Walter Battiss Art Gallery – the home of Fook Island

The Karoo Heartland town of Somerset East is a place full of interesting and quirky attractions. One of them is the Walter Battiss Art Gallery which also houses the local tourism information office. Battiss (6 January 1906 – 20 August 1982) was generally considered to be the foremost South African abstract painter but is probably … Continue reading Walter Battiss Art Gallery – the home of Fook Island →

Three Karoo Heartland icons

Three Karoo Heartland icons, all in one picture. Big open sky, Karoo koppies (in this case Koffiebus and Teebus outside Steynsburg) and the good ol' reliable Windpomp.

Remembering the Slagtersnek hangings

If you are flying along in a northerly direction through the Karoo Heartland on the N10, the main drag between Port Elizabeth and Cradock, do slow down a bit after you pass the first turnoff to Somerset East and keep a look out on the right hand side of the road for a cenotaph like … Continue reading Remembering the Slagtersnek hangings →

The Windpomp

The windpomp is one of the icons of the Karoo Heartland and as part of the landscape as Karoo koppies, sheep and Angora goats and a good ol' farm gate. But have you ever wondered where the windpomp came from and how long they've been around?The first windpumps were used to pump water since at … Continue reading The Windpomp →

Somerset East’s whiskey bar in a church

I'm not much of a drinker preferring to do the sacrilegious thing of making beer shandy by throwing lemonade into a perfectly good beer. But I am known to enjoy a good beer or wine tasting so it shouldn't come as a huge surprise that I'm doing a post on a place where you can do … Continue reading Somerset East’s whiskey bar in a church →

Hofmeyr’s pink church

Most Karoo towns have a historic church with a church tower that keeps an eye out over it. The Karoo Heartland town of Hofmeyr is no different... or perhaps it is. Why? Because it has a pink church tower standing out above the town. The Dutch Reformed Church in Hofmeyr was built in 1875 and … Continue reading Hofmeyr’s pink church →

A Karoo road – doesn’t matter which way you go

“Would you please tell me, which way I ought to go from here?”“That depends a good deal on where you want to get to,” said the cat.“I don’t much care where … ” said Alice.“Then it doesn’t matter which way you go,” said the cat.”— Lewis Carroll

Museum lane

Looking up Museum lane to the Somerset East Museum at the foot of the Boschberg. The museum is at the top of Beaufort Street with the Dutch Reformed Church at the other end.

The Dutch Reformed Church in Somerset East

Somerset East's historic Dutch Reformed Church stand on the main drag through town at the intersection with Beaufort Road. After the village of Somerset (with the East only being added 30 years later) was established, a need started to arise for a church. The corner stone of the church was laid in 1830 and it … Continue reading The Dutch Reformed Church in Somerset East →

The town of Somerset East

The town of Somerset East lies in the southern Karoo Heartland at the foot of the Boschberg mountain. Somerset East was established by Lord Charles Somerset in 1815 as an experimental farm to provide meat and fresh produce to the soldiers on the Eastern Frontier. The site was chosen over sites in the Gamtoos Valley … Continue reading The town of Somerset East →