Day 86 Worcester Friday 28th June

Slept well in this quiet and safe town overshadowed by a lovely mountain and cosseted in our warm and cozy camper. So much space on the bed without Lani it's like we've gone up a star.

Boiled water and washed up and took the dogs for a stroll, Sipho left around 9m but did not come and talk to me so I assume the snake course is off, I had already decided I wasn't likely to be doing it so had planned on moving on this morning. We camped at Spur for awhile having R20 breakfast that costs R40 at Wimpy, into town for a short walk up the mountain and to draw money, a driving day means the dogs won't be happy so the more walking they can get the better.

yesterdays mountains in the clouds are today without cover coming into Porterville

Lovely little town, give a guy a lift and he was very funny, told me which part of town is for the people and which part is for the 'brown people.' We drove to Gouda and stopped for a walk in wild wind, just came out of nowhere and then disappeared when we got close to Ceres.

What a beautiful drive around Ceres and Wolseley, so pretty with rich land, green fields, mountains all around and all good roads even with roadworks happening all the way into Worcester. The Kouebokkeveldberg, that were covered in clouds yesterday, have 3 great campsites on top of the mountain outside Porterville, and Beaverlac takes dogs, must be amazing walks up there, so we will definitely come back here to explore more, their is also an international paragliding event held every December for the thrill seekers.

We drove through the Witsenberg mountains on one side and the Watervalsberg on the other and followed wine country past the Bain's Kloof pass which navigates it's way over the magnificent Slanghoeksberg, wow what a stunning vista to drive through, with a ton load of poor housing dotting every roadside, many adults with many more babies, on rich, fertile lands and all they can do is make babies but not plant a thing, on that land I would feed them all, what a waste. Our Gov't is forever harping on this land reform nonsense, I don't think it should be who gets the land, I think it should go to the people who will make the most productive use of it, like talking to a brick wall when discussing the subject with 'brown people'

Wolseley

Bain's Kloof pass goes over the mountain to Wellington

We hit the N1 just before coming into Worcester, and stopped at the Shell one stop, looked lovely, all green and fresh and stank to high heaven from broken sewerage pipes somewhere. Drove into town, found the 'i' centre and asked for a campsite, I was told to go to Rawsonville for a nice one but could not face another 20km drive so settled for the local municipal site 2km out of town, perhaps we should have made the effort of the extra drive.

What a culture shock it was to hit the N1, we have not had to deal with that traffic for so long, not sure if I want to again.

shell one stop

the dreaded N1

I was directed out of town, past the yacht club, why would Worcester have a yacht club I wonder, is the Breede river that wide or does it flow into the Brandvlei dam, I thought of going to check but I guess getting past the yacht club entrance in my shorts and t-shirt will test even the stoutest no 'dog rule' that we have managed to beat so far, so I settled for asking a local when I get a chance. I drove and drove and never found a campsite, finally turned around thinking I missed it and asked a guy walking along the road, he pointed to his t-shirts logo and said this is the site, clearly he works there, and it is just ahead over the bridge he said, so I turned around again, asked him if he wanted a lift as I past him, he did, he hopped in with the growling dogs and directing me to a very pretty campsite on the river banks, well their is no river to talk of which is strange as they have had ton loads of rain here, everything is wet and full of puddles and wherever you walk you sink about an inch, but the river is all but dry, maybe irrigation has bled it out.

The Breede river?

pretty looking campsite

mud everywhere, the dogs loved it

So the site looks good, my friend gave me the gen about where to park and then told me it costs R161 plus R50 for the electricity, he gave me 25% discount on the R161 and when I said it was pretty steep for winter he then cancelled the electricity charge as well so I paid R120 for what turns out to be a real crummy site, I did find a working plug so we have mains power but the ablution block is the pits, blocked drains, sewage smell everywhere, open showers, dirty toilets, soggy grass in and out, I would have complained at R210 that's for sure, even at R120 it is expensive for this shit, but as we are here only for the night I let it go, especially as I found out that I could finally get 8.ta so I am connected tonight and can blog and e-mail and surf and download as much as I want, good feeling, what a luxury, back in Joburg just part of a normal day, how life can change with different priorities.

