The second bridge which had served as the rail bridge over the Vaal River at Fourteen Streams, near Warrenton in the Northern Cape, was dismantled and erected over the Kei River. This historic bridge at Fourteen Streams saw skirmishes during the Anglo Boer War and for a while, it became a Boer stronghold, when the English stationed there, withdrew to Kimberly.
Category: Transkei
The Sao Joao Tragedy
This was the undoing of Dona Leonor. Having survived a walk of over a thousand kilometres through African bush and jungle, hunger, and all sorts of hardships that a noble woman had never dreamed of in her worst nightmares of ever enduring, her nakedness was the last straw. She buried herself in the sand, refused to move, and she and her children died of starvation. Her husband, who seemingly had gone mad from his wife’s actions, disappeared into the wilds and was never seen again.
Magwa Falls and Magwa Tea Estate in Pondoland, South Africa
Magwa Falls, at 146m, are the highest falls in the Eastern Cape. They are part of the Egosa Fault, which resulted in the formation of many precipitous cliffs and narrow gorges being formed north of Port St Johns.
uMamlambo – The water People of the Eastern Cape
….a ‘half horse, half fish brain sucking monster’ was reported to be killing people in the area. Nine people, including children had been killed….
A Crazy Idea: Sir Conan Doyle and an attempted salvage of the Grosvenor treasure.
A crazy idea: the attempted salvage of the Grosvenor treasure What does the Wild Coast of South Africa and Sherlock Holmes have in common? What does an Anglo Boer War doctor and Sherlock Holmes’ nemesis, Moriarty have in common? The answer is Conan Doyle, as in Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle KStJ, DL (1859 –… Continue reading A Crazy Idea: Sir Conan Doyle and an attempted salvage of the Grosvenor treasure.
Pondoland, Transkei and the tragedy of the SS Mendi.
‘You are going to die, but that is what you came to do… let us die like warriors. We are the sons of Africa. Raise your war cries, my brothers, for though they made us leave our assegais [spears] back in the kraals [villages], our voices are left with our bodies.’
The Umzimvubu River and Port St Johns
…..as usual, the European powers that were, had no respect for local knowledge, so the Umzimvubu River is called the St Johns River on all maps, and in all books written up until the early 1900s.
Traveling again? Galavanting with Kathryn Costello 