Another look into the origins of a South African place name in our ongoing
'How the Dorp got its Name' series.
When I was a little girl we often did road trips up and down the Garden Route and for some reason Riviersonderend was always one of the places we passed through where I would feel an urgent need for a bathroom stop. I recall that every time we drove around the 'dorp' looking unsuccessfully for a public toilet and eventually we re-named the place Riviersondertoilet.
There doesn't appear to be consensus on the real origins of the actual name.
According to http://www.riviersonderend.co.za/:
"There is uncertainty about the origin of the name Riviersonderend.
Willem ten Rhyne, who visited the cape in 1673, referred to the river, with it's source in the mountains, as the "sine fine flumen" ("river without end").
In 1707 Jan Hatogh, a horticulturist employed by the Dutch East India Company and a seasoned traveller, referred to the river as the "Kanna-kan-kann". This word was possibly derived from the Hessequa word "Kamma-kan Kamma" which, roughly translated, means "water, endless water". The Hessequa were a local tribe of herdsmen.
Thus the belief that the name of the town was derived from the perennial Sonderend River at the foot of the Sonderend mountains. Riviersonderend, or "Rivier Zonder End" as it was known in earlier days, was established in 1923 when Miss Edith S V McIntyre sold the farm Tierhoek for 6000 pounds to the church council of the local Dutch reformed Church when the congregation was established."
These days there is definitely a public facility or three to be found in Riviersonderend.
