Springfontein

This small Free State farming town, founded in 1904, is peppered with an array of historical landmarks that run the gamut from poignant to intriguing. Buildings of interest include the lovely old church with its stained windows and ‘De Bome’ a house where Emily Hobhouse – an Englishwoman who exposed the appalling conditions at Boer War concentration camps – resided during her stays in Springfontein, while a series of military blockhouses and the Concentration Camp Cemetery stand as reminders of the war and those who died as a result of it. Also of interest are the area’s San engraving sites, thought to be around 1000 years old, while bird watchers will be mesmerised by the high diversity of avian species in and around the town. Springfontein also has significance as a railway hub, with lines from Gauteng and the Eastern Cape intersecting here and providing onward connections.