S1 - Ep 165 - Somerset East - A Charming Countryside Town in the Eastern Cape!

[@debbiekruger9414]

The school is absolutely beautiful. What a fabulous principal. So proud of our traditions and discipline

[@DustBugsTravel]

The Principal was so gracious and generous with her time and knowledge, especially with us arriving unannounced on a random Wednesday morning. We were super lucky that she happened to be on the grounds at exactly the same time we were. 🤩

[@rorysullivan4913]

The building with the burglar bars is part of of a building known as the Bruintjies Hoogte Inn (hotel) where ox wagons could rest en (uitspan) on way to Somerset East. Those responsible for stock theft were kept in that building until the law arrived to take them to the magistrate. Remember stopping there in early sixties.

[@DustBugsTravel]

How amazing that you remember stopping there in the 60's! That is super cool. 😎 The building definitely still has a jail vibe, so your extremely interesting explanation makes complete sense. That even a little random building next to the side of a road, has a rich history like this, blows our minds. 🤯

[@lynetteprinsloo844]

You are correct. We live in Somerset East. My husband is now 69 and he remembers it as the Bruintjieshoogte Inn. Very old ruins as he remembers the old building as a child. It was wonderful to see our beautiful town in Dustbug Travel.

[@stuff0music]

Thank you for that information. I’m researching my ancestry and my second great grandfather was born at Bruintjies hoogte. It’s now marked on my Google maps places to go.

[@karenkleyn1818]

I started my teaching career way back in 1981 in this special town. One of my fondest memories will always be the excellent manners and behaviour of the learners. So glad to see they are still keeping it up. They really are an example for the rest of us. Proud of Gill.

[@DustBugsTravel]

Wow, what special memories you must have of this gorgeous town! 🤗 We were blown away by how respectful and disciplined the learners were, so clearly those high standard of the 80's have been upheld. So fantastic to see! 😎

[@flodillon991]

Those white springbucks are so beautiful and the views incredible. That Gills college is really amazing. Lucky to have the principal give you a guided tour, you were very lucky to be there at the right time. Thank you.

[@DustBugsTravel]

We also loved the white springbuck, they were amazing! 🦌🤍 Our timing at Gill College was just perfect. We couldn't believe our luck that it was the Principal on the playground and that she was willing to spend some time with us. That was very special and we were happy to learn so much about the school and its history. 📚😊

[@deonzar]

Well that was really a surprise...never expected Somerset East would be in such a good state. Man..I think they knew you were coming and cleaned up the town...only joking..very nice

[@DustBugsTravel]

That makes three of us! We were thrilled when we saw what a pretty place this was and how well it is being taken care of! 🤩 We're so glad you enjoyed it too, thank you.

[@funkdunk]

It reminds me of Oranjia

[@delraedillon9955]

What an awesome little town

[@DustBugsTravel]

Indeed! The entire atmosphere was fantastic and we hope to visit again one day. 😎

[@funkdunk]

I have to admit that I was disappointed to see Pearston, it reminded me of so many towns on a fast downward slide due to incompetent local councils and the lack of job creating opportunities, then I saw this video and I had to eat my words. What an incredible town and Gill College, the tour and the history of the place, so interesting...cannot wait for the next episode 😀 and your subs to reach 1000

[@DustBugsTravel]

We're so glad that you enjoyed our visit to Somerset East with all its fantastic offerings. 😁 It truly is a beautiful, tree-filled town where the locals clearly care about both the preservation and progress of the place. It was great to see! 👌🏻 Next stop is a small-small place, we hope you enjoy that one too. 😊

[@RyanDH]

Sounds similar to Philippolis, that town has daily water outages, when there's a power outage, it last days. All the roads leading to the town are badly potholed. The first thing you notice the moment you enter the town is all the for sale signs by the various houses. Philippolis is an amazing town to visit, it has a lot of history, the Transgariep Museum is a must to visit, and then there's several monuments near the main church even a memorial garden

[@wernherels5939]

So wonderful to go back in memory I grow up in somerset went to Gill primary school. Miss the good days wow how the town has changed.

