Karoo

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The Pink Church

What would be one of the most unusual sights you can imagine finding in a little plattelandse (rural) town in the Karoo?  Well, I bet you didn't just think a pink church, but after saying it it would probably be on your list.  Driving into the Karoo town of Hofmeyr, one immediately sees the bell tower and clock towering out above the surrounding town and its difficult not changing direction to check it out.The Hofmeyr Dutch Reformed Church was built in…

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10/11/2010
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Hofmeyr

A side view of the Hofmeyr Post OfficeHofmeyr is a typical little Karoo town.  Imposing old Dutch Reformed Church keeping an eye over mostly dusty streets and a proud but struggling farming community.  Situated roughly halfway between Cradock and Steynsburg, the town with its less than 2000 people lies at an altitude of 1252 meters and in the heart of a once flourishing sheep farming district.  The town was founded in 1873 and, initially named Maraisburg, renamed Hofmeyr in 1911.  It was named in…

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08/11/2010
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Karoo koppies

The Karoo landscapes are beautiful and always give you something new to photograph.  Driving back from Gauteng I stopped for a quick break outside Steynsburg and snapped this farm gate with Karoo koppies in the background.These specific Karoo koppies in question are Koffiebus (Coffee pot) and Teebus (Tee pot).

4 Comments
03/11/2010
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Windpomp

One of the iconic rural countryside objects of South Africa is the windpomp (wind pump).  Windpompe is used to extract water from boreholes and can be found (working or not) on all our highways and byways around South Africa's countryside.  This one I photographed on one of the game reserves just outside Port Elizabeth.

7 Comments
02/10/2010
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Windpomp and church tower

Two of the most typical things that you would associate small towns in the platteland (countryside) with are churches and windpompe (windpumps). They are to small towns as Aston Martins and girls are to James Bond. In this scene in Nieu Bethesda in the Karoo I got them both in one shot. James Bond driving with the top down and a beautiful girl next to him.

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27/07/2010
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1800’s graveyard in Prince Albert

I was walking exploring around the back streets of the Karoo town of Prince Albert and to my delight stumbled on discovered this old cemetery. It belongs to the NG Kerk (Dutch Reformed Church) and the graves date between 1844 and 1884. Non of the graves really had grave stones, but they were all covered in stone mounds. It was interesting though that there was a couple of graves with small structures built over them towards the back of the…

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23/07/2010
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Nieu Bethesda Fossil Centre

I love Indiana Jones and when I was younger I wanted to be an archaeologist discovering lost civilisations and crawling through jungles looking for artifacts. I still have an great interest in archaeology and have a small collection of fossils and other interesting bits which I hope to still add to in future. So on a visit to Nieu Bethesda in the Karoo I reveled in the knowledge that I would be able to visit the Kitching Fossil Exploration Centre…

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07/07/2010
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Middleton Church

On our recent visit to Somerset East we stopped at Middleton between Port Elizabeth and Cradock. While the Damselfly and Rugrats were browsing through the farm stall, I had a closer look of the historic Methodist church that stands at the entrance to the village. The guy working in the shop asked me if I would like to see the inside of the church and unlocked it for me. The church, built in 1903, is what you would call quaint.…

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16/05/2010