Winter in the Karoo

It's been some time since we updated you guys on our movements. We have since left KZN to spend a short period in Pretoria and then did another Groot Trek to the Karoo. And our timing was... well, it depends on your attitude towards the Cold. I capitalise here with strained intention. You might on the one hand be adventurous enough to want to experience snow and winds that can roll a truck and a sky so big it makes your head spin; or you could rate it all overrated and stick to a more typical and bearable African climate. Whatever our sentiments were towards a winter most South Africans would never be prepared for, we bought a couple pairs of gloves and socks and headed down to Fraserburg.

If you're scratching your head and wondering why you've never heard of this place, don't fret, but check it out on the map with the weather report next time you watch the news. Google maps is also an option, but we mean to reiterate, again and again, it's freaking cold out here!

Where we have thought we could never get used to this, we have certainly cast a dubious eye over the plants that show how it's done. I don't much envy the ones that have adapted by adopting a look so withered they appear quite dead, but there are a few glittering surprises in this botanical graveyard. Succulents seemingly forever covered in dew drops till you touch their surface and their baubles don't give way. And many morning walks where we found everything covered in ice.

Tread lightly though as shards of glass cast their own light and danger. Seems a strange culture has been cultivated to discard of merriments a little unceremoniously. All that glitters is not gold nor great, but moving quickly along and up, above, as below, the hopeful eye may again catch the glimmering light with a 360 view of the milky way and an ocular deep dive into space, to crytalise your diamond mind.

There is a promise of isolation in the desert, with a silence that could hurt your ears, disturbed only by the hymns of the winds. Rolling mountains are scattered with sheep and stone and inspiration is born from this so called nothing in this here disignated nowhere.

As in KZN we are still in the process of settling in, getting to know the area and the materials and inspiration that surrounds us. We have already spotted an abundance of clay, calcium formation rocks, the aforementioned broken glass, and some ink making materials.