A Land to Die For

We discovered quite by chance that we were on the Maqoma Route, in the car park at Fort Armstrong. Actually, ‘car park’ was a bit of an exaggeration, just like using the word ‘road’ to describe the goat track we’d driven down to get to this remote spot. Once a key outpost defending the Eastern Cape’s old frontier at the foot of the scenic Katberg, it’s now part of the Winterberg range near the settlement of Balfour.

In the ring of rocks indicating where we should park was a sign in a relaxed, prone position. ‘Maqoma Route’ it read, describing the route named after Maqoma, a great warrior chief of the Xhosa, who put up strong resistance to the colonial invaders. Looking around the grand ring of the Winterberg mountains on the northern horizon, I couldn’t blame him for not wanting to give up this Eden.

I hadn’t known there was a heritage route named after