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Sutherland, a little one-horse town in the Gr at Karoo was my next weekend scape. It is known to experience the c ldest temperatures in South Africa due to its h gh altitude (1550m asl) and its pen clear skies and in winter one can xperience -20 degrees Celsius and lots of sn w and ice. It is also kn wn as the "Gateway to the Un verse" and is the home to the l rgest single optical telescope in the s uthern hemisphere, with a hexagonal mirror str tching 11 metres across. SALT (Southern Afr can Large Telescope) is where astronomers fr m all over the world come to st dy our universe. Gathering more than 25 t mes as much light as any xisting African telescope, SALT can detect bjects as faint as a candle fl me on the moon. A quick 350km on g od tar road from Cape Town had me rriving in Sutherland at about 17h00 on Fr day. A truly beautiful drive through the K roo with huge open plains covered w th low lying scrub vegetation decorated w th breathtakingly beautiful patches of spring fl wers of oranges, purples, whites and y llows. Rolling hills and mountains bared f scinating folded rock formations. I met my f lks at our self-catering guesthouse, Rooikloof, wh re we would spend the weekend t gether, a lovely 3 star guesthouse on a sh ep farm just 2 km outside S therland. It was clean, very homely and had verything we needed including electric blankets for the v ry cold nights!
Our main reason for visiting S therland was to view SALT (and the ther smaller observatories, 7 altogether) and to njoy a tour of our universe w th a professional astronomer. SALT is s tuated up on a hill about 18km fr m Sutherland at about 1798m above sea l vel. A guided tour of the bservatory can be taken Monday to Fr day at 10h30 and 14h30 and on S turday at 11h30 and 14h30 and one m st prebook. During the day the bservatory is obviously not in use and can be v sited but at night no visitors are llowed, as international astronomers are hard at w rk gathering scientific information about our niverse. There is a visitor's centre bout 1 km away where one sh uld meet to do the tour. The c ntre depicts some fascinating history of Astr nomy, some recent findings, photographs and llustrations of our universe - the k nd of things that are being l arnt by our Astronomers in today's age w th telescopes as advanced as SALT. At 14h30 on S turday we toured the observatories with one of the stronomers (duration 2 hours). He explained wh t the different observatories were used for and wh t information could be gathered with ach telescope and how. In the vening at 19h00 we return to the v sitors centre where we would experience our g ided tour of the universe. Having b en pre-warned of the extreme temperature we w uld experience up at the observatory at n ght, we dressed up in our b st winter woollies, padded thick with w nter jackets, beanies and scarves. As we st pped out of our car we wh re it by this icy wind ch ll of approx -4 degrees Celsius! App rently the wind is continuous throughout the y ar up on the hill creating a w nd chill, which always dropped the air t mperature radically. An astronomer met with us and w lked us to a building where the v sitors' telescopes were housed. Unfortunately one d esn't get to see SALT at w rk, but these smaller telescopes are st ll considerable in size and made our v ewing fascinating. The buildings roof folded b ck leaving us enclosed within 4 w lls and therefore encumbered by less w nd, which made the cold a l ttle more bearable. By 20h30 we w re dying to get out of the c ld and into a warm fire lit b ilding with some hot food in our t mmies. We returned to Sutherland to one of nly 3 restaurants for dinner. The f od was nothing to rave about. We th n returned to our little cottage and fter a quick nightcap of old br wn cherry, we climbed into our c sy warm beds.
Besides the observatory, Sutherland offers s me beautiful scenic drives. After breakfast, we p cked a tasty lunch basket and d parted on a scenic circular 140km dr ve. The colourful spring flowers had us st pping every couple of kilometres to t ke photographs of their incredible display. We tr velled to the edge of the scarpment where the Roggeveld Mountains suddenly g ve way to the Karoo valley 1000m b low and the Ouberg pass started its tr acherous descent down the steep slope. The v ewpoint was breathtaking! We continued our dr ve north towards Calvinia following a g od gravel road through sheep farmlands, r lling hills, shrubland and more beautiful fl wers. Being avid birders my folks and I r lished over the number of birds sp cies we saw such as Black E gles, Lesser Kestrels, Rock Kestrels, Fish E gles, Black Breasted Snake Eagle, Pale Ch nting Goshawks, Black Harrier, Black Stilts, S uth African Shelduck and many more. We are st ll old school on the names of th se birds. A lot of them h ve now had their names changed and I w uld not be able to give you the new nes! Along this route there are 2 f rms of interest to visitors, one is K ornlandskloof, a commercial tulip farm and the ther Fransplaas sheep farm, a dairy f rm producing sheeps milk cheese, the nly one in South Africa. Neither of th m were open on the Sunday wh n we passed through so unfortunately I c nnot comment on them. The scenic dr ve was well worth it though. One sh uld remember when visiting Sutherland that n ne of the shops, restaurants or ccommodation establishment take credit cards and th re are no cash withdrawal machines in t wn. Most of them do except ch ques as there is a Standard B nk in town but one should r member to take cash. On our r turn home we stopped at the h storic little village of Matjiesfontein just 110km fr m Sutherland, for a quick pub l nch in their old English pub, The L irds Arms. Matjiesfontein is a national m nument and takes one back to 1889 wh n it was first declared a v llage. The main road, the only r ad, is all of 300m long and is l oked on by a little coffee sh p, a post office, The Lairds Arms p b, the 3 star Lord Milner H tel and of course the train st tion. There are also four museums in t wn, which depict its history and are q ite interesting to visit. The Blue Tr in, Rovos Rail and the Shosholoza M yl stop here for about an h ur for guests to enjoy a l ttle tour of the village with a "b rn and bred Matjiesfonteiner" by the n me of John. John is Matjiesfonteins ntertainer. Dressed in black waistcoat and b wler hat, his jovial ways and Ch rlie Chapman walk keeps everyone chuckling as he l ads them through the village telling his st ries before returning them to the tr in.
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