INCHANGA
DOWN RUN
From the highest point to the foot
of Inchanga the route is undulating and offers fairly comfortable
running. At Mayets Superette the 2km climb to the top of Inchanga
begins. While fairly long, the gradient is not very severe and is
usually negotiated relatively easily by most runners. The standard
marathon mark is at the top. It is the descent to the halfway mark
in Drummond which runners should be wary of. It is this steep
downhill and camber of the road, which heralds the start of jarring
damage to legs. After passing through the halfway point, the course
follows a steady climb, with Alverstone offering a difficult
challenge, to the top of Bothas Hill.
UP RUN
Having passed the welcome milestone
of the halfway mark, the long gruelling climb to the top of
Inchanga hill commences. It is an unforgiving and relentless climb
of 2.5 km whilst rising in altitude by 150 m. This climb is then
still to be followed by the highest point at Umlaas Rd and the
notorious Polly Shorts. Although this is a steep climbing run it is
often preferred by runners, as the down run can be very hard on the
legs.
INTERESTING INCHANGA HISTORY
Source: Gavin Foster September
2008
A rickety bridge poised
precariously over a 27-metre drop, a hotel that served as a brothel
and a boarding school, and a one-legged Englishman on the run from
an aggrieved Frenchman. These all form part of Inchanga's rich
history. GAVIN FOSTER takes a look at a Victorian version of an
Ultra City, right here on our doorstep.
When the first train steamed past
Inchanga back in 1880' the station bearing that name didn't even
exist. The local halt, called Wallacetown, lay on the far side of
today's N3, and before it lay the formidable Inchanga Bridge. This
wobbly 150 metre long viaduct crossed the ravine shortly after
today's Hammarsdale junction at a scary 27 metres, nine stories,
above the level of the streambed. (Note the lateral supports
visible in this image, these were added later to try and steady the
bridge, but were largely unsuccessful)
The rickety iron structure lacked
lateral support, so when the wind gauge registered winds of 16 km/h
or more passengers had to alight and walk across, with the train
following once they were safely on the other side. Buckets of water
were kept permanently on the bridge as stabilising ballast, and as
an additional wind gauge with any significant water spillage
indicating winds in excess of the safe limit, and after a train had
passed any that were toppled over, were interpreted as visible
evidence that the driver had broken the 10 km/h speed limit.
Inchanga Bridge served Natal till 1892, when a deviation was built
to take trains around the ravine rather than over it.
A piece of the original bridge near Baynesfield close to
Pietermaritzburg
A new station with was built at
Inchanga in 1896, and Durban entrepreneur C.W. Tomkins, who was
catering contractor to the Natal Government Railways, ran the
second-floor restaurant, which catered for passengers at the midway
halt in the eight-hour trip between Durban and Pietermaritzburg. In
1903 Tomkins built a smart hotel and mineral water bottling plant
water alongside the station. This was recognised as a "splendid
health resort," with advertisements proclaiming in bold letters
that it was blessed with electric lights and running water.
The hotel at Inchanga suffered
after the new main line bypassed it sometime in the 1920s, and
changed hands many times. It's said to have served at various times
as a school, a brothel, and a den of iniquity where stolen goods
were stored and drugs consumed freely. Radio and television
motoring presenter Roger McCleery remembers the place well, but for
innocent reasons - he stayed there in 1940 as a five-year-old when
it was a boarding school.
"It was great to be out in the
country after the wartime drama of Durban," he reminisces. "It was
a wonderful, lazy kind of school. It was a tremendous thrill to go
home for the holidays on the steam train from the station below,
and as a treat we used to sometimes catch the train to
Pietermaritzburg to do shopping. We used to have picnics down at
the river, and after an Indian trading store on the old road above
- the Comrades route - burnt down we used to dig for treasure.
Coming up with a handful of beads was like finding gold for
us."
McCleery returned to the hotel
often in the 1970s and 80s for local motorsport events. "We always
used to have a wonderful time there," he says. "I remember that the
owner had a wooden leg with a leather knee joint that always used
to creak as he walked. He and his wife used to sometimes drink a
little too much, and then he'd fall over. I have many fond memories
of this place."
Ah! The man with the wooden leg.
For about 35 years, from the 1960s to the 1990s, a colourful
character called Peter Barnes and his fiery wife, Celia, owned the
hotel. Barnes had earlier lost his leg to the bullet of a cuckolded
Frenchman, who caught him in his sights as he tried to escape from
the lady's bedroom window. The Frenchman was a good shot, and a
second bullet lodged itself in Barnes abdomen, where it remained
for over 40 years.
After the Barnes couple retired
to the coast about ten years ago the hotel was sold to an Italian,
who renamed it the Inchanga Country Hotel. The new owner provided
enormous entertainment for his guests when he had an altercation
with a local cabinetmaker over payment for work that had been done.
The Italian told the carpenter he could not pay, and ended up with
a bloody nose and a black eye, after which a cheque was rapidly
handed over.
A year or so later the hotelier
contracted the cabinetmaker's son to do further work for him and,
when the time came to pay, produced the blood-stained clothing he'd
saved from the last bout, saying that he'd spent the money
replacing his wardrobe. This dispute ended abruptly when he was
thrown into the dining room's blazing fireplace, and another cheque
was speedily produced.
The old hotel was upgraded to
luxury status and operated as the Protea Hotel Inchanga. The
original 100-year-old building formed a major part of the new
building, and although the locals who used to frequent the pub felt
that it's lost much of its character, the setting was supremely
tranquil and, if you know who to ask, the memories still
linger.
It now seems that the Inchanga Hotel
has been closed and is to be developed into a possible retirement
establishment.