And still Logan pressed forward.  He discovered some big subterranean water reservoirs in the vicinity of the village and with a water pipe system fed the village and the railway station with water – steam trains need a lot of water to operate and Logan saw the need and the gap.  If you take a walk in the village and cross the mostly dry creek you will stumble upon the first reservoir near the sparkling blue swimming pool. 

On the cards for Matjiesfontein was a tennis court, a golf course and a cricket pitch as cricket was the main sport at the time in England.  In 1901 Matjiesfontein hosted a cricket match between South Africa and England.  Logan also toured England with is very own cricket team with its very own interesting story!

Still Logan pressed forward to put Matjiesfontein on the map.  Thanks to him it was the first village in South African that had electric lights and a waterborne sewerage system.  As an excellent destination marketer interesting names that visited Matjiesfontein, after arriving by mail boat, was Lord Randolph Churchill, the father of Winston Churchill and the sultan of Zanzibar.  Local names of the time that you will recognize is Olive Schreiner, who rented a house next to the hotel, Cecil John Rhodes and Lord Roberts during the Anlgo Boer War. 

The present-day hotel was erected by Logan as a hospital and the turrets were used as lookout posts during the Anglo Boer War.  He also raised his own mounted corps, at his own expense, and was wounded twice in the war.  James Logan must have been a wealthy man as all these projects required, apart from vision, lots of money.

In 1968 Dawid Rawdon bought the property and put in a huge effort to renovate the hotel to its former glory and opened it in 1970.  He was also the brain behind The Drostdy Hotel in Graaff Reinet and the Lanzerac in Stellenbosch.  This will also then explain the car in the museum branded with the word Lanzerac – I was wondering about this.   In the plus/minus 130 years of existence the town was owned by only two families!

Matjiesfontein is an unexpected step back into time in the middle of the Karoo and a welcome relieve to break the monotony of your trip and worth to explore. 

Feel free to listen to Dr Dean Allen on VoiceMap as he takes you on a walking tour through the village and share some interesting titbits. 

https://voicemap.me/tour/karoo/historic-tour-of-matjiesfontein/sites

ooOOoo

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Upon entering Kimberley, one might find that the capital of the Northern Cape Province of South Africa, is just another dull, dusty town with heat waves in summer and cold, winter nights with temperatures below zero degrees Celsius.  The impression one gets when driving down the streets of this once “rich” town, is definitely not one of glamour and shiny diamonds.  Being the host city of the De Beers Mining Company HQ, Kimberley still preserves the rich history that made this town one of the most sought after places to be during the early 1900’s.

One might think that visiting a big hole in the ground should be nothing spectacular these days, given that we have seen comets create big craters all over the world.  So what makes the Big Hole in Kimberley so special that one will pay to take a selfie in front of a hole in the ground?  Well, come with me on a journey where we discover the uniqueness that you will not find anywhere in the world.

Arriving at the Big Hole Visitors Centre and the Museum, a feeling of richness descends on you.  You walk through the gate and arrive in the little village with original buildings that are restored, such as the diggers’ quarters, Barney Barnato’s boxing academy and the church built in Europe and shipped to Kimberley.  You walk past the Tramway and into the modern Visitors Centre with it’s vast openness and in the distance a ramp starts appearing where you will soon stand to look out over the biggest hand-dug excavation in the world.

Depending on the time you have, there are different packages to meet you need:

• Full Tour (R110/person) – includes a 20min movie, a visit underground inside the mine, a visit to the museum and the Big Hole
• Tour (R60) – includes a 20min movie and a visit to the Big Hole
• Tour (R40) – includes a visit to the Big Hole

On each tour you are assigned a knowledgeable guide who will enrich you with the 150-year old story of the Big Hole of Kimberley.

But for now, tour with me on the full tour and I will tell you what you can expect.  We are taking a journey back to the time of Barney Barnato and Cecil John Rhodes.

After paying your entrance fee and making your way past the entrance to the Big Hole ramp, you find yourself in a big movie theater where you are taken back in time while watching the story of the discovery of the very first diamond discovered in South Africa.  I will not say to much about the story, it truly is something that you will have to see for yourself.  It takes you on the journey of a mine worker as well as a journalist of the time with footage from the Diamond Rush and journey of the little stone that had given rise to the De Beers Mining Company that we all know today.  The 20 min movie introduces businessmen like Barney Barnato and Cecil John Rhodes and you can very quickly decide who’s side you want to take.

Thereafter one makes your way down into the mine where you could still see the “koekepanne” (the little railway wagons that were used to carry the dirt along the railway to where it is sifted for diamonds).  You feel like a miner down there as you walk in an underground tunnel and the guide explains to you what the equipment was used for.  You could feel and hear the blasts of dynamite in the walls that the miners used to loosen the rocks and ground.

After your journey through the underground mine, you enter a modern, clean looking museum where you cannot believe that you were just exploring dusty, ground tunnels.  The museum is a prestigious place where the history is portrayed in glass panels and scale models of the excavations on display.  The guide explains to you all the equipment used to value and investigate the diamonds, before you are told to put your camera away as you enter the Vault.  You stand in awe of the most beautiful diamonds.  Colours you cannot think of.  Shapes and sizes so unreal.

