I've said it before and I will say it again and again and again (every time I find another one). Just about every town has a war memorial. Click to see those in Knysna and Mossel Bay which I've blogged about before. Driving around Montagu I was looking for interesting places and stumbled upon the Montagu War Memorial remembering those from the town who fell during the Anglo Boer War, WWI and WWII. I'm not a war junkie so I…
The little town of Montagu in the Western Cape truly is a gem of a town with beautiful old buildings, lots of history, fruit, mountains and nature all around. Montagu was founded in 1851 on the farm Uitvlucht. The town was named after John Montagu, the British Secretary of the Cape, who was responsible for the building of the Cogmans Kloof Pass that opened up the town for passing trade. One of the most significant buildings in the town is the…
Let's fall right in the door and explain before there are *gasps* and threats of blog boycotts because I'm posting about a sex shop (sic). If you are a South African you may be familiar with Ronnie's Sex Shop on Route 62 near the town of Barrydale in the Klein Karoo. If you are from elsewhere and have never heard of Ronnie's, then listen up.Some years ago a guy called Ronnie decided to fix up a building next to the popular…
The Klein Karoo is a narrow strip of land wedged between the Outeniqua Mountains to the south and the Swartberg Mountains to the north. Although its only about 70 kilometers wide, it stretched from the Langkloof in the direction of Cape Town as far as Montagu over a distance of a couple of hundred kilometers. The word "Klein" means little in Afrikaans and the word "Karoo" is a Khoi word which means place of thirst. Thus Klein Karoo means "Little…
As you cross over the Montagu Pass from George into the Klein Karoo you enter a small village called Herold. Herold is tucked away in the mountains at the end of the beautiful historic pass. The town developed as a result of the the pass that was constructed in 1847. The town grew quite rapidly as travellers along this new road to the Klein Karoo needed a place to stay as well as other essential services. It continued to be…
When we visited Oudtshoorn in December I got to go to the museum in the home of the former Afrikaans writer CJ Langenhoven for the first time since I was in primary school. His house, Arbeidsgenot ("the pleasure of work") was left to "all people with a love for Afrikaans" by his widow after her death in 1950 and was opened as a museum in 1955. Cornelis Jakobus Langenhoven was born on 12 August 1873. He started out working as…
Schoemanshoek is a fertile valley just outside Oudtshoorn on the way to the Cango Caves. The area is mainly a farming area with ostriches and tobacco being farmed here historically. Even though most of the farmers in the valley still farm with ostriches and some crops, most have developed guest houses and restaurants on their properties. The nice thing about staying in Schoemanshoek is that visitors are right out in farming are. Most establishments are decorated with antiques while visitors…
The ruin of the old toll house on the Swartberg Pass (here and here) can be found at the start of the pass on the Oudtshoorn side of the mountain. I would have wanted to spend some more time at the ruin getting photographs, but it was hot (around 40 degrees Celsius) and the family was getting impatient in the car.
Today is another Random ... theme day and the theme is Random Country Churches. Some of the smallest towns in the middle of nowhere will have magnificent old Dutch Reformed Churches dating back from the early days. In most cases these churches were built in the late 1800's and early 1900's not to only service the town, but also the surrounding farming community. This means that some of these small towns today have huge churches. The Dutch Reformed Church in…