Oudtshoorn – The Capital of the Klein Karoo | Western Cape (GL)

GGorgeous gowns, cloaks and hats (marvel at them in the beautiful sandstone buildings of the CP Nel Museum in the town centre – a provincial heritage site), decorated or made from ostrich feathers, were once the most highly sought-after fashion items. A pair of really fine ostrich feathers could fetch as much as £1000 – a fortune back then. “Feather Palaces” were built in and around Oudtshoorn and ostriches pulled Santa’s sleigh at Christmas time.

But fortunes rise and fall and the fine feathers fell out of fashion. Some attributed this to the advent of motorcars, whose roofs were too low to accommodate the sweeping plumes; others to war and recession. Kobus and Elmaré Potgieter live and farm some 30km outside of Oudtshoorn. Their farm, Rietfontein, has been in the family for five generations. “It’s a hard life,” says Kobus, “but there are cycles – feathers, meat, and skin – and somehow we survive.”

Today, ostriches are farmed for their low-cholesterol meat, which is both delicious and healthy, and ostrich skin is still prized for fashion items.