LIMPOPO 492 Through Musina and Into Zimbabwe
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492 LIMPOPO modernoverland.com modernoverland.com LIMPOPO 493 Limpopo LIMPOPO Limpopo is South Africa’s northernmost province and is LIMPOPO named after the Limpopo River that forms the province’s border with Botswana and Zimbabwe. Visitors are drawn to this region because of its rich cultural history and beautiful nature and game reserves, including Kruger National Park. Local museums capture Limpopo’s more recent history of fierce and bloody battles between the advancing Voortrekkers and the Africans who had settled in this area over a thousand years earlier. The region’s unique features have been recognized by UNESCO, which has designated the western Waterberg area as a Biosphere Reserve and the northern Mapungubwe National Park as a World Heritage Site. The area surrounds the busy thoroughfare of the Great North Road (the N1), which starts in Cape Town and continues north through Musina and into Zimbabwe. 494 LIMPOPO modernoverland.com modernoverland.com LIMPOPO 495 C hapter H I ghl I ghts Z ZI MI MB BA AB B Limpopo A6 A6A4 A4 WW . Lake Fundudzi - Visit the mythi- MapungubweMapungubwe E E A1 A1 A A cal Lake Fundudzi and learn about the NationalNational Park Park R521 R521 rain-making mysteries that surround its N N R1 R1 ancestral inhabitants (p514) A A MusinaMusina MasisiMasisi Q Q WW R525 R525 Waterberg Biosphere - Relax and R1 R1 MutaleMutale M M explore the diverse ecology of the 4,000 S S square kilometer UNESCO recognized R572 R572 B B AlldaysAlldays O O Waterberg region (p501) T T GrootpanGrootpan MulodiMulodi LIMPOPO R1 R1 LakeLake MhingaMhinga TaaiboschgroetTaaiboschgroet O O FundudziFundudzi R524 R524 Mapungubwe NationalA1 A1 Park - See R572 R572 Z Z R523 R523 R523 R523 EldoradoEldorado R521 R521 the archaeological site where the golden M M GandlananiGandlanani LIMPOPO ThahoyandouThahoyandou rhino was found buried in ancient royal B B R561 R561 A A R522 R522 MalamuleleMalamulele graves (p518) MatitivalaMatitivala MakhadoMakhado GogoboleGogobole MadombidzhaMadombidzha N11 N11 R521 R521 M Z M Z Phalaborwa - Play 9 or 18 holes along- R578 R578 Ga-SelekaGa-Seleka R1 R1 ThomoThomo KrugerKruger side giraffes, hippos and crocodiles at R572 R572 Ka-SiandanaKa-Siandana GiyaniGiyaniNationalNational Park Park Golf in the Wild (p525) B B R561 R561 R36 R36 NkomoNkomo Abbot’sAbbot’s Poort Poort R81 R81 M M R510 R510 MorebengMorebeng N11 N11 R529 R529 I I Villa NoraVilla Nora R521 R521 R1 R1 Ka MakhuvaKa Makhuva R518 R518 MarapongMarapong RunnymedeRunnymede Q Q A1 A1 LephalaleLephalale R81 R81 R36 R36 OnverwachtOnverwacht NkambakoNkambako R71 R71 SheshgoSheshgo U U R71 R71 TzaneenTzaneen R510 R510 PolokwanePolokwane R528 R528 R71 R71 R1 R1 R529 R529 PhalaborwaPhalaborwa R33 R33 R561 R561 R37 R37 R526 R526 E E TshamahansiTshamahansi R530 R530 NuweNuwe WartbergWartberg Biosphere Biosphere SmitsdorpSmitsdorp MokopaneMokopaneR1 R1 R36 R36 R519 R519 MarulengMaruleng R517 R517 Lepele-NkumpiLepele-Nkumpi R530 R530 R510 R510 VaalwaterVaalwater ZebedielaZebediela HoedspruitHoedspruit R516 R516 R37 R37 R11 R11 R36 R36 Alma Alma R579 R579 R1 R1 R40 R40 R33 R33 KhurengKhureng ThabazimbiThabazimbi R516 R516 AcornhoekAcornhoek ModimolleModimolle R11 R11 R511 R511 R101 R101 R510 R510 R33 R33 R1 R1R33 R33 R37 R37 R36 R36 R516 R516Bela-BelaBela-Bela R555 R555 R516 R516 R579 R579 BushbuckridgeBushbuckridge NorthamNortham R511 R511 R11 R11 HazyviewHazyview LydenburgLydenburg R555 R555 R536 R536 R37 R37 R555 R555 R40 R40 NORTHNORTH R579 R579 R1 R1 R25 R25 R537 R537 R568 R568 R33 R33 R573 R573 WESTWEST White WhiteRiver River Sun CitySun City R511 R511 R11 R11 MPUMALANGAMPUMALANGA 0 Kilometers 0 GAUTENGGAUTENG NelspruitNelspruit 0 Miles 0 R573 R573 R556 R556 496 LIMPOPO — History modernoverland.com modernoverland.com Polokwane — LIMPOPO 497 HISTORY Witwatersrand and the heavy taxes levied on the gold mining industry afforded the ZAR a powerful The largely untamed landscape of Limpopo regular army. Polokwane, formerly Pietersburg, was has a history dating back over 3 million years. established as a Boer stronghold in the mid 1880s The Makapan Caves in the Waterberg boast and by the end of the century the Boers had made archaeological finds from the Stone Age and Early good on their territorial claims up to the Limpopo Iron Age that evidence the region’s early inhabitants. River. In the northern Kingdom of Mapungubwe, The region’s bloody battles continued with the descendents of Nguni-speaking Bantu migrants outbreak of the South African War between the Boer grew highly skilled at metal and gold work. They governments and the British Empire from 1899- flourished as a prosperous kingdom between 1000 1902. After Pretoria fell to the British forces in 1900, and 1200 A.D. and engaged in trade with places as Boer commandos engaged in guerilla warfare and far away as India and China. Until recently, artifacts violence in the Transvaal intensified. British war