A Trip to the Kamiesberge with my Friend Gert
There’s nothing quite like someone local to take on a road trip, and that was Gert on this occasion. Interesting stories and perspectives, places that are not on the map. Gates that can be opened because the farmer sends a lock code.
Our first stop was at a Boer War graveyard, next to the N7. A “khaki”, Lieut. Charles James Darter, “killed in ambush”.
Though we were heading into the Kamiesberg, we drove past Kamieskroon to a “gun-barrel fence”. Here, old rifle barrels were used as posts for a fence. These barrels came from old rifles and were donated by a local gunsmith, according to a local ouma [grandmother].
Back to Kamieskroon, with a turn-off to Bowesdorp, which was a small village that later transposed to Kamieskroon12. It’s not a ghost town, though only a few people live there. The kerk murasie [church ruin] is a treat!
An impressive ruin of a large church that has walls of approximately 0,7-meter thickness. The window arches were built with bricks, the walls probably with local stone. What has happened to the windows and pulpit?
Gert has family in Bowesdorp and we were allowed to “harvest” from the garden. Fruit and nut trees galore, which the ouma had used to finance her son’s university studies. Quince, figs, pomegranate, pecan, citrus.
The clock was heading to 11 am, it was time to get to our actual destination in the Kamiesberg. Up the Kamiesberg pass3, which is quite a rough road, to Modderfontain farm where tannie [aunt] Heidii and oom [uncle] Richard hosted us for Sunday lunch and a walk around the farm.
We started with a stoepsit fire, we were having boerewors [farmers sausage] for lunch, and then we were shown original paintings by Piet van Heerden, whose grave is on the farm.
“Van Heerden is noted for his landscape paintings celebrating the Boland – wheat fields, vineyards, farms, and mountains, the semi-arid landscapes of the Northern Cape and Southern Namibia, and, like his mentor, springtime in Namaqualand.”4
The paintings were quite something, especially after my recent sojourn into painting classes!
Then came another treat: a wind-up gramophone player that is still in working order. We listened to Handel’s Largo for a few minutes.
After lunch, we went for a walk on the farm, first to Spioenkop (there’s probably a few in Namaqualand), and then to the abandoned former farmhouse.
Lastly, a meadow of March Lily: Fragrant Candelabra, Brunsvigia bosmaniae5.
‘n Mooi dag kry ook ‘n einde
Bowesdorp (Ancestors.co.za)
Kamiesberg Pass (Mountain Passes of South Africa)
Piet van Heerden (Crouse Art Gallery)
Fragrant Candelabra - Brunsvigia bosmaniae (iNaturalist)