[@DustBugsTravel]

What a fantastic town to have grown up in! 🤩 That school is something else and such an example to countless others in this great country. 🇿🇦 So happy that our video brought back some fond memories for you. ☺️

[@gregorydavids5304]

Hi! Just checked Vikipedia: "The school's namesake, Dr. William Gill, died in 1863 and left an estate equivalent to £23,000 (equivalent to £2,341,263 in 2021) for the establishment of a college of higher education. Gill College was officially opened on March 18, 1869.[1] The architecture was based on that of the University of Glasgow."

[@DustBugsTravel]

Yes! Thank you for sharing. 👌🏻 That's exactly where we quickly looked up the history too when we arrived at the school. 😁 The initial as opposed to the equivalent amount is quite unbelievable.

[@davidwilliamson2115]

@@DustBugsTravel qq

[@davidwilliamson2115]

@@DustBugsTravel onwards towards elevenses

[@davidwilliamson2115]

What kind of Ant lives in those Ant hills?

[@michalf6460]

Loved it

[@DustBugsTravel]

Great, we're glad you enjoyed it! 🤩

[@seanchallenge]

Absolutely amazing as always and to see the incredible beautiful town of Somerset East. Fantastic History of the School and a pleasure to see the Architecture of the Churches and Monuments. Keep discovering and yes we can't wait to see the next upload. Thank you Dustbugs

[@DustBugsTravel]

Thank you so much, guys! 😁 What an absolute revelation Somerset East was to us! We've always just heard about it and were so happy to finally be able to discover just a little bit of it. We glad you enjoyed it too, thank you for watching, as always. 😍

[@simonemason5352]

Wow everyday you learn something new. That college is so impressive.

[@DustBugsTravel]

We completely agree. And completely unexpected to find a school like that in a fairly small town in the Eastern Cape. It was really wonderful to see. 📚🤩

[@ttd-kakchom7248]

I am from somerset at gill college

[@DustBugsTravel]

Fantastic stuff, you live in a beautiful town and attend a fantastic school. It was wonderful to visit. 😎

[@debbiekruger9414]

I love this town. It is beautiful

[@DustBugsTravel]

It is indeed very beautiful. We could happily live there. 😁

[@vimilchar]

Oh, I loved the principal sharing openly. What a beautiful school. ❤

[@mk-xq1tt]

Lovely town and lovelier buildings. All the towns you travel through seem very neat and clean.

[@DustBugsTravel]

This town was particularly neat and clean, which was awesome to see. 😃 It's really evident that the local residents take great care in looking after their town. Thank you for joining us on our travels, it's great to have you along. 🚗

[@61sunset]

I am so amazed at Gill College, and you had a guided tour with the principle, so interesting. Somerset East looks so beautiful. I am so happy that you visited there, as it is one of a few places that I really wanted to see. So a big thank you to you both. Loved Sonya's description of the " Valley of a thousand hills", describing all the anthills : )

[@DustBugsTravel]

It's great that you also found Gill College ineresting. 😊 We were just as blown away by the entire place, we just had to spend some time there. The buildings just drew me in for some reason and I'm so happy it did. It is a wonderful (not so small) town with huge leafy trees and loads of history. It sounds like you also haven't been there before and it's really well worth a visit if you're ever in the Eastern Cape. 🤩 There were really thousands of anthills around, more than we've ever seen in one place before. 😁🐜🐜

[@quintusvandermerwe4138]

I cannot wait to watch your videos as you publish them. Do not think there is a video we have not seen!. This episode is the cherry on the cake! The piece about Gill College is excellent! We have recently started overland and we use your videos as inspiration and for the valuable info. Please, please if you can give a little bit more info about campsites and other guesthouses in the town you visit. It will be nice (but it is not a must-have) and I am sure you will get many more views;-)) Keep up the good work and I hope you get to 1000+ members quickly! You are privileged to be able to take so much time off work and do something you clearly love.