So I took the dogs walking all over the place, over the marshy ground and down to the river, well not sure where the river is supposed to be but as we have a bridge up steam I assume it is somewhere along it's contour.

Relaxed out of the camper and took some lovely pictures of the town nestled below the Hex River Mountains with the Hex river valley running behind it, so we are into Liewe Hexie land.

The Hex river mountains and Worcester

Didn't bring any food with us so had brie and the last of a loaf of bread I bought on Monday, had to toast it to make it palatable. Did 140km today and it felt like 500, not sure why, probably because Peps shat herself everytime a truck went past, we have not encountered many as we have not been on any main arteries but now we are back into N1 territory and main routes she kept jumping off the bed and trying to climb onto my lap, spilling her water bowl all over the floor, that'll take awhile to dry, but I just had to give her a big hug when we stopped but it did not allay her fears the next time an 18 wheeler whooshed past, hopefully a few months of farm life will settle them down a bit.

So in for a peaceful night hopefully, and a hot shower in a smelly ablution and maybe a stunning sunrise over the mountains and the valley.

Sleep warm.

Day 84 Piketberg

Strange day to start this 13th week, I didn't have any time to stop and think about Lani, we stopped at the Spur to get answers to me e-mails. I sent off about 10 e-mails yesterday to prospective farms asking if they needed a wwoofer in winter, their are 35 farms on the SA Wwoofer list and I chose the ones that looked the most interesting and were in the Western Cape.

ready to move on to a better world

Piketberg from Versfeldspas

Received about 3 replies and one was awesome, Shantal was really glad of my request, she's 7 months pregnant and they need help badly with all kinds of building and renovating on their farm and asked if I could come from the 6^th with a view to stay long term. The others were all positive in content but had made other arrangement with wwoofers or helpers or were worried about the dogs but I will keep in touch with them for future reference, it will be good to work on a few farms before settling down, it will give me a better understanding of what people are doing and how they are dealing with services. 

We had packed up and done all our downloading and I walked the dogs around a bit and we were ready to move on, not sure where as I have no firm destination in mind for the next 10 days, when a knock on the door from a guy wanting to talk to me stopped me.

Turned out he is a local and needs to find someone to do a snake course for his neighbours company. His neighbour has a Government contract to fix potholes and clean road verges in this area, he has 14 guys and because many of them have encountered snakes along the way, many of them don't want to work for him anymore. He also has an R80 000 budget to do training of staff as part of his BEE status. So Aldrick, and his wife Coleen, have been trying to find someone to come and do a snake course for them, he tried Mike in Johies and was quoted an astronomical fee so he asked me what I would charge to run a course for these 14 guys and I didn't have a clue.

I told him I had done Mikes course but am not qualified to deal with doing one myself. He said whatever I know is more than everyone here combined and the budget has to be spent and Sipho, his neighbour, needs his guys to know how to identify the snake and deal with it and also have some basic knowledge on the first aid side of things, apparently no-one up here does snake courses.

So everything happened quite quickly after that, they asked me to give them some time to deal with it and ended up putting in a quote of R500 per person, this has to go to the government dept. for approval, then payment is made in maybe 30-60 days but in the meantime as I have to move on, I will do the course on Friday morning, but this couple are off to Cape Town tonight for a colleagues funeral and won't be back until Friday afternoon, I have not met the neighbour, nor was I very confident of being able to run this course without Mikes notes, which are in Joburg, so I had to Phone Val and ask her to scrounge around in my filing cabinet to look for them and then scan them and e-mail them to me. 

Meanwhile Sue phoned me, one of the other Wwoof farms to say that the Wwoofer they had lined up has cancelled and can I come and Wwoof for them, I told her I'm off to Shantal, not far from her, and she suggested I come the week before, so now I have to be in Riverdale on Sunday night and near Swellendam on the following Saturday plus I must do this course on Friday and then head out Friday afternoon.

