Salt

**RonS** · 2015/04/14, 12:37 PM

I am planning a trip from Gauteng to the Cape 1st week in May. I would like to stop in Sutherland and visit SALT.
Any advice on how to do it? Do you need to book?
Is one night in Sutherland enough?
Recommended place to stay?
Any advice would be appreciated. Ron

**jab2** · 2015/04/14, 02:19 PM

http://tours.saao.ac.za/

**RonS** · 2015/04/14, 05:35 PM

Has anyone done both the morning and night tours at the observatory?
Which is the preferred tour if you only do one?

**Baldie** · 2015/04/14, 06:22 PM

This sounds interesting.

**seekingserenity** · 2015/04/14, 10:18 PM

We did an overnighter to Sutherland from Somerset West last year. Booked ourselves in at a B&B online, and left home in time to arrive for the afternoon tour - it's a 3 hour drive or so from home. That gave us a good view in daylight of everything there, as well as a chance to wander around the area and take some great photos. We then joined the evening tour and star-gazing, which was fantastic (and cold

- especially for she who forgot her jacket at the B&B). On the way back to our beds we stopped in the middle of nowhere for some more star-gazing and tripod photo ops, with a surprise Riverine rabbit viewing near town.

March it was already starting to get chilly. May will probably need full winter woolies. You can get a good idea of what's going down here live. (it's currently a good, dark night for stars as I type this, but we've seen snow barrelling past there in winter, and some telescope action on clear nights)

Some pics attached to whet your appetite.

**OwenD** · 2015/04/14, 10:26 PM

Originally Posted by seekingserenity

........with a surprise riverine rabbit viewing near town.....

pics!

**Johan Slabbert** · 2015/04/14, 10:27 PM

The Sutherland Hotel is nice and cheap and offers an awesome breakfast.

**seekingserenity** · 2015/04/14, 11:09 PM

Originally Posted by OwenD

pics!

Wish I could produce, but it was late at night and he ran across the road in front of the vehicle then disappeared. We got a very good look at him and were able to identify what he was.

**seekingserenity** · 2015/04/14, 11:11 PM

Originally Posted by JohanSlabbert

The Sutherland Hotel is nice and cheap and offers an awesome breakfast.

The town is "vrot" with places to stay - some better than others. We ended up in a place I would not recommend, with the most uncomfortable bed I've ever slept on, a disappointing breakfast, and the toilet in the cupboard. This, I can provide pics of

If I see it's name pop up here I'll vote against it, but won't mention names until then.

**albertvl** · 2015/04/14, 11:15 PM

Originally Posted by seekingserenity

The town is "vrot" with places to stay - some better than others. We ended up in a place I would not recommend, with the most uncomfortable bed I've ever slept on, a disappointing breakfast, and the toilet in the cupboard. This, I can provide pics of

If I see it's name pop up here I'll vote against it, but won't mention names until then.

Holy crap! What an awesome toilet!

**Merwe Erasmus** · 2015/04/15, 08:50 AM

We booked a house for our group (I have noisy friends), there are many guest house options, Jurg Wagner owns quite a few, including a couple just outside town, restored old farm houses. We also attended Jurg's short lecture and did star gazing with his telescopes the first night. It was in July and very cold.

We did a day trip to the big observatory.

**RonS** · 2015/04/15, 09:41 AM

Thanks guys, I think combining a day tour and night tour on the same day sounds a great idea.
Now to find the right place to stay!

**monday missile** · 2015/04/15, 09:47 AM

One of those places on my bucket list. Just got to get round to it.

**Eben** · 2015/04/15, 10:09 AM

I'm thinking of staying at one of Jurg's places next time we go.

My only problem is that in my opinion, he's a very shrewd operator and I suspect he wants to be in full control from the minute I get there, until the minute I leave, giving tours, offer star gazing, providing accommodation, selling food and probably also selling me a coca cola at 7:00 in the evening.

This, I personally have issue with.

If you are into a package tour then Jurg is perfect for you.

I can tell you one thing though. After the incident with having to poo in a cupboard and then having the B&B owners from the UK telling us that the Anglo Boer War concentration camps "weren't that bad for the women and children", I will not set my foot back there.

What I now need to do is work out how to stay at Jurg's place, but ensure that we still have autonomy to go where we want, when we want.

I took over 100 photos there. Here are four.

Next time I want to spend more time taking photos of stars. This was my first attempt.

**RonS** · 2015/04/15, 04:01 PM

Great pics, gives a good feel for the place.
Apart from Jurg's places does anyone have suggestions for a good overnight stay?
Sutherland hotel?

**Eben** · 2015/04/15, 04:53 PM

Originally Posted by RonS

Sutherland hotel?

I can't say anything bad about them.

**cside** · 2015/05/11, 04:27 PM

We used to operate a B&B in Sutherland and as mentioned you get the good and the bad. Remember also that you get what you paid for, at some stage we were offering B&B for R350 a night per person and some people offered for R90, with that you needed to bring your own bedding. Remember something else that R90 is not bad if that is what you want, one of the biggest problems is trying to match what you want, what you pay for and what you get. I have probably heard complaints about every establishment although if you complained to me about one or two of them I would really think that you are fussy

As far as the tours go :- do both. The day tour shows you the equipment and facilities that the researchers use while the night tours will show you what is available in the night sky. Even if you have looked through a telescope and you were not impressed; go on a tour as these guides have wealth of information to go with the viewing and let me tell you that there is more out there than the average person can even imagine. I used to do tours with guests and I never ceased to amaze them. The night tour can just as well be done in town as you will not get to look through one of the big telescopes, they are always being used by researchers. Jurg does them and there might be a few other operators now.

The toilet in the cupboard was rather quaint, I thought. We slept in that same room the first time we ever went to Sutherland. People are what you make of them and some people are over the top, but being an English person I thought that some of the afrikaners on town were still stuck in the Anglo Boer War mentality but they are really awesome people - everyone - if you take the time to get to know them.