Jacqui Thompson

Leaving Loxton behind we zipped along the excellent tar road and soon leaned into the left hand bend that led into Victoria West.  On our right was the Victoria West Dam where various species of antelope grazed on grass so green it hurt my eyes. The Seekoei River fed the dam and also ran skirted the Northern Cape town.

Our back roads bike trip from Cape Town to Johannesburg was almost at an end. Not because of distance but rather time. The punctures on the dirt road between Sutherland and Fraserburg were partly to blame; they cost us a few days, but a contributing factor was also the laid back pace of life in the Karoo. We had no desire to be on the road for eight hours a day, clinging to motorbike handlebars, eyes squinting in the wind as all that pesky scenery rushed by.  Our starts got later as we enjoyed leisurely brunches with the locals and other travelers rather than early bird breakfasts and when we eventually set off we traveled leisurely with frequent stops to admire afore-mentioned scenery. The daily distances we rode also got shorter, so on this particular slow, sunny Karoo day we covered the magnificent distance of 81 kilometres. We couldn’t help it … Victoria West was such an inviting little town.

We puttered down the main road past two imposing churches (the Dutch Reformed and Anglican we later found out) which made one believe God was a frequent visitor to this very street, and stopped our bikes outside the legendary Apollo Theatre. We’d heard about this 1950s art deco cinema – the only one left in SA – which was a heritage site. Perhaps it was late in the day and the staff were tired and bored but the lackadaisical attitude and lack of any visible decor (or deco) was disappointing. Although the town is the start of the Diamond Route there was little glittering when we visited. Perhaps the sparkle from the soft furnishings and hard staff only comes out for the annual film festival held at the cinema.

Snagging a few brochures from a nearby stand we read about the Mannetjies Roux rugby museum which pays homage to the tough little Springbok player who was born in the town. But I decided to pass on that after my husband sang me the song Hak Hom Blokkies inspired by Roux’s on field exploits and find somewhere to stay. Karoo Koelte, a conveniently located B&B, with a pretty garden and period rooms also offered secure parking for the motorbikes and hosts Pietie and Anna Vermeulen more than made up for the cool reception at the Apollo. 

We rode out to watch the sunset from Moonlight Hill which offered the most gorgeous views of the town after a relatively short clamber. The Karoo sunset was spectacular and we stayed to watch every ray and hue fade until the stars come out and the town’s lights came on. It was very romantic until we realised we hadn’t brought a torch. Curses followed as we bickered our way down in the dark. 

Over breakfast the Vermeulens filled us in on the local history. The town was originally founded in 1843 and was called Victoria (ja, after the rooinek queen), but because of a district in the Eastern Cape of the same name the ‘West’ was added in 1855. 

Seems diamonds were discovered in the region in the late 1800s and the town became an important transit/resting point for prospectors traveling from Cape Town to the diamond fields in and around Hopetown and Kimberly. I kept my eyes peeled as I headed off, head down scouring the ground for a dazzling gem someone might have missed in the last 130 odd years (no luck), to the nearby Victoria West Nature Reserve. I was still determined to see the rare and endangered Riverine Rabbit. It proved as elusive as the diamonds. On my way back I did see a pair of circling Black Eagles which was fantastic but I would have preferred seeing a Riverine Rabbit sitting on a large diamond bearing rock. Never mind, next time.

It was hard to leave the B&B where we now felt like family, even though they couldn’t believe I, a young woman – I loved that they thought I was young and immediately forgave them their sexist comment – could ride such a large motorbike.

http://www.karookoelte.co.za/

Victoria West Nature Reserve : Tel 053 621 0026

By Bridget Hilton-Barber

‘Shoot straight you bastards!’ Those were the last words uttered by Harry Breaker Morant in 1902, seconds before he was executed by the British army, for whom he had been fighting. Aussie-born Harry Breaker Morant fought in the Anglo-Boer War as part of the Bushveld Carbineers, a British special forces unit set up to combat the guerilla tactics of the Boers. This fascinating story is a part of the Zouptansberg Skirmish Route, which takes place near Elim in Limpopo province, and focuses on the final phase of the war.

