Book a school outing to Melville Koppies today
June is the perfect month for school tours. The chances of a clear and warm day are good and there are still plenty of things to see and experience.
Grade Four learners from Jan Celliers Laerskool in Parkview were recent visitors to Melville Koppies.
They were shown evidence that early farmers lived on the Koppies from more than 500 years ago right until the early 1800s.
Not only were they farmers, they also knew how to recognise rocks containing iron ore and how to build a furnace and smelt the iron-bearing rock to extract the iron. Then they would forge the smelted iron into hoe-heads, spears or whatever was needed.
The grass on the Koppies was not too fertile for growing crops like sorghum, so the community traded their hoe-heads and spears for bags of sorghum from the settlement at Kliprivierspruit in the south or Lonehill in the north.
Your class too can learn what they’ve learnt by booking a guided tour on a Sunday morning (book on 079 532 0083) or be there by 08:30. Or you can do the self-guided heritage trail which gives you some of these fascinating facts.
Test your fitness on the 5km self-guided trail or on the first Sunday of the month, join the 8km guided hike. Or take a map and just guide yourselves along the many different paths that criss-cross the Koppies.
Melville Koppies is open between 08:00 and 11:30 every Sunday.
Cost is R80 for adults and R40 for children with season tickets at R500 per adult available. These are not transferable.
Income is used for the maintenance of the Koppies. Security on the Koppies is provided. Park in secure parking opposite the entrance at Marks Park in Judith Road, Emmarentia.
Contact wendavid@mweb.co.za or call 079 532 0083 or visit www.mk.org.za for more detailed information about the history and what you can see on Facebook.
