As you approach the Vanderkloof Dam from the north – from Bloemfontein via Koffiefontein and Luckhoff – the road forks about 1,6km before the dam wall. Keep right and you will cross the Orange River via a bridge that offers a view of the dam wall downstream. Bear left and you will travel over the highest dam wall in the country and cross the provincial border between the Free State and the Northern Cape.
The Vanderkloof Dam overflowed from early summer last year until late autumn this year – the sight of such a large mass of water in this dry landscape catches you completely by surprise. It’s an oasis in the Upper Karoo landscape characterised by mountains that shield you from the outside world.
There’s a large circle at the entrance to the town decorated with a flower formed with stones that are painted red and yellow. Bennie Liebenberg started the project shortly after his wife, Thirza, died of cancer in 2017. It was her idea to have a daisy or sunflower in the centre of the circle. “She had a vision that the desert would bloom again. Things will once again go well for our people – the town and the country,” Bennie says. The vegetation in this normally arid landscape is indeed blooming, particularly since 827mm fell here during the recent rainy season – from October 2021 to the end of June this year. (In December alone, they measured 193mm of rain!)
Bennie plans to transform the 96m2 flower into a sundial and market it as a tourist attraction. “It will be the biggest sundial in the country – Hankey in the Eastern Cape currently has the largest one,” he says.
This story is from the Spring 2022 edition of go! Platteland.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Sign In
This story is from the Spring 2022 edition of go! Platteland.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Sign In
There are few secrets in Verlorenvallei
All platteland towns have that one famous (or infamous) character who knows everyone's business. Meet Livia Hoogenboezem, the keeper of every piece of gossip in Verlorenvallei...
Make magic with winter's abundance
This winter menu is our invitation to look beyond the bewildered herb garden, move out of your comfort zone and bake a loaf of bread, appreciate the beauty of a head of cabbage, and invite the rain gods to the table to feast with you on venison pie, pudding and cake.
It takes a family
Christian Fry and his fiancé, Pippa de Lange, arrived at Dombeya with just a day to spare before the Covid-19 hard lockdown commenced in 2020. Their purpose was to save the Fry family farm from being sold. They've settled into life in their Elands River Valley haven now but continue to dream big and work hard.
For the love of birds...
They may be called birdwatchers but they are in fact using their ears. As Johan van Zyl discovered on his maiden outing as an \"avian tourist\" with BirdLife South Africa to find the 450 bird species that live in the Garden Route and Little Karoo.
To the babbling brooks of Sabie
Roughly every five years, Jaco and Jens Reverchon get itchy feet. They hopped around Cape Town, moved up north to the Greater Kruger and then, recently, put down roots next to the Sabie River where they live a peaceful life with their animals.
Creativity & community in Dinokeng
The driving force behind the successful Makers Village in Irene has now implemented the same concept in Cullinan, creating an incubator and exhibition space for entrepreneurs and artists. Platteland dropped in at this budding creative hub to find out what it's all about and came away impressed.
Willie Strauss Never an idle moment
A variety concert... that is how to approach your life and career when you want to survive as an artist living in the platteland. So says singer, lyricist and radio food expert Willie Strauss, who entices visitors to Die Sinkstoor in Cullinan with traditional offal and his mother's Bushmanland boerekos.
To die for
How do you avoid the tourist avalanche if you live in an Afromontane forest where holidaymakers descend in December? You drive to lonely outposts in the mountains of the Cape, says photographer Obie Oberholzer, and you make pictures rather than take them.
1 Fiat 500 2ha 4 boys...19000 miles!
When the go-cart that an engineer father had built for his four sons couldn't handle the tufty terrain on their 2-hectare plot in Montana, Pretoria, they hunted down a Fiat 500 in a salvage yard. They only wanted its suspension system, but Mom intervened, the car was saved, and those little daredevils clocked up an impressive 19000 miles - all without leaving the plot.
SUTHERLAND Cold town, warm hearts
Life in Sutherland in the Northern Cape isn't always easy, but even those who leave tend to return. Come with us to find out why.
