Oldest Railway Tunnel in Southern Africa (1876) and Abandoned Tunnel Camp | Southern African History
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- Опубликовано: 19 окт 2024
- The mission was to find the abandoned Tunnel Camp at the train track tunnels which lead to it!
I found this abandoned Tunnel Camp on maps which seemed to not exists anymore. After doing some research we found that it does still exist, but is out of use. We found the 4x4 route of the Impangele Mountain Lodge Farm leads to these tunnels and campsite. We booked our stay at Impangele Mountain Lodge and off we went to find these tunnels. There was extremely little information on it, so it felt like a real treasure hunt!
We spent the first day scouting the route down into the valley and up the next until we found ourselves at a dead end. To our surprise, there was a Boer War Relic here. At the top of this valley next to the train track was a lookout point built from rocks which were used in the Boer War. Calling it a day, we headed back to base camp and decided to keep searching the next day.
On the 2nd day, we venture up the 4x4 route. After bundu bashing our way through, we got to a point where the road was leading away from the direction we were meant to be going. We turned around and once more backtracked down the valley. On our third attempt, we finally found the right route!
We finally found the tunnels which I have only seen one image of before and after lots of searching I found them! The smallest tunnel through which you can drive is dated to 1876. This is seemingly the oldest train tunnel in Southern Africa. Alongside that one is a secondary tunnel dated to 1929 which was built to accommodate the larger locomotives. Down the road from that, we found the Tunnel Camp. This is seemingly the remains of what used to be a train station, in the middle of nowhere! Sadly it is all been abandoned, but the facilities are still there in ruins.
It was absolutely amazing to find these relics which seem to now be all abandoned and I am glad I could find them and shed some light on them once more!
These are all accessed via Impangele Moutain Lodge and all on their land (We think). There are many questions left unanswered and I shall try and get some more information regarding all of this!
Our stay at Impangele Mountian Lodge was great! The cabins are neat and tidy and the whole place is under new management. Craig and Linda are planning to tidy up the place and get it up and going once more! They are planning to tidy up the 4x4 route and other routes on the farm as well as introduce the Tunnel Camp and some extra Wild Camping spots. Impangele Moutain Lodge and Farm is also part of the Roscan Sanctum and the money goes towards Roscan. I hope they bring these historic spots into the light and take care of them as well!
If you have any more information about these sites, please let us know in the comments below!
Impangele Mountain Lodge:
/ impangelemountainlodge
Roscan Sanctum:
roscan.co.za/
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My grandpa was the engineer that had built that railway, cuttings, some tunneling of Hexton. My father in law farmed nearby and often drove through that tunnel with his 2WD Isuzu bakkies, one of which was a little cab forward truck. They knew no 4wd, diff locks nor low range.. The cuttings were made with 2lb and 4lb hammers and cold chisels. Dynamite was rare and the British tightly controlled any explosives. Ipangela is a very nice place to get away from the city. The tunnel that you drove through, was declared unstable, thus unsafe.
My grandparents lived at Tunnel and Kleinstraat, just after WWI while working at the Kleinstraat new tunnel entrance, and the rail cuttings from there down to Osplaas. The labourers were all white men marginalised by the British govt. My uncle had a BA degree but worked with a pick & shovel. During and after WWIW, nobody had money, and the Spanish flu and 1933's Great Depression made life challenging in ways young people couldn't comprehend. My grandma raised her own 8 children there, and 5 war orphans. Times were really tough. Austerity.
Wow what a story and thansk for sharing it!
well done, a piece of history revealed again. Thanks for sharing..
My Dad worked for the SA Railways in the 60s and 70s, we often travelled via the original De Doorns rail tunnel.
Wow that is so cool! Must've been beautiful scenery you pass through!
Go to Google Earth, Switch on photo layer. Look for Deontjie's photos. Being on a BRP, discovering these gems are so much easier.
The second parallel tunnel needed to be dug because the locomotives grew too long to make the bend at the first tunnel. The newest (and current) third tunnel is underground, at almost 14 kilometres. The longest train tunnel in the southern hemisphere.
