So what made the Sultan of Zanzibar, Lord Randolph Churchill (father of Winston) and Cecil John Rhodes visit this remote, dull-looking place. What inspired Olive Schreiner, the well- known author to live here and write the classic “Story of an African Farm”?

The answer is that back in the day, the late 1800’s, Matjiesfontein was something of a hipster hangout. James Logan, who founded the town, was a working-class railway man from Scotland with a brilliant business brain, loads of ambition and very keen to be accepted by the upper classes. He imported much of the building materials, furniture and even the lamp posts from London and created a little piece of Victorian England in the middle of the Karoo.

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