You may have never heard of Plathuis, which is where you’ll find Wolverfontein Self Catering Karoo Cottages, but it has a most fascinating history. Not only did the original Route 62 run through the town before the now very popular tarred Route 62 by passed the town altogether, but the famous Makadas Steam Train stopped here for water, and to collect passengers travelling through the Klein Karoo.
The town itself was a railway town, and an important stop between Touws River and Ladismith. Unfortunately the Makadas Route was decommissioned shortly after the Laingsburg Floods in 1981, and the towns folk started to move away soon there after.
The old Plathuis station is short walk from Wolverfontein Karoo Cottages, but there is very little left of this legendary stop. You can, however, still see the foundations of the railway houses, what remains of the platform, and the now very overgrown route where the train tracks once ran.
Some of the town of Plathuis still stands, including the general store and petrol garage and old school house, but these are now private residences. You don’t need to be a railway enthusiast to find a walk around Plathuis to be like stepping back in time, as the beautiful looming Touwsberg and its rolling Klein Karoo foothills, will have you enchanted.
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Very interesting article.