[@DustBugsTravel]

We so appreciate your kind comments, thank you. 👌🏻 We made a conscious decision to focus on enjoying life in the moment and we literally love every moment on the road. Your journey sounds like an exciting one too and I'm sure you'll enjoy every kilometre of your overlanding experience. 🚙 We have so much footage to include in our videos, so mainly focus on our own accommodation and our thoughts on those. We will struggle to include reviews on places we haven't experienced ourselves and we hope you understand that. 😊

[@annawitter5161]

Aloe Aloe!! So lovely to hear from you touring the same areas I used to enjoy and am now missing. I have a feeling that little ruined building was once a plaasskooltjie. It looks so much like the sort of place my ouma used to teach in. SomersetEast used to have a Royal Hotel. We once went and stayed there just for a joke, because of the David Kramer Song: Hier sit die manne

[@DustBugsTravel]

You may very well be correct in that it was a little farm school, such a cute building. 😍📚 We can only imagine the good times in the Royal Hotel. We didn't spot it while driving through, but we did see the Somerset Hotel, which we're sure has its fair share of stories to tell! 😁

[@joshuasteenkamp3277]

Bosberg with over 40 waterfalls during the rainy season

[@DustBugsTravel]

Amazing! ⛰️

[@charlietreston4035]

Amazing a place like this still exist

[@DustBugsTravel]

We were equally surprised, it's a fantastic town. 🤩

[@munesumangava9751]

The pillars on the Town Hall….,just beautiful!

[@joshuasteenkamp3277]

Dankie baie dankie

[@DustBugsTravel]

Sure! 😎

[@samanthashepheard]

What a pleasant town, and I just love seeing the old buildings and houses. I have to take my hat off to the principle, seeing the kids walking in single file, behaving in the library, standing up straight and not slouching when walking the neatness they keep and wear their uniforms. I cannot express how proud I feel and the love. It's great that she is keeping the old traditions. In today's world there is no respect for authority in schools, no respect for the rules. And any form of punishment is form of abuse, it's ridiculous. I'm going to be respectful as I can, the kids here in the uk they act very entitled, the dresses for the girls are so short, they allowed to wear makeup, the school clothes don't looked ironed, the girls hair are long and loose, the boys hair is long that they have to flick their fringe back because it's in their eyes. It's shocking to see. When I was in school our shoes used to be checked if they were shiny, our uniforms were checked to make sure the girls dresses were 3 fingers above the knee, if not we were sent home. They checked our hair to make sure it's not to long, no hair hanging in our eyes. And when you have a firm foundation and principles of rules and the consequences of breaking the rules, you start to respect the authority and rules. But because kids today are entitled and they have so many rights, and everything is abuse or labeled discrimination if any sort of punishment is given. I can totally understand how Sonia feels because I feel the same way. And that is why I am proud and have love seeing this because you don't get it anymore

[@munesumangava9751]

Beautiful school…….Gill College 👏👏

[@sherrillpotgieter3945]

If i still had school going kids i would be sak en pak off to Somerset East .

[@DustBugsTravel]

I understand how you would feel that way. it certainly seems to be a fantastic school. 🎓👌🏻

[@franzgottschalk9705]

The famous du Plessis brothers who played Springbok rugby studied here !

[@DustBugsTravel]

How interesting! We heard about Hannes Marais attending Gill College and saw that a stadium there was named after him, but didn't know about the Du Plessis brothers. Thank you for the info! 👌🏻🏉

[@joshuasteenkamp3277]

Hello Mrs Slater greetings from East london

[@DustBugsTravel]

What a phenomenal lady she is! 😊👏🏻

[@munesumangava9751]

The church 😁 again at the end of the tree lined street….. very pretty 👌🎉

[@tillabezuidenhout6460]

That is a great picnic spot!!!!

