KAMPERSRUS The goodplace in the mountains

In the 1930s, Broer Maré bought a farm named Bedford at the foot of the northern Drakensberg and renamed it Kampersrus, meaning camper’s rest – a resting place for travellers. We got to meet some of the people who decided to settle in this picturesque place in Limpopo.

Pella Oasis in the wilderness

Pella sounds like a faraway place, and it is far away – all the way up north in Bushmanland, just inside the South African border. The people of Pella believe the Lord watches over them and their special settlement, which became established around a mission station more than 200 years ago.

Small is beautiful

Downsizing has become a buzzword among South Africans who want to hop off the consumer treadmill, flee Covid-19 restrictions and embrace the smaller, more important things in life. For many of them, a tiny home in the countryside seems the perfect solution.

Willemsrivier will put your soul back in your ribcage

Whether it’s the wildflower season or not, if you spend the night on the Kotzé family’s sheep and guest farm Willemsrivier 4 km from Nieuwoudtville, 1795 will seem like yesterday.

Life In The Past Lane

“It’s terrible, terrible to grow old and, Meneer, if you live long enough your time will come,” Afrikaans literary master Karel Schoeman once warned Herman Lategan. But now that he’s become a nostalgic old fool, Herman finds reminiscing about rural life in towns like Trompsburg strangely comforting.

In A Land Far, Far Away

Deep in the Tsitsikamma, safely ensconced in a lush, green, lively forest, wordsmith and visual artist Carina Stander lets her talents shine. Here, between the mountains and the sea, she and her family don’t give a thought to the bustle of the city.

Plant Your Own ‘Smarties'

To fully appreciate the flavour of fresh peas at their absolute peak, there is no better way but to grow them yourself. You’ll have to wait for next winter, though, to try it.

Where The Wildflowers Bloom

It’s that time of year again: over the past month Mother Nature has staged breathtaking displays of wildflowers in Namaqualand. Marie Labuschagne from Alberton recalls a previous flower tour.

Where Ghosts Linger

The vast Karoo landscape is not only hauntingly beautiful, but it is seemingly also haunted by a great many spirits. Madeleine Barnard went on a ghost hunt.

A Splash Of England At The Klip

At the turn of the previous century, a delightful fragment of rural England rooted itself among the willows on the banks of the Klip River, south of Johannesburg. Welcome to Henley on Klip, where you can expect a few pleasant surprises.

A Snake In The Sugar Cane

You hear the best stories in the bar of a small town or golf club – useful to know if you’re a young reporter. Anna Kemp recalls an evening of endless and terrifying tales about snakes.

Garlic Galore The Pungent Smell Of Success

Three months after lockdown was implemented last year, dealing a nasty blow to her business, Santie Marais from Laingsburg took her chances and bought a successful small enterprise that elevates Karoo garlic to salivating new heights.

What Can You Do For The Karoo?

When you’ve had enough of life in the city, what do you do? Some people pack their bags and move to the platteland, where a completely different – but also at times challenging – lifestyle awaits. Artist Cobus van Bosch and journalist Madeleine Barnard can attest to that.

Where You Hear The Earth's Heartbeat

In the folds of the Nuweveld Mountains, about 70km southwest of Beaufort West, Douwe and Liezl Vlok have realised their dream: to live simply and to tread the earth as lightly as they can. Let’s go for a walk in their footsteps.

Sweet rewads

Last year, amid the soul-destroying drought and lockdown, two madcap yet deeply devout women from Merweville borrowed money from their husbands to buy a nougat business. They christened it Karoo Blessings… and lo and behold, a mere three months later these two“CEOs”were able to to fully repay their debt.

The Travelling Willow

Her love of architecture, history, travel and for her mother’s treasured BlueWillow collection inspired Sarah-Jane Jordaan, a young architect and illustrator from De Doorns, to use her pen to take this much-loved tree on a trip around the world.

The Art Of Living

Artists Tamar Mason and Mark Attwood moved their studio from Johannesburg to the Lowveld in 2002. Step by step, they set up a sustainable lifestyle, and proved to naysayers that the move was not “financial suicide”.

A Dog's Life

What would a garden or cosy living room be without a dog – whether it works for its food or simply keeps its owner company? Artist and illustrator Piet Grobler* shares the insights he has gained over the years of living in South Africa, England and now Portugal.

Snowdrops And Shelter

Amid the isolation of the national lockdown and unprecedented upheaval in the magazine industry, there is one place that helps keep celebrated media doyenne Jane Raphaely sane in our changing world…

Tesselaarsdal - The Valley Of Faith, Hope & Love

Tesselaarsdal is an Overberg village that doesn’t as much as feature on some GPS apps, and you won't find it in the latest road atlas. If you do sniff it out – in the mountains between Caledon and Hermanus – you’ll be bowled over by the scenic beauty and the strong sense of community.

Step By Step To Good Health

For centuries, writers, composers, philosophers and ordinary people have harnessed the healing power of walking to nourish body and soul. It’s free medicine available to everyone – all you have to do is start… and continue, every single day. One foot in front of the other.

Oh, Romantic, Rundown Platteland?

You are romanticising the platteland. This is a complaint we sometimes hear when readers return from a weekend getaway at a“once well-maintained and spotless” town, which is now “shockingly dirty and neglected”. But, as Johan van Zyl heard at this year’sWoordfees in Stellenbosch, decay occurs everywhere in the world – and the“romantic” picture painted in glossy magazines is not so much a problem as it is a solution.

Home Brew From The Cederberg To Your Teacup

About 12000 tonnes of rooibos tea is exported worldwide each year, and it all comes from a small region in the Cederberg. Evan Naudé visited a farm near Clanwilliam to learn about the process, from stalks under the scythe to the teabag in your cup.

The marrow of life

Few other crops can be cooked in so many different ways and at so many stages – from flower to finger-sized to monster-sized – as baby marrows.

Horse sense

Man and horse have been sharing a special bond for more than 5000 years, be it on farmlands, on battlefields, on the road or in the sports arena. Today, some of these fine animals even play an important role in therapy programmes. But keeping horses is not a decision to be taken lightly. Here’s what you need to know first.

Higher ground

Springbok flanker Pieter-Steph duToit has the world at his feet, especially after his performance at the RugbyWorld Cup in Japan*. But his heart will always belong to the Swartland. Kloovenburg, Riebeek Valley, Swartland

Stretch Your Legs at Biesiesvlei

In North West, on that long road between Gauteng and Namibia, lies Biesiesvlei. Blink and you might miss it. But a farm stall with a difference invites you to take a closer look.

Betta And The Blue Bus

Betta Steyn and her son left behind the “comfort and money” of Gauteng for a baby-blue bus 17 years ago in order to learn from the Kalahari Bushmen how “dangerous but intensely good” the quiet life can be.

The Price of “Progress”

We tend not to realise the true cost of development until it’s too late. Rupert Koopman laments the fact that, as you read this, someone out there is busy with a tractor, brush cutter, lawnmower or bulldozer, making the world a less interesting place than it used to be.

Heidelberg Refuge at the foot of Suikerbosrand

The town of Heidelberg in Gauteng, with its many historical landmarks, is close enough to the City of Gold to commute yet far enough to offer genuine platteland peace and quiet.