Hello everyone
I hope you have all been having a wonderful week. Another week has flown by, this year is moving very fast. We have almost been in our new town for a month. What a pleasure!
Before moving here I knew very little about the town of Oudtshoorn. Every past conversation about Oudtshoorn that I can recall was about how hot it got. We have missed the absolute height of summer and it is starting to cool down now, we are having beautiful weather and during the hotter parts of the day, the house provides a cool place to work during the day. The area may be quite dry, but many of the wide roads are lined with big green trees providing shade and lovely scenery.
There definitely are so many aspects to this town that people take for granted or miss entirely, so during this last week we took some time to have a look around and appreciate the beauty of this old town.
It officially became a town in 1887 according to Brittanica.com and although it is a tourism hotspot of the Western Cape, there is a lot more to this town than just ostrich farms and the little bit of information available online.
Our excursion started in the town center where we found the old sandstone churches. Most of the towns in the region were built around churches and Oudtshoorn is no exception.
Photograph credit with permission from @ilithid (my husband)
I'm not a religious person, but I admire the workmanship and care that went into these lovely old buildings. Each one seems to have different character and these are well looked after, the stained glass windows covered with mesh and the original aspects are well preserved. Most of these are national heritage sites being older than 60 years in age.
Photograph credit with permission from @ilithid (my husband)
Photograph credit with permission from @ilithid (my husband)
These churches still ring their bells, it's quite an amazing tradition that they have kept to all these years.
A little further down the road, this building caught my attention. I personally think this is an absolutely stunning place. It has a very well looked after garden with a massive oak tree at the front which is probably as old as the house. All of the original porch decorations have been retained making it feel rather fairy-like.
We turned into the next parallel road and came across another church. This one looks like it is younger than the previous one. The golden glow of the sun seems to give it an ethereal glow and may be one of the reasons this orientation was chosen.
The roads back were quiet as evening was setting in. When we left home originally we drove past an immense flat escarpment that I believe forms part of the little airbase. The views here are exceptionally breath-taking as you can literally see the mountains 180degrees around you in the distance that encompass the area. It provides a really stunning place to watch the sun go down, so we decided to return here around golden hour for the evening display. We certainly weren't disappointed when we were met with these views.
To be honest, even capturing this with the wide angle doesn't do the sight justice.
After a short while (and about 30 photos later) our daughter pulled us away, insisting she had to go and say hello to an Acacia thorn tree. We obliged. They are only small for a short time.
We stayed until the sun had fully disappeared beyond the horizon before heading home for supper, content with our treasures and finds of the day and on a bit of a photography dopamine high. It was the perfect close to a beautiful, busy day.
In closing, there is so much to these little towns that I think get taken for granted. We've only been here for 3 weeks now, but the atmosphere and scenery treats us each day. Vacationing here for a week would not provide even a fraction of the experience of living here and I'm excited to see where our adventure will take us. You're welcome to come along on our journey in the Klein Karoo.
Until my next post, go well, be safe and find joy in each day.