Sky, Space, Stars and SALT!

And that just about sums up Sutherland!

After leaving Fynbos, we headed through Ceres and over the Hottentotskloof Pass, where brave men are erecting and wiring new pylons that march like broad-shouldered soldiers over the hills and valleys to goodness knows where!

Turn left at Matjiesfontein!

We joined the N1 just before Touwsrivier, and popped in to the Petroport to fill the car and empty us! Then we bought a few necessities like bread and a couple of packets of potato crisps to take with us to Sutherland. At the Matjiesfontein turn-off, we turned left and headed into the most beautiful, empty, vast, open farmland, dotted here and there with sheep, much to Alfie's delight! And we left the Western Cape behind us near Kruispad, as we crossed the unseen border into the Northern Cape!

Welcome to Sutherland!

Every now and then, parked in the fields and looking very abandoned, we saw old caravans. Goodness knows who put them there and why, but we must have counted at least seven along the hundred or so kilometres before we reached the little town of Sutherland.

The Karoo landscape must contain a windmill!

At Sterland Camp Site, Jurg was there to meet and welcome us. An interesting man, Jurg owns the camp and a guest house in town, he is one of the resident Estate Agents and he holds star gazing evenings with an accompanying lecture in a specially built observatory on his property. A man of many talents!

The Main Road in Sutherland.

We noticed a little kennel tucked under the trees on the site that we chose (we were the only ones there and had the pick of them all) and it didn't take long before the owner of the kennel arrived to greet us! Trompie, one of the resident dogs (the other two are beautiful black and white sheep dogs!) was a stray until Jurg and his wife Rita picked him up and brought him home. He and Alfie became friends very quickly, and he spent many happy hours with us. I happened to say to Jurg that he was a sweet dog, and he jokingly replied, 'He's horrid!' When I asked why, I was told that when there are no campers, Trompie lives inside the house with them very happily. But, the minute a camper arrives, Trompie leaves home and becomes a poor stray begging for a scrap of meat or a piece of bread, anything to keep him alive! And we all fall for it! Then he crawls into his kennel and lies there shivering until he is invited into the tent/caravan/mobile home, whatever! On the last night that we were there, a group of motorbikers arrived and set up their tents, braais and a washing line strung between two of the motor bikes...I thought that was very ingenious! Anyway, Trompie abandoned us and spent the night tucked into the sleeping bag of one of the bikers!

Trompie looking sad, lonely and hungry! (Pic thanks to Rob)

Sutherland is cold! One of my drying up cloths got quite wet so I hung it out to dry and in the morning it was frozen solid!!! Because we had climbed from a few hundred metres to 1550 metres above sea level, our packets of crisps puffed up like pillows and we had to open them carefully!

Our neighbours were geese and horses!

I think the cold weather is the reason that there are no fresh eggs or chickens to be found there! The eggs come from places far afield like George, and I suppose that the chickens would probably end up fresh frozen before they were plucked!

The church, in good condition.

We did the usual exploring round the town. Sutherland is small and sad. It could be beautiful if the old houses were painted and cared for, but the buildings for the most part are neglected and run down.

One of the homes, called Primrose House.

This surprised me because hundreds of tourists visit Sutherland every year to go stargazing at the observatory. The bottle store was doing a roaring trade, as was the butcher, but many of the little shops are permanently closed and boarded up and there was only one restaurant open. Sadly they would not allow Alfie in, and we were not prepared to leave him in the car while we were inside.

Yes, the sign is leaning slightly! It wasn't my camera angle. 

Of course, Sutherland is SALT country! (South Africa's Largest Telescope). The skies are vast and empty and perfect for stargazing! We were fascinated to see how many planes passed over during the day and each one left a vapour trail so there was a zig-zag of white lines at any time from dawn to dusk.

Some vapour trails. (Pic thanks to Rob)

We did drive to the huge observatory on the hill (1710 metres above sea level) that houses the enormous telescope but we didn't do a tour as we had Alfie with us, (and it was fairly costly, and it was cloudy too), so we took a few photos and just drank in the view of the surrounding Karoo.

The observatory can be seen from miles away.

I cannot explain how beautiful that part of the country is. The silence that hurts your ears, the sight of the land stretching so far into the distance that you almost expect to see the coastline!

The observatory looks like a pimple on the hill, from the main road.

The tiny wild flowers that struggle through the hard ground, the stars that are undimmed by man-made lights, everything about it just makes you feel so small!

A friend of mine calls it 'Vampire country' as in summer it gets so hot that no-one comes out till it's nearly dark! And in winter it gets so cold that no-one comes out at all!

But we loved it!