TOWNSIZING TO THE KAROO
We remember that stormy afternoon in the Sneeuberg Mountains like it was yesterday: a stone-and-brick cottage next to a wetland, a rusty car wreck under a Scottish Pine, tea brewing in the kitchen and darkening skies over the looming Compassberg. We scrambled for cameras as the last splash of sunlight fell on the valley, turning all to perfection.
In fact, it was back in the late summer of 2013, and we had been tooling around Doornberg Farm with the owner, Peet van Heerden, whoʼs quite famous in these parts as the unofficial historian-raconteur of Nieu-Bethesda.
Peet took us to meet Liesbeth and Olav Loeber from the Netherlands down at Die Vleihuisie, their enchanting Karoo cottage in the middle of a rather splendid nowhere. Jules and I looked at each other and nodded: we could live here.
Die Vleihuisie was once an abandoned old building. Then the visiting Dutch couple spotted it and made Peet an unusual offer: weʼll pay for the complete fix-up if you allow us free access for three months a year over 20 years. When weʼre not here, you can rent