So the afternoon I was parked outside Eldricks house in town while all the negotiations were going on, we then tried to download the notes about 5;30 and this proved difficult as their wi-fi would not connect, then the G3 was slow then it printed in the incorrect format, so eventually they left at 7;30 and we made plans to have the pages printed in the morning at a friends place up the road, Ben Cooper.

We spent the night parked in his driveway, plugged in with electricity and enjoyed for the first time today, a little bit of peace and quiet, and I really missed Lani on the bed with us, I hope her and Slicky are in a good place together.

Slept well in this little town although Jos has a sore leg, I had tried to introduce them to Aldricks dog, an alsation, but they were not interested and in trying to stop them all fighting with each other, my two ended up in a fight with each other and Jos came off second best and is now cut in a few places and limping badly so probably strained her leg.

Up early to wash in the backyard and walk the dogs in the park across the road before going up to wake Ben up and try and get my notes printed, this took ages as well as we had to scan and print each of 35 pages separately after first figuring out how to use an old system and then looking for ink for a printer not often used, but we were successful and I now have 35 pages of notes to use tomorrow but will have to wait and see how that goes. I did briefly meet Sipho as we came back to the camper and will catch up with him later to hash out the what the where and the when.

The Kouebokkeveldberg looking towards Ceres

beautiful mountains in the clouds

This is all happening on trust and I have no idea whether I will ever see the R3 500 I will earn as my 50% of the deal, but if I don't I will have learnt a lot and met a few interesting characters and kept myself busy for the few days I have spare before getting back into the farming life.

Aldrick did talk to me yesterday about trying to turn this into something bigger, he was in public service for many years until going out on his own this year, his money has now dried up and he needs to come up with some business plans, so he thinks this course could run all over the Cape as their is a need for all workers doing a similar job of which there are many, I'm not sure if I am interested in it as a business so we will have to see what pans out, first I have to spend the day reading this material and deciding on how to impart the info in such a way as not to put 14 guys to sleep. Not sure if I have Lorraine's knack of waffling intelligently.

Meanwhile we are having a Spur breakfast and e-mailing, blogging and downloading shows. Off to find a nice long hike with the dogs to clear our minds and start again fresh, a new chapter in our lives, down to three.

We went off for a drive out of town looking for a walk, didn't find a path going up only fences so back into town and ended up at the top end of town following a trail up the mountain, there is a beautiful mountain bordering the whole town and it does not have a hiking trail on it, crazy, so we made our own plan and walked all over the place where the vegetation allowed us free access, lovely walk on the foot of the mountain overlooking the town.

views from Aldrick's house, nice spot for a few nights

The Piketberg range

Bought some vegie soup and juice for dinner and went back to the house, I sat on the patio in the back garden learning my snake notes, when I ran into Sipho on yet a another walk with the dogs he tells me that the council have not approved the course as they say a snake course should be done in summer, this put a spoke in his sword but for me was no big deal, he said he would keep trying to get them to agree to it, but I doubt he will succeed. So we had yet another walk around the neighbourhood and then spent another night in Aldricks driveway, plugged into the mains and washing in his backyard, slept well and planned to find a laundromat in the morning and move on to Ceres, heading for Riversdale. For me the 2 days was worth it, got my snake notes printed which may yet come in handy plus had two nights of free accommodation and enjoyed this town with lots of walking and some decent food, also had plenty of internet time and we are ready to move on.

So what does one need to be happy, a roof over their head, food on the table, a sense of humour and a passion, all of which I have, so we are now ready to go farming and build this new chapter in a new direction.

Sleep like a bunny guys.

12 weeks

Today marks twelve weeks on the road, Lani spent the night talking to me and crawled under the duvet looking at me with beseeching eyes, telling me she is okay to call time out, so this morning we went into town and let her go, she is now sleeping with Slicky, so our gentleman dog has his princess back, he has company and she has comfort. Rest in peace our beautiful companions.

