Loeriesfontein Windmill Museum

The Fred Turner Museum in Loeriesfontein assembled a collection of windpumps - twenty-seven of them, of different makes and eras - and stood them in a field beside the building, where they turn in the constant Karoo wind. It sounds like a modest thing and it is genuinely interesting: this country has almost no surface water, and the windpump is the technology that made sheep farming across the whole interior possible, drawing groundwater to the surface without fuel or attention. The collection includes American designs that dominated the market, local manufactures, and older wooden-vaned types, with the mechanical differences explained. The village around it is small and remote, on the road between Calvinia and the Namaqualand flower routes, and in a good spring the surrounding veld flowers. The museum itself covers Hantam district farming life and Khoisan material.

The main sights

• The twenty-seven pumps - different makes and eras standing together and turning.
• The technology - the machine that made interior sheep farming possible without fuel.
• The design range - American market leaders alongside local and older wooden-vaned types.
• The district museum - Hantam farming life and Khoisan material in the building.

When to go

April to September; August and September if combining with the flower routes. One hour.

Good to know

It is a one-hour stop in a very remote village - worth it only as part of a longer route. Museum hours are limited and it closes over lunch. Summer heat is severe. Services in Loeriesfontein are minimal.

Nearby

Calvinia is east; Nieuwoudtville and the bulb fields are south-west.