Photographing steam in the Karoo

I'm not sure if this non-UK thread is allowed- but there is at least a Harz steam thread around somewhere. So I'll bash on with this for now.

The Karoo semi desert region in South Africa https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karoo is top of my list of the best places I've ever been to in my steam travels. Even though I was too late getting there to enjoy the 25 class 4-8-4 condensing locos working the section south of De Aar. But the De Aar to Kimblerley section kept me happy for 11 visits between 1979 and 1991. With the vast majority of my still photography in the section from Oranjerivier down to De Aar - that went through wonderfully wild and desolate semi-desert. So I plan to post some of my favourite photos there - from well before dawn to some time after sunset. Mostly in/close to winter when sharp overnight frosts and daytime temps to 20 C or less were the norm. And maybe others here have their own Karoo photos to add - doubleheaded condensing locos blasting up the grades south of De Aar very welcome!

I spent some time last night just looking at this photo. Taken early to show part of the Karoo region with a steam loco in action. It's a 25 NC 4-8-4 hauling a train of coal empties to a summit just north of Poupan. Taken in late winter 1989.

Bryan

 

Great!
I remember those telegraph poles, filled with weaver birds nests

 

Yes indeed, amazing sights.

And eagles perched on them from time to time. All of whom knew, almost to the centimetre, how close you had to get with a 200 mm lens to get a decent photograph - which meant at that distance plus 5 cms they flew off leaving you with a blurred tail shot!

Bryan

 

Spent some time on the line in 1980 and stayed at a wayside station at Kraankuil [nicknamed Kronjeville after the station hotel owner]. Impressed when he sent out his servant with breakfast tea for 4 enthusiasts enjoying linesiding in the sun.

 

It doesn't seem long ago, but my visits to Kimberley - De Aar were in 1977 and 1979. It doesn't feel that long ago.....
Yes I remember the telegraph poles but also the SAR cattle proof barbed wire fences which sometimes limited lineside access.
The spells waiting were often enlivened by the plovers darting in and out of the scrub in search of food. Possibly Crowned Plovers standing very erect but too far away even with a 200mm lense.

Cheers, Neil

 

I had a room in a b&b right by the line in 1988. From about 4 am I would wake up to the beat of 25 NC's rattling past. I need to find my photos.
Happy days!

 

As I got to know Salmon who ran the Witput hotel I always got room 5. It had a bath and a door that opened directly to the outside that was a few paces to the track side.

And as steam operations reduced, Peter Odell, a De Aar driver until that shut to steam and then a Beaconsfield driver, when on the early morning turn off De Aar he would write down the days scheduled steam workings. Then wrap it round a lump of coal and chuck if off the loco in my direction as I waited in the pre dawn cold by the line. When that was on one of the trips my lovely wife and my two daughters were with me, I shared room 5 with my wife of course. And she was never too keen about two blasts of frosty air coming into the room as I went out and then came back with my lump of coal and letter.

Before finding Witput hotel I stayed at the Kraankuil 'hotel', great for the line south to De Aar but not so good for the pre dawn waits at Oranjerivier. And at Witput I could go out pre dawn for a quite decent grice and come back around 10.00 and Salmon would cook a great big SA breakfast. Even before dawn he would have got up, lit a lantern in the foyer and put a flask of coffee, cups and some rusks out for anyone going out into the frost before dawn.

Now a photo at Kraankuil. 19 July 1991, 3467 on the Southbound Oranje Express. A frame grab from a just digitised Hi-8 camera tape I shot on a Sony 3 CCD Pro camera. Not up to still camera quality but to me quite acceptable at this size.

19 coaches so approaching 800 tons loaded. I have a photo/video of a 25NC at the head of 21 coaches on that train. Full zoom on the camera does show the grade change, of which there were plenty on that line as there weren't a great deal of embankments or cuttings. Mostly the line followed the undulations - so plenty of grade changes, some as steep as 1/80.

Bryan

 

I was trying to remember the name of the place I stayed, but after so many years and travelling so much my mind drew a blank.
I used to visit the diamond mine for work and would stay for the week as we worked on the special trucks they had underground.
We drove from Jo'burg and this is where I was presented with my MBA certificate by my boss. The Miles of Bloody Africa award. If you have driven across the Karoo you will know the feeling. Hours of straight roads with nothing around you, yet in the middle you would still find lone people happily walking along. If we were in the pickup we'd stop and pick up and then drop them off when they got to their destination, which would be another location in the middle of nowhere with no unique features. To this day I have no idea how they knew where they were.
If taking the SD1 of the boss we'd not stop as we were too busy seeing what could be squeezed out of the eight cylinders.
Happy days. Playing with big trucks, driving V8's and watching steam locos working hard. After 9 happy months I had to make a decision to stay in Africa or return to Europe.
I looked for my photos but I have a nasty feeling they are back in the UK. At the time it was just locally developed print film in that small size format.

 

I found the most interesting and demanding drive across the Karoo was at night.

