Colonial Interstellar
The road to a place where you come closer to the stars
Format
A road trip across the Karoo in a supercar
A night at an old colonial railway station
Herping with Alejandro and Polina
Searching for the rare Ouroborus lizards
An easy but absorbing look into Khoisan history
A private light dinner beneath the night sky
A drive to the largest telescope in Africa
The feeling of Interstellar, for real
In the morning you leave Cape Town and head for Matjiesfontein, a railway station lost in the Karoo desert. As you drive, not only the landscape changes but the very sense of space around you. The city noise falls away. We suggest using this time to step off social media and out of your routine — keep the phone for photographs, nothing more. By midday you check into the Lord Milner Hotel: an old colonial railway hotel that feels like a lost town in the middle of the semi-desert. An Afrikaans lunch is waiting, along with an introduction to the history of the Bushmen and the Khoisan people, told by a guide from our team. After a short rest you head out again — herping with Alejandro and Polina. On this walk you go deeper into the Karoo biome and see what most people never notice: rare reptiles and succulents, animal tracks, the unexpected life hidden inside what looks like emptiness. One of the goals is to find the rare South African Ouroborus dragons.
Towards sunset you set off for the largest telescope in Africa. A light dinner is arranged for you there, along with a private tour of a purpose-built house with no roof, made for watching the stars. The conversation drifts well beyond astronomy: Greek mythology, how stars work, the distances across the universe, and the strange sense of space being both close by and entirely out of reach. The night sky feels almost within arm's length — yet human nature and the physics of this world keep us from ever touching it. Talk turns to whether our world might be a simulation, to life inside the matrix. This is the moment the experience starts to feel like Interstellar. Afterwards you make your way back to the Lord Milner Hotel, unhurried, and spend the night in a colonial room with a century of history behind it.
A calm breakfast, then the drive back towards Cape Town. No fixed schedule. We will suggest places worth stopping at along the way, but the pace of the return is yours to choose. The only thing that matters is being back in Cape Town before late evening.
Characters
Alejandro and Polina
Alejandro is South African with Italian roots, Polina is South African with Russian roots. A rare pair of people genuinely absorbed in what they do. For them the Karoo is not a job or a tourist activity but a personal passion and an ongoing study.
A note from the author
Konstantin
Founder
The night before this trip, I recommend watching Interstellar. What matters here is not the activities. What matters is the state you end up in. Try to let go of your worries, switch off the constant noise of information, and simply allow yourself to observe. The Karoo is a landscape our eyes are not used to. That is exactly why — combined with the supercar and the telescope — it is able to reset the way you perceive things.
Soundtrack for the road
Who it does not suit
Why it is rare
This experience exists because of specific people, their passion and their involvement. Alejandro and Polina are not line staff and not guides working to a timetable. They do this above all because they genuinely love the Karoo and want to share that feeling. The telescope's management could also change and stop allowing dinners there — along with any number of other factors. That is precisely why some experiences cannot be put on a conveyor belt. At some point they may change, or disappear altogether.
Upgrade options
Film photography
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