Johanna Sophia de Wet

Family Trek ( Bester Trek )

Johanna and her husband travelled by Mule Train from Kroonstad, South Africa arriving in Rhodesia in 1906.On May 1, 1908, just 4 days before my eighth birthday, the Bester trek got under way on

target, as originally planned by Father. Wagons were loaded, mules hitched, and the very

long trek for two covered “buck-wagons”, each drawn by a team of twelve mules, a

smaller coach drawn by four very tame blue mules, and a total of sixteen people, moved

out.

The coach, with Mother in control, was in the lead, followed by Father and four children

(three girls and one boy), Father’s adopted fifteen-year-old orphaned niece, Judith Bester,

and Mother’s brother, Oom Piet de Wet, in the first buck-wagon. Mother’s sister, Hannie,

with her husband, Corneels Roeloffze, and four children (two girls and two boys) plus

Herculaas Roeloffze, brother to Corneels, rode in the second buck-wagon. Kleinbooi, our

Zulu herder, brought up the rear with the horses and several unhitched spare mules. The

coach held a full-length bed, in which the girls slept at night, whilst all the other folks

bedded down in the buck wagons.