6 April 2007    to      9 April 2007

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While everyone else was heading towards the traditional Easter Holiday destinations, yours truly went the other direction....as usual. The Karoo is quite an interesting place. Most people imagine it as being flat. While that is true for parts of it, other parts are very mountainous. Actually we crossed into the Eastern Cape as well a bit. On Friday morning we left Johannesburg at about 4:30am and headed towards Bloemfontain which would be our real starting point. From Bloemfontein we took the R702 towards Dewetsdorp. Its a picturesque little town and we took the opportunity to walk around a bit before continuing to Wepener.

Wepener was named after Commandant Louw Wepener who died at Thaba Bosigo on 15 August 1865. A strange thing about the place is its high security prison right in the middle of town.

Some of the area between Wepener and Zastron.

Zaston in the distance. It has an interesting dam just behind the town for recreational purposes.

After Zastron we headed towards Lady Grey. Here we cross the Orange river into the Eastern Cape.

At this point the Orange is still quite small.

Eventually we got to Lady Grey. Here is an interesting church in the middle of town. The town itself is situated in a really beautiful area. The only problem seems to be that there are very few Guest Houses available to over night in and what there is is generally quite expensive.

The dam that Lady Grey gets its water from is situated just east of the town in a very scenic area. We decided to go and have a look. A small gravel road leads the way there.

Once there, we decided to try and get to the top of the dam wall. A small path leads up to the wall. The dam is actually quite high and built into a deep and narrow gorge.

On top of the wall.

The mountains around Lady Grey and the scenery around the dam in particular is stunning.

We overnighted in Aliwal North at the Aliwal Spa. The Aliwal Spa is completely run down with pieces of roof missing in the Spa baths itself. It has a warm sulfur spring of about 34 degrees Celsius. One thing one must be careful of when entering the Eastern Cape is taking out any Pork products. They have cases of European Swine Flu that they are trying to contain and road blocks are everywhere to check for Pork meat. The next day we took the R58 towards Burgersdorp. Here is a view if the town.

As you enter Burgersdorp, there is an old British Block House up on the hill towards your right. During the Anglo Boer war the Block Houses formed a strong line of defense which stretched from Queenstown through Molteno to Aliwal North and Bethulie. The British used these forts as a stronghold for their troops who were guarding and protecting the railway line itself as well as the bridges from the Republican Commandos (the Boer army).

From here the journey took us through Steynsburg, Cradock and then towards the little town of Nieu Bethesda about 27Km off the N9. The gravel road there is very corrugated but absolutely worth the effort. The area around Nieu Bethesda is stunning!

The little town of Nieu Bethesda.

Here we found a lovely Chalet called the "Sneeuberg Chalets" that had recently opened by an ex Zimbabwean couple who had lost everything under Mugabe's regime. The town has become an artists paradise and most of the old houses had been restored. We took a walk around the place to try and find the famous "Owl House".

The "Owl House" is Nieu Bethesda's most famous landmark and attraction. This was the home and birthplace in 1898 of Helen Martins. In her fifties after the death of her parents she embarked on the transformation of this modest Karoo dwelling, using basic ingredients such as ground glass bottles and cement. Its an amazing place to visit!

The garden is full of the strangest surreal statues.

One of the many owls.

Inside all the walls, ceilings and doors are covered in ground glass.

The windows come in various colors of glass giving the house a strange atmosphere.

Some of the restored houses in Nieu Bethesda.

Some of the interesting buildings in Nieu Bethesda.

The place had had some rain recently. In between the houses in town are large fields were horses graze.

That evening we had a braai on the veranda of our Chalet.

The road and scenery out of Nieu Bethesda.

The last stretch was extremely corrugated.

From here the road took us through Middleburg in the Cape and then via Steynsburg we visited the Gariep dam. This used to be the old Verwoerd dam.

We ended up staying over in Hanover. Its a decaying little town with many "For Sale" signs on the houses.

The next day the route took us via Philipstown, Petrusville, Luckhoff, Koffiefontein, Petrusburg and back to Bloemfontein and Johannesburg. Here is a photo of the endless Karoo between Philipstown and Petrusville. For those of you that ask, "What on earth is there in the Karoo?"...actually there is a heck of a lot if one takes the trouble looking for it!