Retreat to the Bokkeveld
Prime Wild Flower Conservation Land & Farm House in Northern Cape Near Nieuwoudtville, Hantam, Northern Cape, South Africa.
A rare opportunity to purchase c 500 ha of flower laden Bokkeveld adjacent to a nature reserve
ONLY conservation minded buyers will be considered!
OFF Road - OFF Grid - ON Offer…
Unique Property - FOR SALE
‘There are few sights in the world as beautiful as the blooming of the Namaqualand flora and it must rank high on the worldwide lists of important heritage sites. It is to be highly commended that some farmers in the Nieuwoudtville region are managing their farms to protect and encourage the flora.’
—Professor Sir Ghillean Prance FRS
Director Royal Botanical Gardens KEW, London (1988).
‘All landowners in South Africa have a responsibility to identify irreplaceable environmental treasures occurring on their properties and ensure that they are preserved for posterity.’
—Neil MacGregor.
This sale presents is an unique opportunity to buy a small slice of heaven with thousands, even millions of flowers that change weekly overmany months. One of nature’s extraordinary gifts which cannot readily be measured or quantified in financial terms. This area is one of nature’s precious jewels. An ancient and priceless annual display where flowers come out of rock crevices and barren windswept land. The carpet of colour runs for miles in every direction as far as the eye can see. Bokkeveld means Buck scrubland in Afrikaans.
For the over 25 years the owners have lived here protecting not only the flowers but the integrity of the land. The land was purchased at auction in 1998 and they have built the farmhouse with their own hands a beautiful double house which is also has a library, study, art gallery and painter’s studio. To live here in such artistic style and comfort amongst the flowers and wild Bokkeveld is a very rare privilege.
Whoever buys this house will be buying into an extraordinary dream, living in a house which rises up from the solid rock. Being off grid down the end of a very long bumpy track has many advantages with privacy peace and quiet, even solitude. Yet you still have wifi and mobile phone reception powered by solar panels and batteries. A distinct advantage these days to be so independent and yet linked to the outside world whenever you want.
We hope that whoever buys this property will respect the courage and vision of the present owners to live very close to nature whatever the future may bring. As a place to live, Katstaarlaagte is a place of retreat and contemplation. Quiet meditation, space for the soul to recharge and revitalise itself and at the same time enabling your mind to merge with the landscape. Peace and quiet that is all too rare these days. The land is in the process of coming under a local stewardship scheme supported by
the Endangered Wildlife Trust https://ewt.org/ Drylands Landscape and the
WWF - The World Wildlife Fund. https://www.wwf.org.za/
The eastern views to the mountains in the far distance reach for over fifty miles. In the westerly direction the property is also close to the famous 1,000 ft escarpment that divides Northern Cape from Western Cape. This geological feature has its own ecosystem which is reliant upon slightly greater rainfall and precipitation from occasional mists and low cloud. This enables many rare plants to survive in what is an arid landscape.
This is a once in a lifetime chance to preserve some of South Africa’s rich plant heritage. Every year these plants and flowers draw visitors from all over the world during the flower season early August and September, Many artist and writers have visited the area and have been deeply inspired by this unique property, the rolling landscape and wide skies. At night the stars and the milky way are so very bright. It is no coincidence that the present owners are a fine artist and a very well respected writer. They are part of the new vibrant intellectual hub that has grown up around Nieuwoudtville over the last 25 years. The small town is known as the bulb capital of the world. It just so happens that there is also a botanical garden there and there are several detailed books about flowers in the region and the Karoo.
Examples of flowers on the plateau can be found here: https://www.pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/index.php/BokkeveldPlateauFour
The great drive for flower conservation in the area was started by Neil MacGregor, a farmer who believed passionately that the flower rich regions should be preserved and protected. He owned a farm adjoining the property and encouraged other farmers to take conservation seriously.
The property is close to the Oorlogskloof Nature Reserve which comprises 4,776 ha, one of the most varied botanical areas in the Northern Cape. The Oorlogskloof River, originating deep in the Roggeveld Mountains near Calvinia, flows through a deep, spectacular gorge, carving its way through a layer of Table Mountain Sandstone and quartzite.
Geology: To be technical Oorlogskloof contains Bokkeveld Sandstone
Fynbos, Vanrhynsdorp and Nieuwoudtville Shale Renosterveld, Kamiesberg Mountains Shrubland and Afro-montane plant communities.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oorlogskloof_Nature_Reserve
http://denc.ncpg.gov.za/index.php/component/sppagebuilder/?view=page
Wildlife: These include Leopard, Bat-eared Fox, Smith’s Red Rock Rabbit, porcupines, duiker, pole cat, baboon, Rock Hyrax, Klipspringer and Kudu.
Leopards have recently returned to the area and have been spotted on a number of occasions around Nieuwoudtville and on camera traps in Oorlogskloof. 2 adults and a youngster
‘A preliminary survey of the number of species in the flora suggests that some 1350 species occur on the Bokkeveldt plateau. This is a fairly high figure for what is a rather small tract of semi arid country … The Bokkeveld plateau is botanically extremely rich in comparison with all of Namaqualand… There are some 80 endemic species known from the Bokkeveldt plateau representing some 6% of the flora. Botanically this a remarkably high figure. Some of the Bokkeveldt species occur nowhere else.
