Pilgrims Rest

I had a pretty good nights sleep after going to bed at 7:30pm. I did have a coughing fit and got up for 10 minutes at 2am but apart from that I slept right through at 7am this morning.
It rained overnight which brought the temperature down even more so sleeping was much easier but when we did get up at 7am it was really foggy out.
By 9am the fog didn’t look like it was clearing so we decided to make a shopping list and head into Graskop town and get some food shopping. I also managed to pick up some crocs for messing about at camp for £2 and some sandals for wearing out for £2:50. We also managed to get some decent pots and pans for cooking and an electric kettle which will save our gas.
Once we got back to camp we unloaded everything and then had a light lunch and while we were eating Ellie did a search for places to visit nearby because it was still foggy and she found a little town called Pilgrims Rest so at 1pm we headed for there.
Pilgrims Rest was founded in 1873 when gold was found in the rivers nearby on the 23rd September. By the end of 1873 news had spread and there were some 1500 diggers forming mines but it was soon realised that the gold they were looking for was actually gold dust so sluces and sieves were put into the rivers to syphon the gold out. It was a slow process and the people that had moved to Pilgrims Rest to strike it big, didn’t unless they were part of a company.
The town then played a major part in the Boer war housing Militia and then key figures fought in the first and Second World War on behalf of Britain from this town.
We arrived around 1:30pm and paid £2 each to get into 5 museums showing how life was in the late 1800’s at the information center. Straight away the town has a funny vibe because although it is an old mining town and almost every building on the Main Street is an old shop. People do still live and work here. Even all of the old mining houses are lived in and the old hotel still functions as a hotel and bar.
It was a fascinating place to look around, to look in the old garage and see a model T ford Pickup and to be able to walk around a house that is now a museum that has everything still in it, as it was when people were living there including family photos was incredible.
Then we walked to the old church and cemetery and almost all of the graves were numbered and named on a big diagram nearby, and all of the people were buried with there heads facing east towards the rising sun unless you were a robber, then your grave was buried diagonally so you wouldn’t see the sun rise.
We spent about an hour looking around and on the way home we drove around a spectacular mountain road. There was switchbacks galore and it was so scenic, we both said it looked like New Zealand. It certainly didn’t look like South Africa.
We got back home about 3:30pm and then went swimming. The fog has finally cleared and we had an amazing view of graskop canyon from the infinity pool.
Back at camp we were making dinner when we were joined by a German couple who wanted to look around our set up. They too had brought a vehicle but had gone down the root of the rooftop tent. After 20 minutes they left because our dinner was done and they wanted to go swimming. Where were all these friendly Germans when we were in Germany ??
After dinner we just relaxed in camp until it got dark. It felt nice to have had a relaxing day.Baca selengkapnya