Table of contents for Karoo Guide 2024 in go!

There’s something special about Stuurmansfontein. In his article on page 52, Willem van der Berg writes that Stuurmansfontein is at the heart of the Karoo’s corbelled house story. In a way, it represents the story of the Karoo’s pioneers, which is also a tale of hardship. Those early trekboers had no choice but to build stone houses with strange domed roofs in this inhospitable landscape because there were no trees to use for roof beams. But to me, Stuurmansfontein tells another story: one of silence. Spend a night and you’ll be stripped of the luxuries that electricity brings and immersed in a deep stillness. You’re in the middle of nowhere, somewhere in the Carnarvon district. There are no other vehicles. When you switch off your engine you’ll hear absolutely nothing…

HIGHLIGHTS • Bokpoort (1487m) • De Jagers Pass (1444m) • Molteno Pass (1574m) • Blounek (1655m) • Bastards Poort (1707m) • Oukloof Pass (1536m) • Rammelkop Pass (1308m) • Komsberg Pass (1654m) • Ouberg Pass (1402m) • Gannaga Pass (1226m) The Nuweveld and Roggeveld mountains stretch from Beaufort West to Calvinia like the wall of a stone kraal. The mountains separate the Lower Karoo from the Upper Karoo. At the bottom you’ll find the Tankwa, Moordenaars Karoo, the Koup and Die Vlak (see map on page 88). On the plateau is the Hantam, Roggeveld, Hardemans Karoo and Nuweveld. These are proper mountains – sometimes almost a kilometre up into the blue sky – and you get some of the best passes in quick succession. My route starts in Loxton. I…

LITTLE KAROO DIE KLOOF When you pass through Cogmanskloof from the Ashton side and drive into Montagu, Die Kloof greets you on the left, as it has done since 1980. The highlight is the back garden:Walk past the mouthwatering smells coming from the kitchen to the lawn and tables under trees. The Keisie River flows on the other side of the fence and Bloupuntberg rises behind. There’s a playground where the kids can burn off their energy on jungle gyms and slides. Max, the resident Staffie cross (pictured below, far right), loves people and dogs alike. Bring your pooch along on a leash. The cosy restaurant has an extensive menu: bobotie, lamb curry, pancakes, burgers, sandwiches, pies, fish and chips… There’s carrot cake and apple tart, and wine available too.…

BETHULIE & VENTERSTAD Karoo Pandok The Farmer’s Cottage from R450 per person sharing. 063 731 0018; airbnb.co.za (search “Farmers Cottage Bethulie”) Die Ou Kar Restaurant & Pub 071 385 1148 Willem se Kampie 082 578 7466 One morning, I left home in search of a troupe of dancers in the Karoo. Whiskey, Jack and Charlie looked at me with bright eyes – my dogs were coming too. Months before, I read the Karoo Roads book series by Julienne du Toit and Chris Marais and one story in particular ignited my wanderlust. Around 1998, artist Marcella de Boom created a group of dancing sculptures on a farm near Loxton, which at the time belonged to family friends. She’s since passed away, but her dancers are still dancing. Chris and Julie had…

PORTFOLIO For me, the Karoo is both geography and destiny. It’s there on the map of South Africa, plain as the eye can see, somewhere beyond the orchards of the Boland, south of the muddy ribbon of the Orange River, north of the greener Garden Route. It’s destiny that brought me here. My grandparents all spent a part of their lives in the Karoo, in towns like Matjiesfontein, Noupoort and Prince Albert. But it took me nearly 40 years on this planet to realise that the Karoo is also the place that makes me, me. It has a contagious magic, and I’ve learnt to recognise how the Karoo defines how I look at the world beyond its borders when I’m on assignments in far-flung places. The Land of Begin Again…

After good rain, Graaff-Reinet’s Nqweba Dam overflowed in June 2024, for the first time in more than a decade. (It overflowed in 2012, and before that in 2008, which was the first time in 22 years…) The dam was completed in 1925 and first known as the Van Ryneveld’s Pass Dam. Its main feeder river is the Sundays River, but water from the Gats, Pienaars and Broederstroom rivers also drain into the dam, which lies within the borders of the Camdeboo National Park.…

There’s nothing like a slow walk in the Karoo. It gives the landscape time to speak to you and show you the small things. The Baviaanskloof is home to one of the most scenic hikes in the country – the Leopard Trail – and it’s where my wife Daleen and I are joined by our friends Japie Kruger, Dawid de Wet and Rupert Koopman early in June 2024. Dawid’s wife Karlien and two of their friends had to cancel at the last minute. It’s a shame, especially for Daleen, who is now the only woman and will have to put up with us men moaning about sore knees and the tribulations of the national cricket team on her own. When you approach the Baviaanskloof from Patensie in the east, you…