The tour comes to an end and you feel like a true explorer now that you have seen the process and the final product.  You head out to the Big Hole where you have a certain appreciation for what you have see down below.  Suddenly you realize all the blood, sweat and tears that has gone into digging this hole.  One cannot believe that only 150-years ago it was a flat little mountain (“koppie”) which was dug out by hand to what it is today.  So many lives have been lost in the hope of discovering one little stone that could change their lives forever.

By the time the mining ended on 14 August 1914, the mine yielded 2 722 kg of diamonds.  When you look across the big gaping hole in the ground (214m deep, 17 hectares of surface area and 1.6 km perimeter), you see a building with a green roof – the De Beers HQ and all of a sudden one cannot help but feel like a million dollars.  De Beers use pegs that can be seen from the viewpoint to monitor at what rate the Big Hole is getting bigger these days.  Another thing you can see from the viewpoint, is the first electric streetlights in Africa and the Southern Hemisphere – yes Kimberley was the first town with electricity in Africa.

The Visitor Center has a few shops where you can buy a souvenir or two as well as a coffee shop where you can have a chat over a cup of coffee.  After relaxing and recouping, take a stroll through the village as it was in the time of The Rush and maybe even book your ride on the tram running through the Village.  When you leave the Big Hole you have one final look around and as the De Beers railway coach, used by Cecil John Rhodes to commute between Cape Town and Kimberley, catches your eye, you snap a couple of pictures and leave with a heart that is so much richer and an appreciation for those who braved the African sun to do hard labour for what we take for granted today.  That piece of bling on your finger will have a “hole” new meaning the next time you look at it.

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Ek het begin oplees oor die geskiedenis van Oudtshoorn en vind toe uit dat daar  ongeveer 100 Joodse gesinne in 1877 hierheen gevlug het tydens die Russies-Turkse oorlog – meestal vanuit Lithuania wat op daardie stadium ‘n Russiese provinsie was.   Vandaar dat die sinagoge  in Baron van Reedestraat in 1881 opgerig is met die hulp van die Afrikaanssprekende gemeenskap van Oudsthoorn.  Die sinagoge is vandag nog in gebruik en lê weggesteek agter in ‘n lower groen tuin.  Soos wat ek stap hoor ek helder kinderstemme.  Vandag is daar ‘n kleuterskool in die ou Hebreeuse skool gebou agter die sinagoge.  Die kompleks het ook ‘n Joodse klub en die Rabbi se huis gehuisves.

Nog verder aan in Baron van Reedestraat (wat eers bekend was as Queenstraat) kry ek die Ou Tronk wat vroeg in die 19de eeu gebou is en ook die ontwerp van George Wallis was.  Vandag huisves dit nog steeds die Departement van Korrektiewe Dienste in Oudtshoorn.

Dan stop ek eers by Fairview te 131 Baron van Reedestraat wat dateer uit die vroeë 20ste eeu.  Die sandsteen heining met sy pilare waarop Fairview uitgekerf is, is eintlik nog in ‘n goeie toestand en is vir my mooi.

Ons draai op in ‘n nou straatjie om in Hoogstraat uit te kom en na ander juwele van die dorp te gaan kyk en loop onverwags die Methodiste Kerk, toe gerank met ‘n creeper, raak.  Die kerkie is gesluit, maar neem ek tog ‘n paar mooi foto’s hier.

 In Hoogstraat stop ek by die NG Kerk wat opgerig is vanaf 1860 tot 1879 en sy pastorie (1881) oorkant die straat.  Dit is jammer om te sien dat die kerk se sandsteen geverf is – ‘n mens wonder hoekom, want al die ander sandsteen geboue in Oudtshoorn het so mooi behoue gebly?   Ek dink ou Otto Hager, die argitek, draai in sy graf om as hy dit sien!

 Le Roux Huis reg langs die kerk is vandag oop.  Ons gaan loop ‘n draai deur die huis.   Daar kom ons te hore dat die linoleum en matte nog nooit vervang is nie en steeds oorspronklik is!  Volgens die besoekersboek loer oorsese toeriste gereeld hier in.

Dan op in Kampstraat na die Drill Saal toe.  Die gebou is aan die verwaarloosde kant en is op die oomblik in die mark.  Ek sien ook dat Cecil John Rhodes, die destydse premier van die Kaap Kolonie, die hoeksteen van die gebou gelê het in 1892.  Ek hoop iemand red gou die gebou van ondergang en bewaar die geskiedenis.

My laaste stop vir vandag gaan by die pragtige Foster’s Folly in Voortrekkerstraat wees wat vir JH Foster gebou is,  maar in 1914 bankrot verklaar is toe die volstruis verebedryf ineenstort.   Dit was ook eens as ‘n onderwysers kollege gebruik vanaf 1915 – 1924 en ook later as ‘n meisies koshuis.  In 1991 is dit as ‘n nasionale gedenkwaardigheid verklaar en vandag is dit egter ‘n gastehuis wat agter groot bome weg kruip.

 Gou was die oggend om en my verkenningstog van die verlede op ‘n einde – dit was tyd om huis toe te gaan!

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