'Here we farm with stones' (and silence)

The Great Nothingness north of Laingsburg is where you'll find Bloukrans Klein-Bewarea guest farm. Here, three unique self-catering cottages – one of stone, one of mud and one of corrugated iron – offer visitors refuge from the troubles of the modern world.

- JOHAN VAN ZYL

Within 15 minutes of turning off at the Moordenaars Karoo sign at Laingsburg, you realise that there are two types of people in the world. The first – bored, possibly even slightly anxious – will gaze out at the vast, bleak, barren carpet of stone and see nothing but emptiness. A landscape stripped to the bone. (“Ag no, man! How do people even survive here? Is there even cellphone reception?”

Then there’s the second. Those who see endless space to think, to breathe, to be free. Who will come to a standstill to investigate the Great Nothingness more closely: lichen on a rock; a scurrying ant, a toktokkie beetle or agama lizard; a bleached skeleton in the veld; the countless shy, dull-brown plants that perservere among the stones, even though there’s been barely enough rain for them to bloom. Abundance disguised as simplicity.

TO APPRECIATE THE silence and beauty of Bloukrans Klein-Bewarea, you definitely have to be the second type. Although this 1000-hectare farm lies just 30km north of Laingsburg, it takes more than an hour to get there. A bakkie or high-clearance SUV is essential. You will drive through a total of six farm gates and must follow the old Karoo rule: Close any gate that was closed; if it was open, leave it open.

The Kliphuis, your old-world accommodation for the the next three days, suddenly comes into view. An old shepherd’s cottage that appears to have been born from the stony earth itself. Step across the threshhold and, as if in a fairytale, you are transported to a bygone era where the modern world and all its troubles suddenly feel very far away.