Someone asks whether or not Sutherland has a Woolworths Food store. No, you reply, this little place is hopelessly too small for something like that. "But there must surely be a Checkers or Pick n Pay?" No, no! The only proper shop in the town is the small OK Foods. "What about restaurants and coffee shops?"
Why would anyone think that Sutherland is so full of options?
"It's not too far from Cape Town and one hears so much about the place and people who have visited that it sounds like quite a busy town - the Clarens of the Karoo."
INDEED, EVERYONE DOES know about Sutherland. Even if you haven't been there, you would most likely have heard much about its bright stars and icy winters. In the 18th and 19th centuries, the trek route through the Roggeveld, as this area is called, was the main one between the Cape and the north. Today, only the road from Matjiesfontein to Sutherland is tarred. If you're arriving from any other direction, or want to go further, you'll be travelling on an untarred road.
This is why Sutherland has not yet grown to a size that warrants having a Woolworths, says Jurg Wagener.
"There is a limit to the number of people who will tolerate our gravel roads. It's quite easy to get here, but then travelling further becomes more difficult. This is one of the reasons why, for a long time, Sutherland was not a tourist destination."
Before the construction of the Southern African Large Telescope (SALT) in 2000, Sutherland was just a Karoo town where farmers would stop off to go to the co-op. But it has since joined the Milky Way and, today, you can visit The Blue Moon, the Mars Bar, Oggend Ster (Morning Star) and Alien Inn. Jurg and his wife, Rita, have played a big role in bringing the stars and planets to the town and attracting visitors.
"It's really Rita's doing. She has an incredible sensibility for this kind of thing. She's the one who said we should come to Sutherland."
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