Some pics from the "phase two" ride.
Disclaimer : bit of personal and South African history and totally non-biking stuff to follow:-
I spent the years between my eighth and eighteenth birthdays on a trout farm in the Magaliesburg area, and when I heard from Splash that we would be riding past the farm I could not resist them temptation to do the nostalgia thing and visit. I spent a few hours on the phone to find out who owned the farm and learned that the farm was sold to a developer last year and is to be developed into an up-market estate. I managed to get hold of the manager who kindly gave permission to visit.
The place is historically interesting. It was owned by a very wealthy Englishman we knew as "Old man" Pratt (I think his name was Beresford) and, with remote help from my late father, who had a Masters in Marine Biology and worked for the Department of Sea Fisheries in Cape Town, set up one of the first trout hatcheries in the country. After the death of "Old Man" Pratt the farm was inherited by his son David, and when we moved up-country he invited us to stay with him on the farm and help with the hatchery.
David Pratt was a strange man, and during the Rand Show in 1960 on a whim he loaded up a .32 pistol, walked into the VIP box and put two bullets into the Prime Minister, HF Verwoerd's head.
Had he used a pistol of larger calibre he would certainly have killed him, but Verwoerd survived to be fatally stabbed in parliament years later by Dimitry Tsafendas.
Pratt was declared mentally unfit to stand trial, was sent to a special prison in Bloem where he later, at least according to prison authorities, committed suicide on his birthday watched by his cell-mate, Diesel, who had murdered his wife and chopped her into little pieces.
I liked Diesel - he used to make us tea when we visited.
In his will he left our family the use of the farm for twenty years, but we stayed on for about ten before handing over the farm to the Pratt estate.
The hatchery has been closed for quite a few years - the flow of the Magalies River, which rises on the farm, has dwindled from 1,2Ml/H to 0,3Ml/H while the water temperature at source has risen from 16 to 18 degC. The Pratt house in which we stayed has been deserted for quite a few years.
It was wierd to visit - sad to see what had happened to the place, but good to hear of the development plans and that the Pratt house it to be renovated.
Pics show the house - as it is now and 35 Years ago, and the hatchery.
Topic: Magaliesberg ride Saturday 08/03 Report. (Read 3508 times)
