This morning, we woke up very early and drove to Hartbeespoort, informally known as "Harties", a small resort town in the North West Province of South Africa, situated on the slopes of the Magaliesberg mountain range and the banks of the Hartbeespoort Dam. The name of the town means "pass of the hartbees" (a species of antelope) in Afrikaans. It was previously known as Schoemansville, named after General Hendrik Schoeman (1840 - 1901), a Boer General in the Anglo-Boer War who owned the farm that the dam was built on. The dam was originally designed for irrigation which is currently its primary use. It is fed by the waters of the Crocodile and Magalies rivers.
Picture from intotravel.co.za
So, why did we wake up so early? To make it in time for Om Die Dam
('Around the dam'), the annual 50k ultra marathon (they also have a half-marathon and a 5k). The sun hid
behind the clouds and granted us some beautiful running weather. The 5k path led us through quiet, hilly residential streets with beautiful homes (most with barking dogs, who seemed ready for the annual onslaught of morning pedestrians).
After the run, we walked to the Hartbeespoort Aerial Cableway (apparently the longest monocableway in Africa) and took a ride to the top for a spectacular panorama of the town, the calm waters and the endless mountains.
