to langebaan by oxwagon

In the old days, an oxwagon travelled at 4 kms per hour. In 1732 the ox wagon dirt track from Cape Town to Langebaan was frequently used by travellers who would stop first at what is today known as Mamre, next at Geelbeksfontein and then at De Bottelarij, before heading north to St Helena Bay. So it would take approximately 4-5 days to reach langebaan

1200 miles in a Wagon - ALICE BLANCHE BALFOUR

The Balfours travelled from Cape Town to Rhodesia

Ours is supposed to be a model of all that is luxurious. It is about fourteen feet long, and about six feet wide above the wheels. It is covered with a canvas tent over its whole length, but the roof is not quite high enough to allow me to stand upright inside.

It is divided by a curtain about half way along. At the front end are our beds, which lie parallel to the length of the waggon, and when down meet in the middle. They can be fastened up by day to the sides of the waggon if required. Under them are lockers, and our boxes fill up the floor in the middle. The waggon is lined with dark green cloth.

The back end has small lockers along its sides with cushions on them to sit on. One gets out at the end by a high step, or when the oxen are out- spanned (unharnessed), by a ladder, as the floor of the waggon is over four feet from the ground. The gentlemen's waggon is of the same size as ours, but it has no central partition, and the beds lie across instead of along it. Both waggons are closed at the ends by curtains, which can be fastened firmly all round.

The buck-waggon is drawn by a span (team) of eighteen oxen, and the other two by fourteen and twelve respectively. The harness is of the most elementary kind, con- sisting of a trek-chain fastened to the end of the dusselboom (pole), and having yokes attached to it at intervals of about eight to ten feet. The yoke is like a thick curtain-pole, about five feet long. At each end of it (the trek-chain being fastened to the middle) is a pair of notched slips from  wood called skeis, let into holes in the yokes at a sufficient distance apart for the neck of an ox to fit in between them.

The yoke thus lies across the necks of the oxen, the skeis being per- pendicular, and the whole pull being against the backbone just in front of the shoulders. The skeis and a bit of reim (strip of raw hide) fastened to one skei, brought round under the neck and hitched to the other, prevent the yokes from slipping off. There are no reins, except a little bit of reim fastened to the front pair of oxen, by which the "leader" or "boy," who walks in front in difficult places, pulls them in the required direction. All other guiding is done by shouts.