Ventersdorp

Ventersdorp is a tiny farming town in the fertile Vaal River Valley, in the Southern District of the North West Province, the towns small size maintained by Ventersdorp’s role as the centre for a large farming area – where most locals conduct business and attend one of the several pretty Dutch Reform churches before heading back to their respective farms. A large residential township next to Ventersdorp is home to the families of many of the farmworkers, and dwarfs Ventersdorp in size.

Though the town has several charming historical buildings and a few Boer War monument sites, Ventersdorp is best known for a cold mineral spring, or ‘eye, the source of South Africa’s first bottled mineral water ‘Schoonspruit’, which means ‘Clean Spring’, for being the home of the murdered AWB leader, Eugene Terreblance, and for the iconic image of the town – the long row of grain silos that is the first thing to greet one on the road into Ventersdorp.

Attractions in and around Schoonspruit include several dams which offer excellent fishing and watersports, namely the Rietspruit Dam and Resort, the Elandskuil Dam and the Klerkskraal Dam, making Ventersdorp a well appointed destination for anglers.

Ventersdorp has a solid Afrikaans farming culture and heritage, and that means great ‘boerekos’ food, fresh farm produce and warm hospitality awaits visitors to this historic little town.

Getting there: Ventersdorp is situated 74 km north of Klerksdorp on the R30, almost half way between Klerksdorp and Rustenburg.