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Travelling again? Galavanting with Kathryn Costello

A trip up the Sani Pass

Historically, what is now a sensational road, was a bridle path, and was used to convey goods between South Africa and Lesotho, by donkey, mule and oxen.

Deelfontein: Home of the Imperial Yeomanry Hospital

Mrs Google Maps when getting the directions to Deelfontein must have been playing broken telephone, because we took a seriously long scenic route. But hey, I don’t do lost, so we enjoyed the Karoo scenery. Flat land. The odd koppie (small flat topped mountain). Sand. Springbokke. Knee high scrub bush. Repeat. Repeat again.

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.

The Trekbokke of the Karoo

The springbok treks in the late 1800s were akin to swarms of locusts moving over the land, and as devastating to sheep farmers, who often gave up farming after their grazing land had been destroyed by the springbokke.

The Beervlei Dam

It does not supply any towns with water. Considering that this the dry, almost desert like Little Karoo, you will think that strange, or a waste of precious water.

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