Our Name, Berchtesgaden
The name – “Berchtesgaden” (The garden in the mountain)
Many moons ago my grandfather travelled Europe and among others ended in the Alps in the town called Berchtesgaden. It was a beautiful scene with the green grass valleys of the Alps and the bright multicolour flowers waving in the wind.
Back in the Eastern Cape where he farmed, he stood by the farm gate and looked up onto the hill where his house was at the top, only to see the hill around the house covered with the orange colour of the flowers of the aloes – he called his unto then nameless farm – Berchtesgaden.
We were still very young when moved to the Boland, a Province in South Africa where my dad nestled with a property on the edge of a botanical garden with the huge mountains of the Boland, one of the characteristics of the Boland, right behind it. This property became known as Berchtesgaden.
When Anneke and I bought our piece of Africa in the heart of the Bosveld in the Limpopo province this needed to get named as well but I was adamant that not another indigenous name. Not long after it was called Berchtesgaden, a name already in the family for decades and one that tells a story.
Many moons ago my grandfather travelled Europe and among others ended in the Alps in the town called Berchtesgaden. It was a beautiful scene with the green grass valleys of the Alps and the bright multicolour flowers waving in the wind.
Back in the Eastern Cape where he farmed, he stood by the farm gate and looked up onto the hill where his house was at the top, only to see the hill around the house covered with the orange colour of the flowers of the aloes – he called his unto then nameless farm – Berchtesgaden.
We were still very young when moved to the Boland, a Province in South Africa where my dad nestled with a property on the edge of a botanical garden with the huge mountains of the Boland, one of the characteristics of the Boland, right behind it. This property became known as Berchtesgaden.
When Anneke and I bought our piece of Africa in the heart of the Bosveld in the Limpopo province this needed to get named as well but I was adamant that not another indigenous name. Not long after it was called Berchtesgaden, a name already in the family for decades and one that tells a story.
