Enjoyed
a lie in as it rained lightly all night and was gray and beautiful
this morning, mountains brooding with gray blankets, we walked the
road up to the top gate and it looked fine to me, traction everywhere
for the camper with just a few hairy spots to avoid. Jan said he
would drive ahead of me and be able to tow me out if I got stuck, I
assured him I wouldn't but he seemed to know better, said he has had
to pull a lot of people out of his driveway, so I bowed down to his
superior knowledge.
We
packed up and moved out, said cheers and thanks to all and followed
Jan up the drive, did it with ease and the camper was good at
responding in sticky situations when I needed her to ,Jan was
impressed that he didn't need to tow us, we drove into town at a good
pace, the road was much better going back after some rain has
flattened it out. We met up with Gordon in town to give him something
from Sue and then hit the road, stopped in Heidelberg to walk the
dogs, eat a Wimpy breakfast, catch up with email and relax for awhile
before heading out and driving to Shantal and Karel near Swellendam.
our first dog friendly stop
unfinished enormous house not livable at the moment
A
whole different farm experience, a small plot of 2,8ha but with a
stunning view and on the hill overlooking the river down in the
valley so no-one can build in front or on the side of them, very
basic, lots of projects all unfinished, a stunning house, unfinished
as the plans have not been passed by the council so building work has
been halted. A substantial irrigation system with pipes everywhere,
some gray water coming up from the river and into a reservoir and a
borehole plus a reverse osmoses project that so far gives about 100lt
a day as the borehole water is brackish and only good for washing.
Karel
is interesting, believes the end of the world is nigh and making
plans for the rush of refugees looking for a safe haven, he's 16
years older than his partner Shantal who is 7 months pregnant with
baby number one. He is anti establishment and straight forward, I
like him as he is neither stuffy nor dogmatic in his attitude, he is
also very willing to share ideas.
No
room for me here at the moment and no power source other than some
basic solar and maybe a generator once Karel has it all plugged in to
the batteries he has, a myriad of them. He went off to town around 4
to fetch Shantal coming back from Cape Town and I met Gift, a
Malawian working here, nice guy, he fed the animals and then cycled
off to see his brother on another farm.
Also
spent the waiting time writing my book, Sue and Jan have got me going
with it and now I feel like writing, I will do it in the form of
essays as they suggest which allows me to pick a topic or a situation
that was funny or otherwise, and simply write it as a story with the
option of branching out and adding to it at a later date or turning
it into one chapter of many more such essays that will result in a
full blown book, I will see.
Lots
of animals, chickens, ducks, 3 dogs that don't want to get used to my
two, not sure how that's going to play out, Karel put his three in
the house while he is away so mine won't get stressed out for awhile,
some cooling off period might work well, he also has a jersey milking
cow and about 5 calves, goats and sheep, no grazing ground so feeding
them must cost him a fortune. Their are also two veggie gardens, one
where he does his thing and Shantal has one where she is more managed
and produces the food they sell, hers is under shadecloth and his is
out in the open. This small holding is pretty but unorganized with
great potential is how I read it, a longer stay will tell me more and
I hope also to learn a lot.
Shantals nice greenhouse
view down to the river
So
I await there return from town and will eat and chat and figure out
where we sleep and shower, so no cozy cottage with hot water and
electricity, perhaps a taste of what to expect when I first start my
place. Not a bad thing to rough it as we appreciate the luxury more
when we get it.
The
night ended with the return of Shantal and Karel at 7pm with bread
and eggs for dinner, no shower and a cold night in the camper on the
hill totally exposed to the wind, talk about roughing it, good start.
Sleep
tight
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