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 if this is their new home now.  Standing there looking at the monument I wondered how many people would be able to give me a correct answer if I had to ask them what year the 1820 British Settlers arrived in Algoa Bay...

Three Karoo Heartland icons

Three Karoo Heartland icons, all in one picture.  

Big open sky, Karoo koppies (in this case Koffiebus and Teebus outside Steynsburg) and the good ol' reliable Windpomp.

Vrystaatse Vlaktes

I have come to love the wide open spaces of the Karoo Heartland in the Eastern Cape but just haven't been able to get used to the, what we call in Afrikaans, Vrystaatse vlaktes.  Vrystaat is the Afrikaans name for the Free State, South Africa's central province while vlaktes is an very descriptive Afrikaans work for wide open spaces stretching for miles.  The wide open spaces, or vlaktes, of the Free State is very different from that of the Karoo Heartland.  Driving along the roads of the central and southern Free State you often feel like you are in the middle of nowhere where nothing grows about knee high.  I'm not insulting the Free State, please don't get me wrong.  I'm just saying that, like with wine, I just haven't been able to get used to it.  I found the most beautiful Afrikaans poem called the Vrystaatse Vlaktes in die Somer just to make up for it in case somebody feels insulted.  

The picture was taken just off the N1 in the southern Free State about 50 kilometers north of the Gariep Dam. 

I haven't participated in Skywatch Friday for a very long time and I think it's time I start sharing our beautiful South African skies on a regular basis on it again.

Remembering the Slagtersnek hangings

If you are flying along in a northerly direction through the Karoo Heartland on the N10, the main drag between Port Elizabeth and Cradock, do slow down a bit after you pass the first turnoff to Somerset East and keep a look out on the right hand side of the road for a cenotaph like monument.  Once spotted, do pull over and have a look as this is a very significant spot in the early history of the area.

I'm not going to relate the whole story here, but you can go and read the whole article about Slachter's Nek on the Somerset East website.  In short, the story is about a violent Boer uprising in the area late in 1815.  After most of those involved either surrendered or were arrested, they were charged and either cleared, imprisoned or banished.  Five were sentenced to death by public hanging at Van Aardtspos on 9 March 1816.  The hangman never realised that there were five to be hanged so old rope was used.  Four of the five ropes broke and Landdrost Jacob Culyer (of the Uitenhage district) ordered that they be hanged a second time, this time one by one.  The monument contains the names of the five that was hanged as well as the Bezuidenhout brothers, who were whole reason the uprising started. 

Another interesting link to Slagternek can be found in the Somerset East Museum in town.  The original beam that was used for the hanging is on display in one of the upstairs rooms.  After the hanging the beam was used as a support beam in a farmer's pigsty where it was found in the late 1940's and taken to the Voortrekker Monument.  In 1989 it landed up in the Cape Town Historical Museum before it was eventually returned to Somerset East.  

The Windpomp

The windpomp is one of the icons of the Karoo Heartland and as part of the landscape as Karoo koppies, sheep and Angora goats and a good ol' farm gate.  But have you ever wondered where the windpomp came from and how long they've been around?

The first windpumps were used to pump water since at least the 9th century in what is now Afghanistan, Iran and Pakistan.  They later became widespread across the Muslim world and also spread to China and India.  From the Middle Ages onward windmills were used extensively in Europe, particularly in the Netherlands and parts of Great Britain, to drain land for agricultural or building purposes.

Records show that windpompe were used in South Africa from 1869, although the earliest evidence of a windpump in the country comes from a painting drawn in 1848.  These first South African windpompe were all wooden constructions with the first all steel windpump being patented in England in 1855.  The first imported windpomp came to South Africa in 1874 and was a Standard Halliday that was erected on the farm of Mr P.J. du Toit in the Hopetown District.

The windpomp in the picture stands next to the road between Cradock and Middelburg in the Eastern Cape.

Somerset East's whiskey bar in a church

I'm not much of a drinker preferring to do the sacrilegious thing of making beer shandy by throwing lemonade into a perfectly good beer.  But I am known to enjoy a good beer or wine tasting so it shouldn't come as a huge surprise that I'm doing a post on a place where you can do a spot of whiskey tasting.  As long as I only need to taste.  But this isn't sommer any place, it's a whiskey bar inside a church and can be found at Angler and Antelope Guesthouse in the Karoo Heartland town of Somerset East.

 

The church building is the town's original Roman Catholic church building and was built in 1906.  Named after St Francis of Assisi, the patron saint of animals, the church was built with funds raised by local Catholics and aided by contributions from the Catholic Diocese of Port Elizabeth.  The presbytery next to the church was built for the first priest of the congregation in 1925 and is used as the guesthouse's family cottage today.  The last Roman Catholic priest to serve in St Francis was Father Michael Scully.  He used to ride around town on his bicycle and was always willing to help others, especially if you happened to have a spot of Irish Whiskey in the house.  I'm sure if Father Scully was still around he would give the pub with its collection of over sixty malt whiskeys his blessing.  The pub isn't open to the public so if you want to try it out you will have to book into Angler and Antelope or at least make a special arrangement with owner Alan Hobson.

 

Just for interest sake, Father Scully grew his congregation in Somerset East during his time here to such an extent, that they outgrew the little church of St Francis.  A second church was built in Paulet Street, but this soon became too small as well.  The new Roman Catholic Church in Beaufort Street was built, but sadly Father Scully died in February 1997 at the ripe old age of 80, and did not see its completion.

 

Thanks to Angler and Antelope for the historic information added to this post.

Hofmeyr's pink church

Most Karoo towns have a historic church with a church tower that keeps an eye out over it.  The Karoo Heartland town of Hofmeyr is no different...  or perhaps it is.  Why? Because it has a pink church tower standing out above the town.  The Dutch Reformed Church in Hofmeyr was built in 1875 and at some stage went pink.  It definitely didn't go pink for breast cancer awareness because it happened way before that but whatever the reason it looks very cool.