Forgotten Towns of the Karoo - a photojournalistic essay

Griekwastad
Day 2: 17 December 2005 SATURDAY

The word busy was what I first thought of when we drove into this town. The locals where everywhere and the streets where full of activity with cars coming and going. Not what we where use to in comparison to the other Karoo towns where we hardly ever encountered any cars. The sum total of cars we must have passed must have been a maximum of five, but that was only on the gravel roads between towns.

We had a good laugh when we came upon a sign that said “Bejaardes”. It was on the outskirt of the town and it looked like this town had allocated a section just for old folk, far from the active centre of town. Further on a few locals where sitting in groups on the low walls, in front of the shops, and looked at the passing traffic. It looked as if these low walls where made just for them so that they could socialize. All along the road groups of people where walking up and down the streets. I couldn’t quite figure out where exactly they were heading, but at it looked like they were enjoying themselves.

When we did stop at a stunning little house, or shop to take a few photographs when two inquisitive young boys where hanging around our car. One of them had an icicle in his hand, much needed moisture from the warm sunlight. They where laughing and teasing us and one another that they distracted us so much that we eventually had to give up on the little house or shop too take photographs of them. At first they just looked like really calm and conservative friends, but then all of a sudden they started acting like gangsters and laughed even more at one another. We never had to ask them to leave us alone, they where very friendly and not too persistent or annoying. Once we had shown them their pictures we had taken of them, they walked off laughing to enjoy their day. There was another young boy, but not as bold as the first lot, who stood a little further and leaned against a small stone wall to look at us. He was laughing at the first two younger boys, it was then that I snapped a picture of him and he laughed in embarrassment and disappeared up the road.

I would love to visit Griquatown again to visit the museums and explore around because all of the museums and curio shops were unfortunately closed. Its strange how that never really affected the busy town in the first place.

We eventually left the hustle and bustle of Griquatown because we were so excited and eager to see what our next town would look like, and just like any other road, we had telephone poles which stretched alongside the whole road from one town to another. But most of these telephone poles had birds’ nests on them. Some were even so big, I’m sure if I had measured them they would have been three meters in diameter! It just showed us that we have remarkable architectural creatures that are able to build these structures without them falling to pieces. I wondered whether they sat and listened to conversations…With the wind once again in my ears and the sound of gravel grunting below the heavy weight of the Jeep, we drove to Niekerkshoop.

The distance from Griquatown to Niekerkshoop was approximately 78km.

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A short history:

In 1805, William Anderson and Cornelius Kramer, moved from the London Missionary Society which was established for three years and moved a short distance to the current location.
In 1820, Robert Moffat, arrived on his way to Kuruman, and stayed a few months to help with missionary work. It was during his stay that his daughter Mary, the becoming Mrs (mev). David Livingston, was born in the house that is currently the Mary Moffat-Musuem. Close to the town are the graves of the Griekwaheadman Andries Waterbroer and his son Nicolaas. The old Griekwa-Raadsal stil exists next to the Waterproer-“palace” – now the premises of an exporter of (tieroog), where visitors can see how they are cut and polished.

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