Off the beaten track: A detour through the Upper Karoo

Dawn at Stuurmansfontein

On our return journey from the lovely, newly discovered Mokala National Park near Kimberley, my mother, her friend and I decided to take the long way home, and head towards the west coast (rather than via Beaufort West) into the vastness of the Upper Karoo where the roads are straight as arrows and there's little to break the horizon. This meant we had to backtrack to Britstown before taking a right into the greatest of open spaces South Africa has to offer. 

From Britstown to Vosburg was a good 65km, and although the little town is off the main road, we turned off to take a look. The sign at the entrance invites visitors to come and enjoy the shade trees, and they are indeed impressive: large beefwoods line little gravel roads with typical Karoo homesteads, a fraction lost in time.

Here we found Die Ketel, a tuisbedryf (home industry shop), staffed in rotation by the women who make the goodies, such as rusks and cakes and jam. After a quick spin around the town, we were back on the road, tackling the 80km to Carnarvon (it's tar although the map shows gravel). 

Carnarvon is newly famous because it's close to where the SKA, the world's largest radio telescope, is being built. But we did not linger as our destination for the night was a place called Stuurmansfontein where we planned to sleep in an historic corbelled house built out of stone by trekboere (pioneer farmers).

Stuurmansfontein with kookskerm

About 25km out of Carnarvon, we turned onto a gravel road that would take us yet another 25km, past a martial eagle hanging in the sky and a dam surprisingly full of flamingos, to a farm house lush with garden roses. We were met by Charmaine Botha, her hands red from pickling beetroot, who told us the dam had recently been repaired and the flamingos had only arrived a fortnight earlier, before directing us a further 5km down a two-spoor track to the old house.

Karoo dam with flamingos

Dawn view of corbelled house at Stuurmansfontein

I hadn't read the small print, and so discovered there was no running water indoors when my mother was trying to make tea (there is an outside bathroom and a tap). So we had a real taste of pioneer life. Nevertheless, Charmaine's hand was evident in the fresh flowers, lovely beds and linen and other touches in the house. Once we figured out how to make the tea, and had our outdoor showers, we could enjoy the absolute isolation and that deep silence you only get in places like this. We were assured there was nobody else around. Except, at dinner I could hear what sounded like voices murmuring in the kitchen, rather like a radio station playing just out of earshot. Perhaps it was the ghosts or just the wind in the chimney. We'd cooked our delicious Karoo chops over a fire outside in a skerm (a wind shelter made by stacking bushes in a semi circle) while watching the swifts hawking overhead as they caught their last insects before turning in for the night.

Looking up into the dome of the corbelled house

The next morning, I took myself for a walk up the kloof behind the house, where a stream comes down in a trickle. As I walked deeper into the kloof, I heard the piercing jackal-like wail of a buzzard, warning me off. It was a pair of jackal buzzards, and I'm presuming they had a nest, so I backtracked without wishing to disturb them further.

Look carefully to see the jackal buzzards guarding their kloof

Dawn sky, Stuurmansfontein

On the way back on the main road, we encountered a group of shepherds herding sheep. 

Shepherds and sheep

And then on and on we drove past more corbelled houses, 132km to Williston where we'd promised ourselves coffee at the Williston Mall before pushing on. It's not really a mall at all but a place that houses an eclectic mishmash of things to buy and eat, and where I discovered the delicious Karoo Swiss Langbaken cheese (and have since found an outlet or two in Cape Town) made from a herd of only 12 jersey cows.

Sign painting at the Williston Mall

From here, 115km to Calvinia past the jagged edges of the Hantam mountains to Nieuwoudtville which lies on the edge of an escarpment catching the last of the winter rain. We spent the night on a farm called Papkuilsfontein, about 25km out of town, where we slept in another historic cottage and I took a walk to the nearby swimming dam which offered up a lovely sunset view. From here on in we only had the downhill home run to go.

Travel tip? Don't rush...

Swimming pool at Papkuilsfontein near Nieuwoudtville

Road-tripping: Farm stalls of the Karoo and their resident pets

One of the great joys of road-tripping, for me at least, is stopping off at farm stalls to see what's on offer. Generally, there'll be the usual jams, beskuit, roosterkoek and pies, and also the resident pets, like Soetlief (below), a ridgeback with quite a story to tell.

Soetlief with her owner Appie Viviers

It was a sweltering Sunday afternoon when we stopped at Boeteka, about 20km outside Beaufort West on the Oudtshoorn road, looking for some Karoo lamb for the braai fire that night. We were met at the door by a very friendly Appie Viviers who introduced himself to us and persuaded us to buy far more than we originally had intended - curried beans, sausage, chops (all delicious). 

As we were about to leave, Soetlief (meaning Sweet Love), the ridgeback, turned up. She was wanting to go home and had hopped into the front seat of the bakkie to wait for Appie. It then transpired that she was a famous dog, having featured in Die Burger in July 2015. 

She and her litter of puppies were living under the threat of euthanasia after contracting Brucellosis from Appie's wife Marietjie who was hospitalised. The couple had already had to slaughter some of their goat herd.

Fortunately, Soetlief's follow-up test came back clean and she and her pups (sired by a sheepdog that slipped through the lounge window one evening) were spared. Marietjie made a full recovery too, I'm happy to report!

This was our second farm stall stop of the day. Our first stop was for coffee and roosterkoek at the Smitswinkel farm stall between Calitzdorp and Oudtshoorn in the Little Karoo. I loved how these handsome kitties had found a comfortable spot for a snooze among the tableware.

