Lu-Gerda's Travels

While visiting Bathurst we stayed the night at The Historic Pig & Whistle Inn.   After a busy day of exploring the Big Pineapple , Toposcope and The Anglican Church it was great to relax in a comfortable room.  Our room was spacious, clean and comfortable (Although there was no TV in the room we could watch rugby in the pub).  The only negative was that the bath/shower could do with some upgrading.  Later we went down to the Pig & Whistle Bar for a drink in the oldest licensed pub in South Africa.  It was established in 1832 by Thomas Hartley, a blacksmith who cam from Nottinghamshire with the 1820 Settlers. It was originally called "The Bathurts Inn" and was next to his Blacksmithy. The name changed to "Widow Hartley's Inn" after his death in 1840 when his widow Sarah took over.  The current name was given to the Inn by the RAF members based close to the town during the Second World War. ...

Our next stop in Bathurst was the Church of St John The Evangelist.   This church is the oldest unaltered Anglican Church in South Africa.   During the Frontier wars it was also used as a sanctuary for hundreds of British Settlers. The foundation stone was laid in 1832 and the church was opened on 1 January 1838 and it was declared a Nation Heritage site in 1967. All around the church is old graves.   We spend a lot of time walking around between theses gravestones.   We even found graves for some original British Settlers who cam to South Africa in 1820. We talked to a man who was visiting his family graves and he told us about a Powder magazine close to the church.   He tried to give us directions but it sounded difficult to find.   He then said he would take us there.   The Old Powder Magazine was erected in 1821 by the British Military.   It usually carried about 273kg gunpowder, 7 000 ball cartridges and 60 rifles a...

After visiting the Big Pineapple we drove the last few kilometers to Bathurst.   But the GPS we were using kept taking us on small, muddy dirt roads.   It felt like we were driving in circles.   We found a farmer along the way and he helped us in the right direction. We drove through Bathurts to the Agricultural Museum.   It was unfortunately already closed. We turned back and went to the nest sight on our list: The Toposcope.   We had a small map of the area but it did not show street names and we just drove in what we hoped was the right direction.   We found found it on a hill outside of the town. I read about the Bathurst toposcope on our hotel’s website but when my husband asked me I still was not sure.   So with the help of wikipedia we learned that it is a marker erected on hill or high places to indicate directions. This Toposcope marks the spot where the 1820 British Settlers l...

After leaving Port Alfred we made on our way to Bathurst.   Outside of the town we spotted the Big Pineapple and as it was one of the places I wanted to visit decided to stop. We first took a few pictures of the big pineapple before going inside.   The pineapple in 16.7m high and has three floors.   The ground floor has a gift shop.   I was a bit disappointed with the small variety of items on sale.   We did find a nice fridge magnet of the pineapple.   We had to pay to go up the stairs to the other floor of the pineapple.   The first floor has information about pineapple farming and the building of the big pineapple and on the second floor a DVD can be watch.   There is not a lot to see inside the pineapple and we were not in the mood to read all the information on the displays.   We walked past all the display to the observation deck with great views of the surrounding farms.   With nothing else to see or do we got b...