Frontier Country

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The Settlers Family in Grahamstown

Grahamstown has two monuments to the 1820 British Settlers on top of Gun Fire Hill overlooking the town.  The most prominent is the Settlers Monument building, heart of the Grahamstown National Arts Festival, with its huge auditorium.  I prefer the second one a few hundred meters away from the building a lot more.  It depicts a British Settler family as they arrived on our shores.  When I look at it I can actually hear the little girl ask her mother…

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20/04/2016
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The abandoned Carlisle Bridge cricket field

No exploration expedition has ever ended in failure.  Well perhaps some have.  One or two may have run out of water trying to find a way out the desert, the odd expedition may have lost boat and crew on uncharted seas and at least one was never seen again after getting lost in the Amazon.  Detouring from Port Elizabeth via Grahamstown onto the R350 to Bedford, I wasn't really expecting to see much en route other than passing over the…

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07/12/2015
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The church in Salem

A quick detour from the N2 between Nanaga and Grahamstown to Kenton-on-Sea took me through the village of Salem for the first time in ages last week.  I didn't have time to explore much but I did stop for a quick photo of the front of the church while parked next to the cricket field. Salem was founded by the Sephton party who formed part of the 1820 British Settlers who settled in this district.  The name comes from the bible and means "peace" with…

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11/08/2015
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Fort Peddie flowers

A little while ago I stopped by Fort Peddie on my way from Port Elizabeth to East London and discovered this historic site while hunting for a Geocache.  The thing with most travelers is that they are so focused on the big things that they often miss the little ones.  In this case the big things were the old tower and the cavalry barracks which I both went to have a look at.  The former to find the cache and the latter…

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12/11/2014
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Geocaching at Fort Peddie

A road trip to East London from Port Elizabeth along the N2 via Grahamstown.  The historic Fort Peddie in the town of Peddie dating back to the Frontier Wars.  A geocache.  These three things added up to a great solo adventure a couple of weeks ago.  I've been eyeing the cache at Fort Peddy for a while now but a trip to East London for a meeting was the excuse to do it. This fort was built in 1835 on the…

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22/08/2014
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Karel Landman monument

Mens is so gewoond om monumente in dorpe en stede asook langs groot paaie te sien, maar daar is wel monumente wat min mense te sien kry weens waar hulle gelee is.  Die Karel Landman Monument is een van dié en kan gesien word op 'n grondpad so 'n entjie van R72 tussen Port Elizabeth en Alexandria af.  Karel Landman het in die omgewing geboer tot 1837 voor hy een van die prominente Voortrekker leiers geword het.  Landman het 'n groep van omtrent…

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14/08/2012
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1820 Settlers Monuments

The town of Grahamstown (well, its actually a city as it has a cathedral) in the Eastern Cape is situated right in the middle of Settlers country. It is in this area that the 1820 British Settlers (see here, here and here for the Settler story) settled down and it was inevetable that the town would put a monuments to them. On the hill overlooking the town the Settlers Monument was built as a living monument. Opened in 1974, the…

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10/07/2010
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St Andrews Clock Tower

St Andrews College in the town of Grahamstown was founded by Anglican Archbishop Armstrong in 1855. Much of the early architecture was based on stone, one of these being the Clock Tower – a memorial to old boys who fell to the Great War. St Andrews is one of 4 South African schools who have the right to elect a Rhodes Scholar to Oxford each year.

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09/06/2009
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St Johns Anglican Church

In the little village of Bathurst is the St John's Anglican Church. It is the oldest unaltered Anglican church in South Africa and was built in 1834 during the frontier wars. It is surrounded by the most interesting grave stones, some of them dating back and belonging to original British Settlers and their decedents. Because of it's country setting it is also surrounded by a lot of vegetation amongst others some beautiful Bougainvilleas.

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16/01/2009