Karoo - Firefly the Travel Guy

The Victorian era designed Dutch Reformed Church of Jansenville

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…

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24/05/2024

Firefly the Travel Guy

The original illustrations of the Roberts Birds of South Africa book

A little while ago I visited Graaff-Reinet for a Karoo Heartland Marketing Association meeting at the Drostdy hotel. I arrived a little early and noticed tons of bird pictures up on the walls. While admiring them somebody asked if I knew that they were the original illustrations of the Roberts Birds of South Africa book. Say what? Now there's something I didn't know. Austin Roberts’ The Birds of South Africa was first published in 1940 and has been in print…

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09/05/2024

Firefly the Travel Guy

The All Saints United Church in Somerset East

In 1848, during his travels through the Eastern Cape, Bishop Gray of Cape Town paid a visit to the young town of Somerset. He was struck by the scarcity of clergyman having only seen one in 900 miles of travel from Cape Town. He undertook to arrange for some 20 Anglican ministers to emigrate from England, and because he believed that there were sufficient English settlers and others to support an Anglican Church, he promised to provide the area with…

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20/03/2024

Firefly the Travel Guy

The Cradock Four Garden of Remembrance

Standing on a hill as you come into the Karoo Heartland town of Cradock from the south are four tall concrete pillars. The four pillars are the main focus point of the Cradock Four Garden of Remembrance in Lingelihle township. The memorial was unveiled in 2007 and upgraded in 2019 and includes a visitor center, amphitheater, and research and exhibition areas. The Cradock Four were a group of four anti-apartheid activists who were abducted and murdered by South African security police in…

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15/03/2024

Firefly the Travel Guy

Jansenville Townhall and War Memorial plus a bit of history

The town of Jansenville is located in the Noorsveld, an area about 90 kilometers south of Graaff-Reinet and known for its dry, arid climate and its abundance of succulents. The need for a new parish in the district was evident from 1848 and the establishment of the village is largely due to the efforts of Minister Alexander Smith from Uitenhage who visited the congregation once a quarter. In 1853 Petrus Fourie arranged for the layout and survey of about 80…

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15/03/2024

Firefly the Travel Guy

The Concentration Camp Memorial at Norvalspont

The Anglo Boer War (1899 – 1902) is one of the big turning points in South Africa’s history along with the arrival of Europeans in the country, the Great Trek, the Apartheid years and a new democratic South Africa. Okay, so our history is about more than just those five turning points but that is what came to my mind just now. One of the most significant things that happened during the Anglo Boar War was that it was the first time ever that…

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21/02/2024

Firefly the Travel Guy

Graaff Reinet Kruithuis on Magazine Hill

The hill behind Graaff-Reinet is known as magazine Hill. But do you know why it has the name? Perhaps there was a battle fought here during the Anglo Boar War. Maybe local Burgers shot at the British from here while the town declared independence. Could a rebel have been shot here at some stage during the history of the town? The answer isn't quite as tragic or exciting, but it could easily have been linked to such an event. Also,…

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25/01/2024

Firefly the Travel Guy

Gill College, the Somerset East school that was supposed to be a university

The history of Somerset East dates back to 1815 when Lord Charles Somerset established an experimental farm at the foot of the Boschberg. Somerset Farm was started to supply food to the British troops manning the eastern frontier of the Cape Colony, provide their horses with feed, and partly to cultivate tobacco for export purposes. By 1825 Lord Charles stood on the stoep of the house in 9 Paulet Street and surveyed Somerset Farm, dividing it into erven, thus starting the…

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17/01/2024

Firefly the Travel Guy

From a pear tree to a beautiful church – the story of the Pearston Dutch Reformed Church

I get disappointed if I visit a small town and find that there isn't a historic church somewhere to visit and photograph. One of the towns that didn't disappoint was Pearston. Located on a very flat landscape the church is easily spotted in the town's very limited skyline. The village of Pearston is located 48km west of Somerset East in the Eastern Cape's Karoo Heartland. Like so many of the small towns and villages of the Karoo, the village had…

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05/01/2024

Firefly the Travel Guy

The old mill building in Somerset East

One of the buildings in Somerset East that I find the most interesting is the little building on the corner of Paulet and Beaufort Streets. It is one that draws a lot of comments and speculation about its origins although the general thought is that it was a mill dating back to the early days of Somerset Farm. Information collected by Sheila van Aardt suggested it was used as a mill with the water wheel on the Beaufort Street side…

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27/12/2023