By Julienne du Toit
Photographs by Chris Marais
Winter comes hard in the Karoo. One minute you’re marvelling at how mild the evenings are, and the next you’re exhaling clouds of mist like a snorting horse, and cannot fall sleep without socks, beanie and a hot water bottle.
On a farm called The Rest near Nieu-Bethesda, farmer Paula Kingwill and her husband Iain North pay very close attention to weather websites.
Seasons dominate life up here in the aptly named Sneeuberg mountains.
A Hundred Spanish Dancers
In summer, the birdsong on The Rest will wake you.
And all day long you can hear tree frogs clicking away along the Seekoei river, sounding like a hundred Spanish dancers quietly practicing their castanets. The river, all lined with poplar trees, is a secret and wonderful ecosystem of its own, flowing across the road to the main farmstead.
It is a clear trickling stream with that can rise to a roaring torrent in a cloudburst.
In winter, stillness claims the Seekoei as it slows to a trickle, the algae freezing in place when it snows.
The silence greets you, a profound, ringing hush that calls you outside.
Then the icy air will slap you on both cheeks, frisk your exposed bits and send you reeling back inside to the fire and hot coffee.
A Remarkable Karoo Farm
But it’s not only the weather that makes The Rest a remarkable Karoo farm.
For a start, The Rest offers drama therapy and has a classic Chartres labyrinth on a hill, laid out using Karoo rocks.
Paula is a fourth generation descendent of the Kingwill family who have been farming in the Nieu Bethesda district for nearly two centuries.
But she chose to study dramatherapy in California – not an oft-trodden path for a Karoo farmer – wanting to help heal the terrible pain South Africans uncovered during the Truth and Reconciliation Commissions hearings.
She always knew she’d return to do the work in South Africa. And that Nature on the farm would be her best co-therapist.
“If there is reincarnation, I want to come back as a mountain. I want to come back as Alwynkop. When I was overseas, I always dreamt of it. I missed it, like I missed my family.”
The Best Handyman Around
On a farm like this, you marry the best handyman you can find, and that’s exactly what Paula did, they joke.
In Cape Town, she met Iain North, known to all his friends as E.
“He is an actor, a light technician, singer, metalworker and woodworker. He is also the ultimate recycler and the boer that makes a plan. If it can be fixed with pliers and wire, he will fix it.”
Now they are home-schooling their children, Callum and Kyla. Lessons often include the fine art of mending and making do.
Paula and Iain have a very clear division of labour: If it can be fixed with pliers and wire, it’s E’s job. If there are blood or emotions then it’s Paula’s.
Natural Therapy
Close to the farmstead is an unusual building called The Space, a round and distinctive structure that has a sprung floor, a skylight, a fireplace and a rather special reciprocal roof, where each pole supports every other pole.
It was literally handbuilt using local poplar wood and cow poo, says Iain the builder.
Paula and E host regular retreats here.
“I wanted to find a way to help people engage with their creativity and their own capacity for healing. To reconnect with their inner dance, their strength and creative impulse. Everyone has a source of strength, but we sometimes forget how to source it.
“Many are so tired of the relentless demands of daily life and just need a moment to reflect and remember who they are. In the process they discover the resources they have forgotten and remember the nourishing relationship with the natural environment.”
In a blog on her website, Paula writes about using Nature as a co-facilitator in healing.
“As a farmer I am totally dependent on the natural environment for my wellbeing, I need to become highly attuned its great wisdom. I am humbled by the droughts, floods and the earth’s magnificent potential for growth against the odds.
“When I engage with the natural world in this way the possibilities are infinite, profound and transformative.
“The Rest is also a place where you don’t have to do anything at all. Just be.”
Retreats coming up:
29 Nov to 3 Dec 2025
18 to 22 March 2026
October 2026 (dates to be confirmed)
Restfest 2026 dates to be confirmed
Solo, couples and family retreats on request.
For more info, visit their website, www.karoorest.com.
- Julienne du Toit and Chris Marais have co-authored many books on the Karoo. To buy their Karoo Roads Heritage Quartet for R960 including courier, email julie@karoospace.co.za
