Hekpoort, West Rand, Gauteng
Hekpoort is a beautiful farming valley, guarded by Barton’s Folly, a small blockhouse built during the South African War in 1901. The blockhouse is not the only protector of the valley – the magnificent Magaliesberg Mountain Range skirts the valley and endows it with beautiful views of its wooded flanks and flat dolomite top. Numerous riverine kloofs and gullies cut through the quartzite cliffs, providing a stunning playground for climbers and hikers.
Nearby is the Mountain Sanctuary Park, which offers stunning scenery, crystal clear streams and beautiful hikes in the wonderful outdoors. Spend the weekend camping or in a self-catering chalet and re-charge your batteries!
Hartbeespoort Dam is a short drive from Hekpoort. Surrounded by the Magaliesberg Mountains, the dam is a popular, weekend getaway, for any number of water sports – para-sailing, windsurfing, water and jet skiing, and sailing. It is also home to the beautiful Pecanwood Golf Course, has an aquarium, a private zoo, a snake park and a cableway that is worth taking to watch the para-gliders taking off from the hills around the dam.
Hekpoort is also adjacent to the Cradle of Humankind, which offers top notch attractions –visit the Sterkfontein limestone cave systems – excavations here have revealed many early hominids and is considered the richest site in the world for this era of human development. ‘Where do we come from? And where are we going?” These are the questions that the world-class Maropeng Museum, situated within the Cradle of Humankind Heritage Site, attempts to answer. Though the exhibitions are based on the ground-breaking hominid fossil discoveries at the nearby Sterkfontein Caves and at the other local archeological sites, the Maropeng Museum offers far more.
For more things to do in the West Rand, see ShowMe West Rand.
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