The magic of the Bokkeveld plateau is surely it’s diversity of vegetation which provides amazing and often quite sharp contrasts in plant life. It is most exciting to enter the Bokkeveld from the West ascending van Rhynspass. Climbing the pass one leaves the Sandy Southern Namaqualand plain, dominated by low scrub and a sprinkling of annuals in the spring, passing into the more densely vegetated slopes of the escarpment. A few km east of the escarpment edge the Fynbos disappears abruptly giving way to a completely different vegetation dominated by the scruffy Renosterbos and hence known as Renosterveldt.’
—John Manning National Botanical institute of South Africa and Peter Goldblatt. Missouri Botanical garden USA
Quotes from book Nieuwoudtville Flowers
Websites relating to the wonderful grandeur of the Flower season.
https://www.nieuwoudtville.com/flower-routes/
https://www.siyabona.com/great-flower-spectacle.html
https://www.northern-cape-info.co.za/provinces/town/526/nieuwoudtville
Regarding conservation the farm is technically is part of the Bokkeveld sandstone fynbos biome. (Mucina & Rutherford 2006) The Groenriver bed runs through the property just before connecting with the Oorlogsriver (with the joining/connecting of Aardendskraal spruit) The property falls within a declared corridor for biodiversivity and can be a full conservation area –an expansion of the Oorlogskloof nature reserve in towards the small town Nieuwoudtville and the transition into the Renosterveldt. The farmland was bought in 1998. The size is 498 Ha which includes part of Keizerfonteins, the late 19th cent ruins of an old farmhouse and out houses which falls within the property but were impossible to restore. For this reason a new living unit was built. The present house is a compact unit with outbuildings serviced by solar electricity (New battery bank was purchased in 2020) The old ‘Lappies lande’ (patchwork of fields) were reduced and consolidated to 42 ha for the growing of Rooibos tea on the Western border of the farm. Some wire fencing has been removed and farm roads have been reduced and the old trek road to the town has been officially closed. With the exception of bluegum trees beside the Groen river, invasive species have been kept under control. ( with great effort). Pattersons curse (Echium plantagineum) is a good example.
In the past two decades the farm has been occupied with minimal intervention. The olive grove is maintained organically with zero use of chemicals and poisons. Potentially if bought by a conservation group/body it would form a natural extension of the Oorlogskloof Nature Reserve which is next door.
See Websites:
https://www.sa-venues.com/game-reserves/oorlogskloof.php
http://petergroveswebsite.com/SA-OorlogskloofNov2000.htm
https://southafrica.co.za/oorlogskloof-nature-
reserve.html?gclid=Cj0KCQiAlMCOBhCZARIsANLid6ZrjplUvqNW8l4
4_0DUK5IbfhOvKrmQMj7GBM0h9eE8wzncvkTOdOYaApLQEALw_
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Quote from WWF - World Wildlife Fund
Biodiversity is the sum total of every living thing on earth including Gene species. Ecosystems and the ecological exchange between species and their environments. Healthy ecosystems sustain support human and economic survival. Life itself. This property (Katstaartlaagte) contributes to the vision of creating corridors of biodiversity on the Bokkeveldt plateau because of its very important biodiversity features including:
Bokkeveld Sandstone Fynbos
Deep sand Fynbos
Seasonal rivers
Good presence of endemic rare and threatened species
Sandstone floors
Vleis and water (Syvergebiede(?))
A diversity habitat and topography
Northern connection with the Oorlogskloof Nature reserve forms part of the C.A.P.E and SKEP’s Priority Area.
Part Two : Property Details
The two houses are interconnected and there are 3-4 double rooms. There are two bathrooms. One kitchen and one kitchenette plus two large dining areas indoors + 2 outdoors. There are many outbuildings including a small house for a worker. There are also 42 hectare of rooibos tea and an olive grove. The property has it own borehole, solar panels and new battery storage system. (2020)
Description in a nutshell
The whole of the farm consists of 498 Ha with 42 Ha of farmed rooibos land which is currently out of contract and redundant. There is an Olive grove and a field of Buchu plus a vegetable garden, solar panels and borehole water. There is wifi for mobile phones and computers.
The buildings consist of:
2 Home units – dependant or interdependent
1 Workers house at a distance.
Garage
Outbuildings
Main house 3 double bedrooms
Studio +/4 th bedroom.
Two bathrooms Three stoeps
Current owners and why they want to sell:
The current owners not only designed and built the house themselves from scratch but even made the bricks. They have loved and cared deeply for this property for 25 years but as they are now in their late eighties and early nineties they wish to downsize.
The ‘ideal buyer’ description:
The ‘ideal buyer’ will need to be focussed on conservation. Both the World Wildlife Fund and local Nature Conservation organisations are very interested in supporting the conservation and protection of this land. The ideal buyer would consider not only the commercial value but also the conservation and research opportunities that this property offers.
Address and exact location upon request only for serious buyers.