Member-only story
Klein Karoo
A road trip and an arts festival.
I was invited by Juria Le Roux and Brahm van Zyl to participate in the group exhibition they curated, Praatland for the Klein Karoo Nasionale Kunstefees (KKNK), and this thrilled me. I have participated in various previous group exhibitions at the festival in the past, but this time I wanted to also be there, to be part of the festival and to see what everybody else was doing. A festival is a completely different kettle of fish compared to an art fair, which we attend more frequently, being in Cape Town. Two weeks before it started, Neil and I decided to attend. It is a mad scramble for accommodation so close to the date of the festival. We foolishly thought we would get a room at the very grand-looking Queens Hotel, which is ideally situated BANG in the middle of the main drag that is Baron von Rheede Straat. It was a case of ‘Sorry, fully booked’ and we were left with a selection of dodgy rooms in somebody’s ex-maid’s quarters, a garage conversion or two, and then the odd Grand colonial villa where it was emphasised that it is for over-18s and how they enjoy a naturist approach to life and hosting. It sounded like too much ideology, so we skipped that one. Then I spotted it — Super-modern and up-to-date eco-cabins, perched high up and surrounded by the beautiful Klein Karoo mountains and brush. THIS SOLD ME. Visions of having bubbles in the wood-fired hot tub under the magnificent sky filled…
