Practical
4 min read
Packing light for a week in the Karoo
Nine days, one bag, no regrets. Pieter’s honest list of what to bring on the Karoo route and what to leave at home.
Pieter van Wyk
Karoo back roads and night skies
Every year someone arrives for the Karoo with a suitcase that would not fit in a Land Cruiser. This is the list I send now, in order of how much I mean it.
Bring
A warm layer — spring and autumn nights in Sutherland drop below freezing, and the fire is only warm on one side. Walking shoes you have already worn in. A hat with a brim. A head torch, because the guest farms switch the generator off at ten. A paper book: there is no signal for most of the route and the evenings are long.
Leave at home
Anything that needs ironing. A drone — the farms do not like them and neither do the sheep. More than one pair of jeans. Expectations about Wi-Fi.
The one thing people forget
Lip balm. The Karoo is dry in a way the coast never prepares you for. The padstal at Calvinia sells it, but you will want it on day one.
The journey behind this note
The Long Way to the Karoo
Nine days from Cape Town to Prince Albert on the back roads Pieter grew up on.
