FEATURE
INCORPORATING COLD CHAIN
Orange River table grape area –
rich in history
By John Ackermann
T
he first leg was along the N1 from
Cape Town, stopping in De Doorns
and then, continuing as far as
Matjiesfontein to take the R45 towards
Sutherland.
On the approach to Sutherland, the
futuristic entrance to the Spacecraft
Game Farm and Guest House was very
noticeable. Sutherland had the usual
Saturday morning activity, with the
surrounding community coming to town.
We stopped off at a popular landmark,
the Jupiter Restaurant and Guest House,
with its display of motorcycles, foot pumps,
bicycles, and music records of the early
1950s and even before.
The next leg of 160km to Calvinia was
mostly on a gravel road with dry terrain,
rocky outcrops, and river beds that
seldom have streams of water. We visited
the Gunstfontein farm to view ruins of
old farm buildings. Although most of the
sheep farms along the R45 rely solely on
borehole water, the vegetation did not
appear too barren.
After Gunstfontein, we took a detour
through the town of Middelpos, which is a
deduction from the farm Stinkkuil situated
on the Lower Roggeveld and named
probably due to its position between
Sutherland and Calvinia.
FROM TRADING POST TO BIKER
GATHERINGS
The farm Stinkkuil was first settled by
colonists in 1770 when it was leased from
the Dutch East India Company. Later in
the 19th century, Anna Visagie inherited
1/72 share of Stinkkuil from her father and
this portion became Middelpost (the t
became lost later). It was sold to Daniel
Tomlinson in 1866 who built a trading store
there. The first store was constructed of
packing cases with a tarpaulin for the roof.
A proper building was constructed in 1871.
Supplies were delivered from Ceres and
they took two weeks to arrive by mule cart.
Later, James Dell bought the property
for his son-in-law, a Mr Nightingale, but he
sold it and joined the gold rush in 1889.
However, this was not a success and his
father-in-law repurchased Middelpos for
him when he returned. It is not known if he
really liked his son-in-law or just wanted a
home for his daughter.
During the Anglo-Boer War in 1902, there
was a skirmish at Middelpos, resulting in the
death of 11 officers and men of the 11th
Imperial Yeomanry, who remain buried
there today.
During the war, Joel Sher was a
hawker in the area and followed the Boer
commandos. Nightingale supported the
British and after the war, due to local
hostility, moved away, selling the property
and stock to Sher and his partners,
Leon Helfet and Herman Weinrich. They
built a hotel, and a police station was
added shortly thereafter. Sher was the
grandfather of the famous Shakespearian
actor, Sir Anthony Sher.
In the 1950s, Middelpos was famous for
its Saturday-night dances, held in a barn
opposite the hotel. It was related that the
queues at the hotel bar were so long that
three drinks were bought at a time — one
consumed immediately and the other two
taken back to the dance. Revellers slept
off the after-effects in their cars but had to
be up early the following morning to get
back to Calvinia, in time to get ready for
church. Later the shop and hotel became
owned by the Wright family, who still live
there. Middelpos hotel has become a
popular stopping place for bikers.
Ackermann
The trip to the Orange River area was not just about visiting table grape pack houses, but also about
stopping at towns along the way and tracing some of the historical background.
Irrigation canals lead water from the Orange River to vineyards.
HANTAM HUIS CENTRE OF CALVINIA
After another stretch of gravel road, we
joined the tarred R27 to overnight in one
of the many guest houses of the Hantam
Huis complex. Hantam Huis is an authentic
building that is representative of the
building methods of the late 18th century.
Built in 1854, it is laid out in a T-shape, and
is the oldest authentic house in Calvinia.
It took more than a decade to restore
this building to its original glory, complete
with its authentic reed roof, and was
declared a national monument in 1983.
The Hantam Huis has a popular coffee
shop, restaurant, curios shop, and display
of period furniture.
Originally, the town and area were
called Hantam. The word has its roots
in the distant past when the Khoi, who
roamed the area with their flocks, called
the mountain !Han=ami. According to
sources, it means ‘mountain where the red
bulb grows’. Over time, it became known
as Hantam Mountains, which is the official
name today.
At a meeting held on 19 January 1847,
on the farm Tygerhoek, it was decided to
establish a parish of the Dutch Reformed
Gordonia Verkoelingsdienste (GVD) has operated in the Upington area since
the early 1990s.
The Xani Solar One power generation plant near Pofadder is the second in the area
using parabolic trough technology and the first with a thermal energy storage system
using molten salts. Kilometres of parabolic mirrors capture sunlight to heat transfer liquid
that pass to the generators.
COLD LINK AFRICA • March | April 2018
www.coldlinkafrica.co.za
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