SPIRIT OF PLACE: ECHOES

"..........WAAR DIE KRANSE ANTWOORD GEE"

Following the Springboks' epic win over New Zealand last week Saturday which we watched at "Op die Berg" - a restaurant/pub about 3kms up the road from the Kudu Private Nature Reserve gate - we were treated to the most magnificent Full Moon rising over the Kudu Reserve on our way home. Lighting the entire landscape, it simply resonated with words from our magnificent National Anthem, and I felt echoes of many of those words bouncing back at us off the distant cliffs down where our cottage is situated.

On Wednesday we had to do the trek over Long Tom Pass to White River to see if our Home Affairs documents were ready (you can't call them to find out - but that is Home Affairs ...), only one of them was - our Marriage Certificate - which boldly stated that Patricia was married to Patricia, same name, same ID etc., etc. I simply did not come into the picture ... so that has to go back for repairs, and we will simply have to wait and take a chance that when next we trek down to White River all of the documents will be ready (and correct?) - a 300km round trip with all of the cost implications.

Fortunately, the week was beautifully salvaged by two of our neighbours here on the River Lodge terrace (Pieter and Mike whom I have mentioned before), who kindly took me up to a koppie on the Boomplaats area of the reserve where some Petroglyphs had been discovered close to the ruins of what could be a kraal, but which rock walls are more likely to be those of a fort constructed by the Boers, either during the Pedi wars or the Boer War a few years later.

The remain's walls are substantial, and one wonders how many of the giant rocks were moved in the confines of the rough terrain where they were used as part of the construction.

Immediately adjacent to the stone walls there are a few rocks that bear a number of extremely interesting Petroglyphs (images created by removing parts of a rock surface by incising, picking, carving or abrading the rock). There are two extremely interesting aspects of the artworks found on these rocks: The first being the many uniform size holes that have somehow been drilled into the rocks to create some of the images, and the second being the extremely delicate 'scratch' type
lines that create images reminiscent of the Nacza Lines in Peru, but on a vastly diminished scale.

All in all a fascinating afternoon's visit, compounded by some really exciting animal sightings on the way back to River Lodge ... but we'll take a look at those in the next posting.

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