fitravel - Firefly the Travel Guy

A whistlestop visit to Orania

I love exploring small towns. There's just something about them and the history you find there. But what if it's a small town that technically is new and without its own history yet still has a lot of history in it? Sounds confusing, doesn't it? There is one such place that has been on my bucket list radar for quite some time. The Afrikaner enclave of Orania. Partly to see what the town looks like for myself, partly to visit…

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02/06/2023

Firefly the Travel Guy

Vanderkloof Dam – second largest dam in South Africa

I like to detour via the Gariep Dam rather than Colesburg when heading north, usually for work or my daughter's cricket. The same can't be said for the Vanderkloof Dam though. I think the last time I saw it it was still called the PK le Roux Dam and I was still in primary school. Having some extra time on our hands on a recent trip to Bloemfontein (for cricket again), we decided to detour via the dam and Orania…

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19/04/2023

Firefly the Travel Guy

The Roodewal historic site outside Cookhouse

Big monuments and historic buildings are easy to spot and often stand out. It's the ones that are often a bit obscured that very few people actually know about or get to visit. One such site is the Roodewal historic site next to the N10 near Cookhouse in the Eastern Cape. This site doesn't just have one, but three separate heritage-related items all linked to the same place. Roodewal Farm. I knew about one of them because there is a…

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23/03/2023

Firefly the Travel Guy

Brown Hooded Kingfisher

When you sit playing around with your camera and a Brown Hooded Kingfisher suddenly appears to come and show you what he caught. Even better, when it happens in the Karoo Heartland. I was sitting on the stoep at Lowlands Country House and suddenly he landed nearby, waited for me to snap a pic and then kinda threw the insect in the air and swallowed it. The Brown-Hooded Kingfisher (Halcyon albiventris) is a tree kingfisher and found in Sub-Saharan Africa, living in…

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10/03/2023

Firefly the Travel Guy

Spotting the little things

We tend to always just notice the big things in life. The ocean or mountain in front of us, the forest or vast plains around us, and the blue sky above or coming rainstorm. Often we don't see the little things around us, looking right over it to something bigger. It's important to stop every now and then, look down or around and find that little something that we overlook most of the time. A walk in the Karoo veld…

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23/02/2023

Firefly the Travel Guy

Finding yourself in the middle of nowhere

In this day and age of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, the internet, connectivity, mobile phones, social media and everything electronic, it's important to do a digital detox every now and then. What is a digital detox, you ask? It is when a person refrains from using electronic devices such as smartphones or computers for a period of time. This is regarded as an opportunity to reduce stress or focus on social interaction in the physical world. I found the perfect…

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11/02/2023

Firefly the Travel Guy

Steynsburg, the small town with a big church

The town of Steynsburg in the Eastern Cape's Karoo Heartland developed around the Reformed Church which was established in 1872 and was administered by a village management board controlled by the church. Steynsburg is named after Douwe Gerbrandt Steyn, grandfather of President Paul Kruger. The members of the Dutch Reformed Church from the district had to travel long distances (64km) to Burgersdorp by horse, horse cart and ox wagon to go to church and there was a need for their…

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25/01/2023

Firefly the Travel Guy

Have you seen the pink Karoo church of Hofmeyr?

The small Karoo town of Hofmeyr is located about 63km northeast of Cradock and was founded in 1873. One of the town’s landmarks is its pink church built in 1933.

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23/01/2023

Firefly the Travel Guy

The Moederkerk in the heart of Cradock

The first Dutch Reformed congregation (and also the first church) in Cradock was established back in 1824, 10 years after the town received its name. The present Dutch Reformed Mother Church building, situated on the upper end of Church Street, was completed on the original site as the first church in 1868 at an apparent cost of some £24,500. The building’s design was based on St. Martins-in-the-Field on Trafalgar Square in London. At the opening ceremony, the builder refused to hand over the door…

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20/01/2023

Firefly the Travel Guy

A UFO landing site in Rosmead in the Karoo?

The village of Rosmead near Middelburg in the Eastern Cape Karoo Heartland wouldn't exist if it wasn't for the railway. Most people probably don't even know it exists at all. Middelburg Road as it was initially called, was a Cape Government Railway station and was established around April 1883, when the Railway Line from Cradock was inaugurated. Due to its location at the junction of the Western, Midland and Eastern Railway Systems, the village played an important role in the…

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05/01/2023