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Dwarsberg 27 - 29/Jan/2006

The Dwarsberg is a mountain range forming part of the Vredefort-ring and is situated just outside Parys. About 2 billion (109) years ago a huge meteorite struck the earth near Vredefort penetrating the earth's crust and pushing up the strata. Now 2 billion years later we came here for a hike.
This not being far from home we could take our time getting there. It is only 15km from Parys, mostly dirt roads. At the farm we found a lovely old house, fully furnished with ample room in the kitchen for all of us.
The main hike for Saturday was up and over the Dwarsberg. The mountains are nicely folded here as they were pushed up by the meteorite, but there is one range that lies across, that is why the name dwars, which is Afrikaans and means 'across'.
So we hiked along all that and after just short of 10 km we were back. I cheated the last section when I decided to rather take a shortcut along the road. I thought it pointless to climb a hill only to come down from it on the other side.
On this short cut I saw the wrecks of two cars, I later went back because I was interested. They were both Chevrolets, the one a 1957 model complete with engine, but lots of other parts missing. I took an interest, because I have been thinking of restoring some old wreck as a hobby for my retirement. The farmer informed me that it belongs to one of his laborers and he doesn't want to sell. Somebody recently offered him R3000 but he didn't want to part with his old wreck.
In the evening we had our AGM with a smooth leadership handover to Janine and some discussions around kids on the hike and the program for the year. Sunday morning was a short hike through the bush and over the fields. Of interest were the cemetery and the old school, now in ruins.
Passing the farm cemetery we took note of a common grave of two people, Susanna J v.Rensburg and Wessel Wiegant, who died on the same day, 11 May 1933. What was the story behind that? The farmer informed us that this was due to a love triangle of some sorts, Wessel was in love with Susanna, but she was bound to some third person. When he couldn't take that anymore he shot himself and on hearing about his death she did the same. Thus the inscription at the bottom of the gravestone 'verenig in die dood', 'united in death'. Isn't that beautiful? Some sort of modern Romeo and Juliet.


The day finished off with coffee and cake in Parys at some some arty place with lots of sculptures.