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South African (Off-Topic) Quiz

DamhuisClan

By DamhuisClan
in South Africa

Followers 17

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GlobalRat

+GlobalRat

Posted
Posted

I must admit and agree these questions can be very specific and obscure, but then that's what makes them interesting.

 

GR's questions obscure???? No way - I mean don't we ALL know the history of South Sea Island sports???? :unsure:

 

heh heh... I did admit to that one being nasty, but very interesting I thought :)

Jors

+Jors

Posted
Posted (edited)

Swartberg?

 

(on second thought... horse-n-trailer won't go there)

Edited by Jors
GlobalRat

+GlobalRat

Posted
Posted

Lootsberg pass?

 

Much too low, but you're playing in the right region.

 

Hint: It is a national monument, and as far as I'm aware still a gravel road.

 

Not sure you want to drive a bus up there, some sharp turns, but 4x4 or 2x4 is not required.

the pooks

+the pooks

Posted
Posted

<snip>

Trevor, thanks for your honesty, however I'm going to consider this as a spoilt question.

 

It's true what you say, when you know the answer it seems easy, but will agree with pooks that this is what makes it interesting. Read any trivia quizz in a newspaper or attend any pub quiz, some you know, some you don't, some are easy, and some seem impossible... and some are just nasty :)

 

After a few guesses it becomes clear that perhaps a question is more difficult than one anticipates and a hint will be the order of the day. I do not think we should get into the habit of googling and offering it as an answer whether it be declared or undeclared. Of course undeclared, we'll never know, but this is all based on an honour system. :D

 

Gordon was an extensive traveller in South Africa, and there's a hill outside Aberdeen (Gordon's Hill) named after him. His travel diaries of South Africa were lost for almost 200 years when they were discovered in Staffordshire. They can now be seen in the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam. Out of interest, it was Prince William V of Orange (Dutch and after whom the Orange River was named by Gordon) who gave the sheep to Gordon and not the King of Spain. The Prince did in turn receive them from the King of Spain as a gift. It was actually illegal to export Merino sheep from Spain :unsure:

 

<snip>

 

I was not too phased by Trevors encrypted answer. I found it quite easy to avoid looking.

 

But how fascinating: Just this past week I did a cache called Robert Gordons View GC1KE0Q and I was wondering who the cache was named after - and now I know.

cincol

+cincol

Posted
Posted (edited)

The highest TARRED road is between Roossenekal and Lydenburg in Mpumalanga - not sure of the name of teh pass but have a photo of the kids standing at the sign indicating the altitude, etc. There are a couple of passes on the way to Katse Dam that are higher, but then that is Lesotho. The is also the gravel road leading from Phudadathaba to Witsies Hoek Hotel in the Drakensberg, but then again that is not a pass as it stops at the Hotel. None of these require a 4x4 like Sani Pass though.

 

That said, I have done Sani in a 4x2 and remember a Ford Sierra going up with a Gypsey caravan in tow - advertising Continental Tyres! I think that was about 1983 or so. :):unsure:

 

OOPS - all above posts posted while I was writing! :D So mine are wrong anyway!

Edited by cincol
iNokia

+iNokia

Posted
Posted

Looks like the Rhodes area. So we will go with Naudesnek.

I'll second this answer. Busy looking at the mountain range from Maclear as I type this post. Last time I drove this pass the temperature was -2 at 17:00 with snow falling and an icy road. All that said my opel Astra made it quite easily.

Team Ginger

+Team Ginger

Posted
Posted

Aha!! A question I know something about... I can tell you a lot about the area, the house, the yard and so forth - but alas - the name you are looking for is not known to me.

 

Look out for an earthcache I am planning to publish in this area soon!! :-)

trevorh7000

+trevorh7000

Posted
Posted (edited)

Apologies for the google slip _ i have just been unable to answer a single question!!!! I just wanted the chance to be a winner by default! I also did think it was fairly safe to post in ROT13 as there is not evenand automatic ROT13 decoder on these forums (that I am aware of) It would have been as easy to google the answer as to decode it. Any way won't happen again - I'll just have to wait for a question I know the answer to - or add some educated guesses and hope for the best.

Edited by trevorh7000
the pooks

+the pooks

Posted
Posted

O dear - now I have to think of a question.

 

Related to our recent road trip: What interesting features are to be found on the farm Gansfontein a few kilometres outside Fraserburg. In fact Fraserburg deserves a geocache for that.

GlobalRat

+GlobalRat

Posted
Posted

Apologies for the google slip _ i have just been unable to answer a single question!!!! I just wanted the chance to be a winner by default! I also did think it was fairly safe to post in ROT13 as there is not evenand automatic ROT13 decoder on these forums (that I am aware of) It would have been as easy to google the answer as to decode it. ANy way wonlt happen again - I'll just have to wait for a question I know the answer to - or add some educated guesses and hope fot the best.

 

No apologies required.

GlobalRat

+GlobalRat

Posted
Posted

O dear - now I have to think of a question.

