Saturday, 23 August 1997
index day 1 day 2, part 1
day 2, part 2 day 3 day 4
"...they give us companionship, devotion and loyalty in unstinted measure." Major Hawley |
Mangwe Pass
Mangwe Pass slab
Mr Grief at Plumtree School
A building in Plumtree school
Picnic at Plumtree school
The road to van Rooyen Rest
van Rooyen Belgravia
Peard house, the side
Heading to Mangwe Pass...The fourth day had an early start: at 7 am we were already at the Mangwe pass: the pass was the Gateway to Matabeleland from the south. There a monument and a plaque commemorate the role of the pass in the history of the country. There pioneers, hunters, traders, missionaires had to ask permission to the Ndbele king for caming into the country through the Mangwe pass. A cement slab marks the pass on the ground: it shows carriage prints, oxes prints, boots print and ideally... dogs prints! Mangwe pass is the second place I liked most!
Plumtree School is where we headed to after having our breakfast back at La Bonka lodge. This school in Plumtree played a very important role in the history of the area. We visited the school museum where we browsed among photos, school records, books, copybooks, programs, assignements, discipline reports... Van Rooyen son, named Cornelius as his father, attended this school and he his portrayed in a picture seated on a window sill. We all bought a copy of the book "The Plumtree Papers" by Mary Clarke, about the history "of the Bulalima-Mangwe area, the growth of an education system, and life in Rhodesia up to the Referendum in 1922" as the cover flap reads. The books mentions Van Rooyen and his role in the community of the time. At the school we met Mr. Nigel Greef, he too from a pioneer family. Today he owns what was van Rooyen second farm in Plumtree, after he left Weltevreden: van Rooyen Rest and Belgravia.
The Pioneers' Cemetery, in Plumtree, is where Van Rooyen is buried, and we visited it before going to van Rooyen Rest. Unfortunately it not known which his grave is, but I am sure that each of us in our hearts found the place where he rests in peace. There we also saw the grave of John Lee's son, Hans.
Van Rooyen Rest, in Plumtree, is van Rooyen second farm and there seems to be little left of the original building. Today they make bricks there, but the name van Rooyen is still there on a sign on the wall as the farm still carries his name (fortunately it is difficult to change farms names, so Eskdale too is still Eskdale farm!). Belgravia is that part of the Rest farm Nellis gave to his daughter when she got married. It is still there, though once there was a huge figtree no longer there.
Peard house... We were now almost at the conclusion of our trip, but still an important place in history of the breed was to be visited: the Peard house in Bulawayo, where the first meeting of the Rhodesian Ridgeback Club of Rhodesia, today RRC of Zimbabwe -The Parent Club- was held in 1922. It is in 18 Livingston Rd, we had no permission to visit it inside, but we walked all around taking pictures from over the fence. A nice white house in the style of the houses there, with a verandah on the side. Fate seemed to take over again: in the place where the first RR club meeting was held, a big and a small mongrels kept barking at us all the time!
The end... This was the very conclusion of our trip: back to the Bulawayo club we celebrated it with a nice dinner, after which four intrepid women (Amanda, Helle, Orit and myself) ventured out for a brave night to remember! The day after the group split up: some back to Harare, some to Victoria Falls, some to somewhere else. I always feel sad when a very nice time is over and when I have to say good bye to very good companions. In this case I did not feel so sad for this great experience we shared will keep us together across continents....along the thread of our love for Rhodesian Ridgebacks.
In December 1998 I learned that the Peard house has been demolished. I feel comforted that Linda Costa found it when she did, and was able to show it to other interested people before this happened. We are lucky that not all the footprints had been blown away when we went looking for them. I will dearly cherish its photos.
Mangwe Pass Monuments
The stele at Mangwe pass
Plumtree School Director
Plumtree Pioneers Cemetery
van Rooyen Abattoir Sign
Peard House, the front
Peard House mongrel
van Rooyen Rest
Pioneers' Cemetery
