Free State

The Free State Province is situated in the heartland of the Karoo semi-desert of South Africa.

Large areas of the Free State are dedicated to farming

Regions

Free State
 Lejweleputswa
Western Free State, also known as the Free State Gold Fields
 Motheo
 Northern Free State
Large portions of this area still show the scars of the Vredefort Dome meteor impact.
 Thabo Mofutsanyana
Eastern portion of the Free State, bordering onto the Lesotho highlands to the south.
 Xhariep
The southern grass plains


Cities

Other destinations

National parks

Other nature reserves

  • 🌍 Caledon Nature Reserve , near Caledon
  • Erfenis Dam Nature Reserve , just outside Theunissen
  • Gariep Dam Nature Reserve, at Gariep Dam
  • Kalkfontein Dam Nature Reserve , close to Fauresmith
  • Sandveld Nature Reserve , near Bloemhof
  • Soetdoring Nature Reserve, just outside Bloemfontein
  • Tussen-die-Riviere Game Reserve , outside Bethulie
  • Tweefontein Nature Reserve
  • 🌍 Willem Pretorius Game Reserve , near Ventersburg
  • Qwa-Qwa Park , near Harrismith
  • 🌍 Sterkfontein Dam Nature Reserve , near Harrismith

Understand

The former Oranje-Vrystaat (Orange Free State) was the heartland of the white Afrikaner population and therefore most people in this region speak Afrikaans, although the majority have SeSotho as mother tongue. It was one of the first independent states, before joining the South African Union, and the people here still live up to the Voortrekker traditions of braaing. The rich soil and pleasant climate allow a thriving agricultural industry. With more than 30,000 farms, which produce over 70% of the country's grain, it is known locally as South Africa's breadbasket.

Bloemfontein is the judicial capital of South Africa, mainly because the founders of the Union of South Africa wanted to unite all people, including the Afrikaner population.

The Free State is an important agricultural area in South Africa, with beef and maize the primary products.

Talk

Afrikaans is still the first language of many, but most will definitely understand and speak English. Be prepared for understanding through the accent.

Get in

By car

The N5 only serves as a connection between the N1 and the N3.

By plane

Bloemfontein Airport (BFN IATA) has flights to Johannesburg and Cape Town and some other cities in South Africa. Flights are operated by the South African Airways family.

Get around

Best by car, as there are little means of public transport and great distances between each of the towns and cities.

The traffic police is very active, especially on the N1 - keep to the speed limit!

See

Do

Eat

Drink

Stay safe

Always have enough water with you, in case your car has a break down. Tell your last hotel where you are going to and which route you use, especially when going into a less populated and rural area.

Go next

gollark: It would probably be a waste of storage.
gollark: I would be surprised if Chrome actually did cache entire *videos* you watch, especially ones on YouTube since they use media source extensions instead of the native `<video>` thing directly.
gollark: <@701616503065280522> Maybe you should just do software RAID.
gollark: <@301477111229841410> Do you need to *entirely* reboot or just restart some service or other?
gollark: I don't follow the laptop market much. But apparently notebookcheck is good for reviews.
This article is issued from Wikivoyage. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.