On the north-eastern side of the twin tunnels is a scissor rail switch. Used to get trains coming from opposite directions past each other. Not a very common arrangement.
Further north is the Kaffrarian Rifles monument. Where a troop train left the rails, leaving ten men reported dead. Apparently these train collected troops from East-London, for training in Cape Town, and fighting the Germans in Duits-Wes Afrika.
Then there is the relics from the Boer freedom wars. Where the Brits tried to defend their rails from the Boers's attacks. Each side knew how vital the military supplies was for the war.
And Japie se skuiling gat. I once knew what is was all about, but I lost that information during Google's Panoramia purge.
By 1910, eleven tunnels had been built with a total length of 1.9km.
Between 1911 and 1969, 126 tunnels, 72 km.
Then, another 55 tunnels, 62 km.
This looks awesome man. Would love to show this to the boys
They will love it!
This is so cool; I didn't know about it.
It's also not far from me, so that's a plus.
It's so close to Cape Town, but so unknown!
Just crazy cool the adventures you get up to so glad i get to love it through your lense!!
Thanks man!
Looks epic! Thanks for the video Dieter, very interesting history right there.
Thanks!
Nice trip 👍
Nice one Dieter😊
Very interesting
Looks like fun
I had a blast!
That would be a really cool
Place to camp 🏕️
Agreed! I do think they are going to resurrection that place and make it a campsite again!
Great adventure Dieter! Would like to visit that one day. They could add a mountain bike discovery from the main camp.
There are many mountain bike routes running along the farm. I'll be planning a trip there soon, so keep an eye open for that!
Awesome and interesting vid!
I'm amped to go check it out, thanks!
You'll love it there!
Very interesting history! It would be awesome to be able to hike around the area too! Thanks for sharing this with us 👍🏻😁
Plenty of hiking routes there and I'm sure you'll stumble upon more interesting gems as well!
Very cool
Your bakkie sounds good bro
Thanks! Appreciate it!
In watervalbofen is also a old gear train tunnel right along side a water fall
I am taking a group of 10 vehicles up to the tunnels shortly. We will open some areas with the permission of the land owners. People regularly camped at the Tunnel Camp till late 2019. They had a number of small charlets, toilets, a functional lapa area and showers till late 2019. Locals started plundering the place, carrying away well point pumps, solar panels etc. The swimming pool was also in use late 2019.
I will take another group of vehicles there as arranged with the land managers late October 2023. With the upcoming trip, we will provide GPS waypoints to the land managers to assist them in future with people that want to visit the tunnels, the tunnel camp, the old english fort on the hill and the monument. One of the guys go with me to the tunnel is someone who used to be a train driver. He went on that lines every week throughout the 70's until the completion of the new railway lines.
He is now 67 years old and wish to re visit the tunnels one more time.
Oh wow that is awesome! Will be really nice to have that venue up and running again. Good to preserve the history there!
I started as a drivers assistant in Touwsrivier and went through the tunnel a few times as well, back in the early 70s.
Would you share your route how to get to the camp area 🙏
Best would be to work through the Impangele Mountain Lodge as I did. Call them and they will direct you. I didn't save the route, not to difficult to get there, but not easy to explain. Hopefully we can get that route nicely cleaned up and marked for future use!
Anybody thought of rail biking like they do in most Asian countries and even in the US of A?? Looks like great fun! Plenty of abandoned rail lines...especially in the Western Cape. Can be used for inter town shopping, taxi service. Can be motorised!. Good weekend fun! Would do it myself.. too old ..going 90 come Sept. Come on you fart smellers.....oops!! sorry I meant smart fellers, ..what an opportunity to get somewhere!!!!!!.
Very good idea! Thanks for the comment and enjoying the content
There was a farmer that had a tractor pulling wagons along this track, until the government got jealous.
My grandfather wad on that traon that derailed .
Oh wow, that's very cool! Amazing stories you must've heard 👏