Blog's - Karoo Rustigheid

03 Dec 2013

Outdoors family activities

Horse riding and plenty of outdoor activities at Sutherland At Blesfontein Guest Farm Guests can feed the farm animals, enjoy the living, working farm life and best scenic views of the Roggeveld /Tankwa area. Guests can go on game drives, enjoy mountain-bike rides, long walks and stargazing. On warm days Blesfontein also...

03 Dec 2013

In the Beginning … a Brief History of Sutherland

In the Beginning … a Brief History of Sutherland Sutherland is in the heart of the Roggeveld region – named in reference to the naturally occurring wild rye grass (Secale africanum). Early scouts considered it to be promising for sheep farming, which is why pioneer farmers ventured over awe-inspiring terrain, across immense distances...

13 Nov 2013

Cuisine

Wholesome Country Grub As you’ve realised by now, there’s much more to Sutherland and the Karoo than sheep. But when dinner time rolls around, it’s those sheep you’ll be thinking of. Enter the noble Merino sheep breed, which has long been the backbone of Karoo agriculture, producing wool and all manner of...

12 Nov 2013

Places of Interest

Stuff to Do, Places to Go Architecture Sutherland’s pioneers quarried the area’s distinctive grey stone for many of their buildings and architectural features, such as walls, gateposts and reservoirs. Building methods varied from dry packed stone to large dressed blocks, set in pointed mortar. Together with the use of corrugated...

12 Nov 2013

Culture

Inspirational Sutherland Maybe it’s the serenity. Or the remoteness. Or the stark beauty of the place. Whatever it is, the Karoo inspires writers and artists. Two Sutherland families, the Von Moltke Louws and the Esterhuyses, produced three of South Africa’s best-known Afrikaans poets, DC Esterhuyse, NP van Wyk Louw and his brother...

11 Nov 2013

Fauna & Flora

Flora Sutherland is the site of some fascinating and rare plant life. Not much rain falls in the district. When it does, the dry earth responds by erupting almost overnight into a multi-coloured carpet of wild flowers that stretches for kilometres in the nearby Hantam-Roggeveld. The star tree, or Cliffortia arborea, is...

09 Nov 2013

Snow

Brrrr… By South African standards, Sutherland is bitterly cold in winter. It lays claim to the coldest winters in the country. The mercury plunges well below zero at night, sometimes as low as -16 degrees Celsius, and the area gets heavy snow several times each winter. In their characteristically enterprising...

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