Victoria West

After spending a day exploring Beaufort West in Sep 2012 we decided to take a day trip away from the town on Sunday.  

We left early. The first part of the trip we drove on the N1 (National Road between cape Town and Johannesburg).  The road was very busy with a lot of trucks and there were some unplanned stops due to road works.  After passing Drie Susters we drove on the N12.  This road was a lot quieter and we could enjoy the beautiful fields around us. 
Victoria West is about 136km from Beaufort West and it took us about 90 minutes to reach the town.  We arrived at about 8:30 in the morning.  We did not really know what we wanted to see and first drove around a bit to get an idea of what there is. 
It is a small town and was very quiet early on the Sunday morning. Church Street has a lot of pretty karoo style houses.  Some are in very good condition and is used for guesthouses but others have been neglected.
 We spotted the powder magazine on a hill and climbed to the top of the small hill to get a closer look.  There was a beautiful view of the town. The powder magazine is a National Heritage Site.

We walked to the Mannetjies Roux Museum but it is closed on Sundays.  The church bells started ringing for services and all the dogs in town started barking.  It was quite funny. Soon after the bells stopped the dogs and town went quiet again.














We wanted to wait until after the church services before taking pictures of the churches.  While we waited we drove to a monument on the outside of town. We passed an almost empty dam with a few springbucks grazing near the water. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Daar’s ‘n hoender wat ‘n eier nie kan lê

Image
   Weather vane on the VGK Church in Carnarvon    This photo made me think of a song we used to sing as kids.    It is a traditional Afrikaans song about the rooster on top of the church. The words of the song and its translation: Daar’s ‘n hoender wat ‘n eier nie kan lê There is a chicken that cannot lay an egg Daar’s ‘n hoender wat ‘n eier nie kan lê There is a chicken that cannot lay an egg Daar’s ‘n hoender wat ‘n eier nie kan lê There is a chicken that cannot lay an egg Dis die haan wat op die kerktoring staan It’s the rooster standing on the church tower Dis die haan, Dis die haan It’s the rooster, It’s the rooster Dis die haan wat op die kerktoring staan It’s the rooster standing on the church tower More about all the churches and other buildings we saw in Carnarvon in the next post.
Read more

Dutch Reformed Mother Church, George

Image
One of my favourite sights in George is the white Dutch Reformed Mother Church with the beautiful Outeniqua Mountain as background.   I have many memories of visiting this church: On a history class trip when I was about 10, for a art class when I was about 13, for my cousins wedding in 2004, for her baby’s christening a few years later and many other times.   But most of all I like seeing this church every time we drive through town.   The cornerstone for the church was laid on 14 April 1832.   Slaves were used for some of the building work like the digging of the six-foot deep by five-foot wide foundations.   Due to financial problems it took 12 years to complete the church and it was consecrated in 9 October 1842.  The church is a National Heritage Site. On 13 September 1905 disaster struck when the church tower collapsed.   The wood rotted from water damage and lead to the walls weakening.   After a lot of rain for two days the tower collapsed.   The tower was reb
Read more

Eyewitness Travel Guides – A Book Review

Image
  Last month I wrote a book review and I enjoyed it.   Today I want to share some more of my favourite travel books.   DK Eyewitness Travel Guides I bought my first travel guide in 2008. I was planning a trip with my friend Lelanie to London and Europe.   While planning the trip I bought the DK Eyewitness Travel Guide: Europe and I paid R 282.00 for it.   Except for my university textbooks, this was the most expensive book I have ever bought for myself.    We were doing a Contiki Tour and visited 7 countries.   I studied the information in guide the about the cities we would visit.    I made lists of places I want to see and then looked for more information about them.   In the end I did not take the guide with me (the 800 pages was just to heavy to carry along) but packed all my lists to use.  At Departures at Cape Town Airport in 2008 My second guide was for the same trip.   The Eyewitness Travel Top 10 London traveled with us.   We stayed in London for 4 da
Read more