Northern Cape Travel Guide




SOUTH AFRICA


AFRICA

When in 1866, young Erasmus Jacobs picked the pretty white pebble from De Kalk's arid earth, God must surely have smiled. In his hand, Erasmus held Eureka, a 21.25 carat, yellow diamond fated to shape the destiny of millions and show, to all, that in the apparent barrenness of the empty earth, lay unimaginable riches. When Schalk van Niekerk traded all his possessions for an 83.5 carat stone owned by a Griqua shepherd, Zwartbooi, Sir Richard Southey, Colonial Secretary at the Cape, declared with some justification: "This is the rock on which the future South Africa will be built." For us, The Star of South Africa, as the gem came to be known, shines not in the East, but in the Northern Cape.

From the twisted faults and sun-seared crenellations of the Richtersveld's ancient lava mountains; from the emerald foliage shading the crystalline waters of Kuruman's mineral spring; from the magnificent sands of the sunset-red Kalahari; from the turbulent thunder of the mighty Orange River plunging into the gaping granite chasm of Augrabies; from the blinding saline expanses of our shimmering saltpans; from the Celestial Painter's flamboyant brushes saturating Namaqualand's floral canvas with blazing splendour; from the rocky spines of our desolate coast spearing the cold, unforgiving depths of the fog-laden Atlantic; from fire-warmed, starstruck nights under the galactic Milky Way's wheeling skies; from glacial pavements decorated by ancient cultures and scoured by the slow passage of prehistoric moraines; from timeless, Jurassic beauty of eerily silent kokerboom forests; from the spirits of the Nama who looked back on the land they were fleeing - locked forever into the indigenous, north-facing halfmens; from the living creed of peace left to us by our missionary past; from the lives of the ancients painted onto ochre walls and from the crack of the shot that breaks the springbok's leaping arc;  from the corbelled houses, unrivalled hospitality, smell of roast Karoo lamb, well-stocked game reserves, 4x4 trails, unique plant species and mute stone forts, rage-red sunsets exploding across the skies - setting the fabric of heaven aflame, small towns open to the elements but closed to the world, the arterial tide of the life-giving Orange, cobalt, cloud-flecked skies, mountain hikes and mountain bikes ... you will learn to seperate 'pretty stones' from a gem of lasting value.
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