Take a one hour drive north of Kimberley on the N12 to Hartswater, and you will find yourself in an agricultural eden. Fed by waters from the Vaal and Harts Rivers, the VaalHarts Irrigation scheme, the biggest in South Africa, supports more than 1250 high production farms.
Driving here is like a Bedouin tribesman hitting an oasis. Lush green farmlands pop out of the arid surrounds and crops such as olives, pecan nuts, peanuts, citrus, wine, cotton,stone-fruit, wheat, mealies and lucerne are fanned across the patchwork fields.
Hartswater and Jan Kempdorp are the two main centres in the irrigation area and have golf clubs, bowling greens, restaurants and accommodation to suit most tastes.
Although agriculture is the mainstay, the locals fish from the banks of the Harts River, horse ride, and bird watch. If you are really hot, you can cool off in the canals. Maybe wine tasting at the Hartswater Wine Cellar may entice you on a hot day, or knowing that the Taung skull of a child aged about 2.5 millions years was found at the nearby Buxton quarry in 1924, will help you win a game of general knowledge.T
| More info on the town of Kimberley | More info on the Diamond Fields area |
Related Content
