WAITING FOR THE BLOUKOP KOGGELMANDER
Dries and Myalan Wiese own a Bavarian-Karoo castle in the veld.
Yep, you read that right. It doesn’t have a moat or a drawbridge or squads of armoured guards clanking about, but it does have a Great Hall, walkways, ramparts and turrets. And a romantic love story to match.
‘Decades ago, a local farmer called Jan Hugo was a sailor in Europe,’ says Dries. ‘That’s where he became enchanted with castles. Every time he had shore leave, he would head off and look at castles. He vowed that someday he would build one himself, on his family farm back in the Karoo.
‘When he found the castle he really liked, he sketched it on the back of a 30s pack of Lexingtons. And when he came home, he set about building it. He laid the last stone in 1974.’
Hentie Wiese, father of Dries, bought the farm and the castle that came with it. This is where Dries spent much of
