|
| |
|
| |
|
|
Share South Africa: Eastern Cape: Mid-Karoo Background Information:  Sponsored by: The Business Trust List of Participants: Middelburg 1. Aloe’s Guesthouse 2. Amafelandawonye Poultry Project 3. Beestekuil Holiday Farm 4. Bradley Gibbons 5. Carlton Heights Guesthouse 6. Celtis Garden Cottages 7. Community Correctional Shop 8. Erin Country House and Cottages 9. G.D.E. Leather 10. Glen Farm Stay 11. Grootfontein Agricultural College 12. Karoo Country Inn 13. Karoo Herberg 14. Karoo Ouberg Lodge 15. Lisolomzi Gardening Project 16. Middelburg Cultural Historical Museum 17. Middelburg Karoo Tourism 18. Middelburg Manor 19. Middelburg Waste Management Project 20. Nicky and Company Coffee- , Gift Shop, Art Gallery and Picture Framing 21. Nicky and Company Bed and Breakfast Cottage 22. Piet Uithaler 23. Sibuyisubuntu 24. Siyavuya Agric 25. Sneeuberg 26. Sonnett Olls Art Gallery 27. Transkaroo Adventures 28. Umsobomvu Development Cooperation Schoombee 29. Hillston Farm 30. Karoo River Rafting and Cabins 31. Mt. Melsetter Karoo House and Hunt 32. @Schoombee Karoo Accommodation Steynsburg 33. Africa’s Igloo 34. Black Eagle Ridge 35. Lazy Lizard Bed & Breakfast and Restaurant Nieu-Bethesda 36. Aandster Guestroom 37. Bethesda Art Centre 38. Ganora Guest farm and Excursions 39. Outsiders Bed & Breakfast 40. Owl House Backpackers Noupoort 41. The Don Guesthouse Primary Contact for Route: Contact person(s): Rialize Hayes Tel: +27 49 842 2188 Fax: +27 49 842 2188 Cell: +27 83 759 8836 Postal Address: PO Box 475, Middelburg, Eastern Cape, 5900, South Africa Physical Address: 8 Meintjies Street, Noupoort, Eastern Cape, 5900, South Africa Email Address: Website: www.middelburgec.co.za Links to other Open Africa routes in the region: The Mid-Karoo Route is relatively close to the following other routes on the Open Africa network, namely – Baviaanskloof Route, Maloti Route, Thunga Thunga Route Mboda Eco-Heritage Route (Please note that clicking on a route will load another section of the website, meaning you will have to use the search function or your back browser to return to the Mid-Karoo Route). Middelburg, Eastern Cape Weather Today Information and pictures provided by Middelburg Karoo Tourism READ MORE Middelburg Middelburg Visitor Guide Mid-Karoo Tourism Route: A Desert of Landscapes, Legend and Life. Mid-Karoo Background Information The Nama Karoo Biome A brief history of Middelburg, Rosmead, Schoombee, Steynsburg, Nieu-Bethesda and Noupoort
South Africa |
| |||
|
| |||||
They are right - or almost so! And like other deserts and semi-deserts of the world, ours is a country of life. We have only to walk or ride into the veld to know this and be caught up in its pattern: the squat, fat, angled plants; the hunting spiders that flicker between them; the ground squirrels upright beside their burrows; the vultures; the pale wild gladioli; the cobras; the scorpions; the mantis coloured like a flower; the black beetles rolling balls of dung; the koringkrieks lurching on immense and crooked legs. Here moves a steenbok, a duiker, a springbuck, a lark clapping its wings above us; here are the tracks of an ant-bear in the soil; red dust and a mottled egg upon it; arrowheads; the smell of rain, karoo bush, wild asparagus, mountains and hills floating in a mirage of water, a white hot sky, the sound of cicadas and wings and wind.
(Extract from THE PLAINS OF CAMDEBOO, The Classic book of the Karoo by Eve Palmer
The Mid-Karoo route includes the towns of Noupoort, Middelburg, Rosmead, Steynsburg and Nieu-Bethesda, with Middelburg at its centre, including all attractions and potential points of interest along the way. This area once bustled with train tracks and roads, grew quieter over the years, and today the abandoned highways and tracks only remain as a reminder of a forgone era of wealth, where its central position and transport were its economic driver. As the tracks and roads grew quieter and later bypassed these towns, nature started claiming back the land, leaving behind a historically rich and magnificent landscape.
Teebus and Koffiebus koppies and the Orange River Tunnel Outlet from the Orange River Water Scheme. It is also one of the few, and best, places in the world where fossils are found, as well as Rock Art in caves from the first known human inhabitants, the San Bushmen. The Mid-Karoo Route is home to open spaces, Karoo sunsets, star gazing, fresh air, snow-capped mountains and the Owl House of the late Helen Martins, with her figurative sculptures silently facing east.
