De Aar in the Northern Cape Karoo is a great town to do trainspotting. De Aar is a major railway junction for Southern Africa, with 110km of railway track. If trainspotting isn’t your thing, activities in De Aar are fairly limited, as it is a commercial distribution centre.
There is a museum dedicated to authoress Olive Schreiner who lived in De Aar for a while, and if you are interested in rock art, some excellent examples can be viewed on the farms Nooitgedacht, Brandfontein and Damfontein. Take a leisurely stroll through The Garden of Remembrance which honours the British soldiers killed during the South African (Anglo-Boer War).
However, there is an excellent reason to go De Aar if you are into adventure sports… accredited paragliding school Fly De Aar offers one-off tandem flights for tourists and passers-through, and 10 days paragliding licence courses inclusive of accommodation. Do train-spotting, sheep-spotting and game-spotting from the air, and overnight at one of the pretty Karoo guest houses or guest-farms.
For more information on the Upper Karoo, visit ShowMe.
