A historic walk around Graaff-Reinet

History buffs totally love Graaff-Reinet, what with it being the oldest town in the Eastern Cape (fourth oldest in South Africa) with about 220 listed historical buildings.  Best of all, you can see just about all the best ones on a relatively short walk around town.  And obviously, that is what we did otherwise I wouldn't be writing about it.  

We parked our car in front of the Graaff-Reinet Tourism office, grabbed a map from the friendly staff in the office and set off up the road towards the church with our first stop being Auty Ira's Antique shop and the oldest cake in South Africa.  Next up is the imposing Groot Kerk (Dutch Reformed Church) at the top of the main road.  The church was built between 1886 and 1887 with the design based on the lines of Salisbury Cathedral in England.  Stone to build the church was obtained locally.  The church seats 1,250 people and has a steeple of just over 45 meters high.  An interesting feature of the church is that it has a chimney, not something you see every day.

The next stop right behind the Groot Kerk is the Victoria Hall and War Memorial.  The Victoria Hall is the "new" Graaff-Reinet town hall and was built in 1910.

In front of the Town Hall in the Mayor's Garden stands the "Victory Peace Angel", a war memorial erected after the First World War to honour the gallant Graaff-Reinet men who had lost their lives in the war.

Graaff-Reinet boasts a number of very good museums representing the town's history, most of them housed in historic Cape Dutch buildings.  These museums include the Urquhart House Museum (built somewhere between 1806 and 1821), Old Library Museum (built in the mid 1800's) and the Old Residency Museum (built somewhere between 1819 to 1831) and were all along the circle route we walked through town.

Because we had the KidZ with us and didn't want to end up with two bored whiny teenagers, we decided to only go to Graaff-Reinet's flagship museum, Reinet House.  The museum building used to be the Dutch Reformed Church parsonage and was built in 1812.  The typical Cape Dutch H-style building was home over the years to Rev Andrew Murray and his son Charles until his death in 1904 before it became a boarding establishment for girls wishing to train as teachers and renamed Reinet House.

   The museum was established in the 1950's and houses a fine array of period furniture and kitchen utensils, a doll collection, medical and dental collection, haberdashery and clothing collection, wagon and transport collection as well as a blacksmith collection.  The Mill House with a working water wheel was under restoration when we were there so unfortunately I couldn't show the KidZ how it works.  In the back garden of the museum is an old Black Acorn vine that was planted in 1870 by Charles Murray. A big piece of it had to be cut away some time ago due to fungal rot but the plant still survives.

The last stretch of our walk took us up Parsonage Street past the John Rupert Little Theatre (originally the church of the London Missionary Society) and to the Drostdy Hotel on the main road.  The hotel is located in what used to be the office and residence of the local landdrost/magistrate.  The building was built in 1804 and first became a hotel as early as 1878.  These days the Drostdy Hotel is a five-star hotel with accommodation in the adjacent Stretch’s Court.  

By now the KidZ had enough of walking although we literally only walked around one big block and it was time to head to the car that was now just down the road again.  Walking around Graaff-Reinet and visiting all these magnificent historic buildings one is grateful that there are still people out there that care for the history and heritage of towns like this.

The Bethulie Concentration Camp cemetery - a sad part of our history

Bethulie in the southern Free State is one of those places not many people pass through as it's not really on any of the main thoroughfares going south (or north, depending how you look at it).  On my last trip up to Johannesburg I deviated off the normal route to see what this town on the banks of the Orange River is all about.  One of the things I found out was that Bethulie was the site of one of the most notorious concentration camps of the Anglo Boer War of 1899 to 1902.  I was shocked by the size of the Concentration Camp Cemetery Memorial and even more so when I saw all the names on the remembrance wall.

