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    WELCOME TO
    Calvania


About Calvania

In South Africa's largest province, the Northern Cape, about halfway between Cape Town and Upington in the Karoo, lies a gem that according to Alta & Erwin Coetzee, can truly be called a home away from home. In this haven you can relax to your heart's content because the atmosphere is so conducive to it. This haven, called Calvinia, is a town where people are still real, where you can stop a stranger to ask directions, or sometimes just to chat. Here you can allow yourself to be "transported" to the past while still having the best of modern society at your fingertips.

In Calvinia you can relax and recharge the batteries without the bustle of over- populated holiday resorts. Calvinia is a town in a time warp, where the past and present are intertwined. This is a land where, 250 million years ago, prehistoric dinosaurs tread the earth, leaving unique flora, fauna, geology and paleontology in harmonious concord with the infinite universe ... truly a place with room for all. Life in this picturesque town seems to be going slower than elsewhere, giving you time for the more worthwhile things in life.

Life in this picturesque town seems to be going slower than elsewhere, giving you time for the more worthwhile things in life. Here you are welcomed like the prodigal son, and treated like a local from the outset. The friends you quickly make in this town will go out of their way to accommodate you with almost any request you may have. Here you easily forget about traffic jams, shootings, muggings and other perils of modern life. The lasting first impression is one of calm sophistication.

It is the region's key growthpoint and one of the country's largest wool-producing areas. Like Sutherland, Calvinia enjoys 80% starlight and the night sky is as much an attraction for city-dwellers and astronomers as the rare sterboom is for botanists and horticulturalists.

Things to do & see

- Hantam Huis Restaurant:
Hantam Huis is the hub of many activities regarding the Hantam Huis Complex and Calvinia. From being the centre of the local tourist industry, to conservation and restoration, to being a licensed restaurant.

Hantam Huis is an authentic building that is representative of the late 18th century's building methods. Built in 1854, it is laid out in a T-shape, and is the oldest authentic house in Calvinia. It took more than a decade to restore this building to its original glory, complete with its authentic reed roof, and was declared a national monument in 1983. Hantam Huis is currently being used as licensed restaurant on one hand, and museum complete with curio shop stocked with handcrafted merchandise on the other.

The restaurant part of Hantam Huis serves the most delicious traditional meals from early morning to late night. By day you can get home made milktart served with traditional "moerkoffie", rooibos tea or traditional ginger beer that is prepared to an age-old recipe.

All meals for occupants of the guest houses where applicable are served in the Hantam Huis. The most elegant dinners you can think of are presented here by candlelight and romantic music.

- Akkerendam Nature Reserve & Hiking trail:
Situated north of the town, the Akkerendam Nature Reserve & Hiking Trail presents hiking into the Hantam as an excellent way of exploring unspoilt nature. The reserve is also a proclaimed bird sanctuary, and the Kareedam provides an oasis for many migrating birds. Within two days keen birdwatchers can expect to see 65 different species, including the rare Cinnamon breasted Warbler. For those who reach the summit of the mountain awaits a sight that literally "lets you see forever on a clear day".

- The South African Large Telescope (SALT):
On a hilltop outside the Karoo hamlet of Sutherland, the Southern African Large Telescope (SALT) focuses its giant African eye on our universe.
The reason the Southern African Large Telescope (SALT) was erected outside the town of Sutherland, some 370km from Cape Town, is because it is one of a handful of locations in the world that is ideal for stargazing.

Its remoteness, elevation (2 000 metres above sea level), the cold and the absence of light pollution, ensure clear, cloudless skies essential for research.

Tourists who visit SALT during the day can book a guided tour of the interpretive visitor centre and a selection of the research telescopes, including SALT, located on an elevated plateau overlooking a vast expanse of the Karoo.

And while the SALT facility is closed to the public at night, visitors can experience the thrill of astronomy by booking a stargazing session at the visitor centre where two dedicated visitor telescopes, a 16″ Meade and 14″ Celestron, are located.

Nobody is allowed to drive up to the dome facilities on the plateau at night as astronomy research is light sensitive and that's when local and international scientists are at work.

The stargazing session lasts about 90 minutes, but may be cancelled due to inclement weather conditions. Booking is essential.

SALT is an extraordinary international collaboration and has put South Africa at the forefront of 21st century scientific exploration. Such is its magnification that it can see the light of a candle on the moon.

One of the first light images taken by SALT was of 47 Tucanae, an ancient cluster of several million stars about 15 000 light-years from earth. The stars are 10 to 12 billion years old and among the oldest stars in our Milky Way galaxy, which makes them the perfect laboratory for the study of the life, birth, and death of stars.

Astrophysicists are currently unable to explain about 96% of the universe, notably dark matter and dark energy, and they believe images and information gathered from SALT may trigger a revolution more dramatic than the leap from Newtonian to quantum physics.

SALT will assist them to look deeper and more clearly into the dark heart of time and tackle unsolved questions about the universe and our place in it. This means giant leaps for not just those who make it to Mars, but for the whole of humankind.

It is managed by the South Africa Astronomical Observatory (SAAO).

- Dinosaur footprints n Fraserburg:
In Fraserburg, you can find 251 million year old pre-dinosaur footprints, embedded in the stone as clearly as if they had walked past yesterday. And the region also has corbelled houses, bee-hive shaped structures so built because there was (and is) no building materials except flat stones.

Places to stay
- Calvania Accommodation - www.calvania.co.za


Quick Facts

Province: The Northern Cape
Country: South Africa

Why go?

- Major attraction for astronomers as Calvania enjoys 80% starlight
- Tranquil town with a charming mix of old and new
- Calvania Museum
- Akkerendam Nature Reserve & Hiking Trail
- Be sure to see the Glacier tracts, dinosaur footprints in Fraserburg
- The SA Astronomical Observatory at Sutherland
- Unique architecture in Calvania and surrounding towns

History icon

History

Founded in 1851 on the stunning Oorlogskloof River and named after religious reformer John Calvin, Calvinia lies at the foot of the dolerite-topped Hantam Mountains (Hantam being a Khoi word meaning, 'where the red bulbs grow').

It is the region's key growthpoint and one of the country's largest wool-producing areas. Like Sutherland, Calvinia enjoys 80% starlight and the night sky is as much an attraction for city-dwellers and astronomers as the rare sterboom is for botanists and horticulturalists.



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