Hello, and welcome to Matjiesfontein! My name is Dean Allen. I spent 10 years digging through archives and travelling the country, researching and writing the incredible history of this town in a b...

Keep walking straight, continuing along the dirt road ahead.

You're walking through a perfectly preserved Victorian village, in the middle of nowhere. This is a product of the British Empire at ...

Now stop here. You might want a moment to take in the glorious mountains in front of you, and to your right.

[2 SECOND PAUSE]

While at Cape Town Station, Logan made some great business associ...

Can you see the bare patch in the grass, just to your right? That used to be the centre of the pitch. Walk over to it, and stop in the middle.

[3 SECOND PAUSE]

From here, you can really get a...

Now cross the road in front of you, and walk straight between the buildings along the gravel pathway. Then go up the stairs and walk through the courtyard.

Logan was constantly working his town'...

Now stop here, next to the stairs going down to the lower section of this beautiful garden. Let's take a break here, shall we? Before we do, though, let me show you where we'll be going next. Look ...

Walk down this small set of stairs and stop in front of the little chapel on your left.

[2 SECOND PAUSE]

This is the Traveller's Chapel, a building that originally housed the gas-generating ...

Now walk straight through the gardens, towards the stairs at the end of the long strip of grass in front of you.

James Logan planned beautiful garden in great detail, and many of these wonderful...

Now go up the stairs in front of you, and turn left to walk alongside the reservoir.

Logan saw what politics was doing for other people, and wanted to do it himself. He was elected as member of ...

The stairs in front of you go up to the pool. If it's a hot day, you might want to remember this spot. But for now, let's turn left, and keep walking through the gardens.

[2 SECOND PAUSE]

Loo...

Take a seat on the bench, and rest your feet awhile. From here, you can see the back of James Logan's private home in Matjiesfontein - it's the double-storey house you can see through the trees on ...

Keep walking to the path, and then follow it along the river.

Despite the war, James Logan's greatest ambition had yet to be fulfilled - taking a South African cricket team to Britain. Now, he w...

Turn right here, and make your way back across the river. Then go past the chapel on your right, into the courtyard we were in earlier. We'll pick up where we left off when you get there.

We're back in the courtyard! Let's turn right here, and walk through the white archway ahead into the gravel area.

Logan's son, Jimmy Logan Junior, was on the SA team in England. He only ever p...

Now turn left and continue along the gravel until you reach the road.

Logan couldn't get away with leading a cricket tour at a time like this so easily, and when he arrived in the UK he had a pr...

Now turn right, and head along the road.

When the South African team arrived in Britain, this was the welcome written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle:

"When our young men are going from North to So...

Now stop here for a moment.

You'd imagine it'd be hard to spin Doyle's article in a good light, but Logan simply let the dust settle. A week later he replied, saying that his team had already pl...

Stop here on the platform and look over to the hills on your right. That's where the troops were camped during the war. If you were here in the late 1890s, there would have been thousands of soldie...

Stop here, and look off the station towards the mountains, away from the main road.

David Rawdon spent a lot of time and effort trying to restore this town to its previous height, doing so until...

Across the road in front of you is the old post office, which is now the gift shop. On the right of the post office is the pub called the Laird's Arms, our last stop. Head over there now, and I'll ...

Great! This where we'll end the tour, conveniently within arm's reach of a nice cold beer, or a whisky if you're feeling a bit chilly.

I hope you've enjoyed this walk, and have learned to love t...