Day 83 Piket-Bo-Berg

Woke to gray and overcast skies, lots of mist, it normally burns off with the sun, but not today, seems we are in for rain finally. Had a lovely HOT bath and made up for last night, walked the beach and then packed the dogs in the van and hit the road.

witwater

piketberg

I took the road less travelled, according to my map it is the lesser road to Piketberg but is tarred, should have learnt by now not to believe this dumb map, we drove and drove and drove until a turnoff to Veldrif told me I was on the right road, but going straight to Piketberg led me straight on to a sand road, I hate sand roads, thankfully although it was gray and cold it wasn't raining so the road was good for the 17km before hitting the tar again.

I stopped at a little village called Witwater at the base of the Piketberg mountains and we walked around a lovely little town, looks like it is built for the workers of the area, but such a great spot to permaculture, spread out houses and a large green common in the middle and houses going up the mountain face but of course nothing grows here except poverty.

My map said I could get up the Versvelds pass from this road and go up to Piket-Bo-Berg, not to be, no signs and I later found out it would have been a mistake as the road is bad even for a 4x4, so we drove around and into Piketberg, lovely little town, not so little actually, drove up the hill to the top of the town to take the dogs for a short hike before getting some food from Spar, the chosen food chain on this coast as their are no Woolworths or Checkers or Pick 'n'Pay's, the last time I came across one was Vredenburg. We headed out of town about a kilometre and took the turnoff to Piket-Bo-Berg up the Versvelds Pass for about 10km before stopping in at the first farm we came to, to ask a couple if they knew where I could find Chris Watson, the guy that Lachlan had recommended I talk to about land and permaculture. Stunning drive up the twists and turns of the mountain pass, have no idea how the fruit trucks get around these bends.

precarious parking spot for our walk up the hill

Piket-Bo-Berg camp spot at the tea garden

the mist coming down to envelop us for the night

Wow what a great reception, they invited me in, looked up Chris's number, of course they knew him, phoned his house and spoke to his mom and found out he will only be back on the mountain tomorrow afternoon. Then they invited me in for coffee, when I mentioned the dogs, she put her dogs outside and invited us all in to the kitchen, enormous farmhouse with all the luxuries, they only rent it from the children of the owner, who has retired to Langebaan, Fanie and his wife, the couple, work in town and at the potato nursery, they fed me vegie soup and coffee and conversation, gave me a breakdown of the farms on the mountain and life in general, we got to talking about permaculture and land and they phoned everyone they know who is selling land up here, of course all way out of my price range as it is fertile and established and draws millions when it also has established fruit trees, which is the main crop up here, one plot with 2 houses and a cottage on 2ha was going for R2,4 million, no-one grows vegies up here they tell me. She also phoned the tea garden and arranged accommodation in the campsite there for us.This is what farming life is like and it's great to be back in it, they could not have been more accommodating.

We finally left when the dogs started getting agitated, Pepi brought up all the grass she has been eating at all our stops, obviously eating too many titbits, I must stop adding so much to their diets, we drove the 12km, past Chris's farm,to the tea garden and with the help of the owners wife we found ourselves a campspot amongst the few available just before the rain came down. This is a narrow farm going up the hill with a tea garden, nursery and accommodation, the campsites are at the top of the farm.

R20 a night, with power and R5 extra if I go down to the mom in laws house for a hot shower, wow, could stay here for a long time, it is really pleasant, the rain didn't really lash us, just irritatingly consistant making walking uncomfortable, we ended up huddles comfortably inside our warm caccoon with the door open, and the mist blanketed us in. Thankfully I am prepared with some food, juice and coffee as their is no food up here in the form of restaurants, the tea garden is closed this late on a wet winters day and tomorrow is market day so it is closed all day, we will eat what we have which is plenty and enjoy this peaceful mountain spot, it is beautiful.

Could catch up with my blog and labling my pictures, could read and watch some shows and let the dogs snore their heads off, with so much beach walking in the last few days it will do them good to have a sleep from 4 o'clock until the morning, hopefully a long walk in the morning will be on the cards, I think Lani is all walked out, Pepi is still recuperating and taking her tablets every day but sleep will do her good and Jos is still taking her pain killers, so nature is forcing a restoring of their balance. Wow this place reminds me of Hogsback, same feeling same farm life and same weather, up on top of a mountain as well.

