Louis Trichardt

Description

Louis Trichardt, previously Makhado, covers 750,000 square kilometers at the foot of the Soutpansberg moutain range in Limpopo. The Louis Trichardt region is very fertile, and today litchis, bananas, mangoes and nuts are produced here by a small population of 10,000 people.

Like many other towns in South Africa, Louis Trichardt was founded by the Voortrekker settlement. Two groups of Trekkers reached the Soutpansberg mountain range in 1836, one under the leadership of Louis Trigardt (Trichardt), born in Oudtshoorn on 10 August 1738 and the other under Hans van Rensburg. Van Rensburg then decided to venture further east, towards Lourenco Marques (today Maputo) in Mozambique, but his entire party died en route. Trichardt and his group stayed near the mountain, camping near what eventually became the town of Louis Trichardt in 1899.