Karoo roads

Driving through the Karoo should be an adventure, not a rush.  It has so many interesting nooks and crannies to explore, but to get there one has to travel many interesting roads and paths. Travelling is as much about the journey as it is about the destination.

 Travelling through the Karoo one firstly encounters tar roads. On these we depart the big towns and cities, but from them, somewhere along the way, you have to turn off onto ...

 ... a dirt road.  It is along these dirt roads that a lot of the interesting sights and sounds reveal themselves, and even then you may still need to turn off them... 

to open a gate and proceed along a two wheel track that will lead you to even more interesting destination.  I think that is deep enough for today. I drive a Chev Aveo, so not far beyond that gate I will have to turn around or I may never see that tar road again.

The Pink Church

What would be one of the most unusual sights you can imagine finding in a little plattelandse (rural) town in the Karoo?  Well, I bet you didn't just think a pink church, but after saying it it would probably be on your list.  Driving into the Karoo town of Hofmeyr, one immediately sees the bell tower and clock towering out above the surrounding town and its difficult not changing direction to check it out.

The Hofmeyr Dutch Reformed Church was built in 1875 and somewhere in its existence the church council decided to have the church painted pink.  A lot of the locals have their own theories of why it was decided on the pink colour, but the real reason I won't divulge. Probably because I don't know it.

One of the features of the church is the antique wind organ which stand high above the pulpit.  Unfortunately there’s only about 50 people that worship here on a Sunday which is largely due to the fact that so many young people move to the cities and the platteland is getting more and more depopulated.  Lets just hope this unusual treasure of the Karoo stays intact for future generations to turn off the main road and stand puzzled at the reasons why they decided to paint it pink.

Karoobos and Hofmeyr Museum

On the corner that the main road makes through the little town of Hofmeyr stands a big green "lady" that beckons you to a building that serves a welcoming ginger beer and koeksister to travellers through the Karoo.  Karoobos is what we would call in Afrikaans a real "plattelandse padstal" (country road stall).  They don't just serve the most delicious meals but also sell jams, homemade products and antiques.

In the back of the building visitors would find the Hofmeyr Museum.  The museum used to be housed somewhere else but had to find a new home due to different circumstances.  The owners of Karoobos at that stage bought some of the museums antiques and then offered the trustees space in the padstal's building to set up the museum in a safe and accessible environment.

The museum showcase a lot of history, antiques and Africana that is part of the town and tells of its history.  Now it may not be the South African Natural History Museum, but it still plays an important part in retaining and conserving the history of the town.

Hofmeyr

A side view of the Hofmeyr Post Office

Hofmeyr is a typical little Karoo town.  Imposing old Dutch Reformed Church keeping an eye over mostly dusty streets and a proud but struggling farming community.  Situated roughly halfway between Cradock and Steynsburg, the town with its less than 2000 people lies at an altitude of 1252 meters and in the heart of a once flourishing sheep farming district.  The town was founded in 1873 and, initially named Maraisburg, renamed Hofmeyr in 1911.  It was named in honour of Jan Hendrik Hofmeyr (Onze Jan), a campaigner for the equal treatment of Afrikaans and English and General Jan Smuts' closet advisor.

The main road through Hofmeyr makes a turn in town and on the corner is a small park containing a couple of monuments.  One of those is a small pyramid that acts as a monument to the people from the district that took part in the Great Trek.

This bell also stands in the park.  I'm not sure if it was a town bell to call people together for meetings and in case of emergency or otherwise a slave or mission bell.  Probable the former.

Protea bug

When I was doing a bit of research for the post on Pin Cushion Proteas, I found the following information: "Proteas aren't self-pollinating and depend on the small scarab beetles and the birds for pollination."  Now I don't think this little dude sitting on the King Protea is a scarab beetle, but if he does the job who am I to question what he's doing there.

Pin Cushion Proteas

We headed out to the Van Stadens Wildflower Reserve west of Port Elizabeth the other day and found lots of Pin Cushion Proteas (Leucospermum cordifolium) in flower.  Caroline has pointed me to the PlantZAfrica website which has great information on South African plants and flowers. Pin Cushion Proteas are part of the Cape Floral Kingdom, better known as the Fynbos biome.  The Cape Floral Kingdom is indemic to South Africa and found mainly between the Cape West Coast area and Port Elizabeth. 

The Leucospermum cordifolium is a rounded spreading shrub up to 2 m in diameter and about 1,5 m high, with a single main stem and horizontally spreading stems, hard green leaves and 1 to 3 large inflorescences borne at the end on the stem.   The interesting part is that what we see as a flower is actually a large collection of small flowers.  Each of the pins of the "pin cushion" is the pistil of an individual flower.  The bright red, orange or yellow (depending on the colour of the flower) pointed end (stigma) is the female organ of the plant.  The flowers are not self-pollinating and depend on the small Scarab beetles and the birds for pollination.

As was amazed at the colours ranging from reddish to orange and yellow.  How fortunate we are indeed.  The most amazing part of the protea plants are that the hard nut like seeds are normally collected by ants, stored in the soil, and germinate only after a fire has killed the mature plants and returned the nutrients back to the soil.

Windpomp against the sky

A windpomp (wind pump) in the Karoo edged off against the sky

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