Finding the site of fort Helpmekaar

Posts : 947 Join date : 2011-10-21 Location : Algoa Bay

Hi Frank/Gary,

Thanks for the picture of the site of the fort Frank. The resolution on that picture is super,... how many megapixels is it?
I see there has been some very recent de-wattling there and maybe someone is prepaparing the site for more agricultural use.
Finding the exact location is easy Gary. If you have a Garmin or other GPS, go to this location ; 28 deg 26.47 mins S / 30 deg 24.98 min E, and you will be at the east facing entrance to the fort.
If you don't have a GPS , go to the pond to the NW of the site, turn to face the centre of the cemetery and pace off 126 paces walking on that line of sight to the cemetery. Plant a stake there. As a check it should be a further 303 paces to the cemetery from the stake , and as another check turning NE from the stake at the entrance measure 188 paces up to the right hand bend in the road passing the front of the Police station from E to W. This simple trigonometry will confirm the site.
A number of low earth ridges will be seen there. Not all are the old walls of the fort. So, to see the exact footprint of the fort earthworks some circumspection is needed, remembering the fort was aligned longitudinally on a rough east/west axis.

regards

barry

Subject: Finding the site of Ft Helpmekaar Fri Feb 24, 2017 12:52 pm

Thanks Barry much appreciated .
90th Salute

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