At the time, the Boers had abandoned traditional warfare and resorted to highly mobile military units that evaded captured and wreaked havoc. They lured their enemies by raising the white flag and wearing British uniforms. They ambushed trains carrying soldiers and supplies. In response, Lord Alfred Kitchener ordered a scorched earth policy, burning farm houses and destroying crops. Thousands of women and children died in the empire’s concentration camps.

The Skirmish Route is led by guide and local history expert Charles Leach, who paints a picture of these bloody days as you drive out to various graves, houses, battlefields and viewpoints in the area. It’s a full day expedition, fairly rough ‘n tumble, bring your own picnic basket and walking shoes kind of thing. But a stirring outing indeed, as you learn about the escapades of the country’s first special forces unit.

The far northern parts of the old Transvaal – now Limpopo Province – was fairly unscathed by the first year or so of the Anglo Boer War.  It was Kitchener’s attempts to close “hostilities” with his scorched earth policies and the mobilisation of the last few regional commandos that war moved into the Zoutpansberg area.

Comprising mainly Aussie and British stragglers and scallywags, the Bushveld Carbineers cut a bloody swathe through the area between present-day Modjadjiskloof and Louis Trichardt, known then as Groot Spelonken. It was a sparsely populated wilderness that was home to stock farmers, hunters and German and Swiss missionaries. The Carbineers killed 36 people here, including women and children and local Shangaan and Venda people. Join the Carbineers if you can ride and shoot, said the recruitment poster – and this is pretty much what they did out here.

Through the course of the day you will meet characters like Captain Alfred Taylor, nicknamed Bulala -he who kills; Breaker Morant, who was eventually tried and executed by his own army; the trigger-happy Lieutenant Hancock and Colonel Adolf Shiel who led the German Corps at the outset of the war. You will hear poignant stories about the shooting of a father and his two sons, the murder of a reverend; and the death of Constable Eagle, the only North American Indian to serve in the old Transvaal police! 
The scenery out here is soft and rural, you drive past villages, visit farmhouses and picnic under the trees at grave’s side. I would recommend you take a big blanket or fold out chairs and definitely a chilled Chardonnay to fend off the inevitable melancholy that comes from tales of war. Leach’s knowledge of the area and the events is excellent and he is a warm host.

The tour begins and ends at the Lalapanzi Hotel, on the N1, which also houses a small but interesting Skirmishes Museum with evocative memorabilia and photographs. A word of warming – don’t have the breakfast here – I dubbed it  Kitcheners Revenge - the worst of English cooking - slippery eggs, sweating cheese griller sausages, rubbery fritters and a sad croquette heaving great sighs of steam and sauce.

For bookings call Inga at 015-516-5455 or 072-509-3939 or email: ingagilf@yebo.co.za

By Kathryn Fourie

One bright Korean summer morning I found myself at the UN Memorial Park in Busan. Of course, being rather revoltingly hung-over I wasn’t exactly thrilled to be standing in said summer sun, but I slapped on my shades and tried my best to cowboy up for the cultural experience. Fighting waves of nausea and the urge to run behind the beautifully manicured Chinese Junipers, we made our way to the place where those who fought in the Korean War are remembered. Now imagine my surprise when I looked up from my doubled over position to see our colourful SA flag flying proud in the gardens. Yes dear reader, don’t feel bad, I too had no clue that we took part in one of the most hardcore ‘forgotten’ wars in the world. (more…)

Jennifer Stern

OK, which do you want first, the good news or the bad news? The good news is that Transnet in general and Spoornet in particular are restructuring to focus on core business and to become more efficient and effective. The bad news is they are seriously thinking of selling the Outeniqua Choo-Tjoe. (more…)

The Richtersveld Cultural and Botanical Landscape covers 160 000 hectares of dramatic mountainous desert in the Northern Cape, South Africa’s vast northwestern province. (Image: South African Tourism)

The Richtersveld Cultural and Botanical Landscape has become the eighth South African site to be inscribed on the World Heritage List of the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco) as a place of “outstanding value to humanity”.

The site was listed during the 31st session of Unesco’s World Heritage Committee in New Zealand on 27 June 2007.

Already listed are SA’s Cape Floral Region, Cradle of Humankind, Isimangaliso Wetlands Park (formerly the Greater St Lucia Wetlands Park), Mapungubwe Cultural Landscape, uKhahlamba-Drakensberg Park, Robben Island and Vredefort Dome.

The Richtersveld Cultural and Botanical Landscape covers 160 000 hectares of dramatic mountainous desert in the Northern Cape, South Africa’s vast northwestern province.

A unique feature of the site - both in South African and international terms - is that it is owned and managed by a community that until recently had very little to call its own.

Characterised by extreme temperatures, the communally run landscape affords a semi-nomadic pastoral livelihood for the Nama people, descendants of the Khoi-Khoi people who once occupied lands across southern Namibia and most of the present-day Western and Northern Cape. (more…)

A handful of the world’s great cities trace their heritage to early human settlements thousands of years back. Johannesburg’s earliest residents were in the neighbourhood 3-million years ago.

Forty kilometres west of the city, among nondescript koppies, scattered shrubs and trees, is a 47 000-hectare valley known as the Cradle of Humankind.

Three million years of human activity have taken place in and around these caves, including people’s earliest-known mastery of fire, and 40% of all the world’s human ancestor fossils have been found here. (more…)

South Africa’s history is largely one of increasing racial divisiveness. Today it can also be seen as the story of - eventually - a journey through massive obstacles towards the creation - from tremendous diversity - of a single nation whose dream of unity and common purpose is now being realised.

The earliest representatives of that diversity that we can name were the San and Khoekhoe peoples (otherwise known individually as the Bushmen and Hottentots or Khoikhoi; collectively called the Khoisan). Both resided in the southern tip of the continent for thousands of years before its written history began with the arrival of European seafarers. (more…)

Were you aware that Table Mountain National Park has more plant species in its 22 000 hectares than the entire British Isles or New Zealand? Or that the Drakensberg has both the highest mountain range in Africa south of Kilimanjaro and the continent’s richest concentration of rock art?

South Africa is also home to no less than eight of the world’s official heritage sites, as determined by Unesco’s World Heritage Committee. (more…)

It’s a potent symbol of unity and progress. It’s the only six-coloured national flag in the world. It’s also one of the youngest, yet whatever shape it takes - and it’s taken more than any other national symbol - it’s instantly recognisable to South Africans everywhere.

The new South African national flag first flew on 10 May 1994 - the day Nelson Mandela became president, two weeks after the country’s first democratic elections of 27 April 1994 - “not as a symbol of a political party, nor of a government, but as a possession of the people - the one thing that is literally and figuratively above all else, our flag”.

The quote comes from the introduction to Flying with Pride: The Story of the South African Flag, a coffee table book derived from the incredible variety of ways in which this unique cloth has become woven into the fabric of South African society.

As in the case of the rocket logo used for afronaut Mark Shuttleworth’s First African in Space project, the South African flag has become integrated into butterflies, bow ties, company logos, trees, top hats, hot air balloons, umbrellas, underwear ? the list goes on. As Flying with Pride seeks to demonstrate, the South African flag has no equal in this respect.

Yet the flag was originally commissioned as an interim flag only - and was a last-minute job, barely making it onto the country’s flagpoles in time to herald the new South Africa. (more…)

“I saw a child fall down. Under a shower of bullets I rushed forward and went for the picture. It had been a peaceful march, the children were told to disperse, they started singing Nkosi Sikelele. The police were ordered to shoot.”

These are the words of Sam Nzima, recalling the events of 16 June 1976, when over 500 people were killed as they protested over the imposition of Afrikaans as a medium of instruction in township schools. (more…)