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Make jolly in WIN /,)(Luxury Port Nolly Kruger safari worth Join the R35 000 NIEU-BETHESDA GARLIC PARTY Take home a piece of Kruger Feast at Ciao Stanford Valley’s Bela-Bela! farm table Whydah Quirky wagtails wax 5 Stays lyrical in the GESS WATERBERG who found DIY the fossils? 2-IN-1 Into TRESTLE KOWIE TABLE ALE theWild TRAIL Hike Explore Survive R38-50 (incl VAT) Other countries R33-48 (excl tax) Karkloof Sanbona the Fish In This Issue 34
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EDITOR’S CHOICE We’ve put our best foot forward to bring you some some of the Klein Karoo’s vast open spaces off Route 62. And then comes the spectacular hikes in this issue, and they’re as diverse as can be. Like a pretty mother of all hikes in Southern Africa, the gruelling five-day Fish River Canyon strenuous three-day slackpack through rolling forest and grassland in the trail in Namibia. Almost 100 kilometres of grappling with sand or playing KwaZulu-Natal Midlands, or two days of walking in Big Five territory, in hellish hopscotch on boulders, but in the most splendid and mighty isolation.
Travel 26 Diamonds and Dust 73 Marataba’s Magic Mix 20 Splendid Isolation Port Nolloth is certainly no ordinary Abundant birding in the Waterberg The builder of Rietbron turns on town COVER STORY hits the bliss spot COVER STORY the charm
30 In the Land of Sand and Soul 78 The Agony and the Ecstasy 40 Garlic by Boetie Bester Van Zylsrus might be a one-donkey You’ll find both on the Karkloof hiking Why a Nieu-Bethesda pub is the seat Kalahari town but it’s full of heart trail COVER STORY of the town’s Garlic Party COVER STORY 54 The Pot that Boils There’s so much more to Bela-Bela Wild Earth than a hot bath COVER STORY 68 Take Home a Piece of Kruger It’s in the indigenous nursery tucked 82 Country Escapes behind Skukuza COVER STORY So you want something quirky and unusual? Here’s our pick COVER STORY Heritage 64 Old Fourlegs and Other Fossils Leisure Meet the palaeontologist from 34 Go Fish Grahamstown whose discoveries are A five-day hike through the Fish River startling the world COVER STORY Canyon that’s a monster COVER STORY ON THE COVER 58 Softly, in Sanbona Country Living Our cover photograph by Andrea Abbott was taken in uMngeni Valley Nature Reserve in the Easy walking in Big Five countryside 14 Country Kit KwaZulu-Natal Midlands. Read about Andrea’s off Route 62 COVER STORY Gadgets you just gotta get three-day Karkloof Falls2Falls hike in The Agony and the Ecstasy on page 78.
November 2018 www.countrylife.co.za NOVEMBER 2018 CONTENTS 98
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Garlic by Boetie Bester: In Nieu-Bethesda the Loving it Local: At Stanford Valley estate, food, Take Home a Piece of Kruger: Look no further garlic’s been harvested and the party’s on. decor, setting are a perfect mix of old and new. than Skukuza’s splendid indigenous nursery.
Classifeds 42 My Kingdom for a Horse 98 Country Chef 106 Property Barter markets are booming At Manor House restaurant outside 108 Accommodation in the KZN Midlands Stanford, chef Jonathan Davies is 110 Restaurants inspired by local produce COVER STORY 111 Marketplace 46 The Cooks are in the Kitchen How Graaff-Reinet’s tourism college 112 Parting Shot is giving back to the community Obie Oberholzer calls flat cans art. But Competitions do you? O Image Club Page 16 Hop Along the Kowie 50 O WinaluxurystayatJock Have an ale of a time on the Kowie Safari Lodge in Kruger, River craft-beer route COVER STORY Regulars worth R35 000 Page 72 86 DIY Trestle Table 2 Editorial And when it’s done it doubles as 4 Contributors SUBSCRIPTIONS wall art COVER STORY Try our fantastic Magazing 6 Your Letters Click & Collect service Page 3 90 Wheels 8 Diary The BMW X3 puts safety first – inside and out 92 Books Big Data 93 Author Interview is heading 96 Country Restaurants Face to face with Imraan Coovadia foryourfarm A taste of Kommetjie and Scarborough 94 Future Watch Read our series With Colin Cullis Future Watch 97 Fine Wines by Colin Cullis Winemaker Johan Reyneke of on page 94 Reyneke Wines
www.countrylife.co.za 001 November 2018 Editor’s Note List, list, O, list!
