Page 25 - Dainfern Precinct_Issue 4_2022
P. 25
BOOK REVIEW
BY JAMES CLARKE
Image: Ria Truter,Unsplash
shrubs. He has kept them watered to 16 oxen, had to be able to do and their boundless enthusiasm for
ever since. U-turns. what their publishers call ‘Faraway
South Africa’. Faraway? The Karoo,
Helein van Tonder, who teaches The town’s story is delightfully told in currently a floral wonderland after
at the local farm school, started an Karoo Roads II. Co-author, Julienne du unusual summer rains, probably takes
omgee groep (care group) to keep the Toit began her career as a Johannesburg up half of South Africa.
town’s streets and parks clean. This is journalist and Chris Marais, her husband,
not just a weekly task – they remove is one of South Africa’s foremost One of the chapters in this latest
litter whenever they see it. photojournalists. The couple, who Karoo Roads book takes us deep
live in Cradock, have had eight books underground along the 83km Orange/
Residents along the main road have published stemming from their probing Fish River tunnel – a brilliant piece of
spruced up their modest Karoo-style journeys across South Africa. civil engineering which sends 22 tons
houses and gardens. of water per second from the Gariep
They write separate chapters giving Dam to the Eastern Cape, but which
The great width of the main road their personal impressions, yet they shuts off the supply for a month a
speaks of the days when ox frequently refer to the other, so the year when the public can explore it.
wagons, drawn by spans of up reader picks up their mutual enjoyment That is something I must also see.
There’s a fascinating chapter on
springbok and the drama of their
mysterious 19th century mass
migrations when they behaved like
lemmings mindlessly passing though
farms in countless numbers carrying
livestock and even other antelope
helplessly along in their midst and often
to their deaths in the thirstlands to the
west. The chapter on the introduction of
merino sheep is equally fascinating.
I found the book a sheer joy to read.
The book is available in some
book shops but if you would like
a signed, first edition copy, email
julie@karoospace.co.za for the
details. The recommended retail
Julienne du Toit and Chris Marais. price is R340, including delivery.
22 23
7
7
DPL
DPL
