Travel thoughts from Chrislin's Pool area

Addo Polo Club

Addo Polo Club

The Addo Polo Club is starting to thrive again with an influx of young families returning or moving to the Sundays River Valley. It has come a long way since it is was established in 1923!

Hermitage House, the local independent primary school use the sports facilities and every pupil and his/her family is a member.

There are more events happening at the Polo Club, which is exciting to see. There is a weekly Darts Challenge every Tuesday, Pilates on a Wednesday evening, Horse Riding lessons on a Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday and a few chukkers of polo most Wednesday's and Saturday/Sunday.

Like the Addo Polo Club Facebook page for more updates and events. A website is in the making!

Addo Polo Club news on the Facebook page

The Zuurberg Inn, Eastern Cape

 
 The Zuurberg Inn is very much a part of Port Elizabeth's history, firstly because of its situation as a resting place for travellers on the road to and from the north, and then, before the advent of fast cars and aeroplanes and week-ends at Sun City, it was a perfect distance away from the town for a week-end visit by train or, later, in the family Ford.
    The Inn is on the farm Doorn Nek, originally part of the Uitenhage Districts and later part of Alexandria, so it is for references to the farm that one must look to begin with. We are told that is was on this land that Andries Stockenstorm, Landdrost of Graaff-Reinet, and some of his party were killed in December 1811 during the Frontier War. A post was probably established here when the war was over and the relics of it can be seen around on the the Inn's fireplaces.
    According to a list of his property, sold after his death, the owner of the farm until 1838 was the Malay Port Elizabethan, Fortuin Weys, and a list of Field Cornetcies of 1849 gives the owner as one William Matthews.
    In 1848 a dramatic change in the story of Doorn Nek began with the building of the pass through the Zuurberg to provide a direct route from Port Elizabeth to Graaff-Reinet, Somerset East, Cradock and Colesberg. The pass was commenced by Henry Fancourt White, who has close ties with Port Elizabeth's history, and finished by his successor, Matthew Woodfield, also with Port Elizabeth connections. The pass was opened to the public in 1858 and cost £1654 14s 1d.
    During the Smithfield gold rush of 1854 a D. Harvey offered a half-way house - half-way between Port Elizabeth and Somerset East - at Doorn Nek, but it wasn't until 1861 that the story of the Inn really began, when John Matthews, the Zuurberg Hotel and Sanatorium already had a respectable, family-holiday aspect, brought both by fashion and the railway.
    Various owners and managers followed, but a pattern had been established. Visitors came for weekends or for longer and sometimes to convalesce. They travelled by train as far as Coerney where transport met them and conveyed them up the pass to the Inn. Tennis, quoits, croquet and golf were available, as well as pleasant walks. Special concessions were sometimes offered on rail fares over week-ends. The Anglo-Boer War brought a temporary halt to the stream of visitors. For one thing a pass was needed during the later part of the war for any Port Elizabethan wanting to go further afield than Zwartkops, and at the beginning of 1901 the owner;s horses were all commandeered and he could no longer transport his guests from Coerney. Smuts and his commando came as far as Kirkwood and the Kariega Valley, but during their few days on the Zuurberg were not in the vicinity on the Inn.
    Around this time the existing Inn was burned down and the property was acquired by F.W. Bracken, an experienced hotelier who had owned the Imperial Hotel at the top of Russell Road and the Central Hotel before buying the Zuurberg Sanatorium, a "great structure, superior to anything in the Midlands." The genial Mr Bracken and after him his son, Reg Bracken, ran the Inn until 1946. Modern conveniences arrived bit by bit: electric bells, shower baths, running water in the bedrooms. A large L-shaped double-storey building was erected behind the familiar roadside part, and seen for the first time in photographs gives quite a shock. The Brackens sold the Inn to a group of Port Elizabeth businessmen and some time after a serious fire occurred, presumably the cause of the disappearance of the large annex.
    The Inn no longer has a main road past it's front door, in fact the old pass is a quiet country road nowadays, with the speeding traffic following newer, tarred roads and the once bare hills around the Inn are covered with trees, but though altered, this place is as beautiful and memorable to us as it has been to visiting Bayonians for generations.

