Chris Marais
Chris Marais and Julienne du Toit live and work in Cradock, in the Eastern Karoo, when they’re not travelling around the heartland in search of stories. They write for SA Country Life magazine regularly, have written two books on the Karoo (Karoo Keepsakes I and II) and run a website called www.karoospace.co.za and have just launched their e-Bookstore on Karoo Space.
The Karoo: Where Stories Roam
The question most people ask when we meet them somewhere on our travels through the vast dry Karoo region of South Africa is: “How...
Pubs and Padstalle of Route 62, South Africa
It seems, for some of us, that the older we get the more inclined we are to be reckless.
Who but the very bravest of...
Diamond Cowboys of Port Nolloth
Decades ago and deep in the Namaqualand desert at a point between Springbok, Steinkopf and the sea, a Cape Town housewife with a squeaky...
Old South African Brands in the Karoo
I love old signs when I’m on the road. They tell me where I’m going, who lived here, what brands were promoted and what...
Making Like the Hogwarts Express in the Free State
It has been many years since I’ve awoken to the long, mournful toot of a steam locomotive engine.
If I wasn’t lodged here in the...
A Karoo Farm School with a Difference
A Climax windmill spins and creaks quietly alongside a dirt road linking Colesberg with the blue horizon. There is a cool morning breeze and a...
Karoo Diary: The Friendly Horse Road
It’s about 160km, give or take a metre or two on either side, from the House of Light & Shadow in Richmond, Northern Cape,...
Karoo Diary: Draadkar Fever (Wire Car Festival!)
If you want to taste excitement in the air, come to Philipstown this week. They’re counting down the days before the Wire Car Festival,...
Karoo Diary – Dancing in the Dust
This is no five-step waltz, no quadrille, and by no means is it a cakewalk. It’s more like a cactus tango or a dusty...
‘The Journey Man’ Extracts: Freelance Week Follies of a Scope Journalist
So one day when I was a journalist at Scope, I realise that due to various family commitments and unforeseen bills I need to...
