Christiana diggers festaval

We arrived at the Christiana diggers festival from Hartenbos Mosselbay on Wednesday afternoon.We have done the festival for many years on our way to the north.It is nice and warm in the South African bush veld in the winter .
The Diggers festival is in the North West Province where diamonds are mined by land owners and small mines.
When diamonds were discovered in the Vaal River in the 1870s the former Transvaal Government established a settlement on the banks of the river in 1870, in an attempt to control and alleviate land disputes over diamond discoveries further down the Vaal River. This town was established on the farm Zoutpansdrift (salt pan drift) and named Christiana, after the only daughter of President Pretorius of the old Transvaal. The first residential stands were sold in 1870.
Two years later diamonds were discovered in the gravel of the Vaal River close by and the inevitable manic rush followed. As usual the initial rush petered with the diamonds. In 1997, diamonds were rediscovered along the banks of a farm on the Free State side of Christiana. This led to a new diamond rush and diggings that continue to this day.
The town contains one of the biggest diggers' bells ever to exist in the world. The bell is currently under water in the Vaal River as it once sank and ended in the drowning of several diggers. There were a few attempts to get the diggers' bell out, as it is said that there are diamonds still in it, but it was in vain as it is surrounded by too much mud.
                                      

The festival is in it's tenth year.The surrounding schools participate by playing rugby and netball against each other and all the parents come to the festival to support them.

Meiringspoort.

                             Beaufort West to Mossel Bay via the wonderful Meiringspoort

On our way to Mossel Bay we stoped for coffee in Meiringspoort.

Entry to the poort is via Klaarstroom, 55 kms east of Prince Albert en route to Oudtshoorn and the coast. Following spectacular floods which caused great damage, the road has been reconstructed at a cost of R70 million. Meiringspoort was officially re-opened by the Western Cape Premier, Gerald Morkel, on 20th October 2000.

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The first road through the poort was constructed between 1856 and 1858. by Adam de Schmidt. On the morning of 3 March 1858 a colorful procession of about 250 mounted men and 100 distinguished guests in "spiders", carriages and wagons departed through a triumphal arch decorated with flags for the journey to Klaarstroom - where a deputation of important guests from Prince Albert and Beaufort West awaited their arrival under another triumphal arch.

The first freight of wool from the interior was dispatched to Mossel Bay through Meiringspoort in "twaalf lange wolwagens" (12 long ox-drawn wool wagons) on the same day.

The road through the poort is a remarkable engineering feat, but the overwhelming features of a drive through Meiringspoort are the wonders of nature. The folds of the Table Mountain sandstone strata tower above the road, constantly changing colour as you move through sunlight and shade. Hardy plants, including indigenous pelargoniums, cling to the precarious rock faces while birds, baboons and smaller fauna abound in the protected kloofs and crevices. Among the most scenic spots is the Skelm tumbling into a dark pool which, legend has it, is bottomless. (In 1938 it stopped flowing for the first time in human memory).

A beautiful mermaid was said to live in the pool at the foot of the waterfall. During the 1996 floods a story circulated that she had been washed out of the pool, down the Groot and Oliphants rivers and out to sea. She had been caught in a fisherman's net and taken to the CP Nel Museum in Oudtshoorn, where she was preserved in spirits! The Museum was overwhelmed with telephone calls and visitors keen to see the mermaid!

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Look out for Herrie's Stone - there can't be much graffiti that has been declared a National Monument. C.J. Langenhoven carved the name of his famous elephant on a boulder in Meiringspoort in 1929.




                                             The info center in Meiringspoort

Karla and Connie

Taking a nother coffee break in Meiringspoort.

Our camp at Hartenbos camping grounds

Connie is colouring in.

Karla and Connie posing for a foto.

Thunder storm in the Karoo

                                                 The Karoo in all it's magnificence.


We left Randfontein the 28 March to first go to Beaufortwest. On our way there we stoped at the Karoo town of Colesberg at a caravan park but they wanted R140.00 plus R40.00 per child.So I said no thanks and we went to the Colesberg  jail grounds, there we stayed for free.We don't want or need electricity and saved R220.00 on camping fees.
Tuesday morning we left the jail grounds at 9h00.Back on the N1 we traveld to the town of Hanover where we stoped and  Anita made us very nice breakfast burgers.

          

This beautiful church is the Neder Duitch  Gereformeerde Curch in Hanover.

Hanover is a very small town in the Karoo and I admire the people for building this magnificent church.