Zuurberg Inn front verandah 2014

Sources: CApe Government Gazettes, Eastern Province HErald, Advertiser, Port ELizabeth Directories

15% off ADDO accommodation

Wondering where to stay in the Addo area? Come and relax at Chrislin African Lodge, a mere 12km from the Addo Elephant Park Main Entrance on the R336. 

With it's unique African mud huts, built in the traditional way, you have the feeling of 'Africa' amidst orange groves, a twittering bird life and local South African cuisine at Sneezewoods, the in-house restaurant. 

Various excellent safari options can be booked through Crisscross Adventures, the in-house safari company.

Book now!

Happy St Patrick's Day!

A St. Paddy's Day flashmob in Oz!

Amanzi Estate, Sundays River Valley

 

Sir Percy Fitzpatrick

 The Amanzi estate in the Coega River valley comprises most of the area once occupied by the loan farm Rietheuvel. Sir john Barrow visited the region in 1797 and described the warm mineral springs there. In 1854 there is a reference to the sale of 300 erven "on the farm Mineral Baths now to be called Balmoral" by James Bevan, the owner. In 1860 we find a Mr J.G. Steytler de Villiers, insolvent, selling "Balmoral, part of Mineral Baths farm". In August 1863 John Pigott Nixon bought two subdivisions of the old Mineral Baths farm and this portion was sold under the name of Alwyn Balmoral.
    Major-General Nixon was a colourful and eccentric figure. Born on the Isle of Wight, he ran away to sea at the age of 15 and jumped ship in Algoa Bay, where he befriended a Mr Human of the farm Papiesfontein, near Gamtoos River mouth. His parents directed enquiries to the Cape Governor for their son, who was traced and returned to England. He never forgot his kind friends and kept in touch with them.
    Nixon was commissioned in the British Army in 1841 and landed in Bombay in the same year. He saw active service in various campaigns in the East. He must have been on leave at the Cape when he bought Balmoral in 1863. Many British officers serving in the East spent their furloughs at the Cape. He was back again in 1868 as J.C. Chase records that he visited Cradock Place on several occasions. In 1869 he married Georgina Bean of Nanaga at St. Mary's Church, Port Elizabeth.
    Nixon returned to the Cape in 1872 and the following year he purchased more land, thereby enlarging his Balmoral estate. In 1877 he was British Agent in Baghdad and two years later he retired with the rank of Major-General and settled at Balmoral. In 1890 he ran into financial difficulties and his farms were put up for sale. It is probable that he left for India in 1892. Nixon died in Bombay in 1906 at the age of 84.
    Balmoral became the property of Hugh de Renzy Magennis. In 1908 Fred Harvey purchased part of Balmoral and in 1909 another portion was acquired by a Mr Haywood. It was noted that there were two fast flowing boreholes on the farm. In 1913 Sir Percy Fitzpatrick bought Glen Hay, part of Balmoral, from I.J. Ferreira and 743 morgen of the same farm from Mr F Haywood. Sir Percy used the estate, which was then named Amanzi, as an experimental citrus farm in connection with his grand scheme to develop the Sundays River Valley.
    James Peter Fitzpatrick was born in King William's Town. He was the son of an Irish-born judge of the Cape Supreme Court. Percy, as he preferred to be named, began his career as a clerk in the Standard Bank in Cape Town in 1880. Four years later he left for the Eastern Transvaal where alluvial gold had been discovered and worked there as a storekeeper and a transport rider between Delagoa Bay and the interior. In later years we find him as a journalist, author, politician and company magnate until he began to turn his attention to farming, concentrating on citrus. It was at this time that he purchased Amanzi, 15km east of Uitenhage. As the name implies the farm had an ample supply of good quality artesian water derived from boreholes to irrigate the citrus orchards.
    Sir Percy pioneered the citrus industry in the Eastern Cape and fathered what became known as the Citrus Board and the Deciduous Fruit Board which to this day market their exports through the Perishable Products Export Control Board.
    The decision to build a storage dam to conserve the flood waters of the Sundays River and irrigate the valley was announced by Parliament in June 1917. There is no doubt that this move was due to the incessant efforts of Sir Percy FitsPatrick, Chairman of the Cape Sundays River Settlement Company, which had been formed in 1914. Sir Percy had tremendous faith in the ultimate success of this project and envisaged that it would eventually support some 10 000 people, mainly in the citrus industry.

    For most of us Sir Percy is probably best remembered for his creation of "Jock of the Bushveld", published in 1907 and still being reprinted.

