The indigenous forests of the Garden Route played an important role in the economy of the Cape Colony from the time the earliest settlers realised they were here. The Colony didn’t have an abundant supply of wood – which it needed for construction, and for making wagons, furniture, household items, tools, and, later, railway sleepers.

Moving felled timber out of the forests was at first a difficult affair: teams of oxen, Percheron horses, or even men would ‘slip’ (pull) the logs up rough pathways (slip paths) until they got them to the equally rough roads that served as wagon tracks. From there they’d load them onto animal-drawn wagons for transport to local sawmills. Once processed, the timber was transported to the harbour at Knysna to be loaded onto ships bound for Port Elizabeth or Cape Town.

A walk back in time...THE FOREST'S OWNTRAIN SERVICE

Take a walk along the old railway line and imagine life in the days of The South Western Railway Co. Ltd.’s much-loved Coffee Pot.

Although most people had thought that almost all traces of the line belonging to The South Western Railway Co. Ltd had been lost in the years after the service was closed on the 30th of April, 1949 – the forest had, in fact, kept some of its remnants protected and preserved.

Now that they’ve been revealed again, we’ve designed this trail for you, dear explorer, so that you may walk where the old Coffee Pot once made its winding way to the little town of Knysna.

Imagine if you can the puff of the engine, the hoot of the whistle, and the gentle chook-a-chook-a-chook of the loco as it pulled its loads of timber and people on these narrow gauge (2 ft. – 610 mm) tracks.

Step onto the platform at the end of the Trail to read first-hand accounts from passengers who once travelled on the Coffee Pot, then move on to your next stop… A peak into the past at Templeman’s Village

Trail length: 313m

Early in the 20th Century, a group of local businessmen who owned sawmills in the forests formed The South Western Railway Co. Ltd, which successfully petitioned the Government for assistance with the construction of a 2 ft (610 mm) narrow-gauge railway between Diepwalle and Knysna.

The Government and the consortium (which included Charles Thesen, George Parkes and J.H. Templeman, after whom this station was named) each came up with 50% of the capital, and construction – led by the Swedish engineer Carl Westfelt, working with a team of about 75 men – took three years.

The line was opened in 1907, and the little steam locomotive that pulled the carriages soon became known as ‘The Coffee Pot’ because of the spark arrestors that were fitted to the smoke stack to prevent forest fires.

The service operated for 42 years, but road transport would eventually prove more efficient and more economical than rail – and so The Coffee Pot made its final run on the 30th of April, 1949.

WELCOME TO

JH Templeman

TEMPLEMANSTATION

White iron wood (English); Witysterhout (Afrikaans); umZane (Xhosa)Scientific name: Vepris undulata)Produces white, hard, strong and elastic wood that was used for making tool handles, for turning, and for masts and spars on sailing ships. Powder made from the roots is used in the treatment of the ‘flu’.

Outeniqua Yellowwood (English); Kalander (Afrikaans); umKhoba (Xhosa)Scientific name: Podocarpus falcatusThe Outeniqua Yellowwood is the iconic ‘big tree’ of these forests. Its timber is used for furniture, and for beams and floors in the restoration of old buildings. In the old days it was used for ship’s masts – partly because of the sheer size of the trees. The bark peels off in ragged blocks, and its leaves are narrower than those of the real yellowwood.

TIMBER FROM THIS AREA

Here lie remnants of the railway line which once ran through these parts.

A team of about 75 men worked for about 3 years to build the line – and it was hard work: excavating, filling, laying down the sleepers, and nailing the heavy steel track in place with dogpikes and special hammers.

In later years, many of the old woodcutters who’d worked on the project as youngsters loved to tell of how they “got the train path up to Deep Walls” (Diepwalle) - and they’d tell, too, of how the forest elephants moved into hiding in the Gouna Forest during construction, and emerged again only after it was done. And only in order to conduct a proper inspection of the line.

Real Yellowwood (English); Opregtegeelhout (Afrikaans); umCheya (Xhosa)Scientific name: Podocarpus latifoliusDubbed ‘real’ yellowwood because its timber was used more often than that of the kalander. In the old days it was used for beams and floors, for furni-ture - and (in very large amounts) for railway sleep-ers. The bark of the real yellowwood peels off in narrow, vertical strips, and its leaves are longer and broader than those of the kalander (‘latifolius’ means `broad-leaved’).

Stinkwood (English); Stinkhout (Afrikaans); umNukani (Xhosa)Scientific name: Occotea bullataProduces hard, heavy, but easily worked wood that ranges in colour from golden through brown to almost black. Stinkwood was in such great demand in the Cape Colony that the Knysna forests became seriously depleted of accessible specimens by 1812 - although the woodcutters’ rights to fell timber were only revoked in 1939. From then until 1967 the state-owned indigenous forests were left uncut - but judicious management since then has resulted in small amounts of stinkwood becoming available to the fine furniture industry.

REMNANTRAILWAY

“The timber train was pulling out of Deep Walls Station when they came to the edge of the forest. Slowly, tiredly – a dark monster entering a dark green world with tons of dead trees on its back.” Dalene Matthee - Dream Forest (Toorbos)