ADVENTURE
The ultimate quirky Karoo road-trip destination
BY SHARON WAUGH
BARRYDALE TURNS A KAROO ROAD TRIP INTO AN ARTFUL ADVENTURE – QUIRKY, COLOURFUL, AND UNFORGETTABLE.
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vintage Rolls-Royce rests outside a grand white building. Crossing the chequerboard verandah of the Karoo Art Hotel feels like stepping from black and white into technicolour. Above the reception desk hangs a painting of a ewe and her lambs. I relate to both: the sheep’ s need for rest and the lambs’ need for fun.
The hotel, part of the Cape Country Routes, is a sprawling three-dimensional artwork. Each of its 17 rooms is individually themed, and I’ d long wondered which one would be mine. Not all mysteries deliver, but this one did.
As a fan of kitsch, I’ d hoped for the Magnolia Room, its walls wrapped in Tretchikoff’ s Zulu Girl and Pink Magnolias. Instead, I got the Melvill & Moon Room, a tribute to the hotel owners’ retro safari brand, complete with canvas, leather and sepia safari photos.
DIE LANGHUIS
52 | SUMMER 2025 / 26 • rovesa. co. za