    Sir Percy FitzPatrick died at Amanzi on January 24, 1931 and was buried at the Lookout, the resting place of the FitzPatrick family, alongside his wife, Lillian, who passed away in 1923 and his two sons, Alan and Oliver who both died four years before him. His third son, Nugent, lost his life in France in 1917.
    After Sir Percy's death in 1931, the farm Amanzi passed through his only daughter, Cecily, into the Mackie Niven family.

Sources:
BARROW, Sir John. Travels into the interior of South Africa. 2 vols, 1806.
COATES, Mrs P.N.A. The Story of Uitenhage, 1904 - 1914.
WALLIS, J.P.R. Fitz. The story of Sir Percy FitzPatrick.
ROSKELL, A.H, Six years of a tramp's life in South Africa.
LOOKING BACK: Quarterly bulletin of the Historical Society of Port Elizabeth: Vol 4, Part 4, December 1964. Vol. 5, Part 1 March 1965. Vol 8, Part 4 December 1968. Vol. 17, Part 4 December 1977. Vol. 18, part 3 September 1978.
AMANZI FILE: Africana Collection, Port Elizabeth Public Library.
CARTWRIGHT A.P The First South African, 1971

Kirkwood Wildlife Festival 2015

The Kirkwood Wildsfees annually attracts more than 45 000 visitors to picturesque Sundays River Valley, making it the fastest growing festival in the Eastern Cape. And one of South Africa's biggest events!

Watch the 2013 Kirkwood 'Festival of Firsts' Video

In 2014 the festival celebrated its 13th year and provides a real commitment to nature conservation highlighted by the fact that in 2011 the Kirkwood Wildfees hosted a sustainable energy expo for the first time.

The Absa Kirkwood Wildsfees 2015 will be taking place from Friday, June 26 until Sunday, June 28.

 Wildsfees firsts include being the first – and only - game auction in South Africa where disease-free buffalo from the Addo Elephant National park are for sale; the first major festival to be wheelchair friendly; one of the first South African festival to go green; and the first to host a mohair expo.

It is also the first and only festival to include a mix of over 300 specialist stalls, agricultural and wildlife expos, supervised kiddies play area, “wild rides” and live entertainment. New firsts for 2013 included an “extreme fishing” tournament, and a “Lang Lag Tafel" where diners savoured ‘smileys’ (sheep heads) while being entertained by a comedian, tandem skydives.

Award winning artists head the three-day line-up of artists from around the country. (Artists this year include Mi Casa, Snotkop, Kurt Darren, Desmond Wells and Dr Victor and many more.)

New to the 2015 festival is the Tikki Island style beach bar, which promises to be the chill place of the year!

Why not like their Facebook page for some fun installations on keeping up to date with all the latest news?

There is even an ivory springbok for sale (ivory springbok for sale) at the 2015 Kirkwood Wildsfees Game Auction.

Spending some time in the area? There are many fun and interesting things to do.

Check out:

* Chrislin African Lodge (Chrislin African Lodge) in Addo for accommodation. Stay in traditionally built mud huts (with modern conveniences!) 
* Addo Tourism (Addo Tourism) for accommodation and general information on the Sundays River Valley. 

* Also check out the Addo Tourism section on Things to Do (Things to Do) in the area.

* Crisscross Adventures (Crisscross Adventures) for Addo Park safari's in open vehicles, quad biking, canoeing, fishing, sand-boarding and more!

* Why not zip over the Sundays River on Africa's longest double zip wire at Adrenalin Addo? And/or the Giant Swing! www.adrenalinaddo.co.za

* SafariNow has a good list of local activities. (Things to do in Addo)

Chrislin African Lodge's Sunset Huts in Addo

These Sunset Huts are Chrislin African Lodge's newest addition. Built at the end of 2014, they are proving a great success. It was recognised that more families and couples were travelling to the Addo area and a need for more suitable accommodation was required. These 'Sunset Huts' have an inter-leading door between the two rooms to allow for privacy, if required. The family/couples share a large verandah in front to watch the sun set or simply read a book while basking in the sun. It is close to both the swimming pool/lounge area and Sneezewoods, the in-house restaurant.

A local photographer, Michael Price, took this sun set photo. Check out his other photos at http://www.michaelpricephotos.co.za/