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I just love this view of Nature's Valley from the

I just love this view of Nature's Valley from the view site just before you start to drop down the Groot River Pass from the toll gate side. It's like looking down on a bit of a hidden paradise waiting for your arrival.

#naturesvalley #tsitsikamma #rediscovertsitsikamma #gardenroute #gardenofthegardenroute #westerncape #paradise #viewsite

The Tsitsikamma coastline must be the most beautif

The Tsitsikamma coastline must be the most beautiful in the country. The blue ocean crashes onto the dark rocky coastline in striking white water which then transitions up the cliffside to shades of green to the blue sky above.

#tsitsikamma #rediscovertsitsikamma #gardenroute #easterncape #encountereastcape #ecyours2explore #gardenofthegardenroute #coastline

Monuments and memorials come in all shapes and siz

Monuments and memorials come in all shapes and sizes and by different names. By name, the Chair Monument outside Middelburg in the Karoo Heartland may have you confused. Why would they put up a memorial to a chair? Was it a simple wooden stool or is somebody celebrating their beloved lazyboy? In fact, although a chair was involved, the monument is an Anglo Boer War related memorial and commemorates Commandant J. C. Lötter and his right-hand man, Lieutenant Pieter Wolfaardt. They were both found guilty for murder and executed here while tied to a chair.

Read the whole story in my latest post at https://fireflyafrica.co.za/the-chair-monument-in-the-karoo/

#karooheartland #middelburgkaroo #easterncape #encountereastcape #angloboerwar #memorial

Enjoy the ride. Cruising along the Storms River Pa

Enjoy the ride. Cruising along the Storms River Pass road with Tsitsikamma Segway Tours

#easterncape #encountereastcape #ecyours2explore #tsitsikamma #rediscovertsitsikamma #gardenroute #tsitsikammasegwaytours

If you’ve ever been to Nieu-Bethesda then you wo

If you’ve ever been to Nieu-Bethesda then you would have spotted Compassberg on the horizon. In fact, it’s not difficult to miss. The Compassberg (2502m) is the highest peak in the Sneeuberg range and also the highest peak in South Africa outside the Stormberg-Drakensberg massif. It was named by Colonel Robert Jacob Gordon when he accompanied Governor Joachim van Plettenberg on a journey to the eastern frontier of the Cape Colony in 1778.

Compassberg together with its neighbouring mountains provides a critical water catchment area, covering over 40 000 hectares of livestock and game farms. The mountain is composed of sediments of the Beaufort Series in the Karoo System and extensively intruded by dolerite dikes and sills. Yeah yeah, just a bit of useless information if you know nothing of geology.

Hiking up Compassberg has gained popularity in the last few years. It takes four to five hours to climb to the top and another four to descend again. The base of the mountain is a forty-minute drive from Nieu-Bethesda. Climbing to the top isn’t something that you do unprepared though, even better if you can join an organised hike to the top. One of the best people for that is Dawid de Wet of Karoo360 powered by @toerboer in Graaff-Reinet. From the top, the koppies roll beneath you, Graaff-Reinet sits in the distance and on a clear day you can see Cockscombe Mountain near the coast. That's a pretty long way.

#nieubethesda #compassberg #karooheartland #easterncape #encountereastcape #shotleft #ecyours2explore

Sand Sledding down the giant Colchester sand dunes

Sand Sledding down the giant Colchester sand dunes outside Port Elizabeth.

#portelizabeth #gqeberha #nelsonmandelabay #sharethebay #easterncape #encountereastcape #ecyours2explore #colchester #addocruises #sandsledding #addocruisesandsandsledding

Is it Tarzan? Is it Spiderman? No, it's a couple o

Is it Tarzan? Is it Spiderman? No, it's a couple of adventurous tourism peeps gliding through the treetops with Tsitsikamma Canopy Tours.

#tsitsikamma #rediscovertsitsikamma #flyairnature #gardenroute #easterncape #encountereastcape #tsitsikammacanopytours #stormsriver #zipline

I enjoy exploring small towns and discovering all

I enjoy exploring small towns and discovering all the interesting spots that most people probably never get to see as they rush through on their way elsewhere. Driving into the small Karoo Heartland town of Pearston I did what I always do when I visit a new place. I headed straight to the historic NG Kerk (Dutch Reformed Church). Because most small towns have one. In front of the church, I noticed a small stone monument with an inscription and went to have a closer look. It turned out to be a Great Trek centenary memorial.

