Summer is knocking on the door and everybody is looking forward to peak season. There’s a hectic time ahead so take a break in anticipation, grab a coffee and have a quick look through the Firefly the Travel Guy’s Encounter the Eastern Cape Travel Mailers.

This month we look at the following:

• Visit the Jansenville Dutch Reformed Church

• Walk on the Cape St Francis Wild Side

• Find out who’s the Grahamstown Settlers family

• Looking forward to the festive season in Rhodes

• Learn about the Compassberg

If there is something that you would like to see featured in our monthly travel mailer or have any suggestions, please drop us an email at jonker@fireflyafrica.co.za

Jansenville Dutch Reformed Church

Each Karoo town has a different charm and atmosphere just like each one has an unique historic Dutch Reformed Church. The town of Jansenville is in no way any different.

The Dutch Reformed Church in Jansenville is unusual in that the bell tower is separate from the church. The church is of typical Victorian-era design, complete with decorative plaster quoins on the corners of the exterior walls. The building was designed by prolific ecclesiastical architect Carl Otto Hager, whose plans were later revised by A.H. Reid of Port Elizabeth.

The cornerstone of the church was laid on 16 August 1884 and the building was consecrated on 20 June 1885. The wood carving around the pulpit, although simple in design, was carefully crafted. The different woods used create an appealing contrast of colours. The first organ used in the church can still be seen next to the pulpit, however, this was replaced with the grand pipe organ still in use to this day.

Interestingly the church was the first of a total of seven congregations of the Dutch Reformed Church that was founded in 1855 and is therefore the 61st oldest congregation in the entire Church and the 13th oldest congregation in the Synod of Eastern Cape. The Murraysburg Reformed Church and the Dutch Reformed Church in Aberdeen, also both in the Presbytery of Graaff-Reinet, were also founded in the year 1855.

Cape St Francis Walk on the Wildside

An easy out-and-back walk of anything up to 9km along the coast from Cape St Francis, with spectacular ocean views especially in whale season, June to November.   Look out for Southern Right and Humpback whales, as well as Common, Humpback and Bottlenose dolphins.

The start is at the Maori Avenue parking.    If you are driving from St Francis Bay, take the first right after entering Cape St Francis and drive to the end of the road where there is a gravel parking area.  In front of you is Sunset Rocks, a perfect place to watch the sunset on a windless evening.

The pedestrian gate marks the start of the path, which follows the coastline all the way to Mostertshoek, a cluster of seaside homes ideally located for fishermen and whale-watchers.

After 1.5km, look on the rocks for the boiler room of the Ospray, wrecked here in 1967.

You will pass a green fishing shack at around 2.5km: stay on the shoreline and look for a small rockpile.   Turn down to the edge of the rocks to look for the blowhole.

When you reach a hairpin bend to the right, where the road goes uphill and inland, it’s time to turn back.   If you get this far, you will have done almost 4.5km. 

On your way back, walk on the beach after you pass the green fishing shack and you will find an unmarked grave just before a huge rock pile.

Who’s the Grahamstown Settlers family?

A little while ago I posted this picture of the Settlers Family statue in Makhanda / Grahamstown on my Encounter the Eastern Cape page on Facebook and Dave Bowker told me something I never knew.

Firstly what I did know. The monument was designed by the sculptor Ivan Mitford-Barberton and erected in 1969, but this is what I didn’t know. The three figures are Miles, Anne Maria and Elizabeth Bowker. Elizabeth married a Barber and was Ivan’s grandmother. Although there was no photograph of Miles, Ivan drew his likeness from his sons’ features. Elizabeth became a world- renowned botanist and botanical artist who shared her work with Charles Darwin. 

Check out Mary Elizabeth Bowker’s Wikipedia page for more information on her.

Other monuments designed by Ivan Mitford-Barberton is the monument of Jock of the Bushveld in Barberton, the bronze statue of a leopard in Hout Bay, the sculpture of Peter Pan at the Red Cross Children’s Hospital in Cape Town and the Bible Monument Grahamstown.

The festive season in Rhodes

By Dave Walker

The allure of Rhodes over the festive season not only draws visitors from far and wide but also holiday homeowners who return at this time to make use of their facilities.

It is indeed a fine time of year. Warm to hot weather interspersed with the odd thunderstorm that interrupts picnics and puts an end to flyfishing outings on account of the conductivity of modern fly rods made of super conductive material. Frustrating though such things may be, it all adds to the adventure of holidaying in the Eastern Cape Highlands.

The village becomes abuzz with herds of children pedalling their bicycles up and down the streets or astride local horses-for-hire all revelling in the joys of being free-range children. Unlike where they may live in “the Bright Lights”, there is no danger of muggings for cell-phones or bicycles. Inevitably, a soccer ball appears, the visitors are joined by local children from Zakhele and all revel in impromptu ball-fests!

This is also a time of year where the Alpine flora comes into its own that, although not as intense as the flowers of Namaqualand, is well worth and expedition up onto the plateau around Rhodes. An amazing aspect of Mother Nature is that there are no less than seven species of Kniphofia to be found in the mountains. What is even more interesting is that they do not all flower at once but flower in sequence. This provides nectar for, amongst other animals, the beautiful Malachite sunbirds who, as a consequence, can spend several months in the Highlands before returning to less harsh climes during the winter months.

One would normally associate orchids with tropical areas and forests such as the Amazon, for example. Yet species of terrestrial orchid are also to be found in the most unlikely Alpine climate of the real southern Drakensberg that surrounds Rhodes! The hardy plant whose beautiful flowers shown in the image is found growing in patches of gravel and even on the verges of the local roads.

Compassberg

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.