Tales from a winding river

Bartle Logie

The Sundays River winds its way from the Lootsberg, via Graaff-Reinet and Addo to the sea. Beside its banks have lived the famous, but also the unknown.

 

Andries Pretorius

Close to its source Andries Pretorius once farmed at Letskraal before becoming a Trek leader, while Oom Kotie Loots, by driving his Model T up the Wapadsberg and having its photograph taken, helped ensure that the Cape Midlands became Ford country.

Deneys Reitz

In the Zuurberg Jannie Smuts’s Commando nearly died as a result of eating cycad seeds, but rode on and into history, thanks very largely to the able pen of one of the members, Denys Reitz. However, no one seems to know exactly what happened when Boer and Brit clashed at Bedrogsfontein.

Theo Aronson

Growing up in Kirkwood, Theo Aronson, the son of an obscure, Jewish cinema and café proprietor, after meeting the British royal family at Glenconnor station in 1947, went on to record the history of European royalty. In the process he became a confidant of living royals.

Percy Fitzpatrick

A former bank clerk of Irish descent, Percy Fitzpatrick, became a politician and agriculturist, and turned the Sundays River Valley into a citrus growing area. At the same time he managed to raise the ire of many of those young Englishmen he had set out to benefit. He is remembered today because he wrote a book about a dog called Jock.

Maj. P J Pretorius

The death of another bank clerk, Henry Attrill, gored by an elephant, was largely responsible for WW1 hero, Major P.J. Pretorius being called on to exterminate the Addo elephants. He almost succeeded. Thanks to another ex-soldier, Graham Armstrong, and the fence that he built, the few remaining elephants are now a tourist attraction.

From: Logie B. 2011. Sundays – Tales from a Winding River. Port Elizabeth. Blue Cliff.