Steytlerville Area Profile

Steytlerville at a glance

Steytlerville , situated in the Karoo; Place of extremes. Scorching hot summers and icy cold winters, the silence here is so pure you can hear God think. The stars in the heavenly expanse, so close, you feel you have only to reach out to touch them.

The Karoo is one of the world's most unique, arid zones. In South Africa it stands alone, globally it is an envied rarity. Situated in the western parts of the Eastern Cape, Steytlerville is the home of peace and tranquillity. Here one can rest, relax, refresh yourself and recharge the inner batteries of your soul, while exploring, enjoying yourself and indulging your need for some unusual entertainment.

Nature has endowed Steytlerville with exceptional beauty and it is known for its astonishing variety of semi-desert vegetation which includes dwarf shrubs, tiny succulents, umbrella-shaped wild plum trees and ancient cycads.

Visitors to the small Karoo town will immediately be struck by the town's exceptionally wide Main Street which was designed when the town was established in 1876 to allow ox wagons to turn around at both ends. Nowadays the wide streets are divided by flower boxes planted with bougainvillea's and the streetlamp poles are adorned with the coats of arms of families associated with town and area.

Steytlerville lies at the entrance to the eastern parts of the Baviaanskloof and showcases a host of architectural gems like quaint Edwardian- and Victorian-era houses with tin roofs and large street-facing verandas complete with broekie lace and stained-glass windows.

The first thing you should learn when you visit the Karoo - is the time-honoured art of 'stoep-sitting' (sitting on the verandah, stoep, porch or afdak ).

Stoep-sitting means a lot more than parking on a porch and doing nothing.

Of course, there's a lot of doing nothing involved, but you have to do nothing in a meaningful way when you stoep-sit in the Karoo. There's meditation, reflection and intense chatting involved, along with complete and utter inactivity except for the occasional raising of a glass of anything cold in honour of a fine Karoo sunset.

And if you're stoep-sitting in Steytlerville, with Its massive porches, wide streets, bull-nosed Victorian veranda's and polished floors - combined with its inherent lack of urgency - you're doing it in arguably, IN  the stoep-sitting capital of South Africa. So take a road trip, and come sit on our stoep.