So again, all is well in the life of Bubbles and her brood, sleep well.

Slept through a blanket of mist,rain and lashing wind but the trees around us acted as great wind breaks so we had the violence of the weather to enjoy but no side effects, no bashing us around like we had in Cape Town.

Went to the mother in laws house for a shower, they had forgotten to put the geezer on so we went for a walk all over the property for an hour then back for a luke warm shower. The rain held off all morning so we enjoyed a walk in the cold again.

I paid R50 for two nights stay. amazing.

We drove down the mountain, about 22km into town and found a Spur on N7 where I could e-mail my wwoofer farms and download some shows and update the blog. Very cold and wet outside so will have to walk the dog between rain storms today.

where we are heading Piket-Bo-Berg

Picked up a few things at Spar and headed back up the mountain, the cops came by and asked me how much I charge to catch a snake, I said nothing, should have said R3 mill, probably would have got it.

The day turned out to be a stunner, cleared partially, stayed cold and slightly windy but we went for walks around the farm, up the hill, down the slope, over the hill to the neighbours, by dinner time the dogs were tuckered out and we could settle down for the night without them annoying me. Good to have electricity, music playing, photos downloading, shows to watch, maps to study, novels to read, all in good light, phones to charge, electricity makes life easy.

One thing is for certain, I am not settling on a plot on a mountain, or on a slope, their is nothing worse than slipping and sliding up and down a mountain all day, makes farming very difficult, everything here is on a slope, I tried all kinds of plans to get the camper level without success. The campsite is on a slope, the toilet is on a slope, the greenhouses are on slopes, everywhere you walk is on a slope, most of this is okay, but to farm and cart things up and down and hold water where you want it, these make life arkward when they are on a slope. Of course for me the worst is when I make coffee and my cup cannot be filled because it slops over on one side, I have to find something to put under my cup to level it so I can fill it to the top, I will get withdrawal symptoms if my coffee is not exactly as it should be. One good thing last night was that the slope was to the back, so the dogs ended up right against the back of the camper leaving me enough space to stretch my legs out and be able to turn around, heaven.

So ends a new day

Day 80 Elands Bay

Woke to a lovely day, Josie's turn to be the sick dog, she lay on the bed shivering in pain with a recurrence of her neck problem, she dislocated one of her vertebra in Johies and George, my vet in Randburg, said it will never heal, so I wisely brought her anti inflammatory and painkiller tablets with me and gave her one this morning, it did the trick although she is clearly not the happiest of dogs, Pepi on the other hand is like a two year old frolicking on the beach and dashing madly about after phantom balls.

back to Elands Bay with Josie needing a painkiller

start of a great sunset

colours deepening

I paid in the R100 subscription fee at Std Bank for the Wwoofer list and Rowena e-mailed it to me, planned on buying some internet time in Elands Bay to access it and update the blog, answer e-mails, buy some airtime and surf for information on the permaculture farms listed on the Wwoofer list, the list has grown since the last time we bought it, it now has 35 farms listed and Rowena tells me some are actual communities and not just privately owned farms.

We filled up at BP and ran into two locals who gave me an unbelievable amount of info on the area and some really good contact names of possible business partners who may want to invest in my farm, this morning I told Lorraine that my new plan was to use time share or a sponsor to buy the farm in exchange for a secure food source into perpetuity, how is this universe responding to me in every which way it can, here is the very info I was looking for, handed to me on a plate, and maybe even a sponsor to boot, Lachlan is an artist and he picks up dead snakes off the road and recreates the vertebra into a piece of art, he stopped to ask me where I think he should market his work and we got to talking about a whole host of things, standing at the petrol pump, couldn't happen in Johies.