It turns out that even the English called the Bethulie camp "the hell camp" because of the shocking conditions Boer men, women and children were being held in.  The ravages of disease, starvation and extreme temperatures, enhanced by the bad administration of the camp, meant that the camp saw a death toll of 1 737 prisoners among its population of about 5 000 over the 13 months it existed between April 1901 and the end of the war in May 1902.  At one stage about 30 people a day was buried in the camp.  Truly shocking and it literally had me speechless as I stood reading the info around the memorial.  

The original camp and cemetery was located much closer to the river back in the days but all the graves were relocated to this position when the Gariep Dam (called the Hendrik Verwoerd Dam back then) was constructed in the 1960's.

At the top end of the cemetery is an enclosed area containing all the original hand-carved sandstone headstones which were removed from the old cemetery.  They've all been set into three walls and having a closer look at the information on them you suddenly realise how many children were among those who had dies in the camp.  Unfortunately the gate was locked tight so I couldn't get a closer look at all of them,

I drove away deeply touched.  The Anglo Boer War was such a significant event in the history of South Africa and yet so many of us never get to visit sites like this because it's often off the beaten track.  So next time you're on the main drag down to the beach fro your summer holidays, why not set a day aside and take some of the back roads.  You will come away the better for it.

Who was Louw Wepener and why does he have a monument in the Free State?

How are you going to explore, discover new places and see interesting things if you don't road trip and venture off the beaten track?  A little detour past Bethulie in the southern Free State while heading north had me cross the second longest bridge in South Africa, take a walk through the Bethulie Concentration Camp Cemetery and learn who Louw Wepener was.  To be honest, I probably would have totally missed the Louw Wepener Monument a few hundred meters off the road if there wasn't a Geocache located there.

So who was Louw Wepener and why does he have a monument?  Lourens Jacobus (Louw) Wepener was bron in Graaff-Reinet in 1812 and was a war hero.  As a Cape burgher, while farming in Somerset East and then Aliwal North, Wepener distinguished himself through his military ability and fearlessness during the frontier wars of 1835, 1846 and 1851.  In 1862 he moved to the farm Constantia outside Bethulie and threw his lot in with the Orange Free State.  On the outbreak of the Second Basuto War in 1865 he became commandant - in - chief of the southern commandos.  As the Boers advanced they were eventually encamped at the foot of Thaba Bosigo, Moshesh’s stronghold.

Wepener and 400 volunteers decided to take the mountain by storm with Wepener, in the lead, dying a hero’s death at about sunset near the summit of the mountain.  Legend has it that his heroism made such an impression on the Basutos that they roasted and ate his heart, believing that by doing so they would acquire some of his bravery.

Louw Wepener's bones were later buried on his farm outside Bethulie on the site where the monument stands today.  The town of Wepener near the Lesotho border was also named after him.  I hopped onto the wall next to his bust after retrieving the Geocache and had a quick chat with Oom Louw while signing the logsheet.  He truly was a heroic man if you read his whole history and that of the attack on Thaba Bosigo.  The other thing that got my attention is the fact that this monument is located on a farm, in the middle of nowhere, but with close ties to Wepener plus the monument is a simple stone structure with a bust.  Perhaps a lesson to those wanting to put up monuments for struggle heroes.  Monuments don't have to be anything more than this, located in a place with no links to the person or cost millions of rands.  Just saying. 

A historic water trough in Mowbray

I often wonder if people really realise how many historic places and objects there are around our cities and towns.  I'm not only referring to the big and well known historic attractions but rather to smaller ones many people probably drive past without even a second look.  One of these I discovered in the Cape Town suburb of Mowbray while on my way to a meeting.  I was following my GPS to a Geocache that was on my way and it took me to this historic water fountain with trough on a traffic island.  This fountain was manufactured by Walter Macfarlane & Co of Glasgow and presented to Mowbray by the SPCA in 1899.  These days the fountain is no more and the trough has a little garden in it.

