Welkom in Colesberg.
Van watter rigting jy ook al kom is Colesberg altyd 'n welkome
gesig. Vir ons is dit altyd die halfpad merk van Gauteng na
Kaapstad! Teen die tyd ly jy aan "dooie boud sindroom"
en is jy moeg, honger en dors en die kinders vra "Hoe ver
nog?" Dis mos nou nie 'n probleem nie! Soek gou die
cache en dan kry jy sommer iets om te eet en drink!
Welcome to Colesberg.
No matter from which direction you come, Colesberg will always be a
welcome sight. For us it is the halfway mark from Gauteng to
Cape Town. By this time, you are really suffering of numb bum
sindrome and are tired, hungry and thursty and the kids ask "Are we
there yet?" Not a problem!! First find the cache and
then you will be at the right spot to get something to bite and
drink.
Colesberg is a traveler's
oasis on the main Cape Town-Johannesburg route, the N1, offering
many attractive accommodation establishments and entertaining,
educational distractions.
A little bit
of history about Colesberg
Colesberg was named
after Sir Lowry Cole - governor of the Cape of Good Hope 1828 -
1833.
The first people
to inhabit the Colesberg district were stone-age
hunter-gatherers. They were followed in the early 19th
century by ‘trekboere', migrant farmers and
missionaries.
By 1814, a mission
station had been established in the hopes of bringing peace to what
was an extremely unruly frontier area of the Cape
Colony.
Soon a second
mission station, called Hepzibah, was established nearby and within
short the two stations attracted over 1 700 /Xam San (Bushmen).
This caused great alarm among frontier settlers who felt their
security was threatened. They appealed to the Governor to assure
their safety, but there was little improvement and in 1818 the Cape
Colonial Government stepped in and put an end to the mission
work.
By 1820 several
huge farms had been established in the district and in 1822 the
farmers petitioned for the establishment of a town. The Government
granted 18 138 morgen of land to the Dutch Reformed Church on
January 27, 1830, and so Colesberg, named after Sir Lowry Cole,
(Governor from 1828 to 1833), was established.
For many years it remained one
of the most remote outposts of European settlement at the Cape and,
as a result, became a major base for commercial hunters, explorers
and settlers travelling into the southern African
interior.
The district of Colesberg was
proclaimed on 8 February 1837. It became a municipality in 1840.
Over the next 52 years various portions of its territory were
separated to form new divisions at Albert and Richmond in 1848,
Middelburg in 1858, Hanover in 1876, and Philipstown and Steynsburg
in 1889.
The settlement was laid out
about a central axis dominated by the Dutch Reformed church, and
its dwellings were distinctive for their square, flat-roofed
construction, a form of residential architecture which eventually
became ubiquitous in the central, more arid regions of the Cape.
Residents were served by the The Colesberg Advertiser, a bilingual
weekly newspaper established locally in 1861.
The division lies on an
elevated plateau studded with flat-topped koppies which, in
pre-colonial times, was the habitat of vast herds of buck. The
region suffered from a dearth of natural timber but its extensive
plains were suited for sheep farming.
Colesberg's part in the
Anglo-Boer War
-
On 14 November 1899 a Boer
force of 700 men under the joint command of Chief Comdt ER Grobler
and General HJ Schoeman entered Colesberg unopposed.
-
On 1 January 1900 British
troops under Maj-Gen John French attacked Boer forces in and around
Colesberg.
-
On 11 January they managed to
drag a 15-pounder Armstrong gun to the top of Coleskop, overlooking
the town, and on the next day they began shelling the
town.
-
On 14 February the British
withdrew from their positions around Colesberg and regrouped at
Arundel Siding.
-
On 20 February the Boers began
to retreat from Colesberg, and on 28 February British forces under
Maj-Gen RAP Clements marched into the town unopposed.
-
The railway line to Colesberg
Junction was reopened on 2 March 1900.
-
However Boer forces continued
to control the Orange Free State banks of the Gariep and on 2 March
1900 they dynamited the Colesberg road bridge.
-
They finally retreated from the
area on 7 March 1900.
THE MAGIC
MOUNTAIN
The town lies in
typical Karoo veld and is surrounded by koppies (little hills). The
most famous is Coleskop, which can be seen from a distance of over
40km. Early travellers called it "Towerberg" ("Magic Mountain").
The curious thing about this koppie is that as you travel towards
it, it never seems to get nearer. At the foot of this mountain was a marsh where travelers
watered their animals, and game also frequented the
hole.
Colesberg has a
rich history closely linked with to the legendary characters of
South Africa's diamond industry.
John O'Reiley, who
purchased the first diamond found in South Africa from its owner,
Schalk van Niekerk, took it to Colesberg for testing. It was used
to scratch "DP", the initials of Draper and Plewman, a store which
still exists, on the shop's window. Once the stone passed this
test, it was sent to Dr Guybourne Atherstone, a well-known
geologist. He confirmed it was a diamond and so started "The
Diamond Rush".
Taken from
http://www.colesberginfo.co.za/
The owner of Die Plattelander
gave me permission to place the cache and also agreed to assist in
maintaining the cache if anything goes amiss! 2011-03-08 The cache
has gone missing again...This is now for the 5th time!!! It is now
a magnetic container on the pallisade fence accessible from outside
as well as inside of the courtyard.