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FFrom the pure silence of a sheep farm to the bustle of a book festival, from a traditional Sunday lunch in a Victorian-era town to a strictly non-traditional Saturday night cabaret, and from a daisy extravaganza to a dance in the dust, the Great Karoo offers a grand, somewhat offbeat, South African overland experience.
Spanning nearly 400 000km2 in the geographic midriff of South Africa, the Great Karoo must be one of the quietest places on Earth.
It is a place of immense spaces, wide-angle horizons, craggy mountain ranges, conical hills, an ancient inland seabed, and a sky so big that at night it feels like you can touch the stars. The Great Karoo stands proudly with other desert tourism regions like the Australian Outback, and Arizona and New Mexico in the United States, and makes for a memorable road trip. It seems you could travel for months in and about the towns of the Great Karoo and have a different experience in each one.
Did You Know?
WWatch a sunset thunderhead gathering over the village of Aberdeen after a blazing hot midsummer’s day and toast life on the open road.
WWatch a sunset thunderhead gathering over the village of Aberdeen after a blazing hot midsummer’s day and toast life on the open road. Stand still in the Matjiesfontein military graveyard and try to hear the strains of the lone Highland piper, who is said to be playing Scotland the Brave for all time.
The Great Karoo
HHead for the mountain settlement of Nieu Bethesda in winter time (May to August) and hunker down with a Karoo Ale at the Sneeuberg Brewery. Share a traditional Karoo supper at the Victoria Manor Hotel in Cradock, where you can also watch the supremely fit canoe paddlers compete in the Fish River Canoe Marathon. Go on a book safari in the Northern Cape town of Richmond, where the printed word still rules.
Stride the streets of Colesberg on a walking tour of this Victorian-era town and venture out on the Gariep Route, staying over at the most eccentrically stylish hotel in the region. Enjoy a Saturday night cabaret in the Karoo Theatrical Hotel outside the mohair town of Steytlerville, and be entertained by a concert pianist and an exotic singer named Dame Layla Lamborghini.
Sit with astronomers on a hill outside Sutherland, home of the Southern African Large Telescope, and relish the heavesquare ns above. Visit the seven radio dishes out at the Square Kilometre Array near Carnarvon and imagine the day when more than 2500 of these wonderful techno beasts will be swaying in unison, listening to the universe.
Hear all about the endangered riverine rabbit in Loxton; join the Nama Riel danna dancers at the Williston Festival in the Upper Karoo; and drive to Calvinia to catch the seasonal display of spring daisies, perhaps the greatest free show on Earth.
HHave a sundowner with your favourite person at a spot overlooking Graaff-Reinet and the Valley of Desolation, giving you an eagle-eye view of the vastness of the Karoo. Go fossil fossicking in the Karoo National Park outside Beaufort West, and antique-chasing in a speciality store in Willowmore before entering the Baviaanskloof Wilderness Area, famous for its mountainous, rugged terrain and adventure tourism activities.
Enjoy Prince Albert, gateway to the Great Karoo, at Olive Festival time, and listen to the happy gurgle of the water furrows as you sit on your stoep (verandah) on a warm summer’s evening. And then turn your car around, grab the road map and choose a different route all together...
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