Rain stops Play in Lake Chrissiesmeer

Thursday, March 10, 2016
Ermelo, Mpumalanga, South Africa
Chrissiesmeer is in the Gertsibande district of Mpumalanga and is famous only for the Battle of Chrissiesmeer and its historic cemetery wherein lies the remains of 25 British soldiers, 20 of whom were from the 2nd West Yorkshire Regiment, as well as 28 Boers. More about this shortly.


This is where we find ourselves this week . This one-chicken town is also famous for Lake Chrissiesmeer which is the largest freshwater lake in South Africa, being 7km long and 3km wide. The area is known as South Africa’s ‘Lake District’ with about 230 lakes in a radius of 22km around the village.


Our ‘house exchange’ here is at Florence Guest House and Wedding Venue, a few km outside the village. In exchange for two weeks at our house in St Cyran later this year, our hosts Nico and Ané Steinberg offered us full board at this amazing farm for 4 nights, followed by 5 nights up at their daughter’s tented safari lodge in the far north. We have opted out of the tented safari, having had our safari appetites sated at Marloth Park and will be leaving Florence Farm in the morning for a short break in Pretoria (and civilisation!) before we fly to Kenya.  


Florence Farm dates back to 1866 when the area was taken over by the Scots and it was built by one Richard Royston who also built the Durban Post Office . He was sent to Lake Chrissie as a Protector of the ‘Florence’ San Tribe. Our exchangers have owned the farm since 1989 and after some ten years of moderately successful farming, they decided to open a guest house which has since developed into a highly profitable wedding venue, complete with an impressive chapel which they have recently built from scratch in one of their woodlands. We are housed in a little rondavel which is nicely furnished and very comfortable. The venue can accommodate up to 60 guests for weddings, most of whom are housed in comfortable tents!


Despite the abundance of lakes around Chrissiesmeer, this area has suffered from the drought that has affected most of South Africa over the last couple of years. In true Bowen style, we have done our best to help out again, and after a lovely, coolish summer’s day upon our arrival, it has rained day and night since then. We have been out and about, exploring the area and even found ourselves at Osheok, the Swaziland border town, today . Sadly as we had left our passports behind we weren’t able to visit what we have been told is a beautiful country. We have been to Ermelo, which is the capital of of Mpumalanga, and also to Badplaas and Carolina. Nothing of note in any of these places, I have to say, but it is good to see that the blacks around here are fairly prosperous and the shanty towns are few and far between.


However, this is essentially Boer farming country and this was brought home to us in a big way when the staff at Florence took us to an agricultural show nearby. Having met and greeted us, Nico and Ané set off on holiday and had obviously briefed the staff to look after us. These lovely people must have considered this show would be of great interest to us and so, having plodded through much red mud and a soggy field to admire an array of vast farming machines, we were led into a large tent where we were duly seated. The tent was packed with Afrikaner farmers - all white - and the show kicked off with a 20 minute Dutch-Reform sermon, in Afrikaans, naturally . Several hundred men whipped off their hats and heads bowed, listened in complete silence. Finally, after a prayer or two, the lecture began, which we think was about the pros and cons of genetically modified farming - but who knows? Talk about bizarre! This is what house-exchange is all about - the most strange things happen. In the afternoon we were invited to go and visit new twin boys and another baby boy just born in the local village. This we declined. However, we did enjoy visiting The Billiard Room Pub which was built by the British soldiers during the Boer War and is still much the same today. We met a lovely young lady there who was from Bulawayo and so she and Mike compared notes. Despite the 40 year difference in their ages, they found plenty in common. She was an amazing source of local knowledge and we enjoyed her company.


On a final note, we visited the cemetery in the village to find out more about the soldiers from the 2nd West Yorkshires and their involvement in this part of the (2nd) Anglo-Boer war. This is of particular interest to me because my father served with the 2 West Yorks and my brother Mike also served with the Prince of Wales Own (an amalgamation of the West and East Yorks). There were 600 West Yorks involved in the battle which took place on February 6th 1901 and on the British side, the brunt of the attack fell on them. In the cemetery a large white cross honours those who were killed. 30 year old Sergeant William Traynor was awarded the Victoria Cross for bravery. Mike, I have photographs of all the names of the soldiers on the graves buried there, if you are interested.


We leave tomorrow for Pretoria. We stayed there last year and like the area. We have new knowledge of Hudson territory in the Benoni area which we intend to explore. Just five days and then we fly to Kenya. Hey, thanks for all your comments - we love to hear from you! Isn’t it?
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Comments

Nicola
2016-03-11

Dad looks very excited about being at the Ag show in the rain! Happy Birthday Mum (nearly), hope there are some big surprises planned??!

Mike Garside
2016-03-12

Yes please, Gillie. The pics of the West Yorkshire graves would be much appreciated by email in due course. As you know, although Dad was commissioned into 1 West Yorks he served with the second battalion in the Western Desert Campaign.

On 20 March I set off on the RIB with my old platoon sergeant pal to visit the battlefields of the Rhine, to visit Kleve where Dad was wounded and awarded the MC and to lay wreathes. At Schadenhof 129 lads from 2 East Yorks were wounded and 36 killed in a battle for a bridge which they fought for and held with great heroism. Thereafter the divisional commander ordered it be known as the Yorkshire Bridge.

gillie.bowen
2016-03-12

Will send pics in due course. Your trip to the Rhine sounds good, hope it goes well.

2025-02-07

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