[@vkaitakirwa]

What a gem!!.Gill college is truly stunning

[@DustBugsTravel]

A fantastic school indeed and an example of what can be achieved. Thank you for visiting with us! 🚗😁

[@RyanDH]

Almost went to Somerset East on my recent road trip was deciding on the route to take between Bethulie (interesting town to visit), Graaff-Reinet and Middelburg. Ended of visiting Steynsburg, Hofmeyr and Cradock (was very impressed with Steynsburg and Hofmeyr) en-route to Graaff-Reinet from Bethulie. Then went to Murraysburg, Richmond (amazing town to visit) and Hanover (interesting town worth exploring) en-route to Middelburg from Graaff-Reinet.

[@DustBugsTravel]

We found Somerset East a fantastic town and definitely worth visiting on one of your future trips. 🤩 We won't say much else in response to your comment, other than keep checking our uploads in the near future. We're sure you'll get a kick out of them! 😁😉

[@andrewwilson3054]

Gill College was the highlight of my life. First class school with first class morals. Many of us struggle today in the Karoo but our school days at Gill keep us fighting forward, we have strong roots because of the rich education we received at the school.

[@DustBugsTravel]

Thank you for sharing your memories with us. We can fully understand those sentiments, it was clear to us that it was a special school with and for special people. What a lovely town Somerset East is in general, we thoroughly enjoyed our visit. 😁🚗

[@tillabezuidenhout6460]

Beautiful

[@munesumangava9751]

It must be fantastic to drive on that road….,wow!!

[@munesumangava9751]

Stunning views 👌👌👌

[@waswe4204]

Thank you so much for this video and in particular about the section on Gill College. my great great uncle was James Leonard who was one of the seven men nominated by Dr Gill to form a corporation to build the college. He also invested heavily into the project. He went on to be Attorney General for the Cape Province and was closely associated with Cecil Rhodes.

[@DustBugsTravel]

That is so interesting, thank you for sharing that with us. 👌🏻 We were so impressed with the school and so grateful that we could get a glimpse into its history. Your great great uncle has a fantastic legacy there, you can be proud to call him family. 🤩 We appreciate you watching!

[@waswe4204]

Thank you again, another farm belonging to the family was Gloria Farm, Villiersdorp, it is now called the Manor house. Owned by James Leonards brother Charles, who was a leader in the Jameson Raid. If you in the area could you do a video of that? Its on the banks of the Three Waterskloof Dam.

[@DustBugsTravel]

We've visited the Villiersdorp area earlier in the year and stayed at Pendennis Farm. We had a great time in the town. You should check out that video(and all the others) too! 😁 We'll certainly make a note so that we can check it out if we're ever in the area again. Thank you for the info! 👌

[@mariusroos]

Nice to add salt to taste. The salt pans are amazing to think only some places in our country they occur. I loved the shop -we who grew up on farms remember them well. How nice it will be to live there if you like quietness and tranquility. Thanks for the drone footage and that you walked on the salt and even tasted it! The flamingoes were really nice to see. What a church for such a small town it is incredible. Thanks guys ir was such a nice trip. My bag stay in the boot I am ready for the next trip.

[@AlexBondSmith]

Thanks. When watching and you talked about the origins of the name, I remembered a bit of useless history. Lord Charles Somerset named most of the towns established in the 1820's either after himself or members of his family. Hence we have Somerset East and Somerset West. Also Beaufort West. Beaufort, and Port Beaufort after his father in law, the Duke of Beaufort. Also Malmesbury after his cousin, the Earl of Malmesbury . Worcester after his brother, the Marquis of Worcester. One exception is Fish Hoek. I think he had run out of relations.