STAY HERE Given the chance, I’m on a dusty road somewhere, in the sweet spot of the map of South Africa. In other words, I’m in the Karoo. I like to have good music playing in the car (Springsteen, always, and have you heard of Jake Xerxes Fussell?) and a good companion in the passenger seat. But finding the right place to stay can be a hassle. A glance at any of the booking sites feeds you reams of options. Where to start? You can narrow it down by price, or by non-negotiables like a swimming pool in summer, a fireplace in winter, or in my case, as far away from towns as possible. This road trip, mostly undertaken during February 2024, was planned solely to find excellent places to…

KAROO AT ITS BEST As you drive through Cradock (Nxuba), keep your eyes open for some cool mural art. You may see a mountain zebra wearing sunglasses. Or a pair of technicolour angel wings. Or a dignified woman in traditional Xhosa dress. Or a colourful tribute to all of Cradock’s attractions next to one of the supermarkets – that’s this photo, taken at Superspar Tams at 5 High Street. There’s even a tribute to South Africa’s Freedom Charter near the taxi rank, in all the bright hues of our flag. The creator of these murals is LT Ndabeni, aka Luthando. He’s a self-taught artist from Gqeberha who went from retail marketing to celebrating the attractions of his new home town, thanks to some money from Lottoland and encouragement from Visit…

COLUMN If there’s one piece of farm equipment with the power to make you dream of a Karoo farm of your own, it’s the windmill. Every second Ford Ranger in the city has a windmill sticker on the tailgate. Many homes have a little windmill statue in the front garden. Have you ever seen a farm stall without a windmill somewhere? Not even on a tablecloth or scatter cushion? Do you know a South African who hasn’t posted a windmill photo on Instagram or Facebook? I have no problem with any of these things. But there’s another side to windmills that few people know about. And once you’ve been introduced to this side, you’ll look at windmills differently… After I finished my matric, my dad and I farmed deep in…

Alonely windmill stands in just the right place. A koppie catches the orange glow of sunset. A flock of sheep next to an old stone kraal… Yes, the Karoo is a photographer’s dream! On this intimate tour, photojournalist Toast Coetzer will be on hand to help you learn all about composition, light, and the inner workings of your camera. (All cameras are welcome, from mirrorless to smartphones!) The itinerary is designed to include stops at a handful of great sites every day. The pace is easy – and there will be time to do birding, too. Non-photographers are also welcome. The trip is a celebration of the Karoo and covers an area Toast and guide Douwe Vlok of Heuningland Tours know very well. They both grew up in the Karoo…

CORBELLED HOUSES The area around Fraserburg, Williston, Carnarvon and Loxton is known as the Hardemans Karoo, but you might as well call it the Corbelled Karoo. These unique stone houses built by the first trekboers between the 1820s and 1870s are only found in this part of South Africa. Before the farmers moved into the region, it was unexplored wilderness, known only as the “Country of the Bushmen”. In 1811, the English naturalist William Burchell came to explore this part of the Cape colony. At the Sak River, near modern-day Fraserburg, Burchell stood on its border. Two years previously, in 1809, the border had been further south, at the Riet River between Sutherland and Fraserburg. Burchell predicted the arrival of the farmers in the region: “If the occupation of new…

STAY HERE Ditch the laptop, load the mountain bikes and pack some walking boots that don’t mind a bit of farmyard on their soles -you’re heading to the Eastern Cape Karoo! Chances are you’re going to hike in the Sneeuberg, feel the energy of the sheep-shearing shed in action, go on fossil tours that will take you back 250 million years, fish for trout in distant dams, see rock paintings and sniff the bossies that make a Karoo lamb chop so tasty. There will be sundowners in magic landscapes, long stoepsit sessions or rainy afternoons behind a good book in a cosy place. If you’re lucky, you might find yourselves in the heat of a ram auction (don’t lift a finger!) or sampling the delights of an annual wool festival.…

When I meet readers of this magazine – sometimes around a campfire in the Kgalagadi, on a road trip through Namibia, maybe at a farm stall on the N1 – the first thing most people say to break the ice is: “You must have been everywhere, right?” Having worked for go! and its associated titles for 20 years, that’s a fair assumption. But no, there are always places I haven’t been to – and there are certainly many reasons to visit places over and over, too. On this research trip, my aim was to discover some great selfcatering places in the Tankwa Karoo. And since I live in Stanford in the Western Cape, my departure point was such that I could work in another quirky nook of the Karoo on…