Great Karoo Accommodation

This friendly, modern Karoo village, only 280km from Cape Town, was almost entirely destroyed by a huge flood only a century after it started The town lies in a geologically fascinating area, steeped in history and tradition. It's a worthwhile and hospitable stop on the busy N1 highway through the Great Karoo.

The warm welcome that awaits tourists in Laingsburg, dates back to the mid-1700s. In those years farmers along the banks of the Buffels River offered hospitality to adventurers brave enough to cross the mountains and venture out onto the arid plains of the Great Karoo. In exchange for news of Cape Town and the civilised world, as well as gossip garnered from other farms along the way, these isolated farmers of the interior offered accommodation, sustenance and fodder. Many early officials and explorers, such as Barrow, Lichtenstein, De Mist and Swellengrebel, wrote of the people they met in what was later to become the district of Laingsburg. They described the Karoo as "awesome, hot, dry, and dusty. An inhospitable land peppered with friendly outspans, veritable jewels in the desert."

At tiny homesteads dotted about on the vast plains travellers found fresh, drinking water, safe outspans, "a true welcome, homely hospitality and a nourishing meal." Many wrote that "such comforts were offered by God-fearing but brusque men, their shy women and hoards of children."

Text and photo courtesy of Laingsburg Tourism Bureau