However, the International Energy Agency reckons that the Karoo also has recoverable shale gas reserves of 485 trillion cubic feet. Shell has already begun what could become a major energy rush, though there is strong local resistance to the hydraulic fracturing — "fracking" — of the rock, which will use up scarce water reserves and possibly contaminate the water table. The government, panicked by the uproar, has declared a moratorium on the further application for shale gas mining licences, but this hardly solves the problem. South Africa is under fire for using dirty coal-power stations and can hardly turn its back on a clean energy source which could power the country for many decades to come. Shell, for its part, makes it clear that it knows there is a huge queue of other hydrocarbon companies keen to get their hands on the Karoo and claims, probably rightly, that it is likely to be more environmentally responsible than most. It insists that its exploration will not involve the use of any harmful, contaminating chemicals.

Thus far the opposition to "fracking" is led by Greens, conservationists, sheep farmers and those who just want things to stay as they are. Inevitably though, arguments are now being voiced that shale gas exploration would damage SKA. Thus Dr Adrian Tiplady of SKA warns that mining could create the sort of electromagnetic interference which would make SKA unworkable. Again, in a somewhat panicky move, the government has declared 12.5 million hectares of the Karoo to be an Astronomical Advantage Area, where astronomical imperatives will come first.

Closer examination suggests such fears may be misplaced. Dr Tiplady says an idling lorry can create electromagnetic interference up to 11 kilometres away (unless blocked by a hill) and mining operations could be worse. But such is the vastness of the Karoo that one could easily fit in any amount of fracking and stargazing. Fracking, after all, means pumping sand-laden slurry into rocks, fracturing them in order to allow the release of gas or oil, at depths of 5,000 to 20,000 feet. It is not clear that anything that happens that far down could have any effect on astronomers hundreds of kilometres away. A better question is, where will all the water for fracking come from? If one is not to tap into South Africa's limited fresh water sources, the easiest thing to do would be to pump sea water in by pipeline from the Atlantic coast. That would be expensive but with nearly half a quadrillion cubic feet of gas at stake, perhaps not prohibitively so. No doubt there would be further uproar at the notion of pumping salt water into the Karoo's deep water table, though of course the Karoo was long under the sea before. It might be best to hunker down and wait for a lot more such controversy as the world focuses in on Africa's hydrocarbon bounty. The Seychelles, for example, has recently discovered Saudi-sized oil reserves just offshore. There's going to be a lot more trouble in paradise.