People who live in the desert love rain. They love it in ways city people don’t understand. In the Karoo and the Kalahari, the horizons are so wide you can see the weather coming while it is still hours away. You can see clouds coalesce and darken over the mountains, then advance, walking on legs […]

Little Joe, who had adored his ‘outgoing’ father Ira, had been withdrawn and sulky since the accident, venturing out of his room only at mealtimes. With the funeral behind them and his parents’ mutual friends having long since returned to their busy lives, Joe and his mother Mary were left pretty much on their own now.  […]

South African tourists, Peter and Michelle Roos, captured these poignant photos and the mood of a cemetery in Italy that became the last resting place for so many young South African soldiers… Michelle says that in the “midst of hedonistic pleasures” in Italy, the graves provided “a somber dose of other things that happened in […]

So one day when I was a journalist at Scope, I realise that due to various family commitments and unforeseen bills I need to generate some extra cash. I would take a few days’ leave and head off somewhere with photographer Les Bush and we would find some stories and sell them off to various […]

It was confirmed today that legendary singer and songwriter Rodriguez will be returning to South Africa early next year. This time he will be performing in Johannesburg and Cape Town again, as well as in Durban and Port Elizabeth. His last tour to the country was sold out within minutes of bookings being opened…so if you’re keen for […]

It was May, 1976…and as a lowly young reporter for the Pretoria News, I discovered that Siberia comes in many forms. Because I had disgraced myself and gotten a TV review horribly wrong, I was assigned a new position in life: Magistrates Court reporter. The position was seen as the grubby, greasy little bottom rung in the […]

Groot Marico, 1979 – It’s a lovely Saturday out here in the Bushveld…I’m sitting under a fever tree on a farm in the Western Transvaal (now Northwest Province) talking to a Marico family and drinking their mampoer very slowly and, if I may say so, quite thoughtfully. It’s all so very Herman Charles. [The late […]

Hillbrow, Jo’burg’s inner city Tenderloin district, was never a nest of angels… In the late 1970s and 80s, it was the most cosmopolitan piece of real estate in South Africa. You had your excellent Hillbrow Records, your Mi-Vami shawarma place, Estoril Books, your globe-trotting tattoo artist down in the basement shopping area on Pretoria Street […]

A poem by Faieza Mx, now living in Queensland, Australia… I want to wake up to the Majestic Table Mountain Always standing, Always there, Never failing Its beauty astounding As it watches over Cape Town The ocean so blue… Camps Bay, Strand, Boulders Sea Point I want to go home to gaardtjies shouting ‘hullo, hullo, […]

The Drostdy has always been one of the select few grand old hotels of the Karoo. As the prime accommodation in Graaff-Reinet, it began its “hotel life” as Kromm’s Drostdy Hotel back in 1876. The Drostdy had many re-models and facelifts over the century to come, the latest being an intensive upgrade that has taken […]

The fabulous South African rusk has been a staple of Karoo travel, going back to the 1700s. Here’s the story of SA’s famous Ouma Rusks… If you were an explorer, a hunter, a prospector, a trekboer or simply a wandering remittance man crossing the great Thirstland, you always carried a bag of rusks in your […]

By Chris Marais & Julienne du Toit  In the big desert spaces of the world, an overland driver often encounters interesting objects along the road. Sometimes it’s a novelty object, a ‘world’s largest’ something or other. Other times, it’s a road sign full of bullet hotels. And you park next to it and wonder: what […]

The next best thing to actually being in the Karoo, South Africa’s semi-desert Heartland, is to have access to the just-launched Karoo Space eBookstore. Download the Karoo Collection Sampler on your tablet or smartphone, find a shady spot somewhere and settle in for a tour of the most phenomenal people-friendly desert in the world. Travel […]

If you’re South African and of a certain age, chances are you’ll be familiar with the Silver Creek Mountain Band. Text & Pictures by Chris Marais The Creek is South Africa’s longest-surviving bluegrass band. Forty years ago, they were a live music force to be reckoned with. Two fiddlers, banjo, lead guitar and a big old […]

A friend who lives in London tells me one of her finest memories of South Africa is of going to sleep between bed sheets dried by sun and wind. She has this whimsical theory that while you sleep, the day’s energy gently seeps back into you through the sheets. I sometimes think of that when […]

South African music legend Johnny Clegg was taken by “complete ambush” (his words) when he joined Martin Bester Drive (MBD) radio show in November 2013. The Jacaranda FM radio team had a surprise in store for him…that turned into a tearjerker for both Johnny and the studio team themselves! MBD had contacted Johnny’s musician son […]

Known to many as the man who liberated South Africa from apartheid, Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela, whose clan name is Madiba, is a world-class icon recognised for his integrity and his will to fight for the freedom that we relish today. One way of understanding the man is to explore the countryside in which he grew […]

“Searching for Sugar Man”, about two South Africans who set out to discover what happened to their unlikely musical hero, is picking up awards and new fans for 1970s rock ‘n roller Rodriguez all over the world. The title of the documentary takes its inspiration from one of the tracks off Rodriguez’ Cold Fact album, […]

South African documentary “Punk in Africa” has been selected for the 50th New York Film Festival. The explosive documentary about the role of 1970’s South Africa punk music in the war against Apartheid has been chosen for the Film Festival’s new “On the Arts” section. “Punk in Africa” is produced by Keith Jones and Deon […]

Stunning photographs of South Africa in the Seventies by renowned South African photographer Steve Bloom, are being presented by The London Festival of Photography this month. And on Monday (11th June), Steve will be giving a talk at the Guardian about photography in South Africa during the apartheid years. In 1977, aged just 24, Steve […]

If you remember Paul Simon’s epic album Graceland (a whopping 25 years ago!), then you’re going to love his new documentary “Paul Simon: Under African Skies” which celebrates this special anniversary. The 102-minute documentary sees Paul Simon reminisce and return to South Africa for a reunion concert. (Scroll down to view the trailer.) The hotly […]

The film A Million Colours: e’Lollipop II, depicting the lives of child actors Muntu Ndebele and Norman Knox during the years following the success of their iconic 1975 South African box office hit e’Lollipop, will be released locally in April. The two child stars of e’Lollipop, which movingly portrayed the friendship between a white and a black […]

From an email doing the rounds:

TO THOSE WHO MAY REMEMBER THESE …(from an email doing the rounds)