Op die spoor van Koos en Sjert- Magaliesberg

[Armpie]

So it is 117 after the Battle of Magersfontein.  And the great hero was Gen de la Rey.  But from a political and military perspective my great grandfather Gert had a lot to share with the general.
So on this day I did a ride in search of the past. In search of a great general, and a proud heritage.
The ride starts early on the Sunday morning out on the Pretoria Pelindaba road.  Past the nuclear plant where my father spent his live.  The cause of the illness he died from will remain a mystery forever.  Then on the tar road to Hartbeeshoek.  Up the Leeuwenkloof. Till I reach the Skeerpoort road.  Here I turned on the dirt road, running through a kloof.  The  kloof is a hidden little gem.

Then shortly on the tar road to the heart of the Skeerpoort Village.  Here close to the old post office, at the local shop I turn on the dirt road again.  My great grand father had a farm at Siena, the current Dikololo and then one close to the village of Skeerpoort.  Here on 27 February 1901, the British collected my great mother Johanna Jocoba and her 3 children for the concentration camp in Irene.  With them was also taken the grandfather of the time Gert (previous owner of the farm Braamfontein, these days in Johannesburg.)and his wife. here name was ja, broers and sisters, Thomas Frederik Hermanus. Just to show you the men did not spend their  time idling around when on leave from the Commando, Johanna gave birth a month after she came to the camp.  They would stay in Irene Concentration Camp tents nr RT235 and RT236 before they were allowed to return to the farm in August 1902
I took the road west and ride up the moot valley.  On the one side of the road is a horse stud.  About 100 horses grazed on the short green grass.  Much like the horses of a commando.
The road take me closer to the mountain and even here in the Magalies innovation is  with us.  Wind electicity has also come here.  Not far from there is the vulture feeding ground.  Vultures are scared about cables and stuff.  But that is how it goes.
It rained the previous night and at a few places the road is fairly muddy.  I came across two other adventure bikers next to the road chatting.  I stopped but they were not interested in my companionship or converasation.  I think they were selling drugs. 8)

 

[Dorsland]

Ou Armpie,  jy skryf min maar dit wat jy skryf lees ek verskriklik lekker aan.  Wag, ek maak gou 'n koppie tee gaan maak, nou terug ...  :sip:

PM my bietjie jou eposadres, het vir jou nog geskiedenisroetes wat jy daar in die Magaliesberge se omgewing kan ry.

 

[Armpie]

Ek sukkel met Photobucket om die plugin af te laai.

 

[Armpie]

Oom Koos die leeu van die Wes Transvaal



The road to Skeerpoort through the kloof



Skeerpoort Winkel

 

[Armpie]

how to do a screen shot

The grandparents and the one son's family in tents 235 and 236. Irene Concentration Camp.  Not the Bezuidenhouts in this photo.  But it could also have been.

 

[Armpie]

picture upload sites

 

[Armpie]

So I travel past the various tranquil mountain lodges you will find on the foothills of the mountain.  Rustig and a few more.  Then on a hill the view of the telecommunication towers on top of the mountain.  Nooitgedacht!  The highest point in the  Magalies.  And to the left another little hill.  Yeomanry Hill.  I past a lodge called “Clements retreat”.  And then for a short while on the tar road past Hekpoort and then on the dirt road to Nooitgedacht.
The big battle of Magersfontein was fought on 11 December 1899, but the biggest battle of the geurilla phase of the Anglo Boer was fought one year and two days later, here at Nooitgedacht.  The dirt road takes you over the Swartspruit, then a rocky part left past Yeomanry hill to the gates of Rock Farm.  The sanders family bought the land in 1863.


The road to Rustig.  With cattle in the road



Yeomanry Hill on the left and the cliffs of Nooitgedacht on the right

 

[Armpie]

Nooitgedacht turn off




Die Swartspruit

 

[Wolzac]

:sip:

 

[Armpie]

Nooitgedacht.  The battlefield in the front.  On the top from left to right Beyers fought, and here below the cliffs Smuts was coming from left to right

 

[Armpie]

Nooitgedacht.  Down that little kloof at the top the British pickets retreated and the Boers took the same path in the conquest of looting the camp.

