monuments - Firefly the Travel Guy

The monuments in Middelburg Karoo’s Mayoral Garden

I was really surprised at how many monuments and historic buildings Middelburg Karoo has. The town was founded in 1852 as a midway point between Graaff-Reinet and Colesberg. A site for Middelburg was chosen, as its name implies, in the very centre of a circle of other platteland towns – thus providing a hub for the secular and spiritual life of a pioneer farming community that was, till then, very far from anywhere. After doing my rounds visiting all the…

Comments Off

31/01/2026

Firefly the Travel Guy

Commandant William Comley Memorial in Somerset East

Two of the lesser-known monuments in Somerset East are both memorials to military men from the area who died in the late 1800s. I don't think many people even know these memorials exist. Definitely very few, if any, from outside of Somerset East. It's monuments like this that I like to find, do a little research on and share with you about. Memorials that people don't know about or have forgotten. Memorials worth discovering. One of these is a monument…

Comments Off

25/06/2025

Firefly the Travel Guy

Visiting Kwaaihoek 500 odd years after Bartholomew Diaz

I think back in the day we all learned about Bartholomew Diaz and how, in 1488, he was the first (known) European to discover what we know as South Africa today. I remember when I was in primary school, how we followed the 500th-anniversary voyage of the replica caravel from Portugal and visited it when it called in the Port Elizabeth harbour. Plus I think most of us have visited the Diaz Museum next to the famous Post Office Tree…

Comments Off

31/03/2025

Firefly the Travel Guy

Who is the Settler Family of the Grahamstown Settlers Monument?

I posted this picture of the Settlers Family statue in Makhanda / Grahamstown on my Encounter the Eastern Cape page on Facebook recently 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…

Comments Off

19/07/2024

Firefly the Travel Guy

Take Graaff-Reinet Anglo Boer War memorial

Graaff-Reinet isn't just the sixth oldest town in South Africa or the town with the most historical monuments in the country. The town and its district also have a rich history of Voortrekker history, Anglo-Boer War history and history connected to the freedom struggle. One of the monuments in town that not a lot of people get to see is the Anglo-Boer War Memorial on the corner of Donkin and Somerset Streets. It's a pity because it's actually a striking…

Comments Off

12/09/2023

Firefly the Travel Guy

An angel of victory and peace in Graaff-Reinet

When you drive up the main road through Graaff-Reinet the magnificent Dutch Reformed Church (Groot Kerk) awaits you at the top of the street. As you drive around the church you find the town's beautiful Town Hall hiding behind it and perched in the Mayor's Garden stands a statue of an angel holding a sword. Three months after the end of the First World War a decision was made to erect a monument in honour of the gallant Graaff-Reinet men…

Comments Off

09/08/2023

Firefly the Travel Guy

A French Huguenot memorial in the Karoo

When you think of the French Huguenots you automatically think of Franschhoek surrounded by mountains, greenery, and vineyards. And wine, let's not forget the wine. So try and imagine then a memorial to the French Huguenots in the Karoo Heartland town of Graaff-Reinet. On 31 December 1687 the first group of Huguenots set sail from France as part of a large-scale emigration of Huguenots to the Cape of Good Hope due to religious persecution. About 350 Huguenots eventually settled at…

Comments Off

28/07/2023

Firefly the Travel Guy

Remembering the Independence of Graaff-Reinet

Did you know that Graaff-Reinet declared independence from the Cape Colony at the end of the 1700s? Or that there is a monument commemorating this event in town? I knew about the shortlived independence but even though I have been to Graaff-Reinet many times before I didn't realise there was a monument to it. On my last trip I knew what to look for and finding it really was a facepalm moment. If it was a snake it would have…

Comments Off

24/07/2023

Firefly the Travel Guy

Looking north with the Andries Pretorius Monument

The Great Trek had a number of leaders that will always be remembered in the Afrikaner history of South Africa. In 1836 Dutch-speaking settlers started moving northeast into the interior of what is today known as South Africa away from the Cape Colony. They were traveling in wagon trains made up of ox wagons and horses seeking to live beyond the Cape's British colonial administration. One of those leaders was a man named Andries Pretorius from the Graaff-Reinet district. General…

1 Comment

07/07/2023

Firefly the Travel Guy

A whistlestop visit to Orania

I love exploring small towns. There's just something about them and the history you find there. But what if it's a small town that technically is new and without its own history yet still has a lot of history in it? Sounds confusing, doesn't it? There is one such place that has been on my bucket list radar for quite some time. The Afrikaner enclave of Orania. Partly to see what the town looks like for myself, partly to visit…

Comments Off

02/06/2023