Legend
noun
1. a traditional story, sometimes popularly regarded as historical but not authenticated.
2. an extremely famous or notorious person, especially in a particular field.
3. somebody who has left their mark in the Karoo Heartland.
Legends of the Karoo
Walter Battiss
Walter Battiss was one of South Africa’s most original and influential artists — a painter, printmaker, and thinker whose curiosity and imagination...
Unicorns on the Boschberg
Somerset East is a town of history, myths and legends. One of those myths dates back to the 18th Century, when explorers believed there were...
Bawokazi – the shapeshifter of Steytlerville
"Watch out when you walk alone on cold nights in the Karoo. A notorious "shapeshifter" has been spotted in the Eastern Cape town of Steytlerville...
Karoo Lamb
The Karoo, a lonely corner of the earth and home to one of our living treasures: sheep that graze in their time among scattered bushes. Karoo Lamb...
Giant Earthworms of the Karoo
A Karoo thunderstorm is a wondrous, scary thing. This is a time when giant two-metre earthworms rear up out of their burrows and find a road to...
Helen Martins and Koos Malgas – Creators of the Owl House
Outer appearances can be deceiving. In life, Helen Elizabeth Martins was a shy, retiring figure, rarely seen outside on the streets of Nieu...
The Graaff-Reinet Jewish community
FIRST JEW TO ARRIVE IN GRAAFF-REINET Graaff-Reinet’s Jewish population was always small. It fluctuated with the prosperity of the village, but among...
James Kitching – Legendary fossil hunter of the Karoo
As you walk around the Kitching Fossil Exploration Centre in the Karoo village of Nieu-Bethesda, you will see, among all the grinning skulls of...
Sandra Antrobus of Cradock: A tribute
Article by Julienne du Toit andChris Marais - Published on Litnet on 2025-04-15 https://www.litnet.co.za/sandra-antrobus-of-cradock-a-tribute/...
John Kepe, the Bandit of the Boschberg
During the late 1940s and early 1950s a notorious vagabond called John Kepe had the town of Somerset East up in arms with a series of petty...
Robert Hart – Father of Somerset East
The early history of Somerset East and Glen Avon Farm is tied to the history of Robert Hart. When Robert Hart stepped off a boat at the Cape of Good...
Sylvester the Lion – the Karoo escape artist
The Karoo National Park is famous for many wonderful reasons, however in 2015 the most famous reason would be the grand escape of Sylvester the...
John Sweet Distin – he who erected the first stock fences in South Africa
The story of SA’s first stock fence There is a modest white gravestone in the old cemetery of the Eastern Cape town of Middelburg. This is the...
Herbert Hayton Castens – South African only national rugby and cricket captain
Did you know that Pearston in the Karoo Heartland is the birthplace of the only person who was captain of both the South African national rugby as...