Tourism’s in the stars for Sutherland
● Marne Marais’ phone has been ringing off the hook, but answering it means taking her hands out of the cosy comfort of her pockets.
She and other guesthouse owners in the tiny town of Sutherland were inundated this week with visitors wanting to experience record-breaking snow, spread out like a pristine blanket over parts of the Western, Northern and Southern Cape.
“We are normally busy in winter time, but this is even more than usual, the place is bursting out of its seams,” she said.
Luckily for this remote town, with a population of just 3 650, the stars have already brought the infrastructure for tourism to flourish.
In 1974, the South African Astronomical Observatory erected the first telescopes on a desolate hill nearby, and in 2005 the new Southern African Large Telescope became the largest optical instrument in the southern hemisphere.
A few weeks ago, the latest technology arrived in the form of the MeerLICHT (Dutch for “more light”), an optical telescope that will scan the skies in unison with the MeerKAT radio array hundreds of kilometres away near Carnarvon — establishing the pair as the “eyes and ears” of the southern skies.
Spotting opportunities
Sutherland resident Jurg Wagener settled there 16 years ago and now has a garden out of a sci-fi film, with telescopes he has collected over the years housed in adapted portaloos.
Seeing how SALT was drawing tourists, he thought he would capitalise by offering stargazing from his backyard. “Ten years ago, I told my wife I wanted to get a telescope. She was not impressed. But today there isn’t a night we don’t get a customer.”
Initially, the couple “came here to retire”, he said, but today that idea is light years away. Apart from the stargazing business and working as an estate agent, he and his wife, Rita, have acquired nine guesthouses.
Place to chill
“Sutherland is not a place for sissies, says my wife. But it’s also kind in another way. The colder the air, the more beautiful the stars.”
Resident Ester Jordaan, who owns the ironically named Sutherland Mall — a small one-stop shop — has seen the town evolve around the telescopes on the mountain.
“I have been living here for 32 years, and over the decades I have seen the growing influx of tourists,” she said. “The town itself doesn’t change, but tourism keeps expanding here and now we have some 40 guesthouses.”
When she arrived, there were four, but now she owns three herself. “We mainly have local tourists coming to see SALT. And in winter, it’s a funny thing, but people love to come and experience the cold weather.”
Young scientists
It’s not only tourism that’s bathing in starlight. Neville van Wyk, principal and science teacher at Roggeveld Primary School, says his pupils have benefited too.
“Each year we get one or two master’s students from overseas who come and visit us,” he said. “They do a lot of experiments for the kids to make them more interested in science. The relationship between me and the [observatory] is at a good level, and if any visiting scientists want to visit a local school, they send them to us.”