Live kitty display at Smitswinkel

Smitswinkel also has a resident rooster of formidable proportions. His name is Kassie and he makes a colourful addition to the stoep where you can sit out and enjoy your meal while looking out onto the lawn at the back.


There is another farm stall with the same name outside Oudtshoorn (both establishments were originally started by the same owner). There I previously met a similarly tame rooster named Seun. 

Kassie and Seun are quite likely from the same line, as was confirmed by the staff at Smitswinkel. The two farm stalls are now separately owned and do not have any direct connection. 

Nevertheless, I can highly recommend the roosterkoek at the Calitzdorp outlet. They also have a handicraft job creation project. A worthwhile stop indeed.

Sam at Ko-ka Tsara

That night we slept at Ko-ka Tsara about 7km outside Beaufort West. It's not a farm stall but a a very comfortable bush camp with only seven chalets tucked away in a kloof bordering on the Karoo National Park off the Loxton road. 

Here we met the handsome and very polite labrador Sam, who spent the evening with us snoozing on the floor while a thunderstorm raged around (all that heat was building up to something). Sam loves walking with guests and, of course, is quite attuned to braai fires.

We stopped twice at Kambro (near Britstown) where there was a Sam equivalent named Max (no pictures). Just to say that Kambro is also a good pit stop. They make delicious pies served with their own peach chutney but they have rules about visiting dogs not using the grass (that is, except for Max of course) which seems a bit churlish given that this is the only green for miles around.

Koeks at The Mall

Our final pet of the trip was Koeks, who lives at The Mall in Williston. She had an eye on the cheese and scones we ordered there. The ironically named Mall is known for its extraordinary collection of memorabilia and great breakfasts. It also stocks delicious award-winning cheese from a farm called Langbaken which has a herd of only 12 jersey cows. We bought the Karoo Crumble (a bit like a mature cheddar) and their Karoo Swiss which is a bit like an Emmenthaler. Wish I'd bought more!

The Mall in Williston

Weekend Away: Time out in the Tankwa

Good things sometimes are a while in the making. We recently spent a long-delayed weekend camping in the Tankwa National Park. We'd originally booked a year ago but due to conflicting diaries, the dates kept shifting until we eventually settled on the Women's Day weekend in early August, a good time to catch the spring flowers.

Do not be deceived by the seeming nothingness of this approach

For those heading out of Cape Town, it's around a five-hour drive, depending on how many farmstalls you stop at on route. (Incidentally, this is the same route that people attending AfrikaBurn must take.) 

They looked better than they tasted

First, though, there was a compulsory stop at the Tankwa Karoo Padstal which burnt down in 2014 and has since been rebuilt. My husband and I had a bet on as to whether they had koeksisters or not. I won (and he still owes me some Sauvignon Blanc).

The road up the Langkloof in the Tankwa

Our destination, however, was the Langkloof, where you'll find a pair of campsites deep inside the park at the end of a long valley at the foot of the Roggeveld Mountains, just below the escarpment of the Upper Karoo. From here it's roughly 50km to Sutherland as the crow flies. Unlike the more desolate plains, this area is well-vegetated with a running river which, I'm told, is sometimes prone to flooding.

The Renoster River (or rhino river)

Langkloof 1 lies below the old homestead 

For complete privacy it's best to book both campsites, each of which has its own kitchen, toilet and shower area. There is no electricity here, but SANParks lays on paraffin lamps, gas geysers for hot water and hand soap, considerable luxury considering the remoteness of our destination. We chose to set up camp at Langkloof 1 because it had more space and was sheltered from the afternoon sun.

The campsite is located next to the ruin of an old homestead which must have had spectacular views when it was all intact. If you're a keen mountain biker, then don't forget to bring your wheels. You can also lace up your hiking boots and climb up the nearest koppie, something the two men in our party were only too keen to do.  

View from the ruin of the old homestead

Similar to Namaqualand, the Tankwa Karoo has its own flower spectacle in spring, and we were lucky enough to catch the beginning of it.

Roadside flowers

And like all good campsites, we enjoyed the company of many resident bird species, including a very vocal pair of bokmakieries, plenty of malachite sunbirds, Cape buntings, Cape robin-chats, a pair of rock martins nesting under the eaves of the bathroom, and some very "familiar" familiar chats. The occasional iron clang of the windpump, the sound of the running river and birdsong was our soundtrack for the weekend. Just beautiful!

The familiar chat was a regular visitor

There was a touch of frost just before sunrise on our second day but generally, we had 'Goldilocks' weather: Just right! Sunny and warm in the day and a little nippy at night, but nothing a campfire and cosy down duvet couldn't remedy.

Beanie with frost

And while I was sitting there in my camp chair, I couldn't help but feel sorry for the people on the Cape Town to Joburg flight overhead which briefly interrupted our solitude. They had no idea what they were missing!

The commuter flight to Joburg

Getting there...

If you're planning a Tankwa trip, make sure your tyres are in good nick because these roads have a bad reputation for shredding tyres and there was plenty of evidence of this on the R355. 

However, there seems to be a difference of opinion about tyre pressure. Old hands maintain that one should keep one's tyres inflated as softer tyres are more likely to be punctured by the sharp, flinty stones. We had our old Hilux's tyres at 2.1 bars and had no problems. Also, be sure to stay to the main tracks and keep your speed to 80km. 

While the Langkloof campsite is restricted to 4x4 only because there is a river crossing, you're mostly dealing with general gravel roads, so all you need is good ground clearance. In fact, the old R355 between Ceres and Calvinia was in the worst shape because it probably takes more of a hammering than it used to in the past.

My advice: Take it easy, take it slow, and simply enjoy the space.