Ottosdal is a tiny farming and railroad town in the North West Province, situated west of Klerksdorp, on one of the North West main rail lines, and serves a large farming community, but is best known for the production of pyrophyllite, a ‘soft’ mineral that is marketed as ‘Wonderstone’ and which is used for electrical insulation and sculptures, for the annual Ottosdal Night Marathon – a ‘marathon by moonlight’ event run early each year, attracting a good 1000+ visitors and competitors…and something else rather odd: the Klerksdorp Spheres, most of which have been found in the 3 billion year old pyrophyllite deposits found near Ottosdal. These ‘mystery spheres’ look a bit like grooved bowling bowls, or mini ‘Death Stars’ from Star Wars, and have sparked many theories of something otherworldly (watch http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5i-qHfOaaAo for more..chilling stuff…) though they are in fact natural geological phenomena, however rare…
Like many of the small agricultural towns of the area, Ottosdal is all but dwarfed by a huge bank of grain silos, and these are easily the tiny towns most prominent landmark, but the hot and dry area around Ottosdal features the odd game farm and country guesthouse among the maize and sunflower fields, under the unrelenting blue sky of the North West Province. San Rock Art and Stone Age implements have also been found on several of the farm around Ottosdal.
For info on the moonlight marathon contact willa@ottosdaldrafentrap.co.za.
Getting there: Ottosdal is situated on the R505 40 mins drive north of Wolmaransstad.
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