Nieu-Bethesda in the Karoo is one of those interesting little towns that one just can't afford to miss. Home to the Owl House, Kitching Fossil Centre, guesthouses, restaurants, a micro brewery and so much more yet the town (or should I perhaps call it a village?) doesn't have a petrol station, atm or even a tar road. Every corner offers something new or interesting or, in this case, old and interesting.
A trip up to Nieu-Bethesda a week or so ago gave me the opportunity to detour into the little village of Wolwefontein between Uitenhage and Jansenville. There really wasn't that much to see but the old hotel sign behind a sweet thorn tree made for an interesting photograph.
Olive Schreiner (24 March 1855 – 11 December 1920) was a world renown South African writer and is best remembered for her novel The Story of an African Farm which has been highly acclaimed ever since its first publication in 1883. She was born in Wittebergen and grew up Healdtown from the age of six. Between 1868 and 1870 she lived in Cradock with her brother who was the headmaster of the local school and two other siblings. Although Schreiner only lived in Cradock for…
Driving along the N10 between Port Elizabeth and Cradock there is a memorial next to the road near the town of Cookhouse. Driving back from Cradock the other day I decided to stop and have a closer look. The Slagtersnek Monument remembers the Slagtersnek Rebellion and the subsequent hanging of 5 of the rebels, an event that changed the area forever and possibly had a big role to play in the start of the Great Trek. The museum in Somerset East has…
Farm stalls all have their unique points and quirky bits. Daggaboer Farm Stall outside Cradock has this sign by the gents.....
Spending the weekend at Ann's Villa just north of the Zuurberg Mountains in the southern Karoo, I discovered this little dude enjoying the afternoon sun. He allowed me to take out my camera and snap a couple of pictures of him, even lifting up his head for a better pose. Now I'm not a lizard expert but I'm sure it's a Agama. Whether it's a Southern rock agama or a Blue headed tree agama I'm not too sure. Going by pictures I have…
Back in the old days distance stones were used to indicate to travellers how far they had to go to the next town. These days there aren't a lot of them around and often they are found on old and back roads. But trust Geocaching to take me to one of them on the N10 on a trip to Cradock. This stone indicates 27 miles to Cradock and 80 miles to Grahamstown.
On my last visit to Cradock I went in search of the grave of Harry Potter. Harry Potter, you ask? Well, Cradock's cemetery holds the grave of one Harry Potter who was a ‘beloved husband’ and died on July 27, 1910 at the age of 46. Was he magical? Who knows? I unfortunately didn't find him. I did find this scene of this car track through the grave yard that I especially liked. Since coming back home I have discovered GPS coordinates…
The Karoo is generally thought to be a very dry area with no water and in most cases this is true. But... And there is almost always a but. This isn't quite true everywhere in the Karoo. If you go and look at some places in the Karoo Heartland you will find that some parts of it is often very green. A guy like Alan Hobson of Somerset East can even find enough dams and rivers to do Wild Fly Fishing in…
I'm not a regular flyer. The first time I got to fly was in a Jac (similar to a Harvard), a flight I would never forget as the pilot did two rolls with this very nervous and acrophobic passenger in the back. Since then I have become a lot better and over the last seven years got to fly a couple of times a year on passenger planes both around South Africa and internationally. All that said, I still haven't been up…