 

[Armpie]

So here on the Southern slope of the Magalies the British  general Clements decided to place his camp.  On a worse place he could not pick. Then another thing happened.  Under the sturdy leadership of General de la Rey, he called two of the most irreconcilable Boer generals to fight together.  Jan Smuts was a liberal lawyer.  Fighting with him another lawyer General Christiaan Beyers.  The commander in the north.  Hard men in the north, not precisely known for their liberal attitudes.
So by the morning of the 13th of December 1900 the Boer forces attacked from the west.  Beyers on top of the mountain.  Smuts fighting along the southern slopes.  As soon as the 300 British pickets were chased down the mountain, the British were in serious trouble.  From the west came Smuts.  From the top came Beyers.  By mid-morning  Clements and the British retreated to hartbeesfontein- now Yeomanry Hill.  Also from  here they were chases and the last thing the Boers heard was the british moving off in the direction of Pretoria.  They sang something like “We are marching to Pretoria” or some other song of the time.  They were left in peace.  The Boers were looting the camp and make sure they had the newest of everything and more than enough of everyting.

 

[Armpie]

Blouwildebeeste by Askari

 

[Armpie]

So the loyal old KLR took the road towards the west.  In this part of the Western Transvaal there was no game for many years, but these days there are buffalo, rhino’s and elephant in the game ranches.  Again the road is rocky.

We skirted the mountain for some distance.  After  Nooitgedacht  the Boer commando’s split up in smaller groups.  With the many kloofs and valleys of the Magalies men could disappear, attack disappear.  An d that is what many members of the Pretoria Commando did.  Alos from Rustenburg and Krugersdorp Commando’s.  So my great grand father Gert, his brother Thomas and many other harassed the British for months.  Until in August 1901 when the British war machine launched a massive search and destroy  mission into the mountain.  After a week they sported 34 captures.  Gert en Thomas wer two of the nearly 40 captures.  They were send to India as POW’s.
But the de la Rey Gert en Tom Bezuidenhout did not end here.  In 1914 de la rey was shot on the eve of the 1914 rebellion.  It was said that de la Rey was in support of the rebellion.  Well, once more Gert and Thomas took up the rifle.  This time against the Government.  Many of them bittereinders like the brothers.  But this time it would end at another Nooitgedacht near Hammanskraal north of Pretoria.  And the tragic death of Jopie Fourie.
So I turned left on another dirt road leading to two huge rolling gates.  And I rode to Askari Lodge wher ei saw the elepahsnt from adistance drinking my coffee.  In 4 hours I travelled 180km but it took me back more than 100 years

 

[Wolzac]

Good reading, thank you :thumleft: I recently bought a Book comprising all the Newspaper Clips during that War. I don't think the Brits were singing that Song during their retreat, jy kan nie sing terwyl jy hardloop nie.

 

[HarryDieStrandloper]

Armpie
Thanks, very interesting.
I always use the hidden gravel road (your first reference).
Never knew there were that amount of war activity in that area.

Do you have the route on/in some gps format?
If not, give some way points on google maps please.

 

[Armpie]

I stopped at Askari Lodge for a coffee.  They do not particularly like the bikers in their elephant park, there but it is a public road, so I always go there for a coffee or beer.  Askari has a museum and the biggest collection of animal drawn vihicles in the southern hemisphere.

free image upload

This is a 1896 Boer ambulance.



Elephants in the Moot.  On the opposite hill next to the steel stoor

 

[Armpie]

My e-mail adres is [email protected]

I unfortunately did not take my GPS or VIRB along.  But it is easy.  take the R104 past Broederstroom.  Then you take the Hartbeeshoek turn left (R3 or R400 ? Not sure).  Then straight for 8-10km untill you turn right on the Skeerpoort gravelroad.  When you get to the tar road continue straight untill you get to the Skeerpoort Store, there you turn left on that broad dirt road.  Eventually it runs into a t-junction.  Turn right and continue west.  It runs into the R560.  Go right past Hekpoort.  Just after Hekpoort is the Nooitgedacht turn to the right.  R99 i think.  Just continue with that road.  Eventually the road turns south.  Just there where the road is turning west again, you will see the big sliding gates.  That is the back gate of Askari.

 

[Armpie]

The remains of the Monument.  Only one grave remains.  The British were moved to Krugersdorp, and the Boer graves are north of the mountain.  But here in the old British cematry a lone Boer grave remains.

Veld Kornet van Zyl se graf.  Hy was op die staf van Generaal Kemp