y wish list of things to the nursery supplies indigenous plants and pieces of the Midlands and spent many do and places to go to to all the Kruger camps, but visitors can a Saturday morning at one of the farmers just seems to get also buy most of the 170 plant species. markets, but that was before the days longer and longer. Welgevonden Game Reserve in the of barter markets (page 42). Karkloof I would have thought magnificent Waterberg I have ticked off (page 78) I got to know fairly well, and Mthat ticking off a few places each year but, sadly, I’ve never been to the Marakele I think my screams on the Canopy Tour would reduce it considerably, but the National Park in that area (page 73), still reverberate through the forest. older I get the longer the list becomes. which our inveterate birder Peter To Grahamstown (now called Makhanda) Paging through the factory file of the Chadwick so highly recommends. and Bathurst I have been. Port Alfred not, November issue one last time before sending When I lived in Durban, I did bits but the Kowie craft-beer route (page 50) it off to the printers, I realised I hadn’t been is a good enough reason to take a detour to half the places featured in this issue. the next time I’m in the Eastern Cape. Let’s see. Bela-Bela (page 54) gets A tick each for Stanford (page 98), a tick, and takes me back to my high school Graaff-Reinet (page 46) and Nieu-Bethesda days and an outing to the hot springs of (page 40). Nieu-Bethesda’s annual garlic the then Warmbaths. Rietbron (page 20) harvest festival sounds like a party not and Van Zylsrus (page 30) I had to find on to be missed. A celebration of all things the map, and even Port Nolloth (page 26) garlic – even sushi – and good old country up on the West Coast I have yet to visit. hospitality, so back on the list Nieu-Bethesda I have kayaked down parts of Namibia’s goes. And Stanford. Graaff-Reinet too. majestic Fish River Canyon (page 34), And that, dear friends, is the long and but the gruelling five-day hike Gerhard the short of why wish lists never get any Uys survived doesn’t feature on my list. shorter. Perhaps the Dalai Lama has good I love the Kruger (was actually conceived advice on this score, ‘Once a year go there) and thought I knew just about every somewhere you’ve never been before’. loop, bird hide and picnic spot, but was delighted to learn about the indigenous nursery (page 68) tucked away on the outskirts of Skukuza camp and the staff Nita Hazell village. Stretching over five hectares, Editor
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PeterChadwick Fiona Zerbst MarianaEsterhuizen aniela Zondagh
Our long-time birding contributor, Fiona Zerbst, heads up Shinobi Passionate cook and gardener Lifestyle, travel and food Peter Chadwick (pictured Media, a freelance writing and Mariana Esterhuizen left Cape photographer Daniela Zondagh, centre) is well known for his editing business. The author of Town for Stanford 32 years ago based in Stellenbosch and Cape birding features and exceptional four poetry collections, Fiona has and, although she loves visiting the Town, was a top chef before photography, but took a two-year a PhD in creative writing from Mother City, she says, “I am now switching to photography, break to focus on conservation, the University of Pretoria. She’s truly an Overberger and, over the which makes her the perfect and document the effects of based in Rustenburg (the ideal years, have watched the Overberg photographer for our Country Chef organised crime on Africa’s springboard for investigating sit up and be noticed. This slice feature Loving it Local (page wildlife, its protected areas and the Bela-Bela, once upon a time called of the Cape was once largely 98). “But rest assured,” she says, ranger teams that daily place their Warmbaths) in the North West ignored by mainstream tourists, “that when I’m not behind my lives at risk. Peter has also been Province. When Fiona’s not writing but slowly it has taken its rightful lens, I’m paddling on the big blue supporting the ranger teams on the about wildlife and travel (the first place.” As a firm supporter of the or exploring outdoors.” After years ground through specific training time she went to Bela-Bela was leisurely lunch, Mariana enjoys spent in the kitchen, she loves and mentoring interventions. for a Southern Ground Hornbill nothing more than trying out the nothing more than discovering and His work across Africa has taken conference), she can be found new restaurants and guest houses photographing new restaurants, him to many exciting birding painting, trail-running, practising popping up around the Overberg. places and people like she did in destinations, some of which will ninjutsu, or taking to the skies. Read her Country Chef feature Stanford. “It combines my love for be featured in the magazine. Read Read The Pot That Boils (page 54) Loving it Local (page 98) on chef food, travel and photography. And Marataba’s Magic Mix (page 73), and discover that there’s much more Jonathan Davies of the Manor I get to work with one of my food Peter’s feature on Limpopo birding. to Bela-Bela than a nice hot bath. House restaurant outside Stanford. heroes, Mariana Esterhuizen.”
