Union Limited departs Cape Town - 15F 2916

CAPE TOWN - BELLVILLE - PORTERVILLE

Our departure from Cape Town will take us over the northern suburbs Metro line as far as Dal Josafat where our locomotive will have a service before continuing to Hermon. At Hermon, we take the branch line to Porterville. En-route we pass Riebeek-West and Riebeek Kasteel, two villages on the slopes of Kasteelberg ('castle mountain'), a solitary rock sentinel in the rolling wheat fields of Swartland.

PORTERVILLE

This village, the terminus of the branch railway from Hermon on the Cape Town - Port Elizabeth line, was founded in 1863 by the 1820 British settler, Frederick Owen, on a portion of the farm Willemsvlei, which he had bought in 1860 and renamed Pomona. The village which grew there was named after Sir William Porter, attorney general of the Cape.

Porterville and district is reputed to be the only place in the country where one does not have to hunt for red disas. It is said to be the only place in the world where the rare yellow disa is found. Therefore a 'disa route' has been laid out.

After a braai (barbecue) and winetasting at the Porterville Co-operative, we board the train at 21:30 for the continuation of our journey.