Karoo

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Cradock grave yard track – no Harry Potter unfortunately

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…

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20/03/2014
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The chocolate water of the Great Fish

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…

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19/03/2014
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I flew in a helicopter

 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…

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18/03/2014
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Karoo storm moving in

The Karoo is known as blue sky country.  That means when the thunder clouds start to pack together after a hot day there is lots of sky to watch the approaching storm in.  Like this one I witnessed just after leaving Cradock on my way back to Port Elizabeth.  I can just smell the drops splashing down on the hot tar road again.  Its one of my five favorite smells along with the smell of cut grass, fresh bread, the ocean and a…

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12/03/2014
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Cradock Tuishuise

 I often wonder how many people who have visited Cradock would never have stayed over in the town if it wasn't for the Tuishuise.  The Tuishuise on Market Square was built between 1840 and 1870 and housed artisans like harness makers, wheelwrights, smithies and carpenters who made a living from the horses, oxen and wagons passing through on their way north.  Unfortunately by the early 1900's oxen and wagons where replaced by trains and cars and the artisans started to loose their livelihood. …

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10/03/2014
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Cradock’s Mother Church

The Dutch Reformed Church at the top of Church Street in Cradock is probably this Karoo town's most imposing landmark.  The first Dutch Reformed congregation in the town was established in 1824 and the church was the town's first.  Paul Kruger, who went on to become the President of the Transvaal Republic, who was born on a farm near Bulhoek south of Queenstown in 1826 was christened (by a Welsh pastor) in the original church and his name appears in the register. The present building,…

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06/03/2014
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Karoo scene at the foothills of the Zuurberg

The Karoo is a hauntingly beautiful place.  A lot of people may find it boring but most see a beauty that is often described differently by every person.  Wide open spaces with blue skies above, a couple of sheep grazing on the sparse green grass around a wind pump filled cement dam, late winter aloes in bloom with a Karoo koppie in the background, farm workers' children playing in the dust close to a flat roof worker's house, somebody walking down…

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04/02/2014
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Acacia Karroo Sunset

The Karoo is big sky country so when the sun sets its something to behold.  In the foreground of this sunset is the branch of an Acacia Karroo (Sweet Thorn tree)

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11/10/2013
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Icons of the Karoo – Roadside Aloes

During the hot dry summer the Karoo veld can be somewhat of a bleak affair, but during the winter it's a different matter.  Aloes bloom in all their fiery glory decorating the landscape like Christmas lights.  Aloes, like proteas, are often found in the most unlikely and inhospitable places, growing in hot temperature and low rainfall areas and not needing the delicate hands of somebody with green fingers to nurture it.  One of natures natural wonders.The post is part of the…

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07/08/2013