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De Rust

Place in Western Cape, South Africa

Image credit is listed at the end of this article.

De Rust is a small village at the gateway to the Klein Karoo, South Africa. The name is Dutch and literally translates to "The Rest", referring to the town's original purpose of being a resting place for settlers en route through the challenging terrain of a nearby Swartberg gorge.

01Location

De Rust is located at the foot of the Swartberg Mountain range between Oudtshoorn and Beaufort West.

De Rust is also known for the meandering Meiringspoort pass. Meiringspoort is a gateway that connects the Klein Karoo (little Karoo) and the (great) Karoo through a gorge with a 25 km road crossing the same river 25 times in the span of the 25 km. The annual Meiringspoort half marathon runs through the length of the pass and finishes in De Rust.

02Climate

Climate data for De Rust
Month Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Year
Mean daily maximum °C (°F) 28.3
(82.9)
28.2
(82.8)
26.4
(79.5)
23.4
(74.1)
20.1
(68.2)
17.9
(64.2)
17.4
(63.3)
18.8
(65.8)
20.5
(68.9)
22.7
(72.9)
24.7
(76.5)
26.9
(80.4)
22.9
(73.3)
Mean daily minimum °C (°F) 13.7
(56.7)
14.2
(57.6)
13.0
(55.4)
10.1
(50.2)
7.3
(45.1)
4.8
(40.6)
3.8
(38.8)
5.1
(41.2)
6.6
(43.9)
8.6
(47.5)
10.8
(51.4)
12.2
(54.0)
9.2
(48.5)
Average precipitation mm (inches) 25
(1.0)
31
(1.2)
39
(1.5)
31
(1.2)
36
(1.4)
23
(0.9)
28
(1.1)
29
(1.1)
32
(1.3)
32
(1.3)
36
(1.4)
26
(1.0)
368
(14.4)
Source: Climate-Data.org

03Farming

This area is also well known for ostrich farming and most of the farmers in the area either farm exclusively with ostriches or as a sideline to their existing farming.

Watch videos about De RustExplainers and documentaries on YouTube (opens in a new tab)

Sources and credits

This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article De Rust, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.

Images, from Wikimedia Commons:

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