Haartbeespoort

Hartbeespoort, informally also known as: "Harties". is a small resort town north of Johannesburg in the North West Province of South Africa. Situated on slopes of the Magaliesberg Mountain. It is also known for the Hartbeespoort Dam and the whitewater rapids of the Crocodile River. (Known also as Harties, is a local Football Club that provides support and expertise within the local community, to potential volunteers, existing volunteers and organisations that involve volunteers.)

Meerhof-
This pretty little suburb of Meerhof lies on the east banks of Hartbeespoort Dam in the foothills of the Magaliesberg Mountains just 40 minutes from Johannesburg. Meerhof also borders on a bird sanctuary providing an array of birds and promising a lazy weekend hideaway. Meerhof ('Meer' means ‘lake' in Afrikaans) not only provides effortless views of the dam. It is ideally placed for a weekend of water sports. Borakalalo National Park is a scenic: "200 kilometres away". This game reserve is one of the most diverse conservation areas of North West, where visitors can walk freely along prescribed trails to enjoy the eco-diversity of this reserve.

Hartbeespoort Dam- The Hartbeespoort Dam hydroelectric project in South Africa installed a micro hydropower unit in 1924 to generate electricity. The project provided electricity to the area near the dam until the mid-1960's. 

This dam has an an exciting mix of: sailing; water skiing jet skis and wind surfers, and is usually a hive of activity over weekends. There are challenging hikes and enticing kloofs in the Magaliesberg mountains, a collection of local restaurants all around the dam, including: 'Tan Malie se Winkle'- (aunty Malie's cafe) - practically an institution it's been on the other side of the tunnel for so long (heading in the direction of the art and curio market), where you can eat a hearty traditional Afrikaans home-cooked breakfast.
Around the dam there is a zoo and snake park, and a little further afield, take a cable car to the top of the Magaliesberg. "From here there are incredible views of the dam and its surrounds and many make a day of it and take their picnics to the top, from which they can watch numerous para-gliders and hang gliders descend into the valley below!"

The greatest single event in the history of the area was the building of the Hartbeespoort Dam. The first dam in the valley between the Magaliesberg  Mountain and Witwatersrand (south of the Dam) was build by General Hendrik Schoeman in 1898. He named the dam the Sophia Dam, after his wife. Unfortunately, the engineer who designed the dam wall made a mistake in his calculations and the dam was washed away in a flood shortly after it was constructed. Johan Schoeman, son of the General, revived the idea to build a dam in the narrow pass through the mountain -(known coloquially to the local Afrikaans popoulation as a-'Poort'), in 1905. 
The establishment of the Union of South Africa in 1910 and the start of the First World War in 1914 delayed the start of the construction of the Dam. In 1920 work eventually started! A second natural disaster hampered the construction in March 1921, when floods washed away the cofferdams in this narrow passage between the mountain or 'poort'. The government then employed a young engineer, F.W. Scott, who redesigned the Dam Wall. Scott reinforced the cofferdams and by 24 May 1921 the Crocodile River was “tamed” and concrete could be poured into the new foundations of the wall on; 26 July 1921. "To build the wall 250 000 bags of cement was needed!" The cement was transported by train to Brits where it was transferred to ox and mule powered coco pans, which transported it to the Poort. The official opening took place on 23 October 1924. In 1970, 10 metal sluices (“crown sluices”) were placed on top of the original overflow.  Because of this the water level of the Dam increased by 2,44 metres. 
The so-called “Victory Arch” on the Dam Wall is something exceptional. The arch is a copy of the common Roman victory arches with similarities to the Arc de Triomphe in Paris. (The arch symbolises that the struggle for realisation of the dam, and the struggle against poverty was rewarded with victory. The arch is a repetition of the dam’s arch shape, which repeats the shape of the Union Building, which was completed just before the dam was built.)
On the eastern side of the arch an expression out of Varro’s “De re Rustica” (“The Rural Case”) is written in big Roman letters: "SINE AQUA ARIDA AC MISERA AGRI CULTURA"-(Without water agriculture is withered and wretched). The expression on the western side was derived from the Latin Bible, Isaiah 44.3. It reads:"DEDI IN DESERTO AQUAS FLUMINA IN INVIO"-('For I will pour water on the thirsty land, and streams on the dry ground'.)

The original name was “Hartebeestpoort”. The “t” in “beest” fell away with the transformation from Dutch to Afrikaans and the “e” in “Harte”, had to make way because the name was too long to accommodate the Postal Code system on the 1970’s.