At home in the landscape

Behind stone walls that gently merge with the Karoo veld that Jan Sauer Lambrechts loves so much awaits a characterful interior in which he likes to seek out the winter sun.

- By Marian van Wyk

WHO LIVES HERE? Jan Sauer Lambrechts

WHERE The farm Twyfelberg, between Britstown and De Aar

SIZE 350m²

Jan Sauer started renovating the Twyfelberg homestead in February 2020, and eight months later the house was almost unrecognisable. A wraparound stoep was built and the building team clad all the exterior walls with ironstone. One has to look closely, past the attractive veranda, to see the architectural lines and steel-framed windows that reveal that this is a '70s house. The stone circles in the veggie garden are Jan's way of playing off the rough texture of the landscape against finer details. From the top of the koppie, it looks like there's a patchwork quilt lying here, he says.

Once you've left behind a landscape dotted with Karoo shrubs and are passing fields of long grass waving gently in the autumn breeze, you know you're deep in the Northern Cape Karoo. The veld is greener than it has been for many years as we turn right on the N10 between Britstown and De Aar to Twyfelberg, the game and Dorper sheep farm belonging to the Lambrechts family.

The cockscomb blooms come from the garden on the Lambrechts' neighbouring farm, Sweetfontein. They're iconic Karoo flowers but almost extinct, says Jan Sauer. If you still have them in your garden, you're extremely lucky. Dining room table and pendants from Weylandts

It's been three days since heavy rains fell, but the puddles are still wide and the mud tracks deep. After the fifth farm gate, the stone walls of Twyfelberg's homestead peep out among a copse of trees. The house, which also doubles up as guest accommodation, is where the family migrates in winter in search of the sun.

A FARM KITCHEN