Madiba gazing over Bloem

Naval Hill in Bloemfontein has always been a beacon in the Free State capitol and known for the magnificent views of the surrounding city.  In 2012 an eight meter tall bronze sculpture, made by the same sculptor as the one standing in Mandela Square in Sandton, was revealed.  Last year during the #MeetSouthAfrica bloggers trip before Indaba, the one group spent a night in Bloem and visited Naval Hill at sunset.  The pictures they posted were stunning.  I also got to spend a night in Bloem on my way to Jozi earlier in the year and wanted to do the same.  Unfortunately it was cloudy which meant the sunset wasn't going to be as spectacular and I decided not to stick around, but sharing the view with Madiba was still special.     

The Settlers Family in Grahamstown

Grahamstown has two monuments to the 1820 British Settlers on top of Gun Fire Hill overlooking the town.  The most prominent is the Settlers Monument building, heart of the Grahamstown National Arts Festival, with its huge auditorium.  I prefer the second one a few hundred meters away from the building a lot more.  It depicts a British Settler family as they arrived on our shores.  When I look at it I can actually hear the little girl ask her mother if this is their new home now.  Standing there looking at the monument I wondered how many people would be able to give me a correct answer if I had to ask them what year the 1820 British Settlers arrived in Algoa Bay...

Remembering the Slagtersnek hangings

If you are flying along in a northerly direction through the Karoo Heartland on the N10, the main drag between Port Elizabeth and Cradock, do slow down a bit after you pass the first turnoff to Somerset East and keep a look out on the right hand side of the road for a cenotaph like monument.  Once spotted, do pull over and have a look as this is a very significant spot in the early history of the area.

I'm not going to relate the whole story here, but you can go and read the whole article about Slachter's Nek on the Somerset East website.  In short, the story is about a violent Boer uprising in the area late in 1815.  After most of those involved either surrendered or were arrested, they were charged and either cleared, imprisoned or banished.  Five were sentenced to death by public hanging at Van Aardtspos on 9 March 1816.  The hangman never realised that there were five to be hanged so old rope was used.  Four of the five ropes broke and Landdrost Jacob Culyer (of the Uitenhage district) ordered that they be hanged a second time, this time one by one.  The monument contains the names of the five that was hanged as well as the Bezuidenhout brothers, who were whole reason the uprising started. 

Another interesting link to Slagternek can be found in the Somerset East Museum in town.  The original beam that was used for the hanging is on display in one of the upstairs rooms.  After the hanging the beam was used as a support beam in a farmer's pigsty where it was found in the late 1940's and taken to the Voortrekker Monument.  In 1989 it landed up in the Cape Town Historical Museum before it was eventually returned to Somerset East.  

Unusual monuments

At the end of August I took a road trip to Johannesburg and on my travels discovered two slightly unusual monuments.  Discovered by the way, as there were Geocaches hidden close to both.

 

The first one was a monument just outside of Middelburg in the Eastern Cape.  The stone monument has a picture of a chair on it and the sign says "Stoel Monument" (Chair Monument).  So what is the story behind the Stoel Monument?  There's a long and a short so I will keep to the short.  During the Anglo Boer War Commandant J. C. Lotter was well known for his daring hit and run tactics employed against the British forces.  Lotter and most of his commando were caught near Graaff-Reinet.  Lotter stood accused of "murder, marauding and disgraceful conduct of a cruel nature" and was charged with human rights violations and war crimes.  He was found guilty and sent to Middleburg where he was sentenced to death.  At the spot where the monument stands is where he was tied to a chair and shot.  Get it? Tied to a chair and shot = chair monument to remember him.   

The second unusual monument I got to visit on the trip was the Bles Bridges Monument outside Bloemhof in North West Province.  Bles Bridges was a much beloved and very popular Afrikaans singer who died in 2000 in a car accident on this spot just outside Bloemhof.  The local business chamber decided to put up a monument to remember him by and there you have it, a monument that looks like a grave stone with a guitar on it. 

