Van Wyksdorp is a small rural village in the

Klein Karoo The Karoo ( ; from the Afrikaans borrowing of the South Khoekhoe Khoemana (also known as !Orakobab or Korana) word is a semidesert natural region of South Africa. No exact definition of what constitutes the Karoo is available, so its extent is ...

of the

Western Cape The Western Cape ( ; , ) is a provinces of South Africa, province of South Africa, situated on the south-western coast of the country. It is the List of South African provinces by area, fourth largest of the nine provinces with an area of , an ...

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

. The nearest towns are

Ladismith Ladismith is a town and agricultural centre in the western Karoo, Little Karoo region of South Africa's Western Cape province. Geography It is situated adjacent to a series of fertile, irrigated valleys, at an elevation of 550 m above sea l ...

45km (33km gravel),

Calitzdorp Calitzdorp is a town on the Western side of the Little or Klein Karoo in the Western Cape Province of South Africa and lies on South Africa's Route 62. History The farm Buffelsvallei, on which Calitzdorp stands, was granted to Jacobus Johannes ...

55km (52km gravel mountain pass), and Riversdale 67km (45km gravel). Van Wyksdorp has recently been host to the Jobs for Carbon project, where the indigenous Spekboom portulacaria afra has been replanted on 800ha to aid restoration of the degraded

veld Veld ( or , Afrikaans language, Afrikaans and Dutch language, Dutch: ''veld'', field), also spelled veldt, is a type of wide-open, rural landscape in Southern Africa. Particularly, it is a flat area covered in grass or low scrubland, scrub, ...

, within the Gouritz Cluster Biosphere Reserve.

History

The town was founded in 1897, on the farm Buffelsfontein - a parish of the Dutch Reformed Church. At a church meeting held on 27th January 1904, the name Van Wyksdorp was proposed and accepted due to the over 200 residents, with the surname Van Wyk, living in the town and on surrounding farms. The village of Van Wyksdorp currently has a population of around 800 people. A few of them are still direct descendants of Van Wyk. Over the years, the people living in the village have mostly relied on farming – including

fruit In botany, a fruit is the seed-bearing structure in flowering plants (angiosperms) that is formed from the ovary after flowering. Fruits are the means by which angiosperms disseminate their seeds. Edible fruits in particular have long propaga ...

sheep Sheep (: sheep) or domestic sheep (''Ovis aries'') are a domesticated, ruminant mammal typically kept as livestock. Although the term ''sheep'' can apply to other species in the genus '' Ovis'', in everyday usage it almost always refers to d ...

cattle Cattle (''Bos taurus'') are large, domesticated, bovid ungulates widely kept as livestock. They are prominent modern members of the subfamily Bovinae and the most widespread species of the genus '' Bos''. Mature female cattle are calle ...

, and

ostriches Ostriches are large flightless birds. Two living species are recognised, the common ostrich, native to large parts of sub-Saharan Africa, and the Somali ostrich, native to the Horn of Africa. They are the heaviest and largest living birds, w ...

. They have benefited from a steady water supply throughout the year, provided by a mountain spring called “The Eye”. During the ostrich boom, Van Wyksdorp was once a centre of education in the Little Karoo. The school, built in 1912, had more than 200 learners at its peak, many of whom came from nearby towns. However, as railway connections to

and Riversdale improved, those towns grew while Van Wyksdorp slowly became smaller and quieter, reaching its current size.

References

{{Eden District Municipality Populated places in the Kannaland Local Municipality