I Explored South Africa’s Mysterious Valley of Desolation…

I'm trying to get better at storytelling. How did I do?
FOLLOW ME:
👉WEBSITE - wildlifebybrad...
👉INSTAGRAM - / lifebybrad
👉TIK TOK - / lifebybrad
👉FACEBOOK - / lifebybrad
Music I used in this vid - share.epidemic...
GEAR:
Sony zv1 (main camera) - amzn.to/3OZdVDI
Tripod - amzn.to/3NVl86n
What I use to edit - amzn.to/3OZeTQm
My Computer - amzn.to/3uC9vKX
BUSINESS - [e-mail]
If you’re reading this, I appreciate you more than you know!
Thank you for watching!
Don’t forget to like, subscribe, and turn on post notifications!
*********************
Formed over 100 million years ago by a violent volcanic shift, the Valley of Desolation consists of sheer cliffs and precariously balanced giant dolomite rocks that drop down sharply to the valley floor 120 metres below. Looking down from the rocky peaks, one sees an immense terrain of nothingness, or so it seems, where visitor’s whispers echo through the still Karoo air. The quiet stillness accosts the brain with a confounding peace, while the landscape magnifies into an intense clarity that is hard to describe.
Graaff-Reinet is a town in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa. It is the oldest town in the province. It is also the sixth-oldest town in South Africa, after Cape Town, Stellenbosch, Simon's Town, Paarl and Swellendam. The town was the centre of a short-lived republic in the late 18th century. The town was a starting point for Great Trek groups led by Gerrit Maritz and Piet Retief and furnished large numbers of the Voortrekkers in 1835-1842.
Graaff-Reinet is home to more national monuments than any other town or city in South Africa. It is also known for being a flourishing market for agricultural produce, noted for its mohair industry, and sheep and ostrich farming.
Graaff-Reinet was established by the Dutch East India Company in 1786, after Cape Town in 1652, Stellenbosch in 1679, Paarl in 1687 and Swellendam in 1745. The town is named after then-governor of the Cape Colony, Cornelis Jacob van de Graaff, and his wife. The town was originally established as a trading post to expand trading inland from the Cape Colony.[5]
In 1795, the town's burghers, who were annoyed by company taxation, proclaimed themselves to be the independent "Colony of Graaff-Reinet". The burghers then requested guardianship from the government of the Netherlands. Similar action was subsequently taken by the burghers of Swellendam. Before the authorities at Cape Town could take decisive measures against the rebels, they were compelled to capitulate to the British who had invaded and occupied the Cape.
In January 1799, Marthinus Prinsloo, a leader of the 1795 independence movement, rebelled again but surrendered the following April. Prinsloo and nineteen others were imprisoned in the Cape Town castle. After trial, Prinsloo and another commandant were sentenced to death. Other conspirators were sentenced to exile. The sentences were not carried out and the prisoners were released in March 1803, on the retrocession of the Cape to the Netherlands.
In 1801, there was another revolt in Graaff Reinet, but due to the measures of General Francis Dundas, the acting governor of the Cape Colony, peace was soon restored. In February 1803, due to the 1802 signing of the Treaty of Amiens, the British returned the Cape Colony to the Netherlands, then named the Batavian Republic.
On 13 August 1814 the Cape Colony was formally ceded to Britain by a convention under which Dutch vessels were entitled to resort freely to the Cape of Good Hope for the purposes of refreshment and repairs. Britain agreed on 13 August 1814 to pay five million sterling to the United Netherlands for the Dutch possession at the Cape.
The Cape Colony received a degree of independence in 1872 when "Responsible Government" was declared in South Africa. In 1877, the government of Prime Minister John Molteno began construction of the railway line connecting Graaff-Reinet to Port Elizabeth on the coast. This railway was officially opened on 26 August 1879.
Graaff Reinet became the centre of British military operations for the Eastern Cape during the Second Boer War. In 1901, a number of captured Boer rebels were tried in the town for crimes ranging from high treason, murder, attempted murder, arson and robbery. Nine were sentenced to death, with eight of these being executed by firing squad on the outskirts of the town, while the ninth sentence was carried out in Colesberg. A monument stands in the town to commemorate these fallen Boers.