Gariep Route

The remarkable Gariep Dam in the Grassy Karoo is the biggest catchment of fresh water in South Africa - prime waterfront real estate. And the real surprise? There’s practically not a soul in sight...

The Mother River

Depending on the time of day you pass it by, Lake Gariep changes mood from sullen midday browns to the dark blues and coppers of dawn – and the molten silvers and golds of sunset. Karoo hills poke through it, appearing in soft light and morning mist like vapid Japanese islands.

It holds 6 000 million cubic litres of water in a vast space covering 374 sq km, irrigating more than 200 000 ha of land and providing 600 000 kilowatts of power. It feeds the Great Fish River, the Sundays River and the Orange River that heads west to Alexander Bay, traversing through South Africa’s desert lands.

It has all the makings of a world-class inland Riviera, complete with game reserves and plush hotels. But go now, while it’s quiet. One day, the world will discover this place and turn it into a theme park.

Gariep Route

If you’re heading north from Cape Town, your first stop on the Gariep Route is Colesberg, famous for its fine Karoo horses and its Victorian buildings. One of the top tourist features of Colesberg is its series of Heritage Walking Tours, which also includes a visit to the local community.

Now you’re officially off the Great North Road, the N1, and driving towards Lake Gariep. Just before you get there, you find the tiny hamlet of Norval’s Pont and a jolly welcoming sign to the Glasgow Pont Hotel. There’s a sticker on one of the hotel windows that reads: ‘Where the @#%$ is Norvalspont?’

Inside the ancient bar with the very long counter, you find yourself spending 20 minutes examining the walls before getting down to the business of a lunchtime beer. There are old photographs of the building of the dam (then called the Hendrik Verwoerd Dam) and more chilling ones of the nearby Anglo-Boer War concentration camp.

While My Guitar Gently Drinks...

The hotel was first owned by a Scot in 1857 and has now come to be owned by another Scot called Rod McGregor-Mann, a confident Baby Boomer with grey hair, piercing eyes and the mien of a rock ‘n roll guitarist. So it’s no coincidence that he has an old electric guitar displayed behind the bar that may or may not have been used by folk hero David Kramer during his early Budgie & The Jets days.

One Pont Fits All

This pont across the Orange River saw a lot of action in the Anglo-Boer War. It was continually being seized, liberated and re-occupied by everyone from Sir General French’s Imperial Forces to the Burghers under General de la Rey – even an Australian contingent had a brief sojourn here and everyone no doubt enjoyed the liquid offerings around the Long Bar at the hotel.

De Stijl Hotel

Lake Gariep sunsets are famous, and where better to view such a marvel than from the porch of the newly-renovated De Stijl Gariep Hotel?

It’s a jazzy, modern establishment that would not look out of place in the middle of London or Amsterdam. De Stijl perches on a hill overlooking the vast Gariep so, with sundowner in hand, one gets a true view of the country’s precious water asset.

Patrick Mynhardt's Home Town

To visit Bethulie properly, it helps to be in the company of an articulate local, someone like Tony Hocking, who lives in a ‘house of books’. You may think you have a fine book collection but, believe me, once you’ve strolled around Chez Hocking in Bethulie, you’ll realise what 120 000 privately-owned books look like in one place.

Tony Hocking is indeed an interesting man. And so is his town, which has given birth to a rugby Springbok called AJ Venter and the late world-renowned actor and raconteur, Patrick Mynhardt.

Camp of Tears

Like Norval’s Pont, Bethulie also had a concentration camp, where more than 25 people – mostly women and young children – died every day here in the veld, mostly of typhoid. At the memorial site, where their gravestones are set into the wall, it seems there is pain etched in the stone.

Legend of the Bridge

Take a drive from the memorial site to the splendid old bridge crossing the Gariep River. Legend has it that the mineworkers passing between Transkei and the Witwatersrand gold mines believed there was a great water snake in the river. As they passed over in trains, they would toss coins into the water to appease the monster. The local children would stand under the bridge, happily catching their coins and spending the money on sweets from the nearest trading store. – text and photographs by Chris Marais

Enquiries:  www.gariep-route.co.za