We drove the 50km to Elands bay and rolled right into the campsite and our old spot, the old couple are still here but the guy did tell me that the local mayor has been fired and the new rules now stipulate that there will no longer be permanent campers allowed in any of the municipal parks so he has to go from paying R1300 a month to R105 a day, but he does tell me that he has a son in Joburg where they can go and park their van in the backyard so his very sick, diabetic wife will have access to better healthcare, so maybe not all bad.

One of the campers in a hired campevan that was in Lambert's Bay park also pitched up here after me, a German couple by the sound of them. No-one was in the office so we are all staying free unless the office lady arrives early in the morning, a group of guys stopped to talk about the snakes, surfers fom Cape Town and they also told me about a friend at Driehoek running a permaculture farm and who is always looking for help, wow open up to something new and all the info in the world comes flooding in, they also took some pictures of the van which may find there way onto facebook, yet again.

We had a stunning day walking on this wonderful beach for ages, Peps was up for every walk but Jos was asleep in the camper everytine I looked for her, she has really taken to the camper as being home and I guess her neck is not that comfortable Either.

Went to the hotel for internet time only to discover that the wi-fi tower is out with no gaurantee it will be up and running today or even tomorrow and maybe into Monday, not what I wanted to hear but we are learning to chill and slow down and let life take it's own course so I'll download the Wwoofer list later.

Gloria phoned for an update on where we are in the world, she is keeping tabs on me.

So after nearly 12 weeks on the road it is now a lot easier to look back and reflect on where we are and how things have evolved, certainly my plans are not working out as I thought they would and things change on a daily basis with new info presenting itself from unlikely sources. As I see it I have about 4 different options going forward, my initial plan to find a community of needy people and build a farm they can benefit from is not going to work for lots of reasons, no-one under 50 wants to farm, no-one over 50 is able to farm, (alcohol has taken it's toll) all land allocated to community farming is owned by the municipality and they won't give ownership away, I'm not putting my future blood sweat and tears into building a stunning self reliant lifestyle just to have some rich bugger come along and offer a few millions to tear it down and put up holiday flats.

So my first option is to find a permaculture community to join and maybe farm a little bit of the land on my own along with the collective, or secondly to buy my own plot with help from family and friends and build in my own time, thirdly I could find an investor, someone with money who would sponsor me the land and infrastructure so that he can have food security in the future and fourthly I could sell the idea as a time share and build the farm with investors capital where they could benefit by using it as a holiday destination in a lodge on the property and have the added benefit of food security as a return on their investment.

First I am going to pursue the names I have been given, take a look at Piket-Bo-Berg and follow up on the farms in the Cape that are looking for Wwoofers and if possible stay in a permaculture community for awhile to learn and maybe see if I fit in well enough to stay and add my input and labour into the mix.

This trip has been great on so many levels, I still think like a Joburger but that is changing, especially as I get approached by people all the time as the van attracts a lot of attention, but they are generally all friendly, curious and helpful, in Lambet's Bay this morning two old guys stopped me IN THE MIDDLE OF THE STREET to talk about the engine and the campers handling, they are apparently building the same 1975 model up from scratch into a camper of their own.

It is also strange coming back to these two little towns, I feel as though I know them both even though we have only stayed a few days in each, this campsite is also gaining new campers by the hour, for the middle of winter it's doing a roaring trade and no-one is here to collect their bucks, just got a group of young and noisy guys in next to me and another guy further down, they seem connected.

Tonight I saw what is possibly the most stunning sunset ever, everyone in Elands Bay stood enthralled as the sky changed hues every minute for more than 40 minutes and behind us a full moon came up to add to the dramatic effect, the sky ended up blood red. Only our creator could possibly provide such an unbelievable palette, it is times like these that I miss not having a great camera, and as much as I would love to say the pictures I took are awesome, I have to admit I had a whole ton load of help from nature on that one, but still could not do justice to the magnificent colours and also could not tear myself away from the sky. So great to be camping right on the beach and not have to miss a minute of it. As to winter, well someone forgot to tell this part of the world about that plan because in my book it is as hot as a Joburg summer day and my shorts and boob tube fit right in, although everyone else is slightly more over dressed and they do look at me funny.