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Make jo ly in WIN ,)(Luxu / y scan the code and bring up two options: copy will take you to a specific article on our website. Port No ly Kruger safari worth Join he R35 000 NIEU BETHESDA GARLIC PARTY Take home a piece of Kruger content and open link. Try it with the QR code below: Feast at Ciao StanfordValley’s Bela Bela! farm table Whydah Quirky wagtails wax 5 Stays lyrical in he 4. Click on ‘Open Link’. The app will open your phone’s GESS WATERBERG who ound DIY the fossi s? 2N1 Into TRESTLE KOWIE TABLE ALE theWild TRAIL browser and take you to a specific article on our Hke Explore Surv ve Karkloof Sanbona the Fish website. The QR code and take you to the will load instantly web page directly 004
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WINNING LETTER CONGRATULATIONS Donavon Christians your letter has won you The Memory Box a R2 000 voucher from Linen Drawer, When I read Julienne du Toit’s article, Oupa’s specialist supplier and manufacturer of Memory Box (September 2018) of COUNTRY top quality, pure cotton percale bed linen LIFE, it reminded me of a box my wife found. and home textiles. Produced by expert After my mother-in-law passed earlier this year, seamstresses in Paarl, all Linen Drawer it was incumbent upon my wife to clear out her cotton products are hypoallergenic. bedroom. During this process, she came across Call 021 872 0108, order online at an old handmade wooden box. The letters www.linendrawer.co.za or connect M and H, made of a silver metal, were screwed on the lid. These were the initials of a man I’ve on social media @LinenDrawer never met, my father-in-law and grandfather of our two sons. Unlike Julienne’s Oupa’s box, this one was empty. No photos, heirlooms, or any other memorabilia. Just the box… handmade by a humble man. When my wife brought it home, she shared memories of her father who fashioned this wooden box. He was a wise man. On the piece of land he left behind he grew his own vegetables, dug a well to water those veggies and kept bees to pollinate them, as well as to provide honey to keep his family healthy. He was a provider not only of the bare necessities, but of great memories. When he died my wife was only ten years old. Then, ten years later, the family was dealt another blow.The Group Areas board decided they had to leave the home that he had left for them. They got rid of most of the furniture as the new house was considerably smaller than the original. However, it appears that this box survived the chop because when they moved it was among their belongings. In the new home it was kept safe and away from prying eyes until discovered just a few months ago. It would seem therefore that it is not the contents or the lack thereof, but the box itself that was the treasure. (edited) Donavon Christians, Port Elizabeth
‘Bonjour’ South Africa rooibos and I yielded to temptation and ordered politics.’ I feel immensely grateful for discovering My wife and I recently visited South Africa a crêpe with milk tart. It turned out to be one of a country and its people in a time when too for three weeks and it was undoubtedly the the best things I had eaten in South Africa. Once many people want the world to be that ‘barren best vacation we have had. Your magazine again we met warm-hearted and kind people. place of power and politics’. was available at some places and it turned out We also met a couple in Sedgefield and, after PS: If any of your readers know the to be an excellent source of information. We hearing we were from France, we exchanged carpenter from Sedgefield, please write to particularly enjoyed the article on KZN flower a few words, they some in French and we [email protected]. I would like to get spots. Now we are considering spending time venturing in Afrikaans. Some time later we met in touch with him. Should he carry out his in that part next time we visit, and I will keep at the deservedly famous Saturday market in plan of a down-to-earth lodge, I want to be that issue of COUNTRY LIFE to make our Sedgefield. We learnt that he was a carpenter one