Once more on the Eastern Cape trail of Thomas Pringle

Following on from Part 1:

George to Somerset East, I follow in Thomas Pringle’s footsteps more closely by transiting the Baviaans River Conservancy and heading through Tarkastad on to Cradock, and then take the fertile Grassridge Dam dirt track to Schoombee, about 150km on a tar road from the N1 (Gariep Dam) or 50km to the N10 (Middelburg).

While Pringle had not planned to dedicate his life to championing human rights and fighting racial injustices, his inner sense of equity, perhaps stemming from his own mobility challenges, would not allow him to simply turn a blind eye and accept the status quo as most others did. Of course, there were a number of other fair-minded leaders and colonists — most of the early missionaries for example, and other standout government officials such as Robert Jacob Gordon, Gen Jan Willem Janssens and, later, John X Merriman who could have diverted the course of SA’s history had he become the union’s first prime minister.

I’m thinking about all this after stopping to let some air out of my vehicle’s tyres at the boomed entrance to the Baviaan’s River Conservancy. I’ve done this track twice before, once in each direction, but never in a car, only on an adventure motorcycle. Both times I’ve been challenged by lack of light and bitter cold and nearly collided with some kudu, but they were both epic rides, nonetheless.

Unlike the other times, though, it’s early on a beautiful late summer’s day when I push the button to lift the boom and start my 109km (mostly dirt track) odyssey to Tarkastad. The road is straight and smooth for the first couple of kilometres, but then things get properly interesting.

At Glen Lynden farm they often awoke at night to the cries of their horses being savaged by lions.

As I enter the valley itself, the road meanders alongside the river while dramatic cuttings rise up on either side of me. After stopping briefly in the middle of a one-car bridge over the Baviaans River, admiring the long green grass thriving on its banks, I pull over on the other side to digest a little more of Pringle’s 202-year-old account in Narrative of a Residence in SA.

When he and his party were eventually landed on the beach near modern-day Gqeberha, the 12 men, six women and six children (all family, except for three farm servants) lived in tents for a while until they were guided to their allotted land in the Baviaans River Valley.

Nowadays, there is thankfully still much wildlife about, particularly grey reebok, kudu, mountain reedbuck, caracal, vervet monkeys and, of course, baboon; but in Pringle’s time, predators such as lions and brown hyenas were quite a problem. When they were establishing themselves at Glen Lynden farm they often awoke at night to the cries of their horses being savaged by lions.

Sadly, even though there were still some quaggas about when Pringle got there, too many were shot indiscriminately for their pelts and were extinct in the wild by 1878. As Pringle noted from some of the location names here, such as Buffelshoek, Cape buffalo also thrived in the valley once, but they were gone before he got there.   

Though lame from an early childhood accident — he had to use crutches all his life — Pringle still pitched in where he could to establish the infrastructure of the family farm and defend its livestock from predators when necessary. But his greatest asset to them was his power of communication. From the time they landed until he left SA in 1826, he was their spokesperson, often interceding on their behalf with military and government officials.

Yet, once the farm was established, Pringle headed off to Cape Town and started working there in the newly opened SA Public Library, while still pursuing his writing career part-time. To make extra money, Pringle opened a school with another Scotsman, John Fairbairn, and helped establish two newspapers soon afterwards: the South African Journal and the South African Commercial Advertiser.

Judged as being too critical of the British colonial government’s handling of Khoi and Xhosa rights in general, and their often duplicitous dealings on the eastern frontier in particular, the arrogant Lord Charles Somerset made Pringle’s life hell (Pringle claimed to have lost £1,000 in ventures sabotaged by the colonial government) which eventually forced him to return to the family farm.

Probably his greatest fight against racial injustice was the work he later did as secretary to the Anti-Slavery Society once back in Britain. With the widening of the voting franchise, the British parliament passed legislation outlawing slavery in all its dominions in August 1833. Emancipation came soon after the decree was published on June 27 1834, but it was sadly only six months later that Pringle died of tuberculosis at only 45 years old.

