To Hell and Back

If you've never been to Gamkaskloof you have never experienced HELL!

Gamkaskloof can be reached from Oudtshoorn by following the Cango Caves road. Turn off towards the scenic Swartberg Pass. It will take you approximately 2½ - three hours (100 km) from Oudtshoorn to the Hel". The Kloof can also be reached via the picturesque town of Prince Albert, via the Swartberg Pass. to the turn-off to Gamkaskloof approximately 25km from Prince Albert. Gamkaskloof is approximately 1½ - 2 hours (65km) from Prince Albert.
Near The Top on the Swartberg pass, a signboard will direct you to Gamkaskloof. The turnoff is approximately 50km from Oudtshoorn and 25km from Prince Albert.
There is also no fuel available!
If ever somebody asks you what you are going to do over the weekend and you tell them that you are going to the Hell, it most probably will be the truth.
This is a hidden valley deep in the heart of the Swartberg Mountain range. Here was a community that had missed the Boer War as well as both World Wars but sadly most of the inhabitants already left.
What grabs your immediate attention when seeing the valley is the sight of the absurdly elaborate zigzagging narrow strip of road that is the only way to the floor of the valley 1000 meters below.. Even the hairpin bends seem to have hairpins in them. This is only one way traffic so you need to have good nerves, a dry road surface and reliable brakes if you were to enter the valley safely.
The kloof gets its name from the Khoisan word for lion - Gamka - also the name of the river that enters the valley from the west. This Ravine of the Lions is truly cut off from the world by the natural barrier of rocks and high peaks. Rock paintings and other archaeological finds suggest that the valley had been known to the Khoisan for some time before they were displaced by the white farmers. The first permanent European farmer to put his roots down here was Petrus Swanepoel. This was in 1830. Other families, which became synonymous with the Hell were the Marais, Mostert, Cordier, Nel and Joubert clans.
There are so many stories of why these people chose to live in this isolated spot in South Africa. An even more colourful legend has it that a young boy called Danie Hartman was apparently kidnapped by the Khoisan and taken to Gamkaskloof. After managing to escape he spread the word about the fertile paradise he had seen. The more probable story is that the kloof became known when nearby farmers followed their cattle that had strayed along the Gamka River, and that some of these hardy farmers were attracted by the idea of an independent life in a fertile haven, away from magistrates, rules, regulations and taxes.
Another mystery is the origin of the name -The Hel'. A popular story goes that a stock inspector, one Piet Botha, was sent down into the kloof in 1940 He descended by way of the ladder - a notoriously steep footpath.He described his experience as hel". However, some forty years before, a Boer commando who sheltered here, recorded that the word the Hell was used to describe the area.
This negative name has always been unpopular with the Kloovers (as the locals were known) and who could blame them because their valley was peaceful, fertile, had a beautiful, sub-tropical microclimate and water aplenty from natural springs and rivers. They grew their own wheat, fruit; vegetables, tea and tobacco and produced their own witblits(kind of alcohol) and wild-honey beer. They even had their own school and schoolmistress. For a church they used the school, and for a minister they used the teacher. Medical emergencies proved a problem, but for the common ailments there was Tant Sannie Cordier and many like her. Tant Sannie and her black doctor's bag which was an old tin trunk was a common and welcome sight. Inside the trunk was the usual old Dutch remedies as well as a few of her own specialties.
If you read the book, People of the Valley by Brian du Toit you can clearly see how the residents felt about the name given to their valley: Apparently a Mr.Mostert, collecting his post at Prince Albert, found a letter from the Receiver of Revenue - addressed to him at The Hell, P.O.Box Prince Albert. Not amused, he took up his pen and covered the envelope with the words: First find out whether people in the Hell also pay taxes! and returned it to the mailbox.

Source: http://hubpages.com/hub/Gamkaskloof-The-HELL

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