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History of the Hot Water Springs

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History of the Hot Water Springs Please note that our indoor pool is sealed from 1 September 2018 until remoter notice. Hotel Rooms Mountain Chalets Self Catering Apartments Rates and Conditions Of Stay Reservation Enquiry Information and Gallery AGM Reports Frequently Asked Questions Day Visitors How To Find Us History of Avalon Springs On & Off-Site Activities Links To Other Websites Hot Springs Cogmans Restaurant Bars & Lounges Cafeteria and Room Service Health Spa Avalon Springs History of the Hot Springs Article 1 | Article 2 | Article 3 | Article 4 Mention was made in the last issue of the "Standard" of the early opening (or rather reopening) of Montagu Baths and boarding house adjoining. The full significance of the utterance may not have impressed itself upon the unstudied reader of the paragraph, considering much might have been widow to lend point and interest to it, and to show that a unconfined deal of importance - Colonial as well as local - was really tying to it. That the hot chalybeate springs of Montagu, for which the baths and boarding house are provided, are of increasingly value than ordinary fountains is pretty widely recognised ; the people of Montagu Village and round a large zone of the district have the utmost faith in the waters, and these are an uncounted source of conversation in superlatives to residents there and elsewhere throughout the Western Province who have proved their virtue by very personal experience. Recently I had the pleasure of a visit to the Baths, now in undertow of wide-stretching and expensive alteration; and whilst there heard so much of the curative properties of those soapy springs that I resolved to unearth all there was to be told of their history, and of the physical blessings they had conferred upon suffering mankind for nearly 100 years. One informant "let himself go" when enlarging upon the unconfined healing fountain here provided self-ruling by Nature herself, and incidentally, but not irreverently remarked: "The Pool of Siloam is not in the same category with it". That remark fairly represents local feeling at any rate, and when this colonial windfall has been ripened and venal by its new owners, the New Cape Central Railway Co. Ltd. - as it is now to be, practically for the first time, the name of Montagu will become, as a Spa as proverbial in South Africa, as Buxton is in England, and Chemnitz in Germany. Nor is this the mere interjection of people who may profit somewhat by the edulation of an witchery of the first-class in their neighborhood; proofs have been forthcoming and unreserved testimony given to the virtue of these thermal springs, some of which have been writ large all well-nigh those quart size rocks, since 1818 - one year surpassing Queen Victoria was born. How these springs came to be reserved for the telling on flipside occasion. As an introduction to that remarkable bit of Colonial history it will be unbearable to say now that the traveler withal the upper road through the Little Karoo, from Montagu to Ladismith or Touws River, would not dream of any good thing coming out of that visionless and forbidding kloof validness yonder to the left between mountains, several thousand feet high, that rise forthwith from the level veld. But this sustentation would be sure to be underdeveloped by the no-go freaks of Nature, when in her most turbulent mood in past ages, had perpetrated upon the mountains themselves. These grand old eminences are a portion of the Langebergen, which separates the Karoo from the Breede River Valley ; and they add the whole neighbourhood a peculiar recreate of their own, considering their ruggedness and unstipulated weft are quite unlike anything of the mountain scenery of the South Western region of the Cape. The springs may be approached by two routes from the village of Montagu. When driving, the upper road going north is taken, until the weather tamed finger workbench (shortly to be replaced by an iron enamelled plate), that has washed-up duty as a guide for many years, is reached ; then the narrow turn to the left is taken uncontrived to the small manor that, years ago, cut off from the Commonage - total loftiness from the village 20 minutes, or 2 miles. But nobody on foot thinks of taking the dusty road. In dry weather the whole undertow of the stream through the Kloof may be covered in well-nigh the same time, but by less than half the distance. This path takes one - but, perhaps, I ought to say two, considering it is a noted lover's walk - through a grassy, shady and romantic valley, just whilom the level of the stream. Only during the last 500 yards or so is the going rough under foot, where the stream has to be crossed once or twice to reach the Baths at the throne of the Kloof. It is proposed to minimise this difficulty by throwing rustic bridges wideness here and there, and transplanting yonder any impediments to the easy and pleasant walk out from Montagu. The City Fathers are quite willing that this should be washed-up by the new owners of the Baths, although nearly the unshortened length of the path is withal Town Commonage. When proceeding up this path one is confronted at every turn - and the Kloof in a short mile takes the form of a double S - with mountain scenery of the grandest unravelment ; not merely such as would be worked from volcanic upheavals in uncountable periods of the past, but mountains covered in verdure of the greenest and densest, in which the wild geranium and pelargonium, the heather, aloe, mimosa, and undecorous gum, are in their elements of sunshine and moisture, and spread out everywhere tween the rocks and gullies in rich profusion. It is not to be wondered at that lovers should seek these tortuous ways ; the very undercurrent breathes of romance - and physical balm. Just outside the village, and at the archway to the Kloof, is an old English Mill, driven by an overshot water wheel, that keeps up its flop, flop, flop, with as much splutter and splash, as if it were grinding wheat to supply the whole polity with flour and bread. It was doing its duty industriously when I tabbed to pay it and it's manager my respects ; and with the prevailing upper prices of imported flour, its duty should be done, day and night, for a long time to come. To enable it to do this the water is taken out of the river half a mile up and the race follows abreast the foot path, subtracting to the luxuriant growth of flower, bush, and tree in its stray course. Nor is any of this water wasted ; I have once shown how it provides Montagu with bread, it moreover provides for the people their potable and irrigible water, that is conserved in the dams lower down. This all comes from the highly mineralised springs that splash out of the rocks all the way up the Kloof ; but of these the hot fountains at the top rank first in importance and intrinsic value, the water cooling and purifying as it flows withal the village. The gorge considerabley narrows lanugo as it approaches the Karoo; the width stuff not increasingly than well-nigh 100 feet. Indeed it resembles nothing increasingly than the neck of the long skin snifter used in Arabia, with the source of the stream situated in the mouth. Within the last 400 or 500 feet of the neck so much is stuff washed-up in excavations, pipe-laying, construction of glue walls, manholes, and baths, that for the present the original weft of the bed of the stream is obliterated ; and if the purposes and plans of the new owners be carried out in their entirety it will never again, hereabout, towards exactly as Nature designed it. © 2010 Avalon Springs - Section 51 Manual - Website Designed & Hosted by Hilton Preston