Loxton

Loxton started as the farm Phizantefontein, bought by the Dutch Reformed Church in 1899 from a farmer named AE Loxton. The village that grew around it was built to serve the sheep-farming community of the western Karoo, and became a municipality in 1905. In 1961, a flash flood burst the dam above the town and destroyed three-quarters of it. Loxton was rebuilt, which accounts for the mix of older and mid-century buildings you see today.

The village sits 80 km west of Victoria West on the tarred R63 and 63 km south of Carnarvon. It is small by any measure, home to about 300 households, and the pace here is dictated by the sheep seasons and the garlic harvest. Loxton is, improbably, in the middle of one of the largest garlic-producing regions in South Africa, and the rows of irrigation channels and vegetable plots alongside the wool farms give the place an agricultural variety that many Karoo villages lack.

The streets are lined with old trees, mature enough to create canopy shade in the summer heat. Narrow leiwater channels run alongside many roads, used to flood-irrigate gardens. Walking through Loxton on a quiet afternoon, with the channels running and the trees overhead, you understand why people who discover this place talk about it the way they do.

There are a few guesthouses and a basic shop. The annual Loxton Arts Festival has developed a following. The karoo scenery around the village is good for walking, and the night skies are excellent. It's not a destination with packaged activities. It's a place where you slow down and notice what's actually there.