Innehållsförteckning för Autumn 2024 från go! Platteland

More or less slap-bang in the centre of the country, where the Orange River cuts a broad, mighty swathe through the arid Northern Cape Karoo, lies a town with a peculiar fate: Most South Africans have never been there, or have no desire to ever set foot in the place. Yet most of us have an opinion about this town. And media houses from all over the world have reported on this place, even if it was mostly a case of a journalist who pulled off at the main intersection, ordered a coffee, spent half an hour watching people come and go, and then let their personal bias leach into the story to portray the town as a hateful, backward and even comical place. We’re talking about Orania, of course.…

At the annual World Cheese Awards presented by the British Guild of Fine Foods, Klein River’s Overberg cheese won a gold medal – one of only three South African cheeses to have pulled off this achievement. This is the latest in a string of accolades garnered by this Gouda-style cheese, which was named best newcomer at the same awards event eight years ago. Klein River is a dairy farm outside Stanford where the previous owners started making their own cheese in the 1990s. In 2015 it was bought by the Baleta family. Currently the second generation of Baletas are at the helm of the business: Nick “Doemz” Baleta runs the grain and cattle operations, while his sister, Hannah Siebrits, and her husband, Raymond, manage the cheese factory. “We care about…

Distance from the big city Orania is situated in the middle of South Africa: Johannesburg, Pretoria and Port Elizabeth are roughly 600km away and Cape Town and Durban 850km. The closest neighbouring towns are Hopetown (42km) and Vanderkloof (49km), but most residents drive to Kimberley (160km) or Bloemfontein (220km) for dental appointments and other important business. Average temperature Every last person in Orania says that the climate takes some getting used to. The town has both a desert and river climate that ranges from intense heat (around 40ºC) in summer to bitterly cold in winter, when the mercury can drop well below freezing point. The average summer temperature is 30-32ºC, but light snow has fallen in July and August. The river climate creates a microclimate with a difference of up…

DO, WANDER, SHOP Book a guided tour of the town For a town of this size, there are surprisingly many developments, interesting initiatives, monuments and other attractions of which you will likely be unaware if you drive through the streets yourself or stop for a coffee. Rather take a free guided town tour (in a small air-conditioned bus). It lasts about two hours and is presented by residents who are also professional staff of the Orania Movement. No tours on Sundays and Christian holidays. orania.co.za 053 207 0004 Explore the many monuments The modest Koeksister Monument made of polystyrene and fibreglass outside the entrance of the public swimming pool in Oniks Street is probably the monument in Orania that has received the most media exposure since its unveiling in 2003.…

Lourina Coetzee Owner of Sabaan Guest Farm and Event Venue On the same gravel road that leads to Bambuu Lakeside Lodge, you’ll find this guest farm and event venue that was built and decorated by Lourina Coetzee. Her grandparents bought the property in the 1950s, but they never lived on the farm permanently. Lourina has done many things in her life – teaching, owning a boutique and making Ikandla handcrafted candles that she exported to Europe – and moved here after the Covid-19 pandemic. She originally comes from Carletonville, where she owns and runs a guesthouse. Lourina’s grandmother built the first four chalets at Sabaan in the 1960s, and Lourina revamped the old sheds as a wedding venue four years ago. She has a knack for upcycling old items and…

“Building by hand and foot, using a mix of clay, sand, straw and water, must be as old as human civilization itself,” says Ross Dwyer, as he adds another chunk of wood to the fire crackling inside the curvaceous cob oven he built 14 years ago. “I had to replace the plaster layer about four years ago. That’s the layer you paint with about seven layers of boiled linseed oil and beeswax to protect it against moisture. Small cracks also form over time as the clay expands and contracts. But look at it… not bad for a clay oven that has been going for so long – and it’s exposed to the elements 24/7.” On an even more impressive scale, just a stone’s throw away, is the compact but comfortable…

I am a city boytjie. I spent the first nine years of my life in Sea Point, Cape Town, and the next nine in Vredehoek. The move was prompted by the death of my grandfather, and my gran’s subsequent invitation for our family to join her. One of the joys of Vredehoek is its proximity to the slopes of Devil’s Peak, which I roamed freely. After my gran passed away, my dad decided he wanted to live closer to his work, so we moved to Goodwood. This was an astonishing shock to me – not only was it some distance away from my peer group and our social and cultural activities, but also in the city I’d never heard Afrikaans* spoken. Now I was surrounded by the language and I…

When does a pumpkin become a tourist attraction? When the scales reach a ton! Every year, participants and spectators from all over the Garden Route, Boland and Overberg head for Heidelberg’s Giant Pumpkin Festival. Then it is time for the battle of the gigantic pumpkins. The precious cargo, strapped in on bakkies or trailers, are off-loaded using special harnesses and a forklift, installed on wooden pallets i, and then weighed. “It is a quite a thing to behold,” says Altus Joubert, chair of the committee that has been organising the festival since 2007. In the first year, when the winning pumpkin clocked in at 46,5 kg, the committee hoped they would reach 100 kg one day. “Last year’s pumpkin was 903 kg – now we’re aiming for a ton,” laughs…

We thoroughly enjoyed getting to know Willow-more in the winter of 2015 for an article that we published in that year’s Spring issue (#8). The town looked spick and span. We met interesting characters, like businessman Pepi van der Merwe, who had a huge hand in the revival of the town after the large-scale rural depopulation in the nineties; and the herbal and faith healer Anton Landman. Children played with spinning tops in the streets and you could feel a buoyant energy in the air. We drank coffee at Kapoet Padstal. And we sat on the stoep at Karoo Ltd watching as a farmer pulled into a parking space in his Hilux, jumped out, walked around to the passenger door and opened it. He then tilted the seat forward, took…