 

Related to our recent road trip: What interesting features are to be found on the farm Gansfontein a few kilometres outside Fraserburg. In fact Fraserburg deserves a geocache for that.

 

Corbelled houses?

the pooks

+the pooks

Posted
Posted

O dear - now I have to think of a question.

 

Related to our recent road trip: What interesting features are to be found on the farm Gansfontein a few kilometres outside Fraserburg. In fact Fraserburg deserves a geocache for that.

 

Corbelled houses?

 

Nope.

the pooks

+the pooks

Posted
Posted

Fossilised footprints. Saw a photo of these just a day or two back while looking for accommodation in the Fraserburg area.

 

BANG! Accomodation? Do I see signs of a new cache in Fraserburg? Over to you.

 

162e8430-2513-4ef8-a4a5-5288400a51f7.jpg

cownchicken

+cownchicken

Posted
Posted

Fossilised footprints. Saw a photo of these just a day or two back while looking for accommodation in the Fraserburg area.

 

BANG! Accomodation? Do I see signs of a new cache in Fraserburg? Over to you.

 

 

Off to the KKNK next Friday and were looking for some back roads. Had heard of a municipal caravan park somewhere in this area that was exceptional and was trying to pin it down. We were here a few years ago and did a bit of exploring but missed Gansfontein. :unsure:

 

 

Where just off the N2 would you find the oldest (reputedly) wayside hostelry still in use in South Africa? It was built in 1834 at a spot where transport riders unhitched their oxen and lit their campfires.

trevorh7000

+trevorh7000

Posted
Posted

Thanks - at last!!!!

 

I made and educated guess! Now I can appreciate how people get answers right and how difficult that question would have been for anyone not near the area.

 

Now coming up with a question is just as difficult.

 

Here goes?

 

Who was the First astronomer at the Royal Observatory in what is now Observatory Cape Town and when did he commence and finish duty (years only)?

 

In the 1970s, the Republic Observatory in Johannesburg and the Radcliffe Observatory in Pretoria were merged with the much older Royal Observatory to form the South African Astronomical Observatory as it is today.

 

I have lived in Obs for 12 years and made my first visit to Open Night last week. Well worth it and you get to look through the Victorian Maclean telescope! In the year of Astronomy the Observatory have open night with and interesting lecture every second Saturday. See http://www.saao.ac.za/home/ for details. But don't look for the anser there!!! :unsure:

 

Sorry Tom - no COBOL here!

trevorh7000

+trevorh7000

Posted
Posted

No Google, but have a book and surely allowed to use that or will I be disqualified?

 

Will withhold my answer till a ruling is given - so there!

 

Rule 1 - No Googling!

 

Rule 2 - Try and keep your question at the level someone in a pub quiz might be able to answer...

 

Rule 3 - Any sane topic goes!

 

So by Damhuisclans original simple rules using a reference book or a visit to the library should be OK!!!!!

 

Also note number 2!

 

Trev

GlobalRat

+GlobalRat

Posted
Posted

 

Here goes?

 

Who was the First astronomer at the Royal Observatory in what is now Observatory Cape Town and when did he commence and finish duty (years only)?

 

 

I'll throw in Thomas Maclear from earlier in this thread however I suspect he wasn't the first. Years, he was around in the 1850's, but no idea.

cownchicken

+cownchicken

Posted
Posted (edited)

Abbé Nicolas Louis de la Caille? Did a cache near Aurora a few years back at the northern most of three beacons he used to measure the southern arc of the meridian.

Edited by cownchicken
trevorh7000

+trevorh7000

Posted
Posted

I am afraid Abbe Nicolas was never Royal Astronomer! He did his surveys in 1750 quite some time before the Royal Observatory was founded!

 

Thomas Maclear was the third starting his tenure in 1834 till 1870.

 

Lucky I am allowed to google all this to provide the background!!!!

 

Trev

trevorh7000

+trevorh7000

Posted
Posted

Nope.

 

Herschel was one of the proposers for our mystery man's admission to the Royal Astronomical Society. Unfortunately our man, along with all the other Observatory workers contracted Scarlet Fever. He died of this in Simon's Town just a few years before Herschel arrived at the Cape.

 

Herschel collaborated with Thomas Maclear who as we have established was the third Royal Astronomer at the Cape.

tomtwogates

+tomtwogates

Posted
Posted

I think I've got his name thanks to HJJ Picard - "the observatory was originally run by that lovable, absent-minded astronomer the Rev. Fearon Fellowes". But the dates escape me! The observatory was established in 1820 although it also says the first permanent building was erected in 1827.

trevorh7000

+trevorh7000

Posted
Posted

I think I've got his name thanks to HJJ Picard - "the observatory was originally run by that lovable, absent-minded astronomer the Rev. Fearon Fellowes". But the dates escape me! The observatory was established in 1820 although it also says the first permanent building was erected in 1827.

 

Fearon Fallows was his name (your reference book spells it differently) and the start date was indeed 1820. He died whilst still in office on 25 July 1831 and is buried in the grounds of the Obeservatory.

 

You are up!

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