Traveller SPRING 2022
The magazine of the Automobile Association of South Africa
The magazine of the Automobile Association of South Africa
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my husband has no choice but to be patient and play<br />
along. By the time we light the fire that night, my heart<br />
is full. I’m already impressed by the Karoo, and I’m<br />
looking forward to whatever adventures lay ahead.<br />
The next morning, we stop in town for breakfast,<br />
and I realise something I didn’t expect: The Karoo is<br />
fancy. Something else my dad didn’t think to tell me.<br />
Maybe no-one told him? The buildings are striking,<br />
and it’s clear that Graaff-Reinetters take pride in their<br />
town. There are more than 220 national monuments<br />
in Graaff-Reinet, more than any other town in South<br />
Africa! And they have beautifully renovated Cape-<br />
Dutch, Victorian, and Edwardian buildings. The<br />
oldest houses in town are still in the typical flat-roofed<br />
Karoo style, and then there is the awe-inspiring old<br />
church that looks like an European cathedral – one<br />
of the biggest Dutch Reformed Church buildings<br />
in the country.<br />
Elsewhere in town, you’ll even find a German beer<br />
garden, but it’s a little too early in the morning, and<br />
we still have a lot of exploring to do. At the coffee<br />
shop, they sell Belgium beers and I overhear people<br />
chat about the Stoep (porch) Festival. It will take place<br />
in May and will be hosted by the Karoo Wine Club.<br />
Ahem. The Karoo Wine Club? Let that sink in. I think<br />
it’s the perfect excuse for a return visit. You could stay<br />
here for days!<br />
Handmade in Nieu-Bethesda<br />
Our next stop is 50 km away. We leave behind the<br />
plains for mountains and valleys, and our Polo’s wipers<br />
barely make it through a swarm of locusts. The Karoo<br />
has had exceptionally good rainfall this year. The<br />
landscape changes dramatically when you approach<br />
Nieu-Bethesda, which is nestled in a valley. It looks like<br />
nothing I imagined in the Karoo.<br />
Nieu-Bethesda is popular amongst travellers – it’s<br />
the ideal stop for Gautengers on their way to the<br />
coast in December. But it wasn’t always the jewel it is<br />
today. The town only got electricity in 1991, and it still<br />
doesn’t have any ATMs or petrol stations. This might<br />
have put me off when I was younger, but these days it’s<br />
ABOVE: The Karoo<br />
Handmade Festival<br />
ABOVE LEFT: The one<br />
thing the Karoo has<br />
plenty of is space.<br />
><br />
15<br />
<strong>SPRING</strong> <strong>2022</strong> | AA <strong>Traveller</strong>
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