the full moon rising

the moon had a lot to do with the sunset

getting better

Maybe I should apply for the job as the new mayor, I could clean up the beach, use the seaweed as liquid fertiliser, turn the town into a permaculture haven, start a newspaper to keep the holiday home owners updated and get them donating funds to the welfare of their town, I could turn the squatter camp into an eco village, add a wind turbine to lessen the cost of services, put fruit trees along all the roads and paths and on the beach, introduce hiking trails all over the lovely rock abutment, develop birding hides and walks on the lagoon, get some farmers markets supplying fresh foods, no fresh food here to buy at all, no real shops, start an animal shelter for all the strays, ton load of stray cats here that the dogs go crazy over, wow I think I would make a great mayor.

So had a noisy night with lots of neighbours, very friendly though, I wrote and read and watched 'Community', I'm really getting into that show just as I'm coming to the end of the three seasons Kay gave me, I did however just finish my first e-book, Gabi gave me a tonload off her kindle awhile back and told me to download mobipocket to read them. With so many nights in campsites I've had the advantage of an electrical connection so I could plug in the laptop and read for hours as I also have good lights from my 220volt fluorescence lamp that I bought before I left and attached a long cord and plug to. So I am now officially also an e-book reader, but still would prefer to have the actual book, but of course could never have travelled with 300 novels, nowhere to have put them, but they are on my laptop waiting to be read.

So all is well in our world even though it is changing shape on a daily basis, got Lorraine interested in the business angle, I'll see what she comes up with from our initial little discussion on the options available, who knows if we can persuade some rich guys that investing in future food is a good idea.

camera was not good enough to capture the sunset

day two sunset

With the world in a depression, markets fluctuating wildly, house prices staying low, land abandoned everywhere and the need for us to start growing more fresh food locally to make it affordable and available, this is the right time for me and my kind to start spreading our tenticles, and by rights the Government should be looking for more people like me and throwing land at us to encourage the more productive use of fallow land to feed the country. We also need to introduce a farming method that will green up our country in the healthiest way possible, I should not have to stress over building what is essentially the only farming method all of us in this world today should be employing as we are fast running out of land in our attempt to feed 7 billion people. Livestock is destroying nutrients, more land is used to grow food for livestock and less for humans and yet the resuting meat is at a cost 5 times higher than an equivalent vegetarian diet. Of course the most important aspect of being permaculturists is the scarcity of water, our next major challenge in the world, and certainly what wars will be fought over, fresh water and only permaculture can address that issue successfully.

So thats my beef for today, the more I read and understand the more determined I get that what I'm doing is the only right way forward, certainly for me it is, one of the guys I spoke to this morning at the BP had seen Thrive, he did not buy into it, called it too simplistic, I think the whole point is that it is simplistic, small farmers in every community feeding their local communities is the way it used to be before the industrial revolution, what is wrong with going back to that, it takes one person on an acre of land to feed 100, why not 20 local farmers in a community of 3000, working collectivley, to feed them all,and works in lots of places around the world can work here too, KIBBUTZIM and MOSHAV'S in Israel are a case in point.

I'll say night before I get maudlin, happy dreaming.

Lovely day in Elands Bay, had a long walk all the way down to the harbour point, or where the boats are launched, not sure if it can be called a harbour as such, also managed to get some internet time and download the Wwoofer list, lots of options in this part of the world and I will start to explore them once we have seen Piket-Bo-Berg. Walked about 10 times on this lovely beach today, had the 6 young guys next door asking me about permaculture, they are from KZN but now live in Somerset West and came here for 3 days of surfing, got them interested in permaculture and told them to go Wwoofing in their spare time.

Pretty relaxed day with yet another wonderful sunset and peaceful nights sleep albeit without a hot shower, went to shower at 9ish and found some local guy there washing all his clothes, I guess he was homeless, so – no hot water – and as I have been where he is, I couldn't reminstrate, so had a cold partial wash and hit the sack, one gets used to hot showers so it was hard to fall asleep dirty.

Go well.