Page 33 - FWG Issue 4_May_2022

Book Review

Helein van Tonder, who teaches at the
local farm school, started an omgee groep
(care group) to keep the town’s streets
and parks clean. This is not just a weekly
task – they remove litter whenever they
see it.

Residents along the main road have
spruced up their modest Karoo-style
houses and gardens.

The great width of the main road speaks
of the days when ox wagons, drawn by
spans of up to 16 oxen, had to be able to
do U-turns.

The town’s story is delightfully told in
Karoo Roads II. Co-author, Julienne du
Toit began her career as a Johannesburg
journalist and Chris Marais, her husband, Julienne du Toit and Chris Marais
is one of South Africa’s foremost
photojournalists. The couple, who live in One of the chapters in this latest Karoo though farms in countless numbers
Cradock, have had eight books published Roads book takes us deep underground carrying livestock and even other antelope
stemming from their probing journeys along the 83km Orange/Fish River tunnel – helplessly along in their midst and often to
across South Africa. a brilliant piece of civil engineering which their deaths in the thirstlands to the west.
sends 22 tons of water per second from The chapter on the introduction of merino
They write separate chapters giving their the Gariep Dam to the Eastern Cape, but sheep is equally fascinating.
personal impressions, yet they frequently which shuts off the supply for a month a
refer to the other, so the reader picks year when the public can explore it. That is I found the book a sheer joy to read.
up their mutual enjoyment and their something I must also see.
boundless enthusiasm for what their (The book is available in some book shops
publishers call ‘Faraway South Africa’. There’s a fascinating chapter on springbok but if you would like a signed, first edition
Faraway? The Karoo, currently a floral and the drama of their mysterious 19th copy, email julie@karoospace.co.za for
wonderland after unusual summer rains, century mass migrations when they the details. The cost for Fourways Gardens
probably takes up half of South Africa. behaved like lemmings mindlessly passing residents is R340, including delivery.)

Springbok grazing in the veld

Fourways Gardens • 31 • May 2022