go! Platteland Magazine - Summer 2021/2022

In this issue

In this issue of Platteland: Pick the right guard dog; Fly-fishing - Hooked on the Eastern Cape!; Put down roots in Swellendam; Downsizing is all the rage… But is a tiny home for you?; Kampersrus - Where travellers come to rest; Healthy eating - 10 superfoods to plant in your garden and Explore the Northern Cape - Willemsrivier - Where the emptiness is as beautiful as the flowers, Pella - A downpouring of rain and blessings, Pofadder - Pull up a chair at the Bushmanland long table.

Willemsrivier will put your soul back in your ribcage

Whether it’s the wildflower season or not, if you spend the night on the Kotzé family’s sheep and guest farm Willemsrivier 4 km from Nieuwoudtville, 1795 will seem like yesterday.

6 mins

KAMPERSRUS The goodplace in the mountains

In the 1930s, Broer Maré bought a farm named Bedford at the foot of the northern Drakensberg and renamed it Kampersrus, meaning camper’s rest – a resting place for travellers. We got to meet some of the people who decided to settle in this picturesque place in Limpopo.

10+ mins

Enchanted by water

Alan Hobson and his family were living the good life in Johannesburg, but the fishing waters of the Eastern Cape lured him back. Since he and his wife Annabelle moved to Somerset East, their main aim has been to establish fly-fishing as a tourist attraction in the Karoo.

10+ mins

Small is beautiful

Downsizing has become a buzzword among South Africans who want to hop off the consumer treadmill, flee Covid-19 restrictions and embrace the smaller, more important things in life. For many of them, a tiny home in the countryside seems the perfect solution.

10+ mins

Guard dogs your eyes, your ears, your friends

Having a guard dog is a good option to keep you safe in your home, but a dog cannot be a replacement for a security system. You have more responsibility for your own safety than your pet does.

10+ mins

Pella Oasis in the wilderness

Pella sounds like a faraway place, and it is far away – all the way up north in Bushmanland, just inside the South African border. The people of Pella believe the Lord watches over them and their special settlement, which became established around a mission station more than 200 years ago.

7 mins

Healing, endless greatness

Empty, vast landscapes – deserts, arid pans, the Karoo, the Free State plains, green valleys, the sea – change people. Your worries don’t vanish, but you gain a better perspective on them, says Annelise Erasmus.

6 mins

One wet summer

During a good rainy season, few sights (or sounds!) on earth beat the Orange River in flood crashing into the gorge at Augrabies Falls, says Sue Hewitt from Bethulie. – Augrabies Falls, Northern Cape

1 min

Read all stories from go! Platteland

go! Platteland Magazine Description:

The slow life is the good life: go! Platteland celebrates the rural lifestyle and the entrepreneurial spirit of people whose hearts are in the platteland – whether they grew up in the countryside or are already based there, are contemplating making the move or simply hankering after the rural life. Platteland offers articles that focus on entrepreneurs, DIY projects, animals, gardening, food, towns and people. It is both practical and inspiring – as much of a visual feast as it is a celebration of great writing.