For Hardcore Campers And Off-Roaders!

Pietersrivier Nature Reserve, De Vlugt, Western Cape

- Nick Yell

“You must please pay attention because there will be an exam tomorrow,” said Katot Meyer, who had just given my friend Raimund and I a list of conservation questions to think about.

Blessed with a disarming sense of humor, in the Herman Charles Bosman mold, Katot made a joke at every turn. We saw evidence of this in the many signs displayed discreetly around the various campsites he showed us before we selected the dam site below Rondekop. For instance, down at the Keurbooms River campsites he has altered an old ‘Pay and Display’ parking sign to read: “Afrikaners don’t pay for parking here, but Englishmen do”. But among all the ‘grappies’ are more serious conservation and recycling messages, as well as many labels identifying trees and other flora which are very useful for guests.

Katot, which I discovered later means ‘Billy can’ in Afrikaans, is probably an apt moniker for a tough-as-nails, compact man who camps out whenever he can and seems to spend more time in the bush on the farm than he does at his successful Oudtshoorn Guest House. In terms of conservation, Katot certainly walks his talk (usually barefoot), and this is borne out not only by the minimal human footprint and infrastructure he allows on the land but the stewardship contract he has for this nature reserve from Cape Nature.