TOUR DE KAROO

It is by riding a BICYCLE that you learn the CONTOURS of a COUNTRY best ~ Ernest Hemingway

‘This is big sky country,' my dad pronounced as we skirted the Gariep Dam, heading south towards Steynsburg. Our destination was Mount Melsetter, the Southey family's farm in the north-eastern Groot Karoo. To be more specific, our destination was the Saddlebum Pub in the main house, where no doubt our friends and fellow cyclists would be waiting.

My family hadnʼt visited Mount Melsetter since we were children. This is where, weʼve been told, my twin sister Sam stood up for the first time. (No one really remembers where I stood up, but Iʼm told it was just a few days later, somewhere unremarkable on our journey home.) It was also where, a few years later, we learnt the artful game of boulle (French bowles) and the proper way to eat a pomegranate. Now, it would be the starting point of our very own