Die Hel goes up in flames
Fire ruins farm of last family in famously isolated settlement
● The taxman couldn’t get them. Nor the rinderpest of 1897. But a wildfire in the Gamkaskloof has all but wiped out the livelihood of the last remaining household in Die Hel, the settlement in the Western Cape’s Swartberg that once defied the modern world.
Friends and neighbours of the Joubert family of Fontein Guest Farm in Die Hel are rallying to help keep the family afloat after the fire destroyed most of their farm, including guest cottages, five caravans, and their campsite facilities.
The Jouberts say it is the worst fire in the settlement’s history, fuelled by drought and a tinder-dry veld. However, not even climate change will dislodge them from the valley where the family settled five generations ago. They are rebuilding their life thanks to an outpouring of charity, which includes donations from surrounding towns.
“It is the first time in history that we have had a fire like this,” said Marinette Joubert, who manages the family farm with her husband, Piet. “It is the driest it has ever been in the Gamkaskloof — for five or six years now we haven’t had any rain and don’t even have a little bit of water running down the streams in the kloof.”
The Jouberts are all that remains of the original settlement of about 200 people who subsisted in the remote Karoo until a road was built through the mountains in 1962. Families soon started to leave the valley, lured away by schools and other attractions of the modern world.
The name Die Hel has been linked both to the Afrikaans word helling (steep slope) and to the diabolical place of flames and eternal damnation. Legend has it that in its isolated heyday, tax collectors and other unwanted outsiders were chased away by the closeknit community.
But this week outsiders bearing gifts for the Jouberts and their staff were welcome, as was a donation from the department of agriculture. People also put cash in an account set up to benefit the fire victims
Central Karoo district council mayor Annelie Rabie said: “What is quite sad about this [fire] is that this is a family that has really tried to maintain the history and the culture and the lifestyle of people in Die Hel.”
Prince Albert guesthouse owner Elaine Hurford said the fire came at a crucial time on the tourist calendar. “It’s a huge blow for the Gamkaskloof people because they were already booked solid for the season,” she said. “A lot of people come to Prince Albert and spend time here before going there for a night or two, so everybody is affected really.”
To add to the gloom, a tractor driver known only as Kiewiet died when he rolled off the road while reversing on a narrow mountain pass to make way for the fire engine.
Nobody was injured in Die Hel itself. Joubert said at one stage the family was trapped. “There was a point where we started packing our stuff in the bakkies. We have two small kids, aged seven and nine. For them it must have been very scary. At one stage some of us were trapped in the campsite area — fire was burning all round us.
“Overall we are all fine but you do get days when it all comes back to you and you wonder if it is worth the effort of building up again.”
The family’s restaurant and home narrowly escaped the flames but infrastructure in a nature reserve adjoining the Joubert farm was destroyed.
CapeNature spokesperson Loren Pavitt said the Gamkaskloof area, which forms part of the Swartberg Nature Reserve, remains closed as “the fire is out but the area is not yet declared safe”.
Joubert said the family is trying to stay positive and view the rebuilding period as an opportunity rather than a burden.
“It is as if God maybe cleaned our farm for us, in a way, for us to start over,” she said.