The N12 that runs from Witbank and passes through Johannesburg, Kimberley, Beaufort West and on to George is known variously as the alternative route to the tolled N1 to Cape Town, the scenic route, the diamond route, the battlefields route or the cultural route. To travellers in the know it is simply the Treasure Route.
The Scenic Route
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| |  The N12 winds through Jozi | |
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In a short space of time the traveller starting in the verdant Mpumalanga highlands at Witbank has passed through the densely populated gold and diamond fields and entered the arid, sparse wilderness of the central Karoo of the Northern Cape. After a few hours the road joins for a while with the N1 at Three Sisters and parts ways again at Beaufort West as it heads towards the Swartberg Range that borders the Klein Karoo.
Here the mountains present a striking display of reefs, pinnacles and great edifices of twisted mauve-and-yellow rock weathered and carved over millennia by violent storms and winds of such ferocity that gusts crack like bullets when screaming through breaches in the ramparts. Then it is over the Outeniqua Mountains frescoed on its seaward side by the lush rainforests of the Garden Route. And on to George where the N12 ends.
Diamond Route
The discovery of diamonds near Hopetown in the late 1860s unleashed a frenzy seldom seen before or since and laid the foundation for South Africa’s industrial development. During the rush diggers converged on the banks of the Vaal River and ragged prospect towns such as Poorman’s Koppie, Moonlight Rush and Sydney-on-Vaal quickly sprang up on the sun-blasted landscape.
Then came the significant finds in Griqualand West. On a hillock, Colesberg Kopje, the richest treasure house of all was found. This brought another 50 000 hopefuls from round the world; filling the grey, dusty air round the Kimberley camp with the noise of squeaking barrows and honky-tonk.
A Most Victorian City
Soon, however, the surface and alluvial diamonds became harder to find and many diggers began packing their meagre belongings to join the new rush to the Eastern Escarpment of the Transvaal Republic were news was filtering through of the discovery of gold. As they departed so the large companies brought order and Kimberley settled down to become the respectable, elegant Victorian city it is today.
Evidence of diamond mining can be seen along the N12 from Wolmaransstad to Hopetown. But Kimberley remains its heart and it is well-worth spending a few days here to explore the area. A visit to the last of the hand-diggers on the Vaal River at Gong Gong and Longlands is especially recommended.
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| |  The twistng passes of the Swartberg | |
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Battlefields Route
Pre-1994 South African history is a battlefield of conflicts and rivalries between the many groups that lived or had interests in the region. One of the bitterest of these was that between Boer and Briton, which spiralled into the Boer War of 1899-1902.
At the beginning of the war the Boers besieged Mafeking and Kimberley on 14 October and Ladysmith two weeks later. But the real story in those early days was the disaster that befell the initial force under Lieutenant-General Lord Methuen sent to relieve Kimberley in November 1899.
Black Week
As he moved towards the city he entered what has come to be known in British military infamy as Black Week with a baptism of fire at Belmont, Graspan and Modder River. ‘It seems,’ he wrote to his wife, ‘like Dante’s Inferno out of which we hope someday to emerge.’ Many would not, because something infinitely worse awaited his force on 11 December on the stony, sun-bronzed plain below Magersfontein Kopje when he ordered Major-General Andrew Wauchope to lead the attack on entrenched Boer positions.
Armed with faulty intelligence, Wauchope and his men of the Highland Brigade were cut down by withering fire in one of the worst military defeats ever suffered by Britain. This, and the other battlefields of the area, are now national monuments and are well signposted and easily accessible from the N12 just south of Kimberley.
Cultural Route
Towns at the opposite ends of the N12 are home to the two biggest annual Afrikaans national arts festivals.
For one week at the close of summer the quiet streets of Oudtshoorn are transformed by 100 000 hootin’, tootin’ revellers unashamedly celebrating Afrikaans culture. The main programme of the Klein Karoo National Arts Festival, with over 100 entries, is a punchy and feisty line up of dance, film, cabaret, music, storytelling, comedy, open-air concerts, circus, plays, art and poetry performed by established names and newcomers. And the same happens towards the end of September in Potchefstroom with the Aardklop Festival.
In between these two towns is the quaint Karoo hamlet of Victoria West, which presents regular, extremely popular film festivals in its art deco Apollo Theatre.
The Treasure Route
Traversing a kaleidoscopic canvas, which cuts through a landscape steeped in character and history, it is an artery coursing with culture. All of which makes the N12 a national treasure.
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