Karoo Poort Guesthouse

Our Story

Mar 1, 2023 | Travel & Adventure

Getting into the guesthouse industry, is probably the best thing that could have happened to me career wise. When the heart calls you follow and I did just that. Following my heart to the heart of the Breede River Valley I bought a 3 bedroom-1 bathroom house in 2019 and started the slow process of municipal rezoning during the 2 Covid-19 years. When permission was finally granted at the end of 2021 I set-off to join Wynand, my fiancé in Worcester, a journey of some 1 200km, leaving an academic career and the security of the life of a university lecturer behind to start a new life adventure.

My dream to convert the stately old house in the peaceful tree-lined Paglande neighbourhood into a guesthouse took dedication and all my project management skills with a good doze of patience. After the dirt has settled and the swan that I envisioned in my mind started to take shape it was time for me to jump in to refine the shell that was created. I found an avenue to release my bottled-up creativity into up-cycling old furniture pieces and meticulously combining old and new into French meets Karoo farm style décor providing a fresh new look to the house which now boasts 4 bedrooms and 4 bathrooms.

By preserving that which is unique to the house and adding lived-in cosy furnishings we created a homely feel to the house which guests adore as they relax in the beautiful rooms, living room, dining room and tranquil garden.

What’s in a name

Guests often ask us about the room names and although the quick answer is that it is linked to the geology of the Karoo and my previous life as a geologist, the longer answer is often lost in translation. It is perhaps easier to pen it down in a short explanation starting with why rock units are named. In geology it makes sense to give similar rocks the same name as it makes it easier to compare or to explain in which rock units the interesting stuff is located. For this reason each rock layer is named after some geographical feature in the area where the most important outcrops are located or where it was recognised for the first time. The list of names on a geological map is arranged from the oldest rocks at the bottom of the list to the youngest at the top of the list, called a stratigraphic column.

In South African geological history the semi-desert landscape of the Karoo was the inspiration for naming the most wide-spread and one of the youngest rock units which covers most of the interior of the country today. But in the past this rock unit covered most of southern Africa, most of which have been eroded away a long time ago. The name for this geological unit is the Karoo Supergroup and today hosts all the country’s coal reserves and most of the important fossil units. The formation is perhaps the most interesting of all geological units as it involves not only a massive inland ocean but also involves extensive glaciation in a time (~350 million years ago) when southern Africa was located over the South Pole. As continents wandered across the seafloor the melting glaciers made for ideal swampy conditions for plants to flourish and abound in animal life. When plants rotted they turned into peat and eventually coal (and in some places natural gas – but that is a fracking story for another time). The climate kept changing as the continent steadily moved further north into a zone where the temperature rose to a point where desertification occurred and wind-blown sand dunes formed – today the magnificent yellow cliffs of the eastern Free State around Clarens.

The older rocks on which the Karoo Supergroup deposits were formed are named the Cape Supergroup which was crinkled-up into magnificent folds, as seen driving along Meiringspoort. Due to pressure from the south the majestic mountains, today referred to the Cape Fold Belt, formed. The picturesque mountains around Worcester form an important part of the Cape Fold Mountains.

It is in this Cape and Karoo Supergroups we took our inspiration for the names of our rooms:

  • Gamka- delta deposits now sandstone of the Bokkeveld Group of the Cape Supergroup;
  • Dwyka- glacial deposit (tillite) Karoo Supergroup;
  • Ecca- shale rich in fossils Karoo Supergroup;
  • Tankwa – a sub-basin in the Ecca Group.

If you liked the window into the geological history of South Africa, you will enjoy the posts in the up-coming blogs where I will link the geology and wine of our beautiful valley.

About author

Danél van Tonder

I’m Danél van Tonder, geologist, artist and now guesthouse owner/ manager and blogger. I enjoy learning new things, visiting new places and digging for interesting facts about places I travel to. My love for heritage and natural science and my previous life as university lecturer naturally lead me to want to translate the science and history behind every interesting place into understandable snippets. In this blog you will find articles on heritage, geology, wine, travel, adventures and new experiences. Join me in finding out more about my part of the Western Cape and beyond.

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