Graaff-Reinet town hall and the Victory Peace Angel war memorial

Statues is a bit of a sore point in South Africa at the moment (referring to the Cecil John Rhodes statue at UCT and and and...) but there are some truly special ones out there.  One of these is the War Memorial or "Victory Peace Angel" outside the town hall in the Karoo Heartland town of Graaff-Reinet.

About three months after the end of World War One, the Mayor of Graaff-Reinet called a public meeting to discuss the erection of a war memorial.  The site decided on was what is now known as the Mayor's Garden right in front of the town hall and the memorial was to honour the brave men of Graaff-Reinet who had lost their lives in the war.  The great bronze figure mounted on a high pedestal was unveiled on 7 November 1923 by H.R.H. Prince Arthur of Connaught.  It was designed to stand guard over the names of the men from Graaff-Reinet that died during the first World War.

The Gideon Scheepers Monument

Most people visiting the Karoo town of Graaff-Reinet take a drive out to the Valley of Desolation to enjoy the magnificent views  of the town and surrounding Karoo plains as well as the very sheer cliffs and unique Dolerite stone columns of the valley.  I wonder how many people have spotted the monument on the left as you pass the dam just after leaving town.

 

The Gideon Scheepers Monument remembers  Commandant Gideon Scheepers who was a Boer scout and commanding officer during the Anglo-Boer War.  Scheepers and those under his command wrecked trains and burned the farms of those unsympathetic to the Boer cause.  He was captured in October 1901 by the British and found guilty by a British military court on charges of murder and arson.  He was buried at the place of his execution by a firing squad in the veld near Graaff-Reinet.  He was only 23 years old.  That same night his body was apparently exhumed by British troops and reburied at an unknown spot.  Efforts to trace his grave and approaches to the British authorities to reveal its location was unsuccessful.

The Flame of Democracy

Constitution Hill is one of Johannesburg's most prominent heritage sites.  It is the home of South Africa's Constitutional Court, the highest court in the country, and is located on the site of a number of prisons dating back to the Apartheid years.  One of these prisons were Number 4 Prison (the other two were the Old Fort and the Women's Jail)  where a lot of awaiting trail prisoners were kept during those years.  Although most of the old prison buildings are no more, some of the stairwells were kept and made part of the new precinct as a reminder of the dark days of oppression.  The Flame of Democracy is found in one of these stairwells and was established to celebrate 15 years since the signing of the constitution.  The flame was originally lit by Nelson Mandela in his birth place in Qunu and transported to Johannesburg where it was placed in this significant spot, never to be extinguished again. 

I really enjoy visiting places like this and I wish more South Africans would.  In the USA a place like this would receive the biggest regard and respect by visitors who will make sure to include it in their itineraries and I can't see why it shouldn't be any different in South Africa.

The Norvalspont Concentration Camp Memorial

The Anglo Boer War (1899 - 1902) is one of the big turning points in South Africa's history along with the arrival of Europeans in the country, the Great Trek, the Apartheid years and a new democratic South Africa.  Okay, so the history is about more than just those five turning points but that is what came to my mind just now.  One of the most significant things that happened during the Anglo Boar War was that it was the first time ever that concentration camps were used anywhere in the world.  During the war thousands of men, women and children were kept in these camps with 4 177 boer women, 22 074 children under sixteen and 1 676 boer men dying in these camps.  That's not even counting the over 14000 deaths in black concentration camps.

 

A couple of years back we spent a holiday at the Gariep Dam and I read about Norvalspont where one of these concentration camps we situated.  I never got a chance to visit the site but driving back from Johannesburg recently I decided to make a stop on my way back towards the coast.  The turnoff was on my route and after about 2 kilometers on a smooth dirt road I came across the site.  No magnificent monument, no fancy visitor centre, no guides hanging around to show visitors around and no tourist trap curio and food stalls.  In actual fact, there wasn't another soul in sight.  Just a big paved area surrounded by a low stone wall and three stone monuments with plaques on them.  From what I can gather its the site of the concentration camp's cemetery.

