Most of us yearn, at least once, to hop into our car and just go wherever the road may lead. A few years ago, a friend and I had the opportunity to do just this and headed up the N1 from Cape Town.

N1 from Cape Town. At a crossroads some 250km later, we turned right towards Matjiesfontein. Having the town almost entirely to ourselves ¨C it was mid-winter after all ¨C was fun, the hospitality at the local pub a delight and the Victoriana collection at the Marie Rawdon museum fascinating, but only for a few hours. Back at the crossroads, thoughts turning inevitably to overnight accommodation, a road sign offered two choices: right to Laingsburg or straight ahead to a town neither of us had visited.

To the uninitiated, as we were, Sutherland has two claims to fame, viz. the coldest place in South Africa and the town closest to the Observatory. Our claim to fame would be that we arrived after dark, in the middle of a school holiday, without forethought and even less planning. Hardly surprising, then, that our first discovery was that there was no room at any of the inns!

Karoo hospitality. The owner of our final port of call graciously offered us her bedroom and moved into her daughter¡¯s. Delicious boerekos, a personal tour of the Dutch Reformed Church, famous for its eightmonth occupation by English soldiers at the start of the Boer War, as well as arranging tickets for a fully-booked Observatory tour, the very reason for our impulsive journey, were all included.

There are breathtaking 360¡ã vistas from the hillside that is home to The SA Astronomical Observatory. We saw various wildlife, including a very curious Springbok, that wandered quite close to greet us. We enjoyed a fascinating movie, entertaining talk and a tour around the visitors¡¯ centre followed, after which we set off for the domes.

Nothing can prepare one for the awe inspired by these structures, the enormity of the accomplishments and the tales of those who record and analyse data from distant galaxies. Every minute of the two-hour tour was interesting, informative and fun.

Of course, SALT (South African Large Telescope), the largest single optical telescope in the southern hemisphere, with its hexagonal mirror array, is a big attraction. It is similar to the Hobby-Eberly Telescope in Texas, but has, according to the SALT website, a redesigned optical system using more of the mirror array with the ability to record distant stars, galaxies and quasars a billion times too faint to be seen with the unaided eye - as faint as a candle flame at the distance of the moon!

When planning a trip bear in mind that day visits include tours of selected research telescopes as well as SALT, whereas night tours include viewing of the sky through two dedicated visitor telescopes ¨C the 16¡å Meade and 14¡å Celestron.

My only regret is that I didn't do a night tour. Perhaps 2009, the International Year of Astronomy, is the year for me to return!

Further information available at www.sutherlandinfo.co.za , www.saao.ac.za and www.salt.ac.za