Day twelve - Kokstad,
14th October 2007

I left Kokstad early with Milner Snell. We explored the famous Ongeluksnek pass today - the route that  nearly destroyed the Griqua spirit in the early 1860s.

We arrived in Kokstad and met Vivian and Barbara Haviside who were taking us in their four wheel drive. Barbara's parents once owned a farm in the Ongeluksnek valley - it was taken away in the late 1970s as part of the homeland policy brought in by the white South African government.

The farmhouse today is a wreck and once fertile lands carrying thousands of acres of maize now stand unused - but Vivian is trying to enter into community agreements with the new African landlords to use the lands in a win-win situation.

Barbara and Vivian come into the Ongeluksnek valley most weekends so they no the place and the new farm owners very well- this soon became apparent as we stopped off at various farms and he chatted to the African men and who now lived in the white farmhouses.

The trip up the Ongeluksnek pass was simply amazing and this classic - image right - of the "loo with a view" sets off the beauty of the place. I was so lucky - a fire two months earlier, rain the day before and clear skies today created a perfect formula for photography. Never had the Ongeluksnek looked so stunning.

Composite image of Ongeluksnek pass from half way up looking back down.

After passing through the border post on the South African side I took some photos - the road becomes impassable just a few hundred metres beyond this checkpoint - how the Griqua came down this pass with ox wagons defeats me! The slopes are near vertical in parts!

We then returned o the Kenira stream below and had lunch while a few locals fished nearby.

It was the off to Queen's Mercy where a decree by Queen Victoria in the late 1800s saw two waring African tribes separated by the Ongeluksnek valley - thus the name. t Queen's Mercy Vivian took me to his hidden place he appropriately calls "Gods' Window" - click on image below to get a proper idea of how amazing the scenery is.

Composite image of view of Ongeluksnek Valley taken from "God's Window"

Then back to Matatiele and, as the sunset, back to Kokstad... for an early night as tomorrow I am off to Grahamstown.  

The Maria zell Mission is a beautiful place steeped in history. For years it has been the sanctuary for African orphans providing food and education.

On 1st June 2009 Father Ernst Plöchl (seen right) was murdered at the mission... the report reads as follows
A venerated, elderly Cistercian missionary from Upper Austria who had dedicated the last forty years of his life to building up a rural mission in the Griqualand region of South Africa near Kokstad, was found murdered there on Sunday. Authorities said Father Ernst Plöchl, 78, born in Neumarkt im Mühlkreis in the Austrian district of Freistadt, was killed under circumstances which remain murky. He was either shot to death or strangled, and it’s also not known if anything was stolen or what the actual motive may have been.The priest was widely admired in his hometown for his dedication to try and uplift the poor. A memorial mass is planned in his Austrian hometown on Friday.

A group of friends from Austria has already boarded a flight to South Africa for Plöchl’s mission, known as the "Maria Zell", to investigate the murder, and also to bring his body back to Austria for burial. Information initially given by the South African authorities was confusing: it was at first announced that he had been shot, while the word later was that he had been strangled. His religious order announced Monday that he would be brought back to Austria and buried in his native country.

Father Plöchl, right, was found dead on Sunday morning at his lonely outpost of Maria Zell mission, said Father Andreas Rohring, a spokesman for the Mariannhill order. He spoke to Austria's APA news agency. The elderly priest’s murder sent immediate shockwaves throughout Austria, as the ‘socially very engaged’ priest was a much-loved figure in his home country. A memorial mass will be held for him on Friday at Neumarkt-im-Mühlkreis, his home town, where he is much loved for his dedication to help the poor in South Africa.

The Marianhill missions were founded in South Africa in 1882 by the Rev. Francis Pfanner, then prior of the Trappist (Reformed Cistercian) Monastery of Maria-stern (Bosnia). He landed at Port Elizabeth with thirty-one companions in July, 1880, and settled in a place he called Dunbrody, after an old Irish monastery. This he had to abandon in 1882; and at the solicitation of the late Bishop Jolivet, O.M.I., transferred his community to Mariannhil.