Karoo Roads IV — Freewheeling on the Frontier

When you book into a guest house deep in the Agterveld Karoo of the Northern Cape and a wolf joins you for dinner, don’t be shocked.

When you’re tootling along on a Kleinzee Tour and you come across a horizon filled with armed and illegal diamond miners toiling in the midday sun, don’t be surprised.

As you pass the black rock (dolerite) formations on the way between Carnarvon and Vanwyksvlei, think of the First People, the San Bushmen, who made art here.

Feel the joy of a dozen kids as they dance the riel among the jagged rocks of the Cederberg, accompanied only by the sounds of silence.

On the fringes of the Karoo – Kalahari crossover zone and deep into the Hard Man’s Land, the adventures grow more exotic as the days pass and the journeys continue.

In this fourth edition of the Karoo Roads series of heritage tales, authors Chris Marais and Julienne du Toit bring you reports from crazy, wonderful places like Putsonderwater, Hondeklip Bay, Verneukpan, Brandvlei and Merweville, a neat little settlement in the Koup that still glows from the attention of a TV series.

They drive the Great Western Highway, follow the majestic Orange River as it snakes through the desert, dig up the legends of the early pioneers, indigenous clans and scoundrels who lived on its banks, chase ancient elephant signs right across the Karoo and end up in a restored Cederberg village, where the veldskoen crafters are hard at work on your next pair of shoes.

Here are some photographs from the book. DM

The resident elephants of Samara Private Game Reserve south of Graaff-Reinet. (Photo: Chris Marais)

Marina Witbooi and a clutch of neighbourhood kids on an afternoon ride through Merweville, Western Cape Karoo. (Photo: Chris Marais)

Quiver tree fantasia on the Pofadder-Onseepkans road. (Photo: Chris Marais)

A horizon full of illegal miners, Kleinzee, Northern Cape. (Photo: Chris Marais)

Bea the barrow-loving wolf-dog from Brandvlei. (Photo: Chris Marais)

Gerald Farao, one of the veteran cobblers of Wupperthal village. (Photo: Chris Marais)

Tide coming in at Hondeklip Bay, site of the storied jetty. (Photo: Chris Marais)

The mighty Orange River trundling through the back country of the Northern Cape. Image: Chris Marais

All roads lead to Putsonderwater, once a champion railway station. (Photo: Chris Marais)

A stroll through dolerite canyon country in the Hard Man’s Karoo. (Photo: Chris Marais) DM

Meander down Karoo Roads: 

Karoo Roads: Faces, places and incredible spaces

Karoo Roads II, a visual journey

Karoo Roads III – From the studios of snowy Nieu-Bethesda to the stony heights of the Richtersveld



Karoo Roads IV – In Faraway Places (360 pages, black and white photography, R350 including taxes and courier in South Africa) will be launched in September 2024. Anyone interested in pre-ordering a first-edition, author-signed copy should please contact Julie at [email protected] for more details.