Mzanzi Travel - Local Travel Inspiration (Issue 5)

Discover South Africa
Karoo
This ancient region, believe it or not, was once part of Antarctica before
continental drift occurred. These days it appears arid and desert-like, until it
undergoes a dramatic transformation when the first summer rains fall. Then
its soil bursts into a life of its own with hardy succulents and sweet grasses on
which the merino and fat-tailed sheep that the region is renowned for, graze.
Dotted across this landscape are small, isolated villages and towns where life
continues in the way it has always done. Hugging whatever shade there may be
in the valleys between flat-topped Karoo hills and mountains, these settlements
are characterised by white-washed Karoo architecture and imposing churches.
The area is also home to Hopetown where the first recorded diamond was
found in South Africa; Orania, the self-proclaimed Afrikaner volkstaat, or
Afrikaner people’s state; Colesberg, on the junction of the roads between
Johannesburg, Cape Town and Port Elizabeth, and the scene of many battles
and skirmishes during the Anglo Boer War; De Aar, the third largest town in
the Northern Cape, located on the main railway line between Johannesburg,
Cape Town, Port Elizabeth and Namibia and the second most important railway
junction in Southern Africa; Carnarvon, where Xhosa communities settled as
early as 1795 and shared the area with frontier farmers living in corbelled
houses and roaming San hunter-gatherers; and Griquatown, the capital of the
Griqua clan led by by Adam Kok II and Andries Waterboer who settled in the
area. In 1813, at the instigation of Rev John Campbell, the ‘bastaards’ renamed
themselves Griqua, and the place called Klaarwater became Griquatown.
Typical street scene, Canavon, Northern Cape Karoo /
Grobler du Preez / Shutterstock
Namaqualand flowers/ PictureScapes / Shutterstock
24 |ISSUE 5|www.mzanzitravel.co.za | MZANZI TRAVEL