The Highlands Meander is only a two to three hours drive from Johannesburg or Pretoria and has become a popular tourist destination.  This region has a lot to offer and attracts nature lovers, flyfishers (This is trout country!) and adventurers.

Go on a historical drive:

The timeless ages of nature gradually created the wealth of diversity in the Highlands Meander region.  From the almost treeless savannah areas of the Highveld to the spectacular rock formation of the escarpment, the valleys formed by rock upheavals millions of years ago, add to the special uniqueness of the area.

Signs of stone age and iron age are to be found in the whole of the region.  Hunter-gatherers gave way to agriculturists and pastoralists and rock engravings in the area can be dated to the latter part of the pre-colonial period, which could be from 16th to 19th century.

Mzilikazi, who became known by the Sotho version of his name Moselekatze, moved north towards the end of 1823 to escape Shaka’s wrath.  To regain his all powerfulness, he began attacking and looting the tribes in the vicinity.  At Motomatsi, where Dalmanutha is today, the Koni people dwelt.  They were uprooted by Moselekatze and resettled at Blaauwboschkraal, where ruins of the strange fortress built from stones by the Koni, still stands.

Moselekatze’s reign of terror was short lived and in 1824 he moved out of the area.

It was still to be another decade before the Voortrekkers began moving from the Cape to escape British rule and another 20 years before they started settling in the area.  Having suffered heavily in the fever stricken valley at Ohrigstad the Voortrekkers parted and Willem Joubert and his followers moved south to higher ground, and called the place Lydenberg, the name meaning „town of suffering“.  The Voortrekker school was completed in 1851, followed by the Voortrekker church in 1853, both now National Monuments.

Gold was discovered in the area, 1875 and the scales used for weighing the gold are still on display in the Standard Bank.

16 May 1876 war was declared on the Pedi (Chief Sekhukhune).  Initial attacks by Burgers were unsuccessful and this led to the forming of the Lydenburg Volunteers, who had several encounters with Sekhukhune until they were disbanded in 1877 – not always an honourable lot!  5 April 1878 was the first large scale clash of the 2nd Sekhukhune war;  Lydenburg being the main centre for the gathering of troops sent to quell the Pedis.  The first war of Independence 1880 – 81 saw the 94th Regiment successfully defend the small town for 84 days.  It was from Lydenburg that Colonel Anstruther left to assist the English in Pretoria, only to meet with disaster at Bronkhorstspruit.
 

1883 gold was discovered on the farm Berlyn and a small ramshackle town sprang into existence to support the new find.  Initially called Duivel’s Kantoor, (reception office of the devil), the town attracted many characters including Gunn of Gunn, Stafford Parker, ex-president of the Diamond Diggers Republic, "Yankee Dan", "Rocky Mountain Thompson" and so the modern day Kaapschehoop came to be. Between 1884 and 1887 the Dutch began settling on the farms Grootsuikerboskop and Elandslaagte, the settlement being proclaimed the town of Dullstroom in 1891.  It was named after Wolterus Dull, chairman of an Amsterdam committee which sponsored the settlement here of immigrants from Holland.  The number of beech and elm trees being a memorial to the early settlers.

Belfast was laid out in April 1890 on the farm Tweefontein.  The owner of the farm was Richard O’Neill, son of John O’Neill, owner of Mount Prospect farm in Natal where the peace treaty was signed after the 1st war of Independence 1881.  O’Neill, being Irish, named the town after his ancestral home.

The controlling company for the railway concession, the Nederlandsche Zuid-Afrikaansche Spoorweg Maatschappij, was floated 21 June 1887.  It took until 20 january 1894 to reach Waterval-Boven (above the waterfall), opening up the Elands River valley for the first time.

Some of the most difficult construction work was still to come, as ahead lay the highveld escarpment, a climb of 208 metres.  The tunnel to link Waterval Onder and Waterval Boven took 11 months to complete, was 215 metres long  with a gradient of 1:20.  It was beyond the capabilities of a normal locomotive, and was only made possible by a 4 kilometre length of rack railway built into the section between Waterfall Onder (place below the waterfall) and Waterfall Boven.  The rack railway was never an economic device and was replaced April 1908 with a new 14.4 km line between the two stations, and reaches the highveld with an easier 1:50 gradient.  Waterfall Boven became a town in October 1898 when it received its first Health Committee.  A memorial plague, erected at the station, is in honour of the labourers who died while the railway was being built.  Where the European labourers welcomed the relief of the cool weather on the  highveld, the black workers suffered and many died.  Three weeks later the line reached Machadodorp, past the farm and station at Dalmanutha, named from St. Mark's Gospel Chapter 8:10 and on to reach the highest station on the line at belfast 1988 m above sea level.

The present day branch lines only opening up after the 2nd Anglo Boer War.  Lord Roberts had taken Pretoria, June 1900, and thought the war almost over!  But General Louis Botha and General Ben Viljoen had gathered the Boers together again for one of the last set-piece battles of the war.  Lord Roberts had at his disposal over 19,000 officers and men, of whom 4,800 were mounted, 82 guns and 25 machine guns and against him Botha had 7,000 men and 20 guns, including the 4 Long Toms.  The battle of Dalmanutha or, better known, as the battle of Bergendal, began 21 August 1900 and culminated with the attack against the Zarps (Zuid-Afrikaanse Polisie) on the farm Bergendal.

The monument erected 1970 depicts the coming together of the then four provinces of South Africa to become one.  Behind is the cairn to the officers and men of the 2nd Rifle Brigade who died in the final assault on the koppie.  From here the Boers either moved down the railway line with General Viljoen or north to Lydenburg with general Botha.  The Boer government, under president Paul Kruger, always just keeping ahead of the English, worked for a short time front Machadodorp, but finding the Highveld winter too cold he moved down the railway line to Waterfall Onder, the house he stayed in, Krugerhof, is now a national monument.  Tactical errors on the part of the English and the Boers decision to fight a guerilla war, meant the war was not to be over until May 1902.  Remains of Blockhouses can still be seen today on the Machadodorp / Lydenburg road and in the Elands valley.