We arrived at Beaufortwest show grounds and Gerrie the caretaker took us to our site.After I parked the camper, Anita made us lunch wich we had outside in the shade of the camper.Wednesday afternoon we put up the tent and unpack the Landy, thursday morning we opened shop brite and early.We where invited to the show opening dinner on Wensday night .After all the usual speaches we had a lovely fish fry dinner and we had a nice evening with our friends.Friday was also quite so we closed the stall at 22h00.Saterday morning we opend the stall at 9h00 but there was almost no one on the grounds.Later during the day the weather turned very bad the thunderstorm came so suddenly that we could not have saved our stock if we were alone.Luckely there was a lot of people that helped us to put our stock in the camper and we lost no sweets.The tent was a different story, the wind was so strong and it rianed so hard that the tent went down like the Titanic.

                                                              Our sweets tent after the storm
                                                                            

                                  Our friend Willem that sells Kakadu and Reback tent.

Randfontein Show.

Last week we worked at the Randfontein show were we sold our sweets.We started to put the stall up on Tuesday morning.Anita's cousin Adrie came to help with decorating the stall.
                                            Adrie, Anita's cousin worked very hard at the stall.

                                            Anita working very hard to make the stall look nice.

Adrie and Luchka at work.

                           Randfontein show is one off our favourite shows and we do very well here.
                                                 Here the stall is ready for the show to start.

Brother Sarel and Melanie his wife came to work at the show.

Happy clients buying their sweets from the best sweet stall at the show.

Me trying to be funny but failing miserably.

One's I had a body like this....NOT!!!

                                          

Steeling a braai in Mossel Baai.

I was just reading a post on a Australian forum about, what have you found on your travels.A few years ago we where touring the Western Cape province of South Africa.Going from show to show in the small towns of the Western Cape.We met up with good friends.Gert and Marlene Koekemoer and Cornelius Muller and his late wife Martie in the beautiful town of Swellendam.Where we put up shop and worked the... festival. From Swellendam we had to travel to De Aar, 600km to the north from Swellendam.We all decided to stand over at Mosselbay on our way to the north.We where all parked up at the Point caravan park in Mosselbay.That night a European tourist who went deep sea fishing came to us with beautiful fresh fish he caught that day.I borrowed a braai "BBQ" from the caravan park to fry the fish,and we all had a lovely supper. The next morning Gert and Marlene and ourselves left the caravan park at 6am.As usual Cornelius and Martie left long after us.On our way, during the day, Gert started to feel sick ,suffering from high fever,so we decided to pull of the road at the town of Beaufort-west.UN be known to us Cornelius past us on his way to De Aar.We arrived at De Aar after dark with Gert in a bad way by then. The next morning Gert got diagnosed with tic bite fever and off he went to hospital. A few days later Gert was discharge from hospital we decided to braai again.That's when Cornelius remembered to reprimand me about my forgetfulness.I must say that Cornelius is many years older than me.I could for the life of me not understand what the old man was on about. That's when Martie brought out the braai I used at the caravan park in Mosselbay.With a self-complacent expression on his mug,he told me that "if you would only take the time in the morning to look around and make certain that all your gear is packed away,it would not be necessary for me to bring your braai all the bloody way to De Aar.That's when the rest of us burst out in laughter and Cornelius felt the fool.Since that day he was known as the braai thief of Mosselbay. Well since that tour we all travelled far and wide and on many beautiful roads. Our dear friends Gert Koekemoer and Martie Muller took their last journey to the best destination of all.They are dearly mist indeed.Every time we pass thru that part of our beautiful country I am fondly reminded of dear friends and the braai Cornelius stole from Mosselbay caravan park.

Taking the long way to Ficksburg Cherry Festival

We left on Monday to go to the Cherry Festival at Ficksburg.

Ficksburg is on the border of the Kingdom of Lesotho and South Africa in the Eastern Free state.

We decided to take the long way there, what is more we decided to free camp and not book in to caravan parks.That is some thing we did often before,but we stop ed doing when the children were born. We left Rantfontein at 10h00 and we did not know where we would park for the night which was exciting.The road to Vereeniging was uneventful and some what boring but after we left Vanderbijlpark the scenery changed from urbane factory's to farm land.The city made way for rolling hills and corn fields, cattle doted the grasslands and we enjoyed every minute of the journey.The R57 to Heilbron is in good nick with hardly any potholes.We took the road thru the town of Heilbron because the road around the town where closed dew to maintenance.Unfortunately the roads in the town is full of potholes and the general upkeep of the town is non existent dew to a bankrupt municipality. Unfortunately greed and  Corruption is killing these small towns thru out South Africa.

We found ourselves at the kwiant town of Clarens.

Clerens is one of that small towns that draws you in and although a tourist trap, indeed makes you feel at home.We decided to stay over for the night and made camp on the other side of the road in front of the police station.

Mignon

     Tony and Mignon 

Mignon is the captan of the South African women cricket team.

 

 South Africa played England in a international mach at Senwes staduim.

The South African team.