Riding down the remainder of the exquisite Baviaans River Valley, I note its Pringle family and Scottish heritage reflected in the names of their many descendants, and in farm names such as Eildon, Belmont, Glen Ross, Lynedoch and, of course, Glen Lynden.

I take in the old settler churches, remnants of pioneering farmsteads and the thin, yet numerous, bountiful slivers of verdure that prove how hard these early farmers toiled to tame this once wild and rock-strewn valley.

Eating my lunch later, suffused with dappled light in my cathedral of poplar trees, I’m in fine spirits. Replete, I get out of the car to stretch my legs down the avenue, but only get 2m away before I discover my vehicle has a flat rear tyre. Of course, the jack is too short and not even the Boy Scout block of wood I’d packed for such a situation is high enough to get the spare on, but thankfully the second fail-safe — one even Baden Powell would have been proud of — a second jack, allows me to nudge the suspension up a bit to get the wheel on.

More narrow and deserted mountain passes follow and I eventually find myself on the last stretch into Tarkastad, looking at the familiar pair of flat-topped mountains in the distance. The final 18km or so are tarred but by far the most dangerous. Potholes the size of moon craters are hard to miss, and between this and a mob of protesters that suddenly appears on the main road behind me when I exit a cafe in town, I’m glad to get out of there.     

My Beaconsfield farm host has warned me not to take the gravel road to Hofmeyr — “it’s heavily corrugated and potholed”, he said — but I don’t listen. Yet, after 15km, my ears suddenly open when my head hits the ceiling and I return to the velvety R61, and head for the Grassridge dirt track turn-off,  5km before Cradock.  

The 78km to Beaconsfield Farm is a magic carpet ride through well-watered lands of maize and vegetables, all made possible by the nearly 83km long Gariep-Fish River Tunnel, with its attendant weirs, canals and diversion dams that were operational by 1975.  

About halfway to my destination near Schoombee, I stop on a low-level bridge and listen to the thunderous sound of water crashing over one of these weirs in voluptuous torrents. Here I toast our forefather’s foresight with a cup of coffee, smiling at the irony of celebrating a far-right government’s achievements on a road trip inspired by the liberal Pringle.   

Route Description:

Day 2: Somerset East to Schoombee via Cookhouse on the N10, take the second right turn-off to Bedford (18km north of Cookhouse), turn left into the Baviaans River Conservancy 2km after the turn-off, travel 109km to Tarkastad (90km dirt), take the tarred R61 into Cradock and head off on the R390 towards Hofmeyr for 5km, then turn left onto the Grassridge Dam to Schoombee dirt track (79km).

Day’s distance: 314km of which 168km is on gravel roads. Time taken: Six hours.

For onwards travellers from Schoombee it is 149km on a tarred road to the N1 (Gariep Dam) or 50km on the R56 to the N10 (Middelburg).

Travel Notes:

Type of vehicle required: Though the route can be done in a sedan with reasonable ground clearance in the drier months, an AWD SUV or 4x4 is preferable.

What to take with you: TV Bulpin’s Discovering Southern Africa as well as a map; bird, mammal and reptile books; plenty of water; snacks; spare tyre; puncture kit and first-aid kit.

What to do along the way: Besides soaking up the natural beauty, you may want to pursue the following activities: visit the cave (or grave) where Slagtersnek rebellion leader, Frederick Bezuidenhout, was holed up and killed (about 27km up the Baviaans River Valley); check out the Olive Schreiner Museum in Cradock (9 Cross St, open 8am-12.45pm weekdays);  take a drive along Market Street and see the colourful Victorian tuishuise along its length; stop opposite the Grassridge Dam and enjoy a roadside coffee; marvel at the thunderous weir to the right of the low-level bridge about halfway to Schoombee; and, if staying at the Beaconsfield Farm cottage, be sure to take a walk to the Teebus River (about 2km from the cottage) and relax on its riverbanks.  

Where to stay: I stayed at Beaconsfield Farm and loved it (Charles Lord: 082 826 2310).