Our last event for 2023 is now over and was a resounding success. We know those of our readers who joined us enjoyed themselves and we look forward to seeing you again. Please enjoy a photo maontage of the event from numerous contributors, both visitors and volunteers.
SA Venues is the premier online accommodation booking service in South Africa. Sandstone Estates has been listed with SA Venues for just over 2 years now.
As there is no official Cherry Festival in 2023 we have given our November 2023 event a new name-“The Sandstone Summer Steam Festival”. You can see full details in either English or Afrikaans by clicking on the link to the pdf below. We look forward to welcoming you at Sandstone, 17th to 19th November 2023!
Here at Sandstone Estates, we have acquired quite a large number of horses as a result of some strange happenings.
Renowned South African photographer and videographer, Jean Dulez has just published a new book, “Railways of South Africa and Namibia” “Motive Power and Trains”.
Pandora Village on Sandstone Estates is the home to many Sandstone employees and their children.
Being far from any municipal activity, rubbish collection is an issue but, thanks to an initiative by Morgan and Toni Barrett of the nearby Boschfontein Farm, each Tuesday the children meet up and pick up all the litter at Pandora Village. This is then sorted into the various recycling categories and taken to the Ficksburg Municipality landfill site / recycling depot. This programme was started on Boschfontein Farm and it has worked well with the children being rewarded for their efforts. Recently they were taken to Tempelhof Guest and Game Farm for an outing. Much fun was had by them all including the pursuit of a young monkey.
South African Tourism is a Government initiative to promote tourism to South Africa for business or pleasure and is very active in many centres around the world. A number of film productions are done each year to promote South Africa and Sandstone estates was chosen as one of the locations for a current production. Shooting took place over one day and featured a family ( film extras) on a visit to Sandstone where they experienced a steam train ride, an ox wagon plus a donkey cart ride. All of these are part of the “Sandstone Experience” that visitors to the Estate can enjoy on any visit.
Photographer, Hinrich Brummer, sent us a selection of photographs taken during the recent FarRail Tour to Sandstone in early July. Featured locomotives are NGG13 number 49, NGG16 number 113 and NG15, “Kalahari” number 17.
International Tour to Sandstone in 2024.
After the success of the recent FarRail International Rail Tour to South Africa, which included Sandstone, we are pleased to announce a tour from the UK to Sandstone has been announced by David Williams for May 2024. Although an International based tour, South African participants are welcome and should contact the organiser, David Williams, via the address details on the information sheet below.
Click here for further information.
One of the joys of Sandstone is when young school children visit us and see what life was like in the past. Recently 51 pupils from the Maseru Preparatory School, under the Leadership of teacher Margaret Matlole and four other teachers, visited us for a morning. The children were shown the Steam Railway depot and Road Steam shed with its trucks and buses. The highlight was a ride on an Ox wagon and the Donkey cart after which all the children and teachers settled down for a picnic before their return to Maseru. Our picture gallery tells the story. Pictures taken with permission
