Karoo

Uncategorized

Why have you never visited Nieu-Bethesda?

It feels like most people I speak to about travelling in the Karoo Heartland of the Eastern Cape have been to Graaff-Reinet, yet many didn't venture much further to also visit Nieu-Bethesda.  Nieu-Bethesda truly is a very special village located barely 30 minutes from Graaff-Reinet and have a truly off the beaten track feeling to it.  I say off the beaten track because that is literally what it is.  No tar roads in the village, no street lights, no ATM,…

6 Comments
24/03/2017
Uncategorized

When it rains in Nieu-Bethesda

A couple of weeks ago I headed up to Nieu-Bethesda in the Karoo Heartland with a colleague for a tourism meeting.  En route we encountered the Fish River in full flow at Jansenville, puddles and pools next to the road approaching Graaff-Reinet and a very wet village at our destination.  The word Karoo comes from the Khoi language and means Place of Thirst, very appropriate for this arid region.  So it's not often that you see puddles of water in…

2 Comments
20/03/2017
Uncategorized

Karoo farm scene

I took this picture on a recent visit to Lowlands Country House in the Karoo Heartland outside Cradock.  The scene just grabbed me and if I was a painter then I would have loved to paint it.  It really shows the importance of water in this arid environment and how it can change things from brown to green.

3 Comments
12/03/2017
Uncategorized

Fields of flowers in the Karoo

 It's dry in the Karoo.  The word Karoo doesn't mean "Place of Thirst" for nothing.  But the smallest amount of rain in the last winter of early spring means that there will be flowers.  And flowers there were when I drove through the Karoo Heartland late in September.  On the road north of Steynsburg I had to double take when I suddenly saw fields of yellow flowers and just could not help but to pull over and take out my…

Comments Off on Fields of flowers in the Karoo
22/10/2016
Uncategorized

Fields of Coral Aloe

Just as the "normal" Aloes in the Karoo Heartland is done flowering, it's the turn of the Coral Aloes.  A drive through the southern Karoo Heartland (on the N10 just over the Olifantskop Pass from Port Elizabeth) in the Eastern Cape two weeks ago had me stop a couple of times and grabbing for my camera with literally fields of flowering Coral Aloe stretching away from the road.A carpet of orangeJust more proof that the Eastern Cape doesn't have to stand…

3 Comments
09/10/2016
Uncategorized

The road to Noodhulp

The road to Noodhulp (Afrikaans for First Aid) is not what you call the route somebody takes when they are cruising for a bruising and looking for trouble with a big oke.   Not that kind of thing at all.  I found the road to Noodhulp while en route to Mount Camdeboo Private Game Reserve outside Graaff-Reinet and after a double take reversed back for a better look to make sure that was the name I saw and then a…

1 Comment
19/09/2016
Uncategorized

There is no end to the adventures we can have

On a game drive at Mount Camdeboo Game Reserve near Graaff-Reinet recently we stopped to watch a couple of  Gemsbok on the side of a hill.  Strangely enough my attention wandered from the antelope to the road in front of us and I snapped this picture.  Looking at it afterwards I wondered how to use it as I didn't have enough material to do a full article on my visit to the reserve.  I decided to rather post it along…

1 Comment
15/09/2016
Uncategorized

The perfect Karoo sunset

Take the big sky of the Eastern Cape's Karoo Heartland, add some rain the previous night, a few distant mountains, an old building, a thorn tree and throw in a sunset for good measure.  What do you get?  This, as observed while on a game drive at Mount Camdeboo Game Reserve outside Graaff-Reinet recently.  All I still needed was a windpomp in the picture somewhere.

1 Comment
13/09/2016
Uncategorized

Sunset and scenic views at the Valley of Desolation

What is the first thing you think of if I had to ask you to name one thing to see or do if you visited the Karoo Heartland town of Graaff-Reinet?  I don't know about you, but my answer would be the Valley of Desolation in the Camdeboo National Park.  For some reason every time I spend the night in Graaff-Reinet I end up visiting the Valley of Desolation and that reason is that the Valley is one of the…

3 Comments
31/08/2016
Uncategorized

Roadside gnomes in the Karoo

I always go on about all the treasures one get to discover when road tripping.  Well known landmarks, inadequately marked but well worth taking turnoffs, interesting attractions, beautiful views, fascination people, lekker food, unusual sights and so much more.  Driving back to Port Elizabeth from Graaff-Reinet the other day I passed through the town of Jansenville and a few kilometers outside of town spotted something from the corner of my eye.  My head swung to the right and I had…

Comments Off on Roadside gnomes in the Karoo
26/07/2016