of his visitors. (edited) plans. I read a reader’s letter (September 2018) and was planning to open a lodge. He explained Pierre Brackman, Lille, France and realised how much people ‘with their feet that he was keen on helping people get some squarely on Mother Earth’ contributed to make down-to-earth, authentic experiences while our stay so special. staying in South Africa. We said our goodbyes Splendid Gariep I will always remember learning how to and ate our first vetkoek. I read the Gariep Dam article (July 2018) and it squeeze my own orange juice with the method In a bookshop in Stellenbosch, I found a book brought back many wonderful memories. We used at the tiny shop situated along the N7 on by Breyten Breytenbach, one of my favourite have travelled to Cape Town and to the south- our way to the Cederberg. I now call it, ‘the writers. In A Veil of Footsteps he writes, ‘Listen: eastern Cape over many years, always using South African way to drink an orange’. you must continue travelling because the earth De Stijl as the stopover. We love it. Perfect We also came upon a coffee shop in needs to be discovered and remembered position and excellent accommodation and Albertinia. To be perfectly honest, as there is no again and again, cyclically, creatively, with restaurant.But the stunning views of the dam other way to be, we only wanted to stop to use her seasons and her sounds, with the warm and the magnificent sunrises are indescribable. the restroom because of the huge quantity of breath of hospitality, with the healing touch In 2011, we decided to do a two-day stay-over rooibos we gulped down. But, welcomed by of strangeness… lest it becomes cold and and drive all the way around the dam. Enjoyable a smile, we ordered our umpteenth cup of impenetrable – a barren place of power and but further than we had expected. We visited
November 2018 006 www.countrylife.co.za @SACLMAG @SACOUNTRYLIFE
each town and had a great day. The biggest excitement was when we crossed the Orange River with lots of cars and people all looking down to the river on the east side of the bridge. Naturally we stopped and spent an hour or so watching the SPCA rescue a foal stranded on a small island in the flooding river, with her mother on the dry bank. It was a wonderful experience and amazing how the handlers calmed both horses. Never to be forgotten. Next time we will definitely do the dam-wall tour which we had never heard of before. FACEBOOK & INSTAGRAM Thank you for our wonderful monthly Follow us on Facebook and Instagram for your tour around our amazing country. Keep daily dose of travel inspiration. September was going, it is all much appreciated. (edited) Telegraph, not every page. I doubt that I would all about our heritage and we looked back on Graham Langmead ever be able to say, ‘A zebra walked here, had the Battle of Insandlwana, as well as the Italian an injured left hind leg because the hoof has POW camp of Zonderwater. If you’re still not been split’, but I can now recognise the signs of following us on Instagram, then you’re missing a potter wasp collecting mud. out. Search sacountrylife and you’ll find jaw- Colin’s motto, ‘Practice doesn’t make you dropping wildlife and travel photography from perfect, but it makes you better.’ If you don’t our contributors and Image Club winners. know what to do for your next holiday, register for a Track and Signs Course at Moholoholo Game Reserve, you won’t regret it. The whole experience of staying in this camp is exceptional; the food, the peace and the quiet. (edited) Cécile Bertram Schantz, France
