MZANZI TRAVEL - ISSUE 3

100 distinguished guests in horse carts, carriages and wagons
decorated with flags travelled through the poort from Oudtshoorn
to Klaarstroom. There they were awaited by a party of important
guests, gathered under a triumphal arch, from the towns of Prince
Albert and Beaufort West. Hereafter it became an important route
for sending wool from the Karoo for shipment through the port of
Mossel Bay.
One of the most scenic spots is found at Die Skelm where a waterfall
tumbles down into a dark pool said to be bottomless and the home
of a mermaid. In the poort you will also find a sign marking the spot
where famous Afrikaans author, C J Langenhoven, carved the name
of his fictional elephant, Herrie, on a boulder; today it is a national
monument. Try to picture Herrie trekking through the narrow
gorge on one of his many fictional adventures. Langenhoven also
wrote the words of Die Stem, for decades the national anthem of
South Africa, and still part of the post-1994 national anthem.
There are many guided tours on offer here and plenty to do
both here and in the surrounding areas. Contact De Rust
Tourism Bureau Tel +27 (0)44 241 2109.
Eksteenfontein…’capital’ of the
Richtersveld
Located on the edge of what many would consider to be beyond
the known world, you won’t find Eksteenfontein easily. But despite
its remote location, it can justly claim to be the capital of the
Richtersveld with its ancient mountain desert, today a UNESCO
Grobler du Preez /www.shutterstock.com
Grobler du Preez /www.shutterstock.com
Explore
World Heritage Site. It is really the only town in the greater
Richtersveld area.
Straddling the Gariep River (also known as the Orange River) and
lying midway between the Atlantic Ocean and the national road
between South Africa and Namibia, the Richtersveld National Park
and the neighbouring Richtersveld Community Conservancy is one
of the Earth’s richest reservoirs of plant and animal life, regarded
as the only Arid Biodiversity Hotspot on Earth. It has an astonishing
variety of plant, bird and animal life (much of it endemic).The
region is a constantly changing canvas of natural beauty: from its
rugged, high mountain desert, to areas covered in flowers in the
Spring, to arid sandy plains, lush river vegetation and birdlife, and
an eerie Martian landscape of giant boulders spewed up by an
ancient and very angry volcanic eruption.
Perched on the edge of this unspoilt and isolated world, is
Eksteenfontein. Living in and around the little town are many of the
Nama people for whom the Richtersveld Community Conservancy
is the last refuge for their transhumance lifestyle of migrating
seasonally with their livestock from mountains to river and back,
thus making sustainable use of the fragile succulent ecosystem.
Sharing the town with them are people of mixed race ancestry
known as Basters who, under the erstwhile apartheid laws, were
forcibly relocated here from their homes at Pofadder further east,
making the month-long relocation trek on foot, donkey carts and
ox wagons.
Today, if you stroll through the town at sunset a scene of blissful
harmony greets you: old men sit huddled together on small stools
chatting and smoking their pipes, or tuning their guitars; women
lean over their front doors in conversation with their neighbours;
boys play ball games and girls with gleaming black plaited hair and
dressed in white dresses skip in the streets. At a corner house a
large man wearing a vest and shorts beckons, pointing at his
small 1950s-style caravan in his backyard that has a sign proudly
proclaiming: Eksteenfontein B&B.
Strangers are noted immediately, but they are greeted warmly
without fail. It is a world unspoilt by television, cell phones or
crime. When darkness sets in, the night sky lights up in a dazzling
display of moon and stars, making electric street lighting seem
completely insignificant. Street names are kept simple: Klipstraat,
Rivierstraat, Boomstraat, Kerkstraat and Skoolstraat (Stone, River,
Tree, Church and School Streets).
A visit to Eksteenfontein and the Richtersveld should be on
everyone’s bucket list. The region offers some of the finest hiking,
4x4 driving, camping, cultural and nature experiences, while the
nearby Orange/Gariep River offers some of South Africa’s best
kayaking and white-water river rafting.
Contacts: Tel +27 (0)27 831 1506 or richtersveld@sanparks.org;
Richtersveld Tourism Info Centre (Volenti van der Westhuizen) Tel/
Fax +27 (0) 27 851 7108 or tic@lantic.net.
MZANZI TRAVEL| www.mzanzitravel.co.za|ISSUE 3 | 59