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…
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…
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. …
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,…
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…
Aaaahhhh, a sunset. But not just any sunset. A Karoo sunset. A proper African sunset.