 

Norvalspont was seen as a model camp and was much better off than most of the other camps even though conditions were still very bad.  It was situated on the banks of the Orange River which meant that there was at least enough water and fire wood available.  It was not that Norvals Pont lacked the problems of the other camps. On the contrary, the measles epidemic struck early and was followed by scarlet fever and diphtheria.  Families also poured in without warning and tents and blankets often ran out.  The camp was one of those visited by Emily Hobhouse in 1901.  At times there were over three thousands people housed at Norvalspont, all housed in tents on the site, while the camp had a total of four hundred and twelve deaths.      

Standing there on a warm winters afternoon without a breath of air moving and only cicadas calling it does become a bit of a profound experience.  One where you realize how much sadness and despair there must have been right there yet there is also a spirit of strong and proud people who supported each other and stood together through this difficult time.  A profound experience indeed.   

For more information on the Norvalspont Concentration Camp have a look at
Anglo Boere Oorlog/Boer War (1899-1902) NORVALSPONT Camp/Kamp
and
Waschbank River Lodge

Delville Wood Memorial and Table Mountain in the late afternoon

 My quick two day visit to Cape Town for the e-Tourism Africa Summit just wet my appetite for a bit of a Cape holiday again.  Not that I know when I'll get the opportunity but I do know that I need some explore time in the city again.  The three things I would really like to do is a tour of the underground tunnels that run through the city bowl, to hike up Table Mountain via Platteklip Gorge and to do the open bus City Sightseeing Tour.  So my Cape Town bucket list is made.  The tunnels I mentioned were used to channel water down to the gardens from the mountain (I hope that is putting it correct) and visitors can now be taken on a guided tour of these tunnels under the city.  I did get to make a whirlwind visit to the gardens themselves - looking for a Geocache, what else? - after the end of the first day of the summit and snapped this late afternoon pic of the Delville Wood Memorial with Table Mountain in the background.

Kloof Nek cannons

Over the years the Cape has been occupied by different countries and there was always a threat of an invasion because of the Cape's strategic location.  Because of this a big number of defensive positions have been set up all around the Cape Peninsula from the time that the first European's colonised the area.  One of these can be seen at the top of Kloof Nek.  Two 12 Pounder Guns were placed on Kloof Nek in 1782 by the Dutch East India Company (VOC) to defend the settlement near the Castle from attack by a force which could land on the beach at Camps Bay.  The cannons would have been able to control the wagon track which led from Camps Bay to the Castle via Kloof Nek.

Karel Landman Monument - the globe off the beaten track

Very few people driving along the R72 coastal route between Port Elizabeth and East London have ever seen or even know of the Karel Landman monument about halfway between Nanaga and Alexandria.  The only indication that there is a monument up the dirt road is a road sign at the turnoff.  A couple of kilometers up the dirt road one stands in awe though of the magnitude of this monument in the shape of a globe.  Its huge... and kinda in the middle of nowhere. 

 

At about the centenary of the Great Trek, the idea was initiated for a local monument to commemorate the centenary of the trek from the Eastern Cape by the Voortrekker party under leadership of Karel Landman.  Landman farmed in this area until 1837 and took a party of about 180 trekkers and their servants on a trek of 885 kilometres into Natal. He became prominent in several battles with the Zulus and was the second in command of the Boer forces at the pivotal battle of Blood River

 

Well known Afrikaans architect Gerard Moerdijk was approached for the design which was approved in May of 1939, although the granite plinth had been inaugurated on 16 December 1938 already.  The concrete and terrazzo monument was manufactured by the Lupini Brothers in Johannesburg at a cost of £470 (R940 back then).  The monument was unveiled later in the year on 16 December 1939 by WA Landman, a descendent of Karel Landman.