The Great Trek is one of the major milestones in South African history, especially in the Afrikaner culture. Boers of Dutch descent left the Cape Colony between 1838 and the 1840s and migrated north before settling in the interior of South Africa. The Great Trek led to the establishment of the republics of Natalia, the Orange Free State and the Transvaal. In 1938 the 100-year anniversary of the Great Trek was celebrated with a symbolic trek from Cape Town to Pretoria. This re-enactment of the trek began on 8 August 1938, at the foot of the Jan van Riebeeck statue in Cape Town, and wound its way through small towns all over the country en route to Pretoria. The trek ended with the laying of the foundation for the Voortrekker Monument, which was attended by a crowd of over 100,000 people.

The centenary trek came through Pearston on 22 September 1938 and this small memorial was unveiled to mark the occasion. It’s not the most imposing or impressive memorial, but it commemorates a big event. It also shows that memorials don’t always have to be huge and cost millions.

Original post - https://fireflyafrica.co.za/a-great-trek-centenary-memorial-in-pearston/

#pearston #somerseteast #somerseteastunexpected #karooheartland #easterncape #encountereastcape #greatrek #memorial

If you drive out of Graaff-Reinet on the Murraysbu

If you drive out of Graaff-Reinet on the Murraysburg road toward the Valley of Desolation, you may notice a strange looking memorial on the left-hand side near the Nqweba Dam. Monuments are normally big marble or stone memorials and statues with a bronze plaque but this one is anything but. The Gideon Scheepers Memorial is made up of three rocks from the vicinity supporting a stainless steel needle, symbolising the spirit of hope and faith in God. The largest rock represents the steadfastness of the then-young Afrikaner nation while the two tilted boulders it supports symbolise this nation – suppressed but not fallen. A fourth boulder alongside bears the inscription.

But who was Gideon Scheepers and why is there a memorial for him in this spot? During the Anglo-Boer War (1899 – 1902) Gideon Scheepers formed his own commando which operated in the Cape Midlands. He was captured by British troops and charges of alleged war crimes were laid against him. At the court hearings in Graaff-Reinet he was found guilty and sentenced to death. Scheepers was executed by firing squad in the dry river bed of the Sundays River in an area now covered by the Nqweba Dam.

Original post - https://fireflyafrica.co.za/a-weird-monument-of-rocks-dedicated-to-gideon-scheepers-outside-graaff-reinet/

#graaffreinet #karooheartland #easterncape #encountereastcape #monument #angloboerwar

Big monuments and historic buildings are easy to s

Big monuments and historic buildings are easy to spot and often stand out. It’s the ones that are often a bit obscured that very few people actually know about or get to visit. One such site is the Roodewal historic site next to the N10 near Cookhouse in the Eastern Cape. This site doesn’t just have one, but three separate heritage-related items all linked to the same place. Roodewal Farm. I knew about one of them because there is a sign next to the road pointing it out, not that many people stop to visit it. It was only after taking lots of photos and doing a little research that I realised how significant this site is in relation to nearby Cookhouse and the district in general.

The first site, and the one pointed out by the road sign, is a small stone pyramid relating to the Pringle party’s rest camp. It was at this site that a Scottish party of British Settlers stopped in 1820 en route to their new settlement in the Baviaans River Valley.

Right next to the stone monument stands an old railway sleeper with another plaque on it. This monument refers to The Slachtersnek Rebellion and The Roodewal Fort. Fort Roodewal was one of a number of outposts set up by Lord Charles Somerset along the Fish River between 1814 and 1819.

The third heritage site is the grave of the Van Aardts: 1825 and 1856. The Van Aardts have been farming at Roodewal for many generations.

Read more - https://fireflyafrica.co.za/the-roodewal-historic-site-outside-cookhouse/

#karooheartland #somerseteast #somerseteastunexpected #cookhouse #easterncape #encountereastcape #history #heritagesite

The stunning garden at Glen Avon Farm is ready for

The stunning garden at Glen Avon Farm is ready for the Bedford Country Gardens festival. Flowers, flowers everywhere.

