With the setting of the sun a dramatic view of millions of stars is fully revealed in the inky blackness of the Karoo night sky. Little wonder that the Karoo hosts the largest observatory in the southern hemisphere. Most travellers speed through the Karoo with one thought in mind — to get through it and on to their destination as quickly as possible. In so doing the traveller really misses the true essence of this remarkable place. On route you will notice the isolated farms and you will probably stop once or twice to refresh yourself and then move quickly on your way.
But who are the people who live in the Karoo and where did they come from? The original inhabitants were the San or Bushman who lived in most parts of South Africa, including the Karoo, before the arrival of the African migrants from the north and east, and the European settlers from the Cape. The arrival of the European settlers in the Karoo during the eighteenth century precipitated violent conflict with the San who had lived their nomadic lifestyle for hundreds if not thousands of years in the vast spaces of the Karoo.
The nomadic lifestyle of the San conflicted with the established pastoral existence of the European settlers and conflict between the farmers and the San continued up until as late as the last half of the nineteenth century. In the last two hundred and fifty years the Karoo was populated with both Dutch Afrikaans and English speaking settlers who established themselves primarily as stock farmers.
During the 19th century, Prince Albert was the biggest fruit-producing district in the Cape. It slipped into obscurity as ostriches replaced grapes and apricots, but today that isolation serves it well. Its ox wagon—wide streets are lined with beautifully preserved Victorian houses: handsome white-gabled bungalows covered with bougainvillea, many of them now owned by artists.
Fruit farming has returned to Prince Albert too. You can sample a sublime Shiraz Reserve at Bergwater Vineyards, and meaty Manzanilla olives at the thriving Swartrivier farm. I lunched on a juicy ostrich burger under the guava trees of the alfresco Koggelmander restaurant, and then bought bags of dried fruit, almonds, and artisanal cheeses at several country stores in town.
The village also serves as the jumping-off point for the Groot Karoo. A spate of game lodges has opened here in recent years, former sheep farms that are being restocked with springbok and mountain zebra—animals that roamed the desert centuries ago, when it was home to the San bushmen. It was time for me to cool off, so I took the soaring Montagu Pass over the Outeniqua Mountains and onto the Garden Route, only 90 minutes away. And here was another world: the rusty palette of the desert gave way to dense evergreen forest, the turquoise swell of the Indian Ocean stretched in front, and skirting the edge lay the famous ocean road.
I took it east, stopping briefly to clear away the desert dust with a swim in the wild waves at the aptly named Wilderness Beach. Another 30 miles and I arrived in Knysna, the glassy lagoon town of my childhood holidays. The once sleepy village was barely recognizable. I checked into Pezula, a sprawling golf and spa resort on a bluff above the ocean, with a stylish, contemporary African look.
It certainly has its charms. But had all this development changed Knysna for the better? I took Helena, my year-old Afrikaner godmother, very much a Knysna local, to lunch on the new waterfront and asked her. She grew up on a sheep farm in Steytlerville, a tiny dorp deep in the Groot Karoo. They host cabarets and fancy tea parties. Crumpets and cabarets in the Groot Karoo? This I have to see. Douglas Rogers is a freelance writer based in New York City. His Zimbabwe memoir, The Last Resort , will be published next year.
It is more closely related to elephants than to the moles you might find in gardens and parks. It has no visible eyes or ears and it "swims" just below the surface of South African sand dunes. Photos: The Succulent Karoo. Filled with wildlife, the Succulent Karoo is the most biodiverse arid desert on the planet.
Pictured, the quiver tree or "kokerboom," which grows here. Hide Caption. It is famous for its springtime blooms of wildflowers, which are a draw for thousands of tourists. Pictured, fynbos in flower, including ice plants. Flowers after heavy rainfall in the Succulent Karoo, Namaqualand, Namibia. Typical vegetation consists mainly of succulent shrubs.
This area is home to a third of the world's succulent species. Succulents -- like cacti and aloe plants -- survive extreme heat by storing moisture.
Three sacred ibises among the blooming flowers. This endangered species has only ever been found in two locations, both inside the Succulent Karoo desert.
It's just one of the rare creatures found in this otherworldly landscape that stretches between Namibia and South Africa -- the most biodiverse arid desert on the planet, according to UNESCO. Van Zyl's golden mole. Home to more than 6, plant species -- thousands of which are found nowhere else on Earth -- massive blooms of spring wildflowers, and 70 types of scorpion, the Succulent Karoo is a bountiful wilderness.
But the human demands on this place are relentless, from overgrazing by livestock to exotic plant poaching and sand mining. Only a quarter of the desert remains in a pristine state and conservationists are calling for action to research the region, and protect it.
Find out more about Call to Earth and the extraordinary people working for a more sustainable future. Read More. Theron explains that it can be hard to get the public to understand that a seemingly barren desert can be a valuable ecosystem in need of safeguarding.
0コメント