Karoo

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International Mohair Summit

The first biennual International Mohair Summit took place in the Karoo town of Graaff Reinet last week. "What does it have to do with Port Elizabeth?" I hear you ask. Well, Port Elizabeth is seen as the mohair capital of the world as more mohair moves through this city than anywhere else in the world. If you want to learn more about the summit, you can read more about it on The Firefly Photo Files. Specific posts are: International Mohair…

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13/11/2009
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Karoo sunset

On my visit to the Karoo last week, I got to experience an awesome Karoo sunset from one of the viewpoints at the Valley of Desolation. You can see why the Karoo is called "Big Sky Country". This is the original picture. No extra colour added. No enhancement. Just a brilliant Karoo sunset.For more pictures of the sky from other exotic places all over the world, visit Skywatch.

28 Comments
12/11/2009
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Valley of Desolation

The Valley of Desolation is situated just outside the town of Graaff Reinet. It can be found in the Camdeboo National Park which provides the visitor with insights into the unique landscape and ecosystem of the Karoo, not to mention awesome scenic beauty. The Karoo was formed hundreds of millions of years ago and in some places, dolerite form jointed pillars. The best examples of which are found in the Valley of Desolation where erosion of the softer sedimentary beds…

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16/06/2009
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Karoo churches

For today's "Random ..." theme I decided on Karoo Churches. Most of the small Karoo towns have magnificent old churches that are well know landmarks in these towns. The Dutch Reformed Church (Moederkerk) in Cradock. Built in 1868, the design is a near replica of St. Martins-in-the-Field in Londen. The Dutch Reformed Church (Grotekerk) in Graaff-Reinet. It was built in 1885 and the design was based on the Salisbury Cathedral in England. The Reformed Church in Venterstad, built in 1876.

8 Comments
24/02/2009
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Karoo skies

Today's post is the conclusion of our drive through the Karoo (featured in Karoo Roads and Windpompe and Karoo Koppies ) from Gariep Dam (also see Gariep Dam Sunrise) to Cannon Rocks (posts still to come). And to link in with Skywatch Friday. As stated before, the Karoo is often referred to as Big Sky Country. "Why?" you ask. "Several reasons", I say. It is a fairly flat countryside with few hills and mountains and even fever big trees. This…

22 Comments
08/01/2009
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Windpompe and Karoo Koppies

Today's post basically follows up on yesterday's post about Karoo roads. The Karoo is generally a flat and dry area with a couple of hills and mountains. This means that driving through the Karoo there are very few features that are distictly "Karoo". The land in the Karoo is farming country with farmers farming mostly with Angora goats (for mohair), sheep (for the most divine Karoo lamb chops... I mean wool) and cattle (how about toasting that juicy t-bone with…

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07/01/2009
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The Owl House

Very few people would have heard of the little dusty Karoo village of Nieu-Bethesda if it wasn't for The Owl House. Nieu-Bethesda is situated about 3 1/2 hours north of Port Elizabeth close to the town of Graaff Reinet. The house belonged to a woman named Helen Martins. Martins became bored with her "dull" life and resolved to transform the environment around her. She began an obsessive project around 1945 to decorate her home and garden and used cement, glass…

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01/12/2008
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Caves and Crocs

Today is the last day of our tour and we will make visits to the other two big tourist attractions in Oudtshoorn.Our first stop is the world famous Cango Caves. Situated about 20kilometres outside of town in the Swartberg (Black Mountains), the caves are the best known caves in South Africa and one of the most visited show caves in the world. The word Cango is a Khoisan word that means "water between hills". The Khoisan used to live in…

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18/11/2008
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Karoo Cactus

On our recent visit to Cradock we walked up Oukop, the hill outside the town. From the top there is a lovely view over the town. There is a wide variety of succulents and cactuses that grow in the area and this one I found very interesting.

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23/08/2008
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Karoo cottages at moonlight

Ok, so its not the second installment of the Settler story yet, but that will still come. Last Thursday I took the step up from my compact digital camera and bought myself a new camera. Ok, so the budget does not allow for a professional camera with different lenses, but it did allow a Fujifilm Finepix S8000 with 8 megapixels and 18x optical zoom. I took it along to Cradock for our weekend away and here follows the first post…

2 Comments
18/08/2008