Our drone camera has been very active after the recent rains and we thought you would enjoy some stunning images of Sandstone Estates as we move forward to 2019 and the Stars of Sandstone event in April.

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Heritage Day Weekend

September is Heritage month in South Africa with Heritage Day on Monday 24^th September. To celebrate Heritage month Sandstone will be holding an Open Day on Saturday 22^nd September coinciding with this long weekend.

Train rides from Hoekfontein to Vailima Siding will operate at 10h00, 12h00, 14h00 and 16h00. Other attractions will be Ox Wagon rides and Military Vehicle rides while the famous Sandstone Heritage Collection will be open to view. Refreshments will be on sale with the Sandstone Shop open for memorabilia.

Entrance is R200 for adults and R125 for under 12’s which includes one train trip. Booking is essential and it will be a day not to be missed. Contact Leigh Sanders or Alina Halafu on 051 933 2235 or e mail, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. We look forward to seeing you there.

As part of an ongoing social media programme, Ford has been producing two minute video productions which are aired on social media, particularly Facebook. The productions, which will run to 26 episodes, are of visits to Ford owners and users throughout South Africa and their experiences with Ford products with both modern and older vehicles featured.

The film crew visited Sandstone Estates on July 12^th to film our experiences with Ford vehicles which range from a 1915 Model T, a 1930 Model A and various trucks and tractors from the 50’s and 60’s to modern Ford Ranger bakkies. Although Ford is no longer a producer of tractors under its brand name, Sandstone have a number of Ford models from the 50’s that still give sterling service on the farm.

Our 1935 Ford V8 pick up which is unrestored from new and our 1951 Ford F100, which journeyed to the Equator on a rally in 2006, were featured by the film crew.

The final sequence was with one of Canadian Ford military units from WW2 which was driven towards Grootdraai where the film crew met 20 oxen especially inspanned for the occasion. As a tribute to Ford one of the oxen had been named “Ford” for the occasion.

Our picture gallery features the line up of Ford vehicles for the shoot, Alina Halafu, from our farm office being interviewed, filming the Canadian Ford with our 20 Oxen inspanned and finally, “Ford”, our newly named Oxen.

We will keep you posted when the episode, number17, is aired on social media.

The James Hall Museum of Transport will celebrate Madiba’ s Centenary with an open day at the James Hall Museum in Johannesburg on 21^st July. Sandstone has a long standing relationship with the museum and we urge you to support this worthy cause. Full details are on the attached flyer.

Whether you have booked or are still deciding about it, Stars of Sandstone 2019 is not to be missed. Have a look at our newly released video of what this event holds in store. You should not miss it!

We had some interesting visitors at Sandstone when a group of seven Gyrocopter pilots from all over the country descended on Sandstone for an overnight visit. Today they will be taking a walking tour of Sandstone before flying off to another destination.

An autogyro (from Greek αὐτός and γύρος, "self-turning"), also known as a gyroplane or gyrocopter, is a type of rotorcraft that uses an unpowered rotor in free autorotation to develop lift. Forward thrust is provided independently, typically by an engine-driven propeller. They were invented by a Spanish engineer, Juan de la Cierva in 1923 and have quite a following throughout South Africa and the world.

You can learn more about these fascinating machines on Wikipedia:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autogyro

Sandstone Heritage Trust via its museum status is a member of the South African Museum Association (SAMA). May 18^th is International Museum Day and SAMA has produced the attached document on this event. It makes for interesting reading with the history of the event and what museums can do to celebrate the day.
Click on the link to view.

The loading area at Sandstone was very busy the other day with the loading of 1000 tons of yellow maize for our customer, Nu Pro, of Bethlehem.

Our picture shows the trucks lining up for loading. Around 30 truck loads were required to fill the order.