Riversdale

After spending the morning of 28 December 2012 in Heidelberg we drove the 30km to Riverdale.  Riversdale is a town along the National Road (N2) between Cape Town and Port Elizabeth.  It is about 90km from our home in Mossel Bay.
The town was established in 1838 when a church was started on a farm. The town is the home of “Sleeping Beauty”, a mountain peak that looks like a sleeping princess.  Unfortunately I did not take any photos of the mountain peak on our visit.

The Tourism Office is in the Spur Building next to the National Road. We stopped to get some ideas of what there is to see but they could only give us a small map and not much information.  We went to eat some lunch and then drove into the town.















After lunch we drove into the town and decided to explore on foot.  We started at the Dutch Reformed Church in Church Street.  The corner stone of the church was laid on 4 March 1908.
We also saw some more churches and old buildings in Long Street, the oldest street in town.  It was warm and the sun was shining.  The pavement was so warm that my feet were burning through my sandals.
Long Street 43 - Built in 1889
Long Street 45 - Built in 1826














 
We stopped at the Meurant Historical cemetery. The cemetery has some beautiful trees but only a few of the graves remain. Some have been vandalized and the names on others cannot be read.  It was still interesting to walk through.














Our last stop of the day was at the Bali Trading shop just outside of the town.  The shop was very busy and we saw a lot of beautiful furniture.

The ride back to Mossel Bay was a bit of a mess.  We left Riversdale and drove about 30km before all the traffic stopped.  We were in a long row of cars on the National Road (N2) about 10km from Albertinia.  Another driver stopped and told us the road was closed due to a field fire and they were going back and will use a gravel road to reach Mossel Bay.  We decided to do the same but when we reached the gravel road that was also closed.  The fire brigade told us that the N2 was now open and we turned around and went back to the N2.  This time is was open and we could drive home.

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