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.

How things work in our family

go! Platteland

Chitchat

News & diary • Give winter blues the boot with our jam-packed calendar. Learn how to make an authentic Durban curry, explore the Hermanus coast on the Canine Camino, or join a group whose members swap plants for fun.

Fido’s first big walk

Feel the sparkle!

Don’t miss Ina’s new soups

Warm up with curry

Swap plants for your garden or home

Tips for newbies

Dates to diarise*

Dine around the world • Explore world culture and food without a visa or plane ticket.

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Let’s go to town • We had warmth, wellbeing and leisure time in mind when we went window-shopping in Calitzdorp, Cape Town, Cullinan, De Aar, Dundee, Hartbeespoort, Kuils River, Muizenberg, Paarl, Pretoria, Robertson and Stanford.

SUTHERLAND Cold town, warm hearts • Life in Sutherland in the Northern Cape isn’t always easy, but even those who leave tend to return. Come with us to find out why.

In a nutshell

What does property cost?

Meet the people

Eat, drink, make merry!

1 Fiat 500 | 2ha | 4 boys… 19000 miles! • When the go-cart that an engineer father had built for his four sons couldn’t handle the tufty terrain on their 2-hectare plot in Montana, Pretoria, they hunted down a Fiat 500 in a salvage yard. They only wanted its suspension system, but Mom intervened, the car was saved, and those little daredevils clocked up an impressive 19000 miles – all without leaving the plot.

To die for • How do you avoid the tourist avalanche if you live in an Afromontane forest where holidaymakers descend in December? You drive to lonely outposts in the mountains of the Cape, says photographer Obie Oberholzer, and you make pictures rather than take them.

Willie Strauss Never an idle moment • A variety concert… that is how to approach your life and career when you want to survive as an artist living in the platteland. So says singer, lyricist and radio food expert Willie Strauss, who entices visitors to Die Sinkstoor in Cullinan with traditional offal and his mother’s Bushmanland boerekos.

Creativity & community in Dinokeng • The driving force behind the successful Makers Village in Irene has now implemented the same concept in Cullinan, creating an incubator and exhibition space for entrepreneurs and artists. Platteland dropped in at this budding creative hub to find out what it’s all about and came away impressed.

Meet the people

To the babbling brooks of Sabie • Roughly every five years, Jaco and Jens Reverchon get itchy feet. They hopped around Cape Town, moved up north to the Greater Kruger and then, recently, put down roots next to the Sabie River where they live a peaceful life with their animals.

For the love of birds… • They may be called birdwatchers but they are in fact using their ears. As Johan van Zyl discovered on his maiden outing as an “avian tourist” with BirdLife South Africa to find the 450 bird species that live in the Garden Route and Little Karoo.

Your stops

It takes a family • Christian Fry and his fiancé, Pippa de Lange, arrived at Dombeya with just a day to spare before the Covid-19 hard lockdown commenced in 2020. Their...