Road Trip Day 10. Philippolis and onward

Philippolis, the first town to be established in the province, was founded in 1823 as a mission station to reach the local Griqua people. It was named after Dr John Philip who was the superintendent of the London Missionary Society. Adam Kok II, the Griqua leader, settled here with his people in 1826. The kraal where he kept his cattle and horses can still be seen. In 1861 the Griquas left for Kokstad.

The Dutch Reformed Church was built on the spot where the original missionary church stood. During the Anglo-Boer War the church was converted into a fort and the windows of the spire were blocked with sandbags.

Other famous people who lived in Philippolis were Emily Hobhouse and Laurens van der Post, the author. Emily Hobhouse helped improve the lives of the Boers during the Anglo-Boer War and founded the first spinning and weaving school after the war  in 1905. 

Yesterday evening we climbed up a small hill to view the two naval cannons. They were presented by the Cape colonial government to Adam Kok III in 1840. They may have been used during the various wars between the Griqua, Basotho and Boers.

On the way back to the Kanon Guest House we saw The Shop - and it was open (6.45pm on a Saturday evening?). We looked around at some lovely antiques and art works. I was given a glass of port to sip while I browsed.

This morning we packed all our overnight things back into Cubby and spent some time looking around Philippolis.

We saw the Emily Hobhouse memorial garden......

......an interesting street sign......

....and the old jail.

Martha was our guide. Back in the main street we saw the Laurens van der Post memorial garden through a barred gate

and then we were on our way to Colesberg. (We decided to take the longer route to Gariep.)

We passed again the interesting old houses and old trucks on our way out.

The road to Colesberg was a main road between two country towns and this time we had to be careful of goats on the side of the road.

Colesberg is a slightly larger town with a choice of supermarkets and autobanks and petrol brands.

Like many other towns it is built around a church.

From Colesberg we got back onto the N1 and backtracked to Gariep.

 We decided to stay in the Forever resort even though it is slightly above our budget. It is a very well run resort, a cut above the average, and we are going to use the laundry facilities to do a load of washing tomorrow.