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Sights for ‘Karoo Eyes’ — Here be metal dragons, a desert cathedral and a blooming legacy

Sights for ‘Karoo Eyes’ — Here be metal dragons, a desert cathedral and a blooming legacy
The farms around Nieuwoudtville are ablaze with blooms in the spring. (Image: Chris Marais)
Chris Marais and Julienne du Toit
By Chris Marais and Julienne du Toit
19 Dec 2024
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The story of a Bushmanland oasis centres on an elegant, sandy-toned cathedral – a tribute to French missionaries – while nearly everything in De Aar revolved around The Colossus, a steam locomotive. In Philipstown, beauty emerges from desolation.

Encyclopaedias were the Google or Duck Duck Go of their times. 

In the mid-1880s a huge cathedral was built at the date oasis of Pella in the Bushmanland desert by French missionaries who, at first, had absolutely no idea what they were doing. They did, however, have a copy of Encyclopedie des Arts et Métiers which contained details of how to construct such a building and, within seven incredible years they finished it. 

More than 200 cartloads of sand, 400 wagonloads of stones, 200,000 bricks, 350 bags of slaked lime and hundreds of wagonloads of willow wood went into the construction of this amazing place of worship. 

Today, the elegant, sandy-toned cathedral still stands as a tribute to the men of the Order of St Francis de Sales who, incidentally, is the patron saint of writers. 

In the late 1990s, the authors met Sister Therese-Henriette, a true veteran of hot places. In her 50-odd years as a Catholic nun, she had served in Upington, Nodonsees, Onseepkans, Pofadder, Matjieskloof, Port Nolloth, Vergenoeg and Pella.

“There’s a lot of love in our lives here,” said Sister Therese-Henriette. “We also go out and have fun from time to time.”

Before Pella was Pella, it was Cammas Fonteyn. In 1814, the feared Nama raider Jager Afrikaner attacked the Warmbad Mission in Great Namaqualand. The mission survivors fled south to Cammas Fonteyn, where the resident London Missionary Society minister renamed it Pella, after the ancient Palestine refuge for Christians crossing the Jordan River in flight.

Pofadder – Northern Namaqualand’s Front Door


Many people think the Northern Cape town of Pofadder is named after South Africa’s famously lazy (but very poisonous) puffadder breed of snake. 

In fact, the town is said to have gotten its name from a local chief called Klaas Pofadder, a livestock rustler who lived and died (in a hail of bullets) at this spot. 

Karoo Pofadder The Pofadder Hotel sign before the establishment was refurbished. (Image: Chris Marais)



The place was called Theronsville but the name never stuck – so it reverted to Pofadder, in honour of the most dramatic event to have taken place here.

The people at the Pofadder Hotel know all the local 4X4 and quad-biking routes which take you through the magnificent red dune fields of this part of the Kalahari. In spring, the Pofadder region becomes the “front door” of Namaqualand’s northern reaches, and the dry lands come alive with the annual splashes of daisies.

Railway Legends of De Aar


In times gone by, you went to De Aar by train or to see some trains in action, especially the old steam locomotives that used to chug across the vast Karoo plains. De Aar lay at the crossroads of travel in South Africa and held the second-biggest railway junction (Germiston in Gauteng being the largest) in the country.

All rail used to meet at De Aar. (Image: Chris Marais)



When De Aar was a “full-steam-ahead” kind of town, the locomotive drivers would yank their whistles late at night as they approached the Karoo settlement. Each driver would have his own signature tune, and his family living in the town would know it well. They’d set out the supper dishes the minute that whistle went off.

Read more: A Steamy Affair – The locomotives of the Karoo and the men who stoked and drove them

To the general public of De Aar, the particular lilt of a loco whistle would indicate the way the Karoo wind was blowing that night – and what kind of weather they could expect the next day.

Nearly everything in De Aar revolved around The Colossus, the steam locomotive.

For more than a century, some 22,000km of railroad tracks sang the praises of these huge metal dragons crisscrossing South Africa – and meeting in this Northern Cape town. Steam was phased out, and the sight of a loco in full toot across the veld today is a very rare – and privatised – experience. But the legends live on.

The late Oom Apie Ludwick was a stoker who worked with two drivers, Vlakhaas Davis and Fred Budd. They were the Kings of the Footplate, and they used to cook their bacon, sausage and eggs on a spade – in the furnace.

Philipstown Racers


Once you develop your “Karoo Eyes”, a way of visually sifting beauty out of apparent desolation, then Philipstown in the Northern Cape starts to sparkle.

As you first drive through Philipstown, you might just be overwhelmed by the many broken-down homes lining the streets.

The Running Boy of Philipstown. (Image: Chris Marais)



But come here in November when they stage the Wire Car Grand Prix and you’ll find yourself caught up in the excitement and joy of Philipstown.

As the racing kids sprint from the township areas to the centre of Philipstown, everyone comes out to cheer them on. There are prizes, there is feasting and there is even live country music on offer.

Early in the year, when the Lesser Kestrels fly in from over the Caucasus, from places like Siberia, they come to roost in the towns from Cradock right up to Philipstown. They go out hunting bugs by day, but return to their favourite gum tree in the early evening and quietly natter away until it’s time to sleep.

For many, the joys of Philipstown are to be discovered on the surrounding farms. At a farm stay like Rooipoort, you’ll meet owners Andries and Kay Fourie. While Andries is an innovative farmer, Kay is a well-known artist. Her sculptures are to be seen all over the farmstead and in Philipstown itself and she has recently produced a beautiful series of lithographs depicting the workers of Rooipoort. 

Nieuwoudtville in Bloom


Nieuwoudtville, locally pronounced “Nowtville”, is a tiny village in the Bokkeveld mountains of the Northern Cape, a place internationally acknowledged as the bulb capital of the world.

The farms around Nieuwoudtville are ablaze with blooms in the spring. (Image: Chris Marais)



In spring it’s all about the daisies, as vast carpets of colour arise from the disturbed ground. But the fynbos and the succulents of Nieuwoudtville are there all year.

Here, four ecosystems and dramatically different rainfalls happily collide – classic fynbos, endangered renosterveld, a dolerite sill richly larded with unique bulbs and geophytes, and of course, the shrub Karoo.

For botanically inclined people, there can be no finer destination. 

This is where Sir David Attenborough came to film parts of his documentary, The Private Life of Plants.

Read more: Nieuwoudtville – A blooming marvel to behold in the springtime

Nieuwoudtville’s more public fame started, arguably, with a sheep farmer, the late Neil MacGregor. 

At his farm, Glenlyon, Neil took down all internal fences and opened the area to his livestock. They pruned the plants, ate the dry residue and trampled the seeds. He left the diggers and plant predators, especially the porcupines, to open the earth to rain.

He was rewarded with the flowering of an extraordinary biodiversity on his 6,500-hectare farm. The sheep also flourished, botanists came to visit, and tourists started to arrive.

Neil’s Flower Bus tours were world famous, and his farm was later declared the Hantam National Botanical Gardens. What better legacy could someone leave a town? DM



For more stories on the Karoo from Julienne du Toit and Chris Marais, try their Karoo Roads series of books, priced at R350 (landed) each.

The Karoo Quartet Special (Karoo Roads 1 – 4) consists of more than 60 Karoo stories and hundreds of black and white photographs. Priced at R960 (including taxes and courier in South Africa), this Heritage Collection can be ordered from [email protected]

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