Smuts House: Harmony and Peace in memory of a great man

Below a typical Highveld “koppie” in the little town of Irene just outside Pretoria is the unpretentious house that for more than half a century was home to one of South Africa’s greatest and most controversial sons, Jan Smuts.

 

The front of Smuts House

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For steam train enthusiasts

Locomotive of the “Friends of the Rail” organisation in Pretoria

For steam train enthusiasts one of the most enjoyable things to do in Pretoria is to go on an excursion of the Friends of the Rail (FOTR) organisation.

FOTR has been running excursions and working to preserve the steam train heritage of South Africa for more than a quarter of a century. It is based at the old South African Railways station Hermannstad in the north west of Pretoria.

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Vernacular architecture in South Africa – some random examples

Sometime in the early 1960s I went with my friend James Southern to Cape Agulhas where his parents had a holiday cottage. One day while we were out exploring the area we came upon some dilapidated thatched huts, which James informed me were called “kapstylhuise”. [Read more…]