Karoo Roads

Faces, Places and Incredible Spaces


Come out and visit the world's friendliest arid land, the Karoo. Discover the stories and legends that lie beneath.

The steam train drivers and their stokers who settled down in De Aar; ten cement dancers in a veld-frenzy on a farm outside Loxton; the Rasta golfers of Calvinia; an offbeat night in Aberdeen; the rockers of Barrydale; a freak springtime snow blizzard in Richmond; the deep-sea cowboys of Port Nolloth; the mountain cowgirls of Graaff-Reinet; how the Gariep Dam was built; the midnight ghosts who walk the veld and the windpumps that bring the water - these are some of the hinterland stories of South Africa.

"Karoo Roads" is a collector's treasure box of trips and tales gathered from more than a decade of research and rubber-on-the-road experiences, penned and photographed by two award-winning travel writers, Chris Marais and Julienne du Toit, who will introduce you to some of the loveliest, toughest, most creative and downright crazy characters, critters and cultures thriving in the Dry Country.