Mount Perdeberg, 1786 metres
During the late 1890's during the Boer war, horses were dying from a virus which came from mosquitoes. It was found that this virus was only found in the low lying grounds. This mountain is very flat on the top, so was an ideal place where they could keep the horses. The mountain is 1786 metres high, and is a hard climb (as we found out).
The Boer's (Afrikaans Farmers/troops) somehow found a way to bring the horses up from the low lying ground, and placed them on top of the mountain, this was done daily just before the night set in.
To stop the horses from falling down the mountain, the Boers built a low lying wall all around the top of the mountain. This does not sound too bad except that the mountain is 1.23 km's long (0.8 Miles), by 0.7 km's wide (0.45 Miles). If you are good at maths, then you can work out the circumference of this place. All I know, is that it is big..... They built a place on top where the Boers lived while on top of the mountain (camp), all that is left is a low wall.... I am not too sure if this was a low wall camp or if they actually built a building of some sort.
The view from the top is magnificent, and would also serve as a great look out. The view would make it easy to plant guards and to defend against any attacks.
Here you can see how flat the top of this mountain is.
Showing a piece of the wall around the camp.
One of the views looking down the mountain.
After speaking to a farmer to get permission to climb the mountain and to detect, one of the dogs that belongs to his Mother-in-Law decided to join us on the climb. We thought the dog would give up pretty quickly, but we were wrong..... The dog is a small Jack Russell, and believe it or not ended up going all the way to the top with us, and stayed with us the whole day. We felt sorry for the dog, as it would not eat or drink from us, even though the dog was exhausted. We actually thought we were going to have to carry the dog down the mountain, but it kept up with us the whole way. What an amazing dog.....
This dog panted all day long as it was so thirsty....
Well, we did get to the top and walked across to the other side of the mountain to where the camp was. We started detecting all around the camp. I must admit, I did not think that we would find much, as the Boers did not carry much in the way of belongings like the British did. Also the Boers often supplied their own weapons and ammunition, so did not practice shooting like the British would, and of course shooting would of given away their position which would be the last thing they would want to happen.
What I did find was more modern stuff. I found to shotgun backs and two R1 bullet cases which was used in the last war in South Africa. I also found a bottle top and a can top and a pull-tab..... It is incredible that a pull-tab would find itself on top of this mountain.....
On my first find, I though I had found a coin which was exciting, but it turned out to be a shotgun back.
My two cleaned up Shotgun backs.
One of two R1 rifle cases.
This was all my finds. Although not much, it was well worth the climb.
The history of this mountain is quite fascinating and unusual. But sitting on top of the mountain trying to figure out how they got the horses to the top, and the scenery from the top of this mountain, it must of seemed like heaven to the Boers.....
And of course nothing beats a detecting trip, when you are so tired and sweating in 30" temperatures to sit and have a beer :-) Both myself and Xavier appreciated those beers....