NOOITGEDACHT...is one of several sites in southern Africa where the floor over which glaciers moved some 345 to 280 million years ago is preserved. During this period, vast ice sheets that had formed on the highlands of southern Africa and the adjoining parts of the Gondwana supercontinent began moving under their own weight. At Nooitgedacht the parallel and slightly divergent striations made by rock fragments carried in the glaciers as they moved across the Ventersdorp lavas (dating back over 2 500 million years) can clearly be seen, and are orientated in a northeast-southwest direction.
These ‘glacial pavements’ were later used by San shamans to execute rock engravings. The Nooitgedacht engravings depict many geometric patterns, but there are also engravings of human figures, antelope, rhino and elephant. BARKLY WEST...on the northern bank of the Vaal River, was originally known as Klipdrift. After the discovery of rich alluvial diamond-bearing gravels, thousands of hopeful diggers set up camp at what became known as Canteen Koppie. While a dispute ensued over possession of the area, the diggers declared their own republic. Attempts by ZAR President MW Pretorius to exercise jurisdiction over the area were ignored, and the dispute was only settled when Britain annexed the territory of Griqualand West on 27 October 1871. In December 1871, Sir Henry Barkly, Governor of the Cape, was also appointed Governor of Griqualand West and Canteen Koppie was later renamed in his honour. Most of the diggers left when diamonds were discovered on the farms Bultfontein, Vooruitzig and Dorstfontein in early 1871. Some diggers, however, persevered, and the search for diamonds still continues in this region, both by hand and with modern earth-moving equipment.
In addition to its place in South Africa’s diamond history, Canteen Koppie is also an archaeological treasure-house, and finds have included implements dating back to the Earlier Stone Age and the fossilised remains of numerous animals. WINDSORTON...on the western bank of the Vaal River, was originally known to the Khoikhoi as Chaib, a name meaning ‘place of the kudu’. On a South African holiday, visit this village, which developed around a mission station with the biblical name of Hebron. It was the discovery of alluvial diamonds in 1869 that drew large numbers of prospectors and fortune-seekers to the area.
A diamond-diggers’ camp soon sprung up on land owned by a trader, PF Windsor, after whom the camp was named. Although alluvial diamonds are still mined by a few diggers, the churned-up river gravels bear testimony to more hectic days. WARRENTON...is an important railway junction, and is also the main centre for the Vaal-Harts irrigation scheme. Situated on the banks of the Vaal River, the town grew around an irrigation scheme developed by a syndicate on the western part of the farm Grasbult to supply fresh vegetables to the diggers on the diamond fields. The town itself was established in 1884 and named after Sir Charles Warren, who was appointed in 1877 to oversee the allocation of mineral rights and land in Griqualand West. The discovery of diamonds on common grazing land attracted another diamond rush and thus mining continued until 1926. Warrenton is also the main commercial centre of the Vaal-Harts irrigationscheme, which covers 36 950 ha and is one of the largest of its kind in the world. The scheme consists of a diversion weir on the Vaal River, from where water is fed into a 180-km-long canal system to water the fertile valley of the Harts River. A variety of agricultural crops such as wheat, maize, groundnuts, lucerne and cotton are grown under irrigation in the valley. | 
