Colours of the Kalahari — answering the desert’s call

Ticking the Northern Cape, South Africa’s largest and least populous province, off my bucket list enticed me to travel 2,300km in five days with friends.

What I found will forever fulfil my designer’s heart: smooth, pocked and rough textures; ochre, white, grey and blue palettes; and nature’s incredible sculptures in sand, twig and stone. This is a place to be still, to move with the seasons and fully embrace Mother Earth, both in her nurturing and destructive aspects. [caption id="attachment_2283485" align="alignnone" width="2560"] Art on walls, Andriesvale. (Photo: Kassie Naidoo)[/caption] [caption id="attachment_2283484" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Planetarium in Sutherland. (Photo: Kassie Naidoo)[/caption] [caption id="attachment_2283483" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Meeting my first quiver tree, Augrabies. (Photo: Kassie Naidoo)[/caption] [caption id="attachment_2283482" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Tree, rain, sand. (Photo: Kassie Naidoo)[/caption] [caption id="attachment_2283481" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Social weaver community on the road to Upington. (Photo: Kassie Naidoo)[/caption] [caption id="attachment_2283480" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Shongololo out to meet the rain. (Photo: Kassie Naidoo)[/caption] [caption id="attachment_2283479" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Augrabies Falls, low rain season. (Photo: Kassie Naidoo)[/caption] [caption id="attachment_2283478" align="alignnone" width="2560"] Boorgat, Sutherland otherworldly. (Photo: Kassie Naidoo)[/caption] [caption id="attachment_2283477" align="alignnone" width="1920"] NG Kerk in Sutherland. (Photo: Kassie Naidoo)[/caption] [caption id="attachment_2283476" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Sunset, Andriesvale. (Photo: Kassie Naidoo) DM[/caption]
This story first appeared in our weekly Daily Maverick 168 newspaper, which is available countrywide for R35.