The East London Multicultural Man

 The East London beachfront has a very interesting looking statue which had me scratching my head when I saw it for the first time.  Multicultural Man is a bronze sculpture created by Italian artist Francesco Perilli.  It depicts a faceless man in the middle of the earth who is trying to unite two meridians, while the other meridians are lifted by doves, the universal symbols of peace. The bronze man himself is three meters high and has been designed to represent no particular cultural, ethnic or religious background.  There are five Multicultural Man bronze sculptures located on five different continents of the world.

 

These locations include:

• Toronto, Canada
• Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina
• Changchun, China
• The City of Whittlesea, Melbourne Australia
• and obviously East London, South Africa

Dias Statue in Cape Town

Bartholomew Dias was the first European to discover South Africa.  On an expedition looking for a sea way to the East he sailed around the Cape in a storm without knowing it.  On 3 February 1488 he landed in Mossel Bay which he called the Bay of Saint Blaise.  On 12 March they reached the furthest point of the expedition when he anchored at Kwaaihoek near the Bushmans River mouth.  It was here that Dias planted a stone cross (padrao) before being forced to turn around when his crew refused to go any further.  It was only on the return journey that Dias discovered the Cape of Good Hope.  Dias originally named the Cape of Good Hope the "Cape of Storms".  It was later renamed the Cape of Good Hope by King John II of Portugal because it represented the opening of a route to the east.

 

The discovery of the passage around the south of Africa was significant because Europeans realized for the first time that they could trade directly with India and the other parts of Asia, bypassing the overland route through the Middle East with its expensive middlemen.

 

Dias later joined  an expedition that reached the coast of Brazil in 1500 and from there continued eastwards to India.  The four ships hit a huge storm off the Cape of Good Hope which meant Dias perished near the same place he called the Cape of Storms.

 

The statue of Dias on Adderley Street in Cape Town was unveiled in 1960.

The Slagtersnek Monument near Cookhouse

Driving along the N10 between Port Elizabeth and Cradock there is a memorial next to the road near the town of Cookhouse.  Driving back from Cradock the other day I decided to stop and have a closer look.  The Slagtersnek Monument remembers the Slagtersnek Rebellion and the subsequent hanging of 5 of the rebels, an event that changed the area forever and possibly had a big role to play in the start of the Great Trek.  The museum in Somerset East has a great exhibit about the event which includes the beam the rebels were hung from.

 

I got the following information from Somerset East and Blue Crane Tourism

 

In 1815, a farmer from the eastern border of the Cape Colony, Frederik Bezuidenhout, was summoned to appear before a magistrate's court after repeated allegations of his mistreating one of his Khoi labourers.  Bezuidenhout resisted arrest and fled to a cave near his home where he defended himself against the soldiers sent to capture him. When he refused to surrender he was shot dead by one of the soldiers.

One of Bezuidenhout's brothers, Hans Bezuidenhout, swore revenge. Together with a neighbour Hendrik Prinsloo, Hans Bezuidenhout organised an uprising against the British colonial power, believed by them to be hostile towards the Afrikaner farmers. On 18th November 1815, a commando of rebels met an armed force from Landdrost (magistrate) Jacob Cuyler, the military commander on the eastern frontier, at Slachter's Nek. Negotiations failed and the majority of the rebels left without any shots being fired. Twenty rebels surrendered, followed by several more over the following days. However, some of the leaders, among whom was Hans Bezuidenhout, refused to turn themselves over to the British authorities. On 29th November 1815, they were attacked by colonial troops. Everybody but Bezuidenhout surrendered and, like his brother, Hans died while resisting arrest.

The rebels were finally charged at Uitenhage. Some were cleared, others imprisoned or banished. Six were sentenced to death but one of these was pardoned by the Governor, Lord Charles Somerset.   On 9th March 1816 the remaining five were hanged in public at Van Aardtspos. Four of the nooses broke during the procedure as the hangman who came to perform the execution had not realised there were five to be hung, and old ropes had to be used. The four whose ropes broke, as well as the public, pleaded for their lives but Culyer ordered that they be hanged a second time and they were hung one by one. The names of the five who were hanged were Hendrik Prinsloo, Stephanus Bothma, Abraham Bothma, Cornelius Faber and Theunis de Klerk.

