Free State DestinationsHoopstad, Lejweleputswa
Hoopstad lies in an area known as the Lejweleputswa region of the Free State that stretches from Ventersburg in the south, to Hoopstad in the north, Boshof in the west and includes the Goldfields.
This is the part of the Free State famous for Gold fields, museums, underground mine tours, the Gold Museum in Welkom, salt pans in Soutpan, the Goldfields Tourism Route, which starts at Bothaville, numerous private game farms and the nature reserves of Sandveld, Rustfontein, and Erfenis Dam.
Hoopstand is a typical town of the area, lying on the R700, which connects it to Bloemfontein, and close to the N12, which connects it to Potchefstroom. Founded in 1876, it was initially named Hauptstad after the town's surveyor, a Mr Haupt. With a little translation into Afrikaans, the town took on its present day name of Hoopstad, or captial city, despite its never having been this.
There is plenty of opportunity to do things in Hoopstad. Bloemhof Dam and the Sandveld Nature Reserve provide fishing, swimming, boating and game viewing, whilst the principle reason for heading to towns here in the centre of the maize triangle is for the atmosphere of 'no rush'; the sense of time slowing to that of a mild and hesitant crawl, so that any exersion becomes completely contrary to nature.
