HARRISMITHHarrismith, on the banks of the Wilge River, is dominated by 600-m-high Platberg to the northeast of town. Horse-drawn carts are still a common mode of transport among the local rural people. Established in 1849, Harrismith was named after the British Governor of the Cape, Sir Harry Smith. In addition to its central location midway between Gauteng and the KwaZulu-Natal coast, the town is also an important agricultural centre. The 5 000-ha Platberg Nature Reserve, extending from the edge of the town to the summit of the flat-topped mountain, is stocked with a variety of game including blesbok, black wildebeest, eland, springbok and red hartebeest. The blockhouse on the slopes of Platberg was built by the British in 1901 as part of their strategy to isolate and capture the Boer forces during the South African War. Also of interest is a 150-million-year-old, 33-m-long petrified tree trunk in the Harrismith Town Hall garden. The imposing light-brown sandstone building, with its towered façade, was completed in 1908. |
PHUTHADITHJABAPhuthadithjaba, a name translated as ‘meeting place of the nations’, is the main centre of QwaQwa. It was formerly known as Witsieshoek, a name given in honour of a Kholokwe chief, Wetsi, who lived in the area between 1839 and 1856. Chief Wetsi and his tribe fled to a large cave to the southwest of Witsieshoek in 1856 to escape a large Boer commando, which seized 1 700 head of cattle and 400 horses. A smaller commando later invaded Witsieshoek and burnt down the kraals, forcing Wetsi and his followers to flee to Basotholand. The Mopeli statue, erected 7 km south of Phuhadithjaba, honours Paulus Mopeli, a brother of Basotho leader Moshweshwe, who settled in Witsieshoek in 1867. The sprawling residential and industrial town was developed in the early 1970s as the ‘capital’ of the bantustan of QwaQwa, created for the Bakwena of Chief Mopeli and the Batlokwa, two South Sotho groups living outside of Lesotho. |
SENTINEL DRIVEFrom Phuthaditjhaba the road winds along the Witsieshoek Pass, with its 1 in 7 gradient, to the Witsieshoek Mountain Resort, perched on the edge of the Escarpment. The resort opened in 1972 and is situated at an altitude of 2 200 m, making it one of the highest holiday resorts in South Africa. From here, the mountain road snakes past Breakfast Rock, The Dome, The Pudding and Witches to reach the car park at the base of the 3 165-m-high Sentinel, after a drive of 6 km. Terminating at an altitude of 2 540 m, the Sentinel Drive is the highest gravel road in Southern Africa that can be undertaken in a sedan car. The car park is the starting point for the three-hour hike to the top of the Amphitheatre and the 3 282 m-high Mont-aux-Sources. However, a short walk from the car park to the Escarpment edge will reveal dramatic views of the Royal Natal National Park far below, as well as Eastern Buttress and the Devil’s Tooth at the eastern end of the Amphitheatre. |
STERKFONTEIN DAM...lies in the upper reaches of the Nuwejaarspruit and forms part of the Drakensberg Pumped Storage Scheme, which supplements the water supply of the Vaal Dam. Commissioned in 1977, the 2 290-m-long earthfill embankment was extended to 3 060 m in 1980, while the height was increased from 69 m to 93 m. Up to 630 million m3 of water a year is pumped from the Woodstock Dam on the Thukela River up the Escarpment to the Sterkfontein Dam. The water is stored here and is released into the Wilge River, a tributary of the Vaal, only when there is a need to augment the water level in the Vaal Dam. The rationale for this is that, being very deep, the Sterkfontein Dam loses much less water through evaporation than the much shallower Vaal Dam. The dam wall contains 17 million m3 of material, making it the largest dam wall in South Africa in terms of volume. With a surface area of nearly 70 km2 when full and a capacity of 2 656 million m3, Sterkfontein is the third-largest reservoir in South Africa. It is popular with anglers, and windsurfing and boating enthusiasts. The dam is the focal point of the 18 000-ha Sterkfontein Dam Nature Reserve, which is dominated by grasslands and cream-coloured sandstone outcrops. |
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