A tug of the heartstrings

It’s 9.30 on a sunny morning in January when farmer Lindo van der Merwe and I strike out from the Wilgefontein farmstead. The magazine’s Renault Duster is safely parked inside the shearing shed – I’ll see it again the day after tomorrow, when the trail ends back here.

Lindo and his wife Elmarie have a handful of farms covering 10 635 hectares of some of the most beautiful mountainous Karoo I’ve seen for a while. Lindo grew up here – the main homestead, Bovlei, has been in the family since 1912. After studying in Bloemfontein and finishing his army stint in Potchefstroom, he returned to the farm in 1986. Lindo met Elmarie in Potch – they got married soon afterwards and joined his parents, CN and Elize, in the farming business.

A brother-in-law of Elmarie’s, Gerhard Botes, loved visiting the couple. During one such visit in the early 1990s, he suggested to Elmarie and Lindo that they should diversify into tourism. A keen hiker, Gerhard helped them explore the idea of a trail, and that’s how the three-day Transkaroo was born. Over time, the Van der Merwes also added a 4x4 trail and overnight accommodation.

“This is the Karoo,” Lindo reminds me as we walk. “There’s no use rushing the Karoo.”