Everywhere in Orania, new streets are being constructed for various upcoming developments. To us, it seems as if the plots and houses are getting smaller and the prices are rising, especially for the platteland. There is clearly enough activity in the market, as several estate agents are conducting business in the town. Among them are TSE/Afsaal Properties ( 053 207 0040), Byekorf Properties ( 076 877 1179 or 082 826 6670) and Bo-Karoo Properties ( 083 790 7196). Platteland chose six properties currently on sale. Contact Nicolette Ebersöhn ( 082 826 6670) or Marli Snyman ( 076 877 1179) from Byekorf Properties for more information. eiendom@byekorf.co.za R1,43 million This 88m2 Chromadek house (good insulation, no maintenance) is situated on a 396 m2 plot in Karoosig 4. It is close to…

Next to a gravel road somewhere between Belmont and Douglas stands a man, soot-blackened hands cupped behind his ears, blue eyes fixed on great billows of smoke and steam in the winter air. Peter Odell – known to his British friends as Bedford – blinks away tears. Next to him, equally moved, stands Richard Peck aka York. Peter was there when the last regular steam-hauled train departed from the London terminus station Waterloo on 9 July 1967, and when the fire was extinguished on the last regular South African Railways steam locomotive on 31 December 1992. For many years, he was the driver of a steam locomotive that he’d dubbed the Karoo Conqueror. Hearing the chug, clatter and whistle echoing from a Karoo koppie and seeing one of these…

MUM, I’M HUNGRY! Tanks Bush Pub This rustic watering hole on the R536 is popular among the locals. A marquee tent is fixed to a bar and kitchen, offering a laid-back vibe with good, hearty food. The name “Tanks” does not refer to the owner’s name, as many visitors may think, but the army paraphernalia on the walls. A speciality is their 300 g rump prepared in a sous-vide bath, cooked for four hours, for R160. Tanks Bush Pub 066 338 0184 Shiloh Coffee Shop The view from Shiloh’s deck is as good as their bacon, pear and blue cheese quiche (R100) served with salad. On Saturdays they do a breakfast buffet. Be on the lookout for hippos and crocs – the restaurant is built on a dam and flooded…

Ross says… Building a cob pizza oven is relatively easy and fun, and a great way to add a unique and functional feature to your outdoor living space. The oven is heated with wood, ensuring high temperatures and a delicious smoky flavour to your homemade pizza. Afterwards, the warm oven can be used to bake bread or slow-roast a meal overnight. Happy building! A cob oven is a type of outdoor oven made from a mixture of clay, sand and straw, like the buildings on the previous pages. This mixture, also known as cob, is shaped by hand over a dome-shaped moist sand mould and allowed to dry and harden. Once fully hardened, the moist sand is removed and the oven is ready to use for years to come –…

Every year when global market research specialist Ipsos releases the lists of the world’s top concerns, South Africa finds itself in the forefront alongside the other pessimists. The nerves of our nearly 62million souls at the southern tip of Africa have long been on edge about the unemployment rate (31.9% in the third quarter of 2023), crime, growing poverty and inequality, and corruption. Those who can afford it, seek refuge in security complexes with high fences, access control and security guards. Others move to the Cape or emigrate. And since 1991 approximately 3500 of them – all white, unashamedly Christian Afrikaners – have found a home right at the heart of the country in the construction town of Orania, which the former Department of Water Affairs built in 1963 to…

Driving along the R536 between Sabie and Hazy-view, you’ll be struck by the names of the farms and businesses that are like character sketches of the area: Bushbaby Valley Lodge, Mahogany Hill Cottage, Mountain Creek Lodge and Aan De Vliet Resort (meaning “on the stream”). About 5km from Perry’s Bridge Trading Post and Tourism Centre in Hazyview, you pass the Summerfields Rose Retreat & Spa, Summerhill Prep School and Sabie Sunrise Farm – an apt name for a place where shorts and flip-flops can be worn all-year round. The Idle & Wild chalets remind you of what can be expected in the heat of summer: balmy to blistering days that might leave European tourists feeling lazy, but not the snakes, cicadas or thunderstorms. The area had 929mm of rain in…

Much like we take care of our own personal hygiene by following routines and rituals, so too do we need to maintain and care for our gardens. The type of hygienic strategies that are needed to cultivate a healthy haven will depend on the requirements of the specific garden. In our perma-culture garden at Numbi Valley, we focus on achieving healthy organic food production in harmony with nature. We follow the permaculture principles in our design, which ensures we obtain a yield. Our garden is abundant and mostly disease- and pest-free because we maintain healthy soil by producing and adding large amounts of compost. We integrate the use of a mobile chicken tractor system on the garden beds, maintain soil moisture and keep the garden clean, which in turn results…

Menu – STARTER – Picture-perfect sweet-potatoand-pear soup – MAINS – Easter lamb, pumpkin slices and agrodolce syrup Cider chicken with fried apple and mustard cream – SIDES – Open vegetable pie (vegetable galette) The baker’s wife’s potatoes (pommes de terre boulangère) In the Afrikaans culinary world, Errieda du Toit is nothing less than a legend. Along with the late Francois Ferreira, she spent almost 15 years as part of the beloved duo behind Huiskok Glanskok on the Afrikaans radio station RSG. In 2014, she ventured out on her own with the segment Die kos wat ons ken (The food that we know) on the same station, and readers of Cape newspaper Die Burger’s Versnit supplement had the opportunity to take a seat at her table every week. Since then, Errieda…