to focus on naming smells instead of identifying them.” Of course, some smells are easy to nail down: Human urine, cigarette smoke and the scent of meat grilling are all present in Fish Hoek. But so too is an unidentifiable, slightly sweet, silicone-like odor that smells a lot better than it sounds.

“I once walked with a group of sommeliers in Spain,” McLean tells me. “They were fantastic at describing what they smelled.” Naming smells, she explains, is all about identifying a category — citrus, for example — and then whittling it down further. Lemon, lime or kumquat? Zest or juice? “I want to demonstrate that we all have exceptional powers of description,” she adds. “Not just sommeliers and perfumiers.”

The “smellnote” document asks the sniffer to record four smells each in three different categories. For the first four smells (passive smelling), I simply walk around, sniffing enthusiastically, and make a note of the scents that hit me. Smells 5-8 (active smelling) require me to walk more slowly and explore hidden corners. This is where I encounter human urine and rancid dustbins — but it’s also the door to unlocking the unexpectedly warm and foresty smell of a palm tree and the refreshingly acidic tinge of geranium flowers outside the Seventh-day Adventist Church.

The last set of four smells (free smelling) are from the smellwalker’s own choice. I opt for storefront entrances and am enchanted by the sweet, vinegary scent of a fish and chips shop (not even a hint of fryer oil), the slightly triggering stench of hoofs at a pet shop (my parents’ dogs are always gnawing on a few) and the rich, exotic aroma of samosas at the Fish Hoek General Store.

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So what’s it like to go on a smellwalk? There’s a slightly slapstick component to the entire experience but this may be because I did my smellwalk all on my own. I might not have felt quite so self-conscious sniffing lampposts if I’d had some company.

There’s also a solid scientific basis to it all. McLean’s maps — a visualization of something previously intangible — can be really useful for architects and they’re also used to “illustrate scientific papers written by chemists,” she says. A project on 200 years of stink, which looked at how the industrial English town of Widnes’ smellscape changed over time, opened the door to preserving some smells as a patrimony of sorts. “Smell, like all senses, contributes to how we make meaning of our everyday experiences and it is important to note and record these as part of our cultural heritage,” explains McLean.

But perhaps the most interesting spinoff has been McLean’s work with people who lost their sense of smell during the pandemic. “Before COVID no one really gave a damn,” she laughs. “But now people are interested!” She’s started taking people who have contracted COVID on smellwalks and talking through their experiences. In some cases, the smellwalk is a welcome reassurance that all’s back to normal, she explains.

However, for those whose sense of smell is still AWOL, she refers them to anosmia charities AbScent and FifthSense. “In particular, AbScent uses a method called smell training, which was developed by Professor Thomas Hummel in 2009, promoting mindful smelling on a regular basis as a technique to aid recovery,” she explains.

What does your city or town smell like? Tell us about the signature aromas in your location.