Gold-diggers' Footsteps - 345km

NELSPRUIT

Nelspruit, capital of Mpumalanga province, lies in the fertile valley of the Crocodile River in an area known for its production of a variety of tropical fruit (pawpaws, bananas and avocados), nuts (pecan and macadamia) and citrus fruit. The town’s development was closely linked to the building of the railway line between Pretoria and Lourenço Marques (Maputo). The section of the line from Komatipoort on the Mozambican border reached Nelspruit in 1892 and a town steadily developed around the railhead. During the final phase of the South African War, Nelspruit briefly served as the capital of the Zuid-Afrikaansche Republiek (ZAR). Proclaimed in 1905, the town’s name honours the Nel brothers, who used the area for winter grazing in the 1870s and in 1890 bought the farm on which the town developed.

KAAPSEHOOP

Situated on the edge of the Escarpment, Kaapsehoop appeared virtually overnight following the discovery of alluvial gold on the farm Berlyn (Berlin) in 1880. Originally named Duiwels Kantoor (Devil’s Office), it was renamed Kaapse Hoop to reflect expectations of rich finds. By August 1882 there were 250 diggers at Kaapsehoop, and by early 1884 their numbers had swelled to some 4 000.

In its heyday, the village had two hotels, several bars, 15 shops, a school, post office and an assortment of corrugated-iron cottages and clay-brick houses. Most of the diggers abandoned the settlement when the Pioneer Reef was discovered near Barberton. After the discovery of Barber’s Reef and the Sheba Reef in 1885, only a handful of diggers remained behind. Reminders of this colourful era include the remains of the old government building (1885) and the magistrate’s office at the town square (known as Kommisarisplein), corrugated-iron miners’ cottages, the old pear orchard with its unbelievably huge trees and the cemetery. The descriptive names of the area’s many creeks and streams, such as Poverty Creek, Starvation Creek, Fool’s Rush and Battery Creek, with its delightful waterfall, evoke memories of gold-rush days. The montane grassveld plain to the southeast of the village is the most important habitat of the endangered blue swallow in South Africa, while small groups of wild horses still roam the area; these are said to be the descendants of abandoned mining ponies and horses used in the South African War.

NGODWANA

...is infamous, rather than famous, for the pollution belched out by the factory which mills logs from the area’s vast plantations for use in the production of paper.

WATERVAL ONDER

...owes its name to its location below the nearby waterfall on the Elands River. After evacuating Pretoria on 29 May 1900 to escape the advancing British forces, the government of the Zuid-Afrikaansche Republiek (ZAR) initially moved to Machadodorp. On 30 June, the ailing President Paul Kruger moved to Waterval Onder from where he conducted the affairs of the Republic for nearly two months. The historic presidential residence, named Krugerhof, can be seen close to the Waterval Onder railway station. Spanning the Dwaalheuwelspruit (‘wandering hill stream’), a tributary of the Elands River, is the handsome Five Arch Railway Bridge. The stone bridge was opened to traffic in June 1894.

WATERVAL BOVEN

From Waterval Onder the road ascends steeply up the slopes of the Elandsberg and about 2 km before reaching Waterval Boven passes the old Nederlandsch Zuid-Afrikaansche Spoorweg Maatschappij tunnel. In the early 1890s, the steep gradient of the Escarpment presented the biggest challenge to the engineers tasked with building the railway line between Pretoria and the Mozambican port of Lourenço Marques (Maputo) to provide the ZAR with an independent outlet to the sea. To reduce the gradient, a tunnel of about 400 m was built through the Elandsberg. Drilling started from both ends in October 1892 and the two teams met in September the following year. A viewsite near the entrance of the tunnel provides a fine view over the 90-m-high Elands River Falls 4. This section of the railway line also incorporated more than 3 km of rack railway to assist the locomotives. The rack railway incorporated a middle rail fitted with a rack that engaged a pinion on the locomotive to provide extra traction. A 32-ton rack engine, capable of hauling 140 tons, was coupled behind the train to push it at a speed of 8 kph; part of the original rack system can be seen at the Waterval Boven Station. Also of interest at the station is one of the original locomotives used on this route and a monument commemorating the construction of the line.