That was mostly when on my own, driving back after photting the 25NC + 25NC on the famous 15.15 Kimberley to Bloemfontein freight. Photted/filmed from the Perdeberg koppie until it came out of superb golden glint lighting at sunset further east. Then it was into the car, and soon onto the road that 'cut the corner' from the Kimb-Bloem line to the Kimb-De Aar line and the Joburg - Cape Town main road that got me down to the short dirt road to Witput; a few cold beers and a nice meal. And if Doug Capewell was staying there at the same time, a burst of music as he played the slightly out of tune piano!

Anyway that was quite a drive and unsually most of the long 'cut the corner' bit was on tarmac. No idea why, as most of it was across the Northern Karoo - but I never saw the area in daylight. Anyway it was mostly dead straight apart from where it went over a hill via a sweeping sort of S bend. Long before which my headlights piercing into the inky black Karoo night had created a sort of tunnel feeling - almost like I was driving through a forest with trees overhanging the road. That, and feeling tired after a hard days gricing almost mesmerised me at times, and even though there was a sort of marker before the bends, it was easy to miss it. That I almost did the first time I drove that road, even though I had seen it on the decent large scale maps I once had for that part of the Karoo. Anyway, I got round it, with a bit of swerving at speed - I never did that road slowly! And after that I used to call out loudly to myself, watch out for the bend, watch out for the bend!

Bryan

 

Did you meet any snakes when you were out there?

I stood in a field waiting for a train when these two guys ambled by, and wondered if there were any Cape Cobras around.
Cape whats ???

 

I went mostly in the winter when snakes were supposed to be hibernating. On one such trip I was on the bad bit of the road (all of which was unsurfaced) past Poupan and I had reduced speed to 40 km/h or less, and a Cape Cobra reared up at me just outside my closed driver's window. A sort of face to face meeting but with a thin bit of glass between us - the memory is very clear even today. It took me about 200 m to stop after that. And then I decided to go back and see if I could film it!

Thankfully it had gone, but it had come from an area I regularly used to photo northbound trains coming round the curve and up the climb from Poupan. So after that I walked that bit of scrub from my hire car to the photo spot slowly whilst thumping my boots up and down to make a noise!

I saw quite a few crossing the tarmac roads nearer the coast where it tended to be warmer in the winter - always some way in front of me.

But back to the Karoo and on my own again on a trip when I went in late Autumn. On one occasion I spent some time south of Poupan up on the side of a koppie the owners of the Kraankuil hotel told me was called snake hill. But only the evening after I was up there!

So, even on future, mostly winter trips I still used the photo spot but was more careful about where I walked up there.

Only in the last few weeks as I've got back to getting my SA video camera tapes digitised, have I thought much about the snake bite risk on the trips where I went on my own - that was my choice as amongst other reasons I enjoyed the desolation of the Karoo like that. But my last few trips were either when I took my wife and daughters, or were for the two steam festivals when there were either others around or I had someone in the car with me.

But a bite from a Cape Cobra when I was the wrong side of the wire/partly barbed wire fence either side of the railway and quite a long drive to Hopetown on the dirt road, then to find a hospital could have meant I should have left a note to my executors to try an claim a refund for my unused seat on the return flight!

Bryan

 

That reminds me of the quote in (I think) a Lonely Planet guide that I read before going to Eritrea. Basically along the lines of it's a very safe country, just make sure you stay on paved roads in case landmines are still present

 

We allpiled out of our train and up a little mound for a run-by.
Any land mines here?
No sir, no land mines here.

Same scenario 5km down the line. We pile out, small hill by the lineside.
Any land mines here?
No Sir, definitely no land mines here ....

 

Those fences were formidable but no problem for a springbok. Those beasts can sure jump. Did a couple of steam safaris and took strips of carpet to drape over the top strand to avoid leaving one’s “meat and two veg” behind.

 

Thank you for starting this thread. I worked in Swaziland (as it was then) and was rewarded with 6 weeks leave before returning to the UK in 1986. With my wife and two year old we toured down the east coast (Banana Express and Knysna) down to Cape Town then back up through the Karoo.

Bunked Kimberley or maybe DeAar shed, photo’s at Orange River servicing stop, and paced 25NCs along the dirt road in the OPs pic. In my company Toyota Corolla I could get a fair lick on, dashing ahead then climbing onto the boot to get a good vantage point above the fence line, or hanging out of the window while my wife held the wheel - luckily we had the road to ourselves!

A highlight was staying at Witput station, oil lit iirc, and going out at dusk when I heard the starter being pulled off. I was greeted by a strange etherial howling noise, akin to a 747 taxing. Peering into the dying light, I was amazed to see a 25 approaching at speed. Unforgettable, but no photo back then as too dark.

I’ll dig out what I’ve got, but by today’s standards they’re awful. Might try a bit of AI on them.

 

So many memories, thanks to all for sharing. It brings a lump to my throat just thinking back. I will try next time I'm back in the UK to find some photos. I also had a tour round the SAR workshop near Capetown