The eastern Free State is God’s own country. Wide open plains as far as the eye can see occasionally punctuated by rock outcrops and rolling grasslands flanked by magnificent mountains which form the western foothills of the Malutis. The area has a rich local history of story-telling, legends and African Basotho folklore. This story is about Valerie Wilcocks, 22 and Johan Bestendig De la Harpe, 21 a young couple in love. Valerie was a beautiful young woman, spirited and independent minded and her boyfriend Johan was a handsome adventurous young man in his prime. It was the summer of 1932. Clarens was only twenty years old, a tiny village established in 1912 with dirt roads & sandstone cottages built by Cornish stonemasons. The young lovers would ride out from the farms of their respective families to meet at a rendezvous in the mountains near Clarens so that they could spend precious time together. They met in secret against the express wishes of their parents because of a long simmering feud between the Wilcocks and the De la Harpe families. There is a hiking path that leads up to the chain ladders ascending Mont-Aux- Sources and one day they were out riding on his horse Moscow when a summer lightning storm unleashed tragedy in the form of a bolt from the sky. A battered and rusted sign along that path attests to the spot where it happened. Their grieving families set aside their differences & buried the young lovers next to each other. Valerie was twenty two years old & Johan was twenty one. Today their graves can be seen at the Van Reenen Family Cemetery on your way from Clarens to Golden Gate National Park.