Rhodes

Rhodes sits at 1,832 metres above sea level in the Eastern Cape Highlands, in Senqu Local Municipality, Joe Gqabi District, about 16km south of the Lesotho border. The village was founded on 16 September 1891 on the farm Tintern, owned by Jacobus Vorster, and named at Vorster's insistence after Cecil John Rhodes, then Prime Minister of the Cape. Construction of the Naude's Nek Pass, which climbs the escarpment above the village, began in 1895 and was completed in 1905 under engineer Alfred Bain. At 2,500 metres, it remains the highest road pass in South Africa.

The village has not grown the way its founders imagined, and that is precisely what makes it worth coming to. There are about 25 permanent residents, a handful of cottages, a pub, a general dealer, and a church. The Bell River, a tributary of the Kraai, runs through the village. The area around Rhodes has over 200km of fishable running water, and it produces wild rainbow trout in conditions that serious fly fishers describe as the best in Southern Africa. The season runs from September to mid-May, with peak fishing in spring and autumn.

Naude's Nek is the other reason to make the journey. The pass climbs from the village through grassland and rocky switchbacks to a summit just under 2,600 metres, with views into Lesotho to the north and back over the Drakensberg escarpment to the south. It is a gravel road and requires a capable vehicle. In winter it can close due to snow. Ben Macdhui, at 3,001 metres the highest peak entirely within the Eastern Cape, is accessible on foot from the Rhodes area. There are several marked trails of varying difficulty on the 900-hectare village common.

The area is cold, remote, and spectacular in an understated way. The light at altitude is different. The silence is real. People who fish here take it seriously, return every season, and tell very few people about it.