The well-watered Northern Free State region, with its rustic and rural atmosphere, is the perfect place for your weekend leisure or stopovers en route. The proximity of this tourism region makes it accessible for residents from the Gauteng area (only about one hour’s drive by motor car from the O.R. Tambo International Airport) as well as for visitors travelling through the region to any other destination in South Africa.

Vast water surfaces and outdoor orientated conservancies, in this area, offers weekend getaways of a special kind and provide excellent leisure opportunities from hiking in the Vredefort Dome area to wine tasting at recently established up-market retail wine cellars. Activities include boating, water skiing, river rafting, fly-fishing, hiking, mountain biking, horse riding and game viewing. Hunting opportunities are available within a well-structured hunting industry, which has orderly game farm management as a main objective. Towns within the Fezile Dabi District Municipality includes Cornelia, Deneysville, Edenville, Frankfort, Heilbron, Koppies, Kroonstad, Oranjeville, Parys, Sasolburg, Steynsrus, Tweeling, Viljoenskroon, Villiers and Vredefort.

A rich cultural-historical inheritance is reflected in impressive sandstone buildings throughout the region. These buildings and typical Free State homesteads tell the tales of elegance and grandeur from days gone by. Various sandstone buildings in the Kroonstad, Frankfort and Heilbron region were also declared national monuments. The battlefield at Vegkop (in Heilbron) and various battlefields in the Koppies and Kroonstad regions – where important battles were fought and events during the Boer Wars took place, are some examples.

The Vredefort Structure, in the Vredefort/Parys area, has been declared as South Africa’s 7th International World Heritage Site. It has been recognised internationally as the oldest and biggest meteorite impact site in the world and has become an important study field for geologists from all over the world. The Dome area differs drastically from the flat plains of the Northern Free State and the North West Province. Except for a favourable frost-free climate, the region is also rich in plant-, wild- and birdlife.

Although the Northern Free State became known as an industrial region with the establishment of Sasol (during the fifties) in Sasolburg, it is however, an attractive, tranquil and rustic region. During the summer months the sunflowers and the pastel colours of vast cosmos fields surround mealie, wheat and grain lands – a feast for the eye and food for a weary soul!

Enquiries:

The Tourism Office
Fezile Dabi District Municipality
P O Box 10, Sasolburg, 1947.
Tel: (016) 970-8600
Fax: (016) 970-8734
Email: tourism@nfsdc.co.za

(Source:  www.nsfdc.co.za)