[@DustBugsTravel]

🤣 How interesting! We never knew all of that, thank you for sharing. 👌🏻 We happen to live close to both Somerset West and Fish Hoek and have obviously known about Somerset West all along. However, I suspect we may just look at Fish Hoek differently going forward! 😁🐟

[@mary-elizabethcoetzee685]

Born and raised there

[@michalf6460]

Very interesting! Why there are duble sumerset in SA?

[@DustBugsTravel]

This town is called Somerset East and is in the Eastern Cape and the other one is Somerset West in the Western Cape. They're about 770km apart. 🌍 Not sure why there are two, we just know both were named after Lord Charles Somerset, so we imagine both were started on farms he originally owned. Hopefully someone else reads your comment and can provide more information. 😁

[@lynetteprinsloo844]

The one is Somerset East and the other Somerset West. People do get confused. Somerset West is in the Western Cape

[@frederikbrits9559]

Also worthwhile to visit the Slagtersnek rebellion museum, my two great uncles Freek and Hans Bezuidenhout was shot, also Cornelis Faber was hanged. My gggg grandfather b7c2d2 Pieter BRITS was banned and send back to Beaufort West

[@infocus-media]

Quickly, Quickly past Somerset East, I still own a guy money there from 45 years ago (R15).LOL!

[@DustBugsTravel]

😁 It's such a fantastic town, it'll be well worth the fifteen bucks! 🤣🚗

[@deonnimb9505]

Can't believe how much I am enjoying these videos, good job guys, keep it up. The transmission whine on the Kwid on camera sounds a bit like that of a 4x4 which is maybe why you guys are getting to so many wonderful places. Have fun

[@DustBugsTravel]

😁 Your comment gave us a good chuckle. The last two Kwids we've had, have been especially creaky and we've noticed the same thing when we edit! We're sure they sometimes do feel like 4 x 4's though, so they behave accordingly! Thank you for being along for the ride! 🚗🤩

[@joshuasteenkamp3277]

Birthplace of the 3 famous springbok rugby players Carl Michael and willy du plessis

[@DustBugsTravel]

Interesting! 🏉

[@BerylBerger-t4v]

🥰👋

[@joshuasteenkamp3277]

Gill kollege school of the famous du plessis brothers springbok rugby players of 1980 s

[@DustBugsTravel]

Indeed. Also Hannes Marais, Springbok captain from the 1970's. 🏉

[@aislingbooks]

Turkish fig river? 😅 And then on to Waterford? Must've been an Irishman that settled there. I taught in Waterford, but not the one in SA. Do you also have a Tralee? ☺

[@DustBugsTravel]

Actually the Prickly Pear River. 😁 A 'turksvy' is a prickly pear. We spent a few years in the US and I recall Americans often referring to them as cactus fruit. Yes, Waterford, the farm, was owned by two Irish immigrant brothers called Rafferty. You'll get to know the place in Episode 166. I'm not aware of a Tralee in our country though.

[@aislingbooks]

Ha! Thanks so much for your response. Prickly pear I know too and, though prickly, they're quite delicious. Have you eaten them too? I'm enjoying your next episode too. But what a great pity the town's been abandoned.

[@DustBugsTravel]

I have indeed! They've been one of my favourite fruits since childhood, but they must be ice cold when eaten. Sonia is quite the expert at peeling them too! 😁

[@viking_warlordce]

27:27 that black bakkie is mine( dont know why my last comment was taken off)

[@DustBugsTravel]

Wow, what a small world this is! 🌍 Thank you for letting us know, that is super cool. 😎 We didn't remove a comment from you, a KZbin glitch perhaps.

[@joshuasteenkamp3277]

Gill Kollege SABC nuus joernalis se skool Mr Hufkie

[@DustBugsTravel]

Yes, the Principal told me about him, along with a few other famous alumni. 👌🏻

[@AvuyilemiyoloSphelo]

Hi guys how much a ticket from Somerset East to Capetown?

[@DustBugsTravel]

I have no idea. You'll have to check online. 🙂