IN OTHER WORDS
Anja Fourie, tomato farmer, Bethulie
A highlight here is the beautiful Hennie Steyn Bridge that connects the Free State and the Eastern Cape. The Orange River flows past Bethulie and we have the best sunsets. Keep your eyes open for animals in the area. We see a lot of ground squirrels on our farm.
Anja's Timeless Tomatoes products, like sundried tomatos, jams and sauces, ate sold at Die Plaaskombuis.
Simoné Griesel, physiotherapist, Bethulie
Garingboom Guest Farm is a nice stopover between Cape Town and Joburg. It's about 30 km from Bethulie, on the road to Springfontein. (082 900 9888; garinghoom.co.za) The owner is a walking encyclopaedia and birders travel there from all over. There are also hiking trails and horse rides.
Bethulie is 104 km from Colesberg via the N1 and R701 (potholed in places) or about 44 km from Springfontein via the R715.
BETHULIE
± 45 km from the N1
The R701 between the N1 and Bethulie runs along the wall of the Gariep Dam – the biggest dam wall in the country.
In the winter months, hartebeest play hide-and-seek in the grass of the Gariep Dam Nature Reserve. Where the R701 and R715 meet up, near the Bethulie Dam, cattle and horses graze side by side. A long row of wild olive trees stand guard as you enter town. As you drive along the main road, smaller erven become bigger plots and farms.
Even if you've never heard of Bethulie (the Google Streetview photographer hasn't been there yet), you probably know its most famous resident. Actor Patrick Mynhardt (Vyfster, Suburban Bliss) was born here in 1932. He was performing his popular autobiographical oneman show Boy from Bethulie in London when he passed away at the age of 75.
The town wasn't always called Bethulie. French missionary Jean Pierre Pellissier named it after the Caledon River in 1832. Of course, there was already a town called Caledon in the Western Cape, so the Paris Evangelical Missionary Society