 

Phillip's Tunnel in Hankey

Every little town has its interesting sites to visit, being it historic, natural or man-made.  Often visitors pass through without ever knowing about these places and in most cases they slowly become forgotten to all but a few.  One such site in my opinion is the Phillip's Tunnel in Hankey in the Gamtoos Valley.  There is a sign on the main drag through town but in most cases visitors are heading towards the Baviaanskloof and doesn't even notice it.  The road to the tunnel leads through the town's township, over the Gamtoos River and then past some farmlands.  The turnoff from the dirt road takes one up to the tunnel, a yawning mouth in the hillside.  Don't get me wrong, there isn't a huge amount to see.  But what is there is worth seeing, specially if you are into historic sites.

Hankey was started as a mission station on behalf of the London Missionary Society by Dr John Phillip.  The main purpose was to grow corn and mielies for the mission station at Bethelsdorp as well as to carry out evangelistic work in the valley.  Dr Philip's son, William Philip, came to the mission station in 1841 and during his time there the area experienced a serious water shortage.  The best way to get water from the Gamtoos River to the settlement's farmland was to dig a tunnel through the cliff that stood in-between the two.  A formidable task indeed but not one that put William off in any way.  In 1843 he started the project with the help of Khoi labourers and in just more than a year they completed the 228 meter tunnel.  William drowned in the river just after the official opening of the tunnel which was used for over a century.  These days the tunnel is no longer in use because of irrigation canals criss crossing the valley and but has been declared a national monument.

My Old Fort adventure in Durban

I get to visit Durban once a year during the annual Tourism Indaba but other than stopping in Umhlanga and taking walks on the beachfront, I've never really had an opportunity to explore the city much.  This year I decided to pinch off an hour to explore and discover at least one new place and the choice fell on The Old Fort.  From outside the place didn't look like much but I pressed on and in and was pleasantly surprised by what I found.  When the Dutch arrived in the small settlement of Durban in 1842 the British weren't too impressed to see the Dutch flag flying at the Point.  A armed force of a few hundred were sent to the settlement to sort the Dutch out and was surprised by some stern resistance.  After having to retreat back to the camp Dick King set off on his famous overland horse ride to Grahamstown to fetch reinforcements.

The camp didn't really provide the British with much shelter and during a 24-hour truce called to bury the their dead, the British moved quickly to strengthen it.  Sixty wagons was pulled in a circle around the tented camp and a trench dug around the perimeter.  The excavated soil was used to build up a mount in front with parts of the trench and mount still visible today.  During the siege the Boers shot 651 cannon balls and thousands of bullets at the British.  Many of the cannon balls were dug up and reused after having been fired at them by the Brits.

 

. The battle went on for a whole five weeks until it was finally ended with the arrival of two British ships, a schooner called the Conch, and the Royal Navy’s frigate HMS Southampton, with reinforcements.  Dick King had succeeded.  The Dutch were sent packing as far back as Cowies Hill and the rebellion was over.  The British was back in full control of Natal.

 

The Old Fort was continuously used as barracks until 1897 and today it's an open air museum of sorts.  The old magazine building has been converted into a chapel while aged military veterans live in rooms that used to be the military barracks.  The gardens that can be found through out the fort complex is littered with historical and interesting items, amongst them a bench made from timber of HMS Southampton, a cannon recovered from the wreck of the Grosvener (1782), and plaques commemorating the heroic journeys of John Ross and Dick King.  The South African Heavy Artillery Memorial can also be found in the fort's gardens.

 

Before I knew it my hour was over and I had to get back to what brought me to Durban in the first place.  Perhaps in the future I will get other opportunities to explore the city and expand my knowledge of the city a little more.