Snow Day in the Karoo

We hear the insistent knocking outside from deep, deep in the snuggy folds of a down duvet way before dawn in our hideaway at the Richmond Café & Rooms, and the urgent voice that follows: “Chris! Hey Chris! You guys have to come and see this!”

Must we, I wonder? What fresh hell awaits? Has a tree fallen over and crushed the beloved Karoo Space bakkie outside?

My wife Jules and I scramble out of bed, shuffle into some woollen slippers, open the door and walk right into a blue-white wonderland. Our friend and host Nicol Grobler is pointing with amazement at a Karoo courtyard gone utterly Christmas-crazy.

Let’s rewind here.

It’s early September last year, what we call ‘technical springtime’ but still really winter in the Karoo. We’ve been on a three-day gig in the little Northern Cape town of Fraserburg, are packed