Hofmeyr

A side view of the Hofmeyr Post Office

Hofmeyr is a typical little Karoo town.  Imposing old Dutch Reformed Church keeping an eye over mostly dusty streets and a proud but struggling farming community.  Situated roughly halfway between Cradock and Steynsburg, the town with its less than 2000 people lies at an altitude of 1252 meters and in the heart of a once flourishing sheep farming district.  The town was founded in 1873 and, initially named Maraisburg, renamed Hofmeyr in 1911.  It was named in honour of Jan Hendrik Hofmeyr (Onze Jan), a campaigner for the equal treatment of Afrikaans and English and General Jan Smuts' closet advisor.

The main road through Hofmeyr makes a turn in town and on the corner is a small park containing a couple of monuments.  One of those is a small pyramid that acts as a monument to the people from the district that took part in the Great Trek.

This bell also stands in the park.  I'm not sure if it was a town bell to call people together for meetings and in case of emergency or otherwise a slave or mission bell.  Probable the former.

Protea bug

When I was doing a bit of research for the post on Pin Cushion Proteas, I found the following information: "Proteas aren't self-pollinating and depend on the small scarab beetles and the birds for pollination."  Now I don't think this little dude sitting on the King Protea is a scarab beetle, but if he does the job who am I to question what he's doing there.

Pin Cushion Proteas

We headed out to the Van Stadens Wildflower Reserve west of Port Elizabeth the other day and found lots of Pin Cushion Proteas (Leucospermum cordifolium) in flower.  Caroline has pointed me to the PlantZAfrica website which has great information on South African plants and flowers. Pin Cushion Proteas are part of the Cape Floral Kingdom, better known as the Fynbos biome.  The Cape Floral Kingdom is indemic to South Africa and found mainly between the Cape West Coast area and Port Elizabeth. 

The Leucospermum cordifolium is a rounded spreading shrub up to 2 m in diameter and about 1,5 m high, with a single main stem and horizontally spreading stems, hard green leaves and 1 to 3 large inflorescences borne at the end on the stem.   The interesting part is that what we see as a flower is actually a large collection of small flowers.  Each of the pins of the "pin cushion" is the pistil of an individual flower.  The bright red, orange or yellow (depending on the colour of the flower) pointed end (stigma) is the female organ of the plant.  The flowers are not self-pollinating and depend on the small Scarab beetles and the birds for pollination.

As was amazed at the colours ranging from reddish to orange and yellow.  How fortunate we are indeed.  The most amazing part of the protea plants are that the hard nut like seeds are normally collected by ants, stored in the soil, and germinate only after a fire has killed the mature plants and returned the nutrients back to the soil.

Windpomp against the sky

A windpomp (wind pump) in the Karoo edged off against the sky

Visit Skywatch for more pictures of the sky

Karoo koppies

The Karoo landscapes are beautiful and always give you something new to photograph.  Driving back from Gauteng I stopped for a quick break outside Steynsburg and snapped this farm gate with Karoo koppies in the background.

These specific Karoo koppies in question are Koffiebus (Coffee pot) and Teebus (Tee pot).

Union Building Gardens

The Union Buildings are surrounded by beautifully terraced gardens of indigenous plants as well as various monuments and a 9,000 seat amphitheatre.  On our visit the roses were in full bloom, the weather nice and warm and people were just relaxing all over the gardens.

The lawn in front of the Union Buildings are often the location for public gatherings, whether they be protest or celebration, such as the presidential inauguration.  In 1915 there was a march of Afrikaner women to the Union Buildings to ask for the revision of prison sentences for those who rebelled against the government’s decision to take part in the First World War.  Forty years later, in 1956, some 20 000 women, protesting against apartheid laws, undertook a procession to the Union Buildings to hand over a memorandum to Minister J.G. Strijdom.  Probably one of the biggest events, if not the biggest, to be held in front of the Union Buildings was the inauguration of South Africa’s first democratically elected President, Nelson Mandela in 1994.

The gardens have several monuments scattered all over.  These include the South African Police Memorial, the Delville Wood War Memorial, a plaque in memory of those that died during the Korean War and a statue to President J.B.M. Hertzog.

Standing at the bottom of the gardens is a large statue of General Louis Botha on horseback. Gen Botha was the first Prime Minister of the Union of South Africa.  There was a plan to have a statue of Nelson Mandela, the first democratically elected president of South Africa, erected somewhere on the grounds as well, but this was changed and the intended statue was put up in Nelson Mandela Square in Sandton, Johannesburg. 

Union Buildings

The Union Buildings on Meintjieskop in Pretoria is the official seat of the South African government and also house the offices of the President of South Africa.  The Boer Republics of the ZAR (Transvaal) and the Orange Free State united with the Cape Colony and Natal Colony in 1910 to for the Union of South Africa.  Pretoria was selected as the administrative capital of the Union.

The cornerstone of the building with its two identical wings was laid in November 1910, shortly after the Union of South Africa was formed. Hence the name Union Buildings.  It took 1,265 workers over three years to build the structure.  The two wings at the sides served to represent the union of a formerly divided people and was again relevant in 1994 with democracy coming to South Africa.

The two cannons standing outside the Union Buildings overlooking the gardens are 40-pounder RML field carriages.  The guns were navel guns that were mounted on carriages by the British forces during the Anglo Boer War (1899 - 1902) and accompanied the British siege train to South Africa.  Although intended to, they were not required for the expected siege of Pretoria, which did not eventuate.

Also standing joust outside the Union Buildings overlooking the gardens is a war memorial commemorating those who died during the First World War.  The monument is a replica of the monument that stands in the war cemetery in Delville Wood in France.  There is also a replica in Cape Town in the Company Gardens.