go! Platteland

The slow life is the good life: go! Platteland celebrates the rural lifestyle and the entrepreneurial spirit of people whose hearts are in the platteland – whether they grew up in the countryside or are already based there, are contemplating making the move or simply hankering after the rural life. Platteland offers articles that focus on entrepreneurs, DIY projects, animals, gardening, food, towns and people. It is both practical and inspiring – as much of a visual feast as it is a celebration of great writing.

Hell is… a “WhatsUp” group?

go! Platteland

Back to my Clocolan

The house of my youth…

The strength of a windmill

Kiepersol conundrum

Our own Paris calling

News & diary • Winter needn’t be a dreary season. We have some suggestions for you that will brighten up the cold months.

Fill your winter garden with colour

A wine to pair with winter dishes

Bake like a pro

Boomplaats brings a taste of summer to winter

Make a note in your diary*

Time to read • Drive the winter chill away with this fine selection of new books.

SUBSCRIBE NOW AT THE 2018 PRICE!

Let’s go to town • We found beautiful things for the cold days in Albertinia, Bloemfontein, Cape Town, Centurion, Clanwilliam, Durban, Knysna, Nieu-Bethesda, the Nuy Valley, Paarl, Plettenberg Bay, Randburg, Sedgefield and Wellington.

Backwaters of the Molopo • If you look at a map of North West, where the northern border curves into Botswana, that’s where you’ll find Piet Plessis, Tosca, Bray and Vorstershoop. Willem van der Berg drove many kilometres on dirt roads and met people who still have time for stories.

Eat, drink and stay over

Koperfontein-The winds of change are blowing- • It’s little more than a siding and a stop on the railway line to Saldanha, but Koperfontein is getting a new lease of life thanks to a wind farm and a new coffee shop and venue.

Meet the locals

Is “wind turbine syndrome” real?

Things to see and do in the village • Koperfontein lies just off the R45 – 52 km from Malmesbury and 7 km from Hopefield. It’s about an hour’s drive from Cape Town.

GENADENDAL Barefoot on hallowed ground • Genadendal, a village in the Overberg region, is steeped in the slower pace of an earlier era. The bricks, stones, woodwork, thatch, and even the trees, tell the fascinating story of the first mission station in South Africa – and of many other firsts.

Meet the locals

Good to know

Thunderbirds get a second chance • The southern ground-hornbill – an iconic species of the savannah biome that breeds only once every six years – is critically endangered. Sarie Marais-Nell visited the Mabula Ground Hornbill Project near Bela-Bela, where they are working hard to slow the decline in their numbers.

Valley of plenty • The place where the Wilge River cuts through the mountains about 40 km north-east of Bronkhorstspruit is known as Wilgepoort, Trichardtspoort, Zusterstroom… or simply “the valley”. This river is the lifeblood of the people who live and farm here.

Meet the locals

Eat, drink, enjoy

On the Spoor of the velskoen • The velskoen – a quintessentially South African shoe – has become highly fashionable in recent years. We follow this much-loved leather shoe through the decades, tracing it back to a village in the Cederberg.

Long live vellies!

How to break in a pair of vellies

Timeline of the country’s oldest shoe factory

A weekend in Prince Albert • Prince Albert, which turns 260 this year, has evolved from a quiet Afrikaans farming hamlet to a modern, bustling oasis that draws visitors from all over the world. Yet this town at the foot of the Swartberg has lost none of its charm. Walk with us.

In the...