#easterncape #encountereastcape #karooheartland #somerseteast #glenavonfarm #bedfordopengardens #flowers #garden

The Cradock cemetery is probably one of the most i

The Cradock cemetery is probably one of the most interesting ones around. You’ll find gravestones of settlers, frontiersmen, nuns, soldiers who fell in the Anglo-Boer War and even one Harry Potter. Another grave I learned about and one I just had to go and find belongs to Reginald Koettlitz. You’re probably wondering what makes this grave different and the answer can be found in the grave’s inscription.
“An explorer and traveller, surgeon and geologist to Expeditions North Polar and Abyssinia and with Scott to the Antarctic”.

Koettlitz’s first Artic expedition was in 1894 to Franz Josef Land as physician and geologist on the Jackson–Harmsworth expedition. In 1901, Koettlitz volunteered for Robert Falcon Scott’s Discovery Expedition to Antarctica, as physician and botanist. The story goes that Dr Koettlitz somehow neglected to add enough vitamin C to the polar pioneers’ diet. This was attributed by some critics as having led to the Scott party being in a weakened state before they perished on the ill-fated Terra Nova Expedition that followed.

Even though Koettlitz was cleared of wrongdoing, the fallout led to his withdrawal from the world of exploration and moving to rural South Africa in 1905. Here he worked as a country doctor for over a decade, often using a horse or pony-and-trap to call on patients in out-of-the-way places. Not much of a challenge for one who had traveled thousands of miles around the globe, and explored some of its most inhospitable places. He had been deep into the Arctic and, with Captain Scott, the Antarctic, trekked through vast uncharted areas of Africa and, alone, up the Amazon to Manaos.

Reginald Koettlitz died from dysentery on 10 January 1916. Look carefully at the stone and you’ll notice that his French-born wife died on the same day, barely two hours after him.

https://fireflyafrica.co.za/an-arctic-explorer-buried-in-the-karoo/

#cradock #visitcradock #karooheartland #easterncape #encountereastcape #ecyours2explore #grave #cemetery

First steps Watching a newborn lamb take its firs

First steps

Watching a newborn lamb take its first steps isn't something city slickers get to see every day

#karooheartland #karoohospitality #karoofarmstay #farmstay #glenavonfarm #easterncape #encountereastcape

I tried something different. Archery now on offer

I tried something different. Archery now on offer at the Bloukrans Bridge. Check out the bungee and shoot some arrows

#tsitsikamma #rediscovertsitsikamma #easterncape #encountereastcape #archery #gardenroute

The Brown family of @glenavonfarm has done an amaz

The Brown family of @glenavonfarm has done an amazing job renovating the historic watermill. It's really an experience to see it working again.

#easterncape #encountereastcape #somerseteast #glenavon #watermill

The Churchill Dam on the Krom River near Kareedouw

The Churchill Dam on the Krom River near Kareedouw overflowing after a prolonged drought. What an amazing sight to see. The water now flows down to the Impofu Dam. May it flow long.

A stream of liquid gold flowing through the @karoo

A stream of liquid gold flowing through the @karooheartland veld outside Nieu-Bethesda in the late afternoon.

#karooheartland #easterncape #encountereastcape #nieubethesda #sunset

The flowering coral aloe between Olifantskop and M

The flowering coral aloe between Olifantskop and Middelton on the N10 south of Cookhouse in the Eastern Cape never ceases to amaze during the winter months.

#easterncape #encountereastcape #ecyours2explore #flowers #aloe #karooheartland

I discovered a small monument in front of the NG K

I discovered a small monument in front of the NG Kerk in Pearston and it turned out to be a Great Trek centenary memorial.

In 1938 the 100-year anniversary of the Great Trek was celebrated with a symbolic trek from Cape Town to Pretoria. This re-enactment of the trek began on 8 August 1938, at the foot of the Jan van Riebeeck statue in Cape Town, and wound its way through small towns all over the country en route to Pretoria. The trek ended with the laying of the foundation for the Voortrekker Monument, which was attended by a crowd of over 100,000 people.

The centenary trek came through Pearston on 22 September 1938 and this small memorial was unveiled to mark the occasion. It’s not the most imposing or impressive memorial, but it commemorates a big event. It also shows that memorials don’t always have to be huge and cost millions. It’s like the saying goes, “It’s the thought that counts.”

#karooheartland #greattrek #easterncape #encountereastcape #pearston

@miggie_fourie getting some pre-season work in wit

@miggie_fourie getting some pre-season work in with cjc.coaching at @oldgreycricketclub

#cricket #girlscricket #womenscricket

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