The exact boundaries of the Boesmanland have always been a struggle. Still, if you draw a circle around Kenhardt, Verneukpan, Brandvlei, Loeriesfontein, Kliprand, and Pofadder, you are more or less in the spot.
Within this circle, warm-hearted people, sheep and wildlife like hares and tortoises, but other animals find it difficult to survive even in good seasons. The landscape consists of extensive plains that are interrupted by high island mountains as Kammiesberg and karoo koppies, deep valleys and green or dry pastures grasses. A display of flowers in spring, bring you to the silence and power of natural elements.
You will see very few people or even vehicles. A certain degree of fitness is necessary. It is not an easy hike and is most definitely not for beginners.
– Hantam Camino The Flower Camino. 5 – 11 September 2025
A seven-day gravel road hike from the farm Tierhoek to the farm Onder-Downes, some 18km from Calvinia. This enduro will take hikers through one of the most unique areas of our country, the “Agter-Hantam”. It is, without doubt, a magnet to those seeking a Spring wildflower extravaganza, where the surrounding landscape erupts into a profusion of flowers unsurpassed anywhere in the world.
For the remainder of the year, the landscape is harsh and endless, yet beautiful in the symmetry of the Karoo “koppies” topped by “kokerbome” and the characteristic shades of grey.
Some of the points of interest en route include:
The farm Tierhoek has been in the Van der Merwe family for six generations. Its original name, “Tijgerhoek”– literally Leopard’s Corner – is mentioned in the writings of a German doctor named Henry Lichtenstein, who visited the area in 1802. Lichtenstein travelled in South Africa and wrote about “the very friendly reception in the house of a colonist named Van der Merwe”.
The Kokerboom or quiver tree belongs to the group of plants known collectively as Aloes. There are 3 different Kokerbooms. Both Afrikaans and English names are derived from the San people’s practice of making quivers from branches of trees.
Toren: Louw’s descendants owned the Groot Toren farm for roughly a century. It is about 45 km northwest of Calvinia. Groot Toren, translated from Dutch as ‘Big Tower,’ was named after the high mountains beside it.
The Toren Murder: Petrus Pienaar travelled north of the Cape in the late 1700s to find suitable land for farming. He settled on the beautiful farm speckled with flowers, called it Groot Toren and developed it for 15 years along with his wife Jacoba. On a night in 1795, their farm foreman, Jager Afrikaner, a man of bushman origin, appeared at the door of the main house at Groot Toren. Following an exchange of words, Afrikaner shot Pienaar and his family.
Afrikaner thought he had killed all of them, but the thirteen-year-old daughter, Hester , survived. She played dead until he had left. House servants found her alive the next day.
Just north of Calvinia, the 2,750-hectare Akkerendam Nature Reserve provides access to the Karee Dam and the mountain slopes of the spectacular Hantam Mountains. Ranging in elevation from 1 050 metres above sea level to the peak of Hantam Mountain at 1 669 metres, the reserve was proclaimed in 1962, making it the oldest proclaimed nature reserve in the Northern Cape.
This endurance hike is a slack packing hike with full support team.
– Klipwerf Camino 20 – 27 September 2025
148 kms over 8 days.
1. There is lots of history. The first, San people came to establish themselves on the farm Hoogekraal and from there Calvinia expanded.
2. Hike to the farm Groot Toren which belonged to the Pienard Family. The farm foreman murdered all except the daughter, Hester. There is a ruin of the original farm house. Hester married a ‘Louw’ and from there the family expanded.
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