Flamingo February 2005 Text and photos Tim Osborne
Welcome to Namibia! Driving here is unlike driving
anywhere else, because of the high number of
gravel roads. If you’re driving on a gravel road, you’ll
more than likely run into a gate stretched across it,
usually where stock fences from camps (paddocks)
cross it. Prior to independence, the South African
government gave farmers the option to install subsidised
cattle grids in place of the gates, but many
farmers were too thrifty to pay the fee required and
the gates thus remained.
When first installed, the gates had to meet a
standard, but due to wear and tear over time, many
of the thousands of gates crossing district roads
have worn out. Now, if you’re anything like my wife,
who is not exactly mechanically inclined, the first
challenge when opening a gate is to figure out which
side the hinge is on. At the local farmers’ association
meeting my wife was talking to other wives
about her problem of not even knowing which side
of the gate to begin the endeavour of opening it. She
found that most of them had the same problem of
‘farm-gate dyslexia’.
Naturally, it is invariably the husband who drives and
the poor wife who has to figure out the gate system.
Once she’s mastered the hinge, she has to determine
how the gate is latched. Now, if there are a
thousand gates, there are a thousand different kinds
of latches. Some hook around the gatepost, others
slip over it and still others are wired to it. The ones
that slip over are often not long enough to slide all
the way over, so she stands there trying to stretch
the wire, which, of course, is impossible. She finally
realises that she has to lift the gate up for the wire
to clear the top of the post. While a three-metre wide
gate weighs only twenty kilograms, a five-metre
gate with lots of boards hanging on it to prevent
small stock from climbing through, or doubled to
keep game inside, might weigh up to 59 kilograms.
Invariably the gate that weighs the most will have a
broken hinge, necessitating you to lift the entire gate
up before opening it. Occasionally you run into novel
ways to overcome gate repair. In the photo above the
hinge was broken, but the old bicycle wheel helped
drag the gate through the sand.
On many of the gates, when the hinges are broken
or missing, they are simply fastened to the
post with wire. This is usually indicated by the
road having a deep groove caused by the plowing
action of the bottom of the gate. Unfortunately,
symptomatic of her gate dyslexia, my wife cannot
always remember how she unlatched the gate, and
after closing it has to figure out from scratch how
to latch it again.
The worst gates to encounter are the back-slammers,
named thus because once the locking mechanism
is released, you had better stand back, or the
tension on the gate will bring the pole flying straight
into you. These are home-made gates with short
poles held together by wire strands. The hinge end
is wired to a post and the latch end has a short pole
kept in place by a wire loop at the bottom. At the top
is either another wire loop around the pole or a short
stick wired to the post and then stretched around the
pole and held in place by a small wire loop. First you
have to slide the small loop off the short stick and
then stand back and let go the stick.
The tension in the gate is often quite high. Loose
gates let cattle through, so most gates are kept
stretched tight. The important thing is not to stand
in front of the pole!
Fortunately, in Namibia the gates are made of plain
wire. In Nevada, USA they are often made of barbed
wire! When confronted by a back-slammer, my wife
lets me open it.
You might be unfortunate enough to run across a
set of double gates set three metres apart as part of a
corridor system. Gates often swing only in one direction,
and trying to figure out the right combination
can be tricky. Fortunately these gates are often near
cattle kraals and children of workers suddenly appear
to open them. My wife is always happy to contribute
to the local economy when children open the gates.
We used to live on a farm that had nine gates
between the main house and the tar road. After we
bought our own farm, I promised my wife she would
only have to open one gate.
So we now have cattle grids at both ends of the farm
Flamingo February 2005 Text and photos Tim Osborne
Welcome to Namibia! Driving here is unlike driving
anywhere else, because of the high number of
gravel roads. If you’re driving on a gravel road, you’ll
more than likely run into a gate stretched across it,
usually where stock fences from camps (paddocks)
cross it. Prior to independence, the South African
government gave farmers the option to install subsidised
cattle grids in place of the gates, but many
farmers were too thrifty to pay the fee required and
the gates thus remained.
When first installed, the gates had to meet a
standard, but due to wear and tear over time, many
of the thousands of gates crossing district roads
have worn out. Now, if you’re anything like my wife,
who is not exactly mechanically inclined, the first
challenge when opening a gate is to figure out which
side the hinge is on. At the local farmers’ association
meeting my wife was talking to other wives
about her problem of not even knowing which side
of the gate to begin the endeavour of opening it. She
found that most of them had the same problem of
‘farm-gate dyslexia’.
Naturally, it is invariably the husband who drives and
the poor wife who has to figure out the gate system.
Once she’s mastered the hinge, she has to determine
how the gate is latched. Now, if there are a
thousand gates, there are a thousand different kinds
of latches. Some hook around the gatepost, others
slip over it and still others are wired to it. The ones
that slip over are often not long enough to slide all
the way over, so she stands there trying to stretch
the wire, which, of course, is impossible. She finally
realises that she has to lift the gate up for the wire
to clear the top of the post. While a three-metre wide
gate weighs only twenty kilograms, a five-metre
gate with lots of boards hanging on it to prevent
small stock from climbing through, or doubled to
keep game inside, might weigh up to 59 kilograms.
Invariably the gate that weighs the most will have a
broken hinge, necessitating you to lift the entire gate
up before opening it. Occasionally you run into novel
ways to overcome gate repair. In the photo above the
hinge was broken, but the old bicycle wheel helped
drag the gate through the sand.
On many of the gates, when the hinges are broken
or missing, they are simply fastened to the
post with wire. This is usually indicated by the
road having a deep groove caused by the plowing
action of the bottom of the gate. Unfortunately,
symptomatic of her gate dyslexia, my wife cannot
always remember how she unlatched the gate, and
after closing it has to figure out from scratch how
to latch it again.
The worst gates to encounter are the back-slammers,
named thus because once the locking mechanism
is released, you had better stand back, or the
tension on the gate will bring the pole flying straight
into you. These are home-made gates with short
poles held together by wire strands. The hinge end
is wired to a post and the latch end has a short pole
kept in place by a wire loop at the bottom. At the top
is either another wire loop around the pole or a short
stick wired to the post and then stretched around the
pole and held in place by a small wire loop. First you
have to slide the small loop off the short stick and
then stand back and let go the stick.
The tension in the gate is often quite high. Loose
gates let cattle through, so most gates are kept
stretched tight. The important thing is not to stand
in front of the pole!
Fortunately, in Namibia the gates are made of plain
wire. In Nevada, USA they are often made of barbed
wire! When confronted by a back-slammer, my wife
lets me open it.
You might be unfortunate enough to run across a
set of double gates set three metres apart as part of a
corridor system. Gates often swing only in one direction,
and trying to figure out the right combination
can be tricky. Fortunately these gates are often near
cattle kraals and children of workers suddenly appear
to open them. My wife is always happy to contribute
to the local economy when children open the gates.
We used to live on a farm that had nine gates
between the main house and the tar road. After we
bought our own farm, I promised my wife she would
only have to open one gate.
So we now have cattle grids at both ends of the farm