Lu-Gerda's Travels

It was still early (11:15) when we reached Loxton and we decided to add another town to our day trip.   Carnarvon was only 65 km from Loxton and after walking around in Loxton for 20 minutes we started the drive.   It took us about 40 minutes to reach Carnarvon. The town was deserted on the Sunday afternoon.   Most of the shops etc were closed and there were only a few people in the streets.   The first church we saw was the Uniting Reformed Church built in 1857 and in 1879 it was enlarged and the clock tower was added.   It is a beautiful church and I liked the big rooster on top of the weather vane .   The congregation was started in 1847 by the Rhenish Missionary Church (“Rynse Sending Kerk”).   The congregation was transferred to the Dutch Reformed Mission Church in 1943 and in 1994 it became part of the Uniting Reformed Church (“Verenigende Gereformeerde Kerk”).   The church is a National Heritage Site.   The next church we visited was the St Alban’s Anglican C

I still have a few posts about my trip in 2008 to London.  In my previous post about this trip we explored London with a bus tour from “The Original Tour”. It was difficult to get started on our third day in London.   After spending a day watching tennis at Wimbledon  and seeing the changing of the guards  we were tired.   But there was still a so much that we wanted to see and we dragged ourselves out of bed to get ready for another day of exploring. We started the day by walking to Holborn station.  (Russell Square station was closer but it was closed over the weekend for repairs). We then took the tube to Westminster and walked to Westminster Abbey.   It was more expensive to enter Westminster Abbey than we expected. The price included a very interesting audio tour and this tour made a big difference to our visit.   We planned to stay a few hours but then spend the whole morning in the Abbey.   We listened to all the information and lost ourselves in the history.  

   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.

Yesterday was a public holiday in South Africa, Human Rights Day. My boss was very nice and gave us today off as well.   So we are visiting my sister in Cape Town for the long weekend.   The main reason for the visit was the Cape Epic Mountain Bike Challenge  that is currently taking place around Cape Town.   My brother and his wife  are both professional mountain bikers and are taking part as a mixed team.   They won last year and is doing very good this year. They won the prologue and 4 of the 5 stages that have been completed.    We came to go watch some of the cycling. Today we made an unexpected trip to Stellenbosch to drop a package and decided to walk around a bit.   I will write more about what we saw but in the mean time here are some photos:

The next town we visited on our day trip away from Beaufort West was Loxton.   We left Victoria west after eating homemade pies for lunch.   We drove about 82 km to Loxton and reached the town after about one hour. This was the smallest town we visited on the trip.   The Dutch Reformed Church started the town when they bought a farm from Mr. AE Loxton. The congregation was started in 1899 and soon a small, temporary church was built.   The funds grew and in 1924 the current church building was completed. We only spend about 20 minutes in this town to take photos of the church and walk around a bit.  

Driving around in Victoria West on a Sunday morning we saw a small rectangular church in Church Street.    It looked as if the church was not in use anymore.   The building and garden looked neglected and there were no people. (It was Sunday morning and we expected people coming to church services.)   We stopped a to take a look.   We admired the outside from across the street and then saw the name board with “Architect – Sophia Gray”.   The first Anglican services in Victoria West were held in 1862 and the foundation stone for the church was laid on 27 December 1869.   Building work was not completed during the huge flood in 1871 and the church was mostly undamaged.   Building work continued and the church was completed in 1874. Walking closer we saw that the gate was unlocked and we went inside for a closer look.   The church door was locked.   We walked around to the back through long grass and dead flower plants in pots.   Some of the windows were broken.    Fro

After a drive to a monument just outside of Victoria West we parked the car in Church Street and went for a walk.   We stopped at St John’s Church, the Anglican Church designed by Sophy Gray (I will do a whole post about it later)   We walked in the direction of the Dutch Reformed Church and saw some beautiful old buildings.   The Town Hall with some Cape Dutch Style gables was opened in 1911.   The building is a National Heritage Site. Rev Colin Fraser started to hold church services.   In 1843 the congregation was established and they named the town Victoria after Queen Victoria.   The church was completed in 1850.   The tower was added later and it was enlarged in 1922.   It is a National Heritage Site.