Kaapsehoop

Kaapschehoop or Kaapsehoop is a village situated in Mpumalanga province (formerly Eastern Transvaal) of South Africa.

It is situated 1640 m (5380 ft.) above sea level on the Drakensberg Highveld escarpment, about 28 km from Mbombela (also known as Nelspruit), the capital of Mpumalanga. The name of the village was derived from gold discoveries in and around the area. The find created hope for the early inhabitants of the De Kaap Valley (The Cape Valley) below, it offered the chance of attaining great wealth.

Today Kaapschehoop is a scenic mountain top village with vibrant arts & crafts shops, confectionaries, restaurants, pubs and accommodation. It is surrounded with expansive views, nature reserves, golden grass land, wild flowers, pine plantations, unique sandstone formations, flowing streams, and unique endangered wildlife. Kaapschehoop village is set out between large natural clearings in the rock fields near the top of the escarpment overlooking the lush De Kaap Valley situated some 800 metres below, with distant views towards Barberton, Mbombela, White River, and Eswatini.

History
The town has been "re-discovered" in recent time and has now become a popular weekend retreat with its period housing including accommodation establishments. New housing (some not period) has also been established on some of the remaining vacant stands (erven). The town is also within commuting distance of the centre of Mbombela situated some 30 odd kilometres away.

The rock field formations near the town are made up of quartzites of the Black Reef Formation of the Transvaal Supergroup.

Origin of the name
Kaapschehoop has had multiple names and spellings since 1874 and the discovery of gold. Kaapsche Hoop is the original Dutch spelling of Kaapsehoop as now spelled in Afrikaans.

It was first known as Duiwels Kantoor (Devils Office) and later changed to Kaapsche Hoop (Cape Hope) due to objections by the church that the former was considered a "heathen" name by the standards of the time.

The village is sometimes referred to in past documents as De Kaap (The Cape) because of its landmass jutting into De Kaap valley (The Cape valley). The valley often fills with cloud, resulting in the image of a costal cape jutting out into the ocean.

Marthinus Wessel Pretorius of the Transvaal Repbublic, when visiting Duiwels Kantoor, was reminded of the view from Table Mountain. Encouraged by the discoveries of gold, he renamed the settlement to Kaapsche Hoop in 1886.

The name of the town was no doubt derived from the fact that gold was discovered in the town which sits high above the De Kaap Valley (The Cape Valley) and the find then created the hope for the early inhabitants of the nearby De Kaap Valley area of attaining great wealth.

Dutch was the official language of the two original Boer Republics of the Orange Free State or Oranje-Vrijstaat and the South African Republic or Suid Afrikaanse Republiek or Zuid-Afrikaansche Republiek (ZAR). Dutch was eventually to be replaced by Afrikaans a colloquially spoken language of many of the European descended settlers. Afrikaans was largely derived from Dutch and incorporating words derived or adopted from French, German, English and indigenous African languages.