Its SouthAfrica

Lying in the south western Free State, the Xhariep Region, named after the Gariep Dam, is typically dry and probably the region most likely to fulfil the picture held by many of the Free State as a place of endless space, vast tracts of sheep and cattle farmland, tranquillity, and a part of the world known to few.

A mere 129 000 odd people live in Xhariep, a region regarded in the past as the country’s backwater. But now, as the need by tourists to venture into authentic territory away from the country’s over visited and generally overextended hot spots, grows, this region is unhurriedly being ‘discovered’.

The !Gariep Dam, lying in the southernmost part of the region, and regarded as the Karoo heartland, is the largest expanse of fresh water in the country. It lies on the Orange River, one of the country’s largest rivers, its shoreline extending some 435 kilometres near the towns of Bethulie, Venterstad, Colesberg, Oviston and Aliwal North.

Rouxville, one of the lesser known towns in the Xhariep, now forms part of the Maloti Route that claims the status of the longest signed tourism route in Southern Africa spanning over parts of Lesotho, the Eastern Cape and Xhariep. Similarly, together with Smithfield, Rouxville forms part of the Friendly N6 route, another long route that extends from Bloemfontein in the north to East London in the south, covering over 600 kilometres and spanning two provinces.

Other highlights of the Xhariep region include the chance to visit open mine museums, the Laurens van der Post Memorial at Philippolis, the ‘Eye’ of Zastron - a hole in a sandstone ridge on the hill at Zastron, and the Landzicht wine cellar at Jacobsdal.