Copyright Ivor Markman 2013

 

Birdlovers to the 2013 Bedford Garden Festival will be taken around the famous Voortrekker leader's home by the present owner, Mark Whitehead. See details on the festival's official website.

The ride to the farm Hollowdene, 39 kilometres south of Bedford, home to Tracey and Mark Whitehead, is bone jarring.

But then you are travelling along a historic old road with humps, bumps and dongas which have been used since the farm was owned by the famous Voortrekker leader, Louis Tregardt.

Tregardt started two farms, Elizabeth (now Hollowdene) and Klipplaat (now Olivewoods) in 1826 in addition to one he owned at Plathuis.

He lived at the former two until setting off on his famous trek to the Soutpansberg.

The rough trip ceases when the farmgate at the bottom of a gentle slope is reached.

Well established trees, a garden, and an old farmhouse stand like a beautiful oasis, providing a refreshing visual relief from the harsh surrounding countryside.

Nearby, a small dam, which sometimes doubles as a swimming pool, reflects the tranquil scene.

“The first time I saw the farm I thought, ‘gee whiz, this is the middle of nowhere’,” said Tracey, “but now I find it wonderful living out here. I feel far safer here than I do in my Dad’s home in Camps Bay.”

Inside the house, with its thick walls and high ceilings, the rooms maintain a very comfortable temperature.

The Whiteheads have rid the farm of goats and sheep and have switched to mixed beef and game farming where they market hunting and ecotourism.

Mark, who was born on the farm, spent three years studying Ranch Management at the Texas Christian University in Dallas / Fort Worth, Texas, and is the fourth generation to have lived on the farm.

He is applying the “Equus,” (or horse) language and training methods of Monty Roberts, that were demonstrated in the movie “The Horse Whisperers,” to game management and has found he is able to get very close to the animals without frightening them.

“Its quite awesome to live in a house that’s so old,” said Tracey.

“There’s supposed to be a ghost in the house, but I’ve never seen it - apparently it’s a woman.

“I remember the one time when we had guests here this woman felt someone touch her on her back.

“She turned around to speak to the person, but there was nobody there. She never knew the story about the ghost,” said Tracey.

Mark monitors the various species on the farm during spring, doing a count of those animals which are pregnant and those which have given birth.

He explained he could calculate the effects of vermin at the end of the breeding season based on the number of pregnant animals counted.

The Whiteheads have changed the system of farming which Tregardt and early farmers used.

“In the early days Tregardt had over 20,000 sheep on his three farms,” he says.

“The overgrazing denuded a lot of ground cover and the area changed to Karoo veld. Some of the worst erosion can still be seen today.”

With the loss of ground cover due to overgrazing, ticks and other parasites perished, making the area healthier for livestock, but when the rains came, the absence of groundcover allowed the water to wash away much of the topsoil.

Nature’s precautions had been removed and large scale soil erosion ensued.

Then farmers built dams, but these soon silted up. They also built stone walls to combat soil erosion - these acted as natural filters, trapping the sediment on one side and allowing the water to emerge on the other, but so great was the movement of soil that today some of these walls lie totally buried.

“We have moved from one extreme to another, from Karoo to grassveld farming,” said Whitehead.

“This is due to my Dad’s stock reduction scheme – running one third less stock for the past 40 years.”

“In other words, (we have progressed) from an overgrazed and barren land to a farm which is well grassed,” he said.

But with the new groundcover, parasites and ticks returned en masse.

Rats, mice and disease have also returned, bringing a new danger that Whitehead claims is still to be felt.

Since 1910 sneezewood poles and galvanised wire fences were erected on most farms, effectively preventing the vast herds of springboks, known as trekbokken, from migrating to the Kalahari each year.

Ironically, the original old fences are still the strongest. John (Later Sir John) Fraser observed the trekbokken migrating in 1849 - it took three days to pass through Beaufort West.

These migrations ensured essential and correct nutrients for the health of the herds were readily available.

As a result of the inability to migrate, springbok horns, which at the turn of the last century used to measure up to 42 cm and which were considered to be equal to Roland Ward blesbok horn-length, now only grow to a length of 25- 30 cm.

Similarly, springbok rams, which used to weigh approximately 40 kg, now have an average weight of 20 kg.

Unfortunately, claims Whitehead, gemsbok and eland have stopped breeding on the farm because parasites have attacked their reproductive systems.