Universal Language in the Bush What a surprise when I read Sue Adams’ article THE WINNERS OF OUR It’s All In The Bush Telegraph (August 2018) and AUGUST COMPETITION saw a picture of Colin Patrick kneeling next to a hamerkop track. My first visit to Moholoholo Congratulations Game Reserve was in 2005, my first time in D Strauss, Durban North the bush, looking at tracks and signs. I thought Rita Hambley, Kleinmond I was blind, couldn’t see the disturbance of the Loraine Karam, Roosevelt Park ants on the ground and thought I was too old to Katalin Kercer, Morningside Durban learn anything about this tracking business. But Madelaine Hanekom, Riversdal Sue explains the different steps of the learning Jenny Clegg, Anerley process so well: first learn the alphabet and then Leigh Dunn, Plettenberg Bay you can read the bush story. Even if you are Banana Leaves to the Rescue Angie Phillips, Gillits French speaking like me. Having read your article Bamboo Bonanza (July Lindsay Douglas, Pietermaritzburg He also has a great sense of humour, which 2018) about the use of bamboo, I thought of Chris Kuch, Blairgowrie is very well depicted by Sue when she writes, the eco-friendly use of banana leaves in India. Russel Muller, Port Elizabeth “... we feel extremely foolish when Colin burst They are moulded to little dishes to serve Simone Slabbert, Pinetown out laughing and points to Annie.”It reminded so-called ‘street food’ and are discarded Coba Matthee, Kleinmond me of the day we were looking at some obvious after use. No plastic of Styrofoam anymore. Lynn Botha, Sunningdale primate tracks. I said, “Baboon!” It was Colin’s This could be a great idea for someone in You have each won tracks. Oops! the banana-farming business. (edited) a Coverderm hamper worth R2 190. Thanks to Colin, I can read a few pages of the Jack Rosewitz
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Colour Splash Festival Rawsonville This colourful, family-friendly, sporting event at the Goudini Sport Then relax with live entertainment, food stalls, a craft-beer tent, Fields includes a variety of races, cycling races, fun runs, tug of local wines, and entertainment for the kids, all in aid of the local war, netball, touch rugby and even Zumba. Get your sachet of community. bright powder paint at any of the different stations and have fun. [email protected], www.coloursplash.co.za 3 November Summer is on its way, so head out to the countryside and enjoy music, ¿ne food and wine 15-17
10-11 2 Stellenberg Gardens Open Days Kenilworth GWK Cherry Festival Ficksburg The Garlic Harvest Party Bask in the beauty of the five-acre garden It’s cherry-picking time, and the oldest harvest Nieu-Bethesda and mature trees that surround the in the country takes place in the spectacular Held on the first Friday of November at classical Cape Dutch homestead. The foothills of the Maluti Mountains in the the Ramstal bar in this Eastern Cape garden design includes a series of garden Eastern Free State. Enjoy cherry pickings, village, this festival celebrates all things ‘rooms’ that reflect the changes over the tavern tours, game safaris, cooking- and garlic. Sharing is caring so bring something past 35 years. Children welcome under wine-pairing workshops, a market and family garlicky to share and experience hospitality adult supervision. entertainment. at its best. 021 762 7733, 082 644 6365 10-11 November www.cherryfestival.co.za 15-17 November www.nieu-bethesda.com 2 November
November 2018 008 www.countrylife.co.za Email the details of your event, with a photograph, to [email protected]
3 17 De Vry Race & Craft Spirit Festival Free State Experience the wide open spaces of the 24-25 Splash of Pink Festival Robertson Free State on one of the following trails – a Add a splash of pink to your outfit and 5km fun run, a 10.4km trail run and Origin of Trails MTB Stellenbosch enjoy ice-cold Paul René MCC and craft a 21km half-marathon. Then join in the This two-day MTB experience celebrates gin, paired with fresh treats including festivities and enjoy tipples like Die Rooinek its sixth anniversary in Stellenbosch. Saldanha oysters and Norwegian salmon gin, Boereraad brandy or Die Warm Rasta Mountain bikers can choose between at the Wonderfontein wine estate. Take rum, all produced on the farm by the Du a one-day fun ride, a two-day long route up the challenge of a game of boules or Plooy brothers. Also in the line-up are and a short route (two days) through the croquet, while the children enjoy horse food stalls, craft beer, music, as well as beautiful winelands around Stellenbosch. rides, swimming and more. entertainment for children. 021 886