tactics LIMPOPO such as the famed golden rhinoceros were hidden proved devastating as their scorched earth policies from the public to conceal much of the region’s destroyed Boer homesteads and tens of thousands rich history of ancient African empires. Today, of Boer women and children as well as black Africans LIMPOPO ongoing excavations verify that black Africans had caught up in the war were imprisoned in unsanitary CAPRICORN prospered in the region long before the arrival of concentration camps throughout the countryside. Capricorn is home to Polokwane, a provincial capital city surrounded Europeans in the late 1400s. The British forces eventually overpowered the Boer The Pedi Kingdom, a branch of the Northern commandos and in 1902 the British laid colonial by expansive bushveld and grasslands. The region gets its name from Sotho, rose in the 1700s to dominate most of claim to the former Boer republics, uniting their the Transvaal territory from its seat of power in territories in the Union of South Africa in 1910. the Tropic of Capricorn, which cuts through the area. Because the the Leolu Mountains. In the 1800s the Pedi vied The northern Transvaal frontier remained for control of the northeastern Transvaal with the largely rural throughout the 20th century and the region is bisected by the N1 artery, it is a popular stopover between formidable neighboring Swazi Kingdom. Smaller expansive tracts of land became notorious for chiefdoms maintained their independence, such as illegal game hunting. Though subjugated by the Gauteng and the northern areas of Limpopo. the Ndebele to the west, the Venda in the Limpopo colonial government, African chieftains in the Valley and the Lobedu in Molotosi Valley led by the border region were allowed to maintain relative powerful Modjadji Rain Queen. autonomy. The 1913 Land Act further solidified 029 27.012, cnr Church St & Grobler St, 015- In the 1830s Boer Voortrekkers, in an effort to this autonomy as the countryside was carved up POLOKWANE 290-7300, 8am-4:30pm Mon-Fri) provides maps (PIETERSBURG) distance themselves from the control of the British to ensure white dominance in urban areas and the and information on Limpopo Parks and GPS: S 23 54.701 E 029 27.099 in the Cape Colony, invaded the Transvaal. The Boer majority of present-day Limpopo was established accommodation throughout the province. pop. 150,000 | elevation 1,262 m/4,140 ft commandos were able to subdue smaller chiefdoms as native reserves. The apartheid-era 1951 Bantu in the south in bloody clashes such as the Battle of Authorities Act officially established three Polokwane (meaning Place of Safety) is the Makapan Caves, where as many as 3,000 Ndebele major “homelands” in the north, leaving the Venda capital of and largest city in Limpopo. The town Money were besieged and starved to death in retribution nominally independent and the Lebowa and was founded in 1886 by a group of Voortrekkers for the killing of Voortreeker leader Piet Potgieter. In Gazankulu homelands with token self-governance. and named Pietersburg after the Voortrekker Standard Bank (S 23 54.676 E 029 27.180, cnr 1856, the Boers declared an independent republic, The 1970s and 1980s saw an increased presence of leader Petrus Jacobus Joubert. Today, Polokwane Landdros Mare & Thabo Mbeke St) offers full the Zuid-Afrikaansch Republiek (ZAR), thus laying the South African Defense Force in the region as is a fast-growing bustling city with the country’s banking services and there is an FNB bank across claim to the whole of the Transvaal and land up exiled freedom fighters infiltrated back in to the main north-south highway – the N1 – running right the street. to the Limpopo River. However their attempts to country through the northern border, prompting through the center of town. wrest control of the northern territory were met with the government to build an electronic fence along formidable resistance by the Pedi and Venda and the Limpopo River. Internet violent frontier wars proved to be economically When apartheid ended in 1994, the former TOURIST INFORMATION crippling. The Pedi-Boer War of 1876 nearly Transvaal province was restructured and broken Jetline.co.za (S 23 54.656 E 029 27.250, bankrupted the young Boer republic, and in 1877 up to create the Northern Province. It was Polokwane Tourist Development Office (S 23 Standard Bank Square, cnr Thabo Mbeki St & the British annexed the ZAR. It was only with the renamed Limpopo in 2003 after the famed river that 54.770 E 029 27.182, Civic Square, Landdros Schoeman St, 015-295-6484, www.jetline.co.za, help of the neighboring Swazi Kingdom that the forms its northern border. Today the provincial Mare St, 015-290-2010, www.polokwane.gov.za, 7am-5pm Mon-Fri, 8am-1pm Sat, R18/30min) is British Imperial forces were finally able to overpower government continues to struggle to balance the 7:45am-4:30pm Mon-Fri, 8:30am-1pm Sat) has city a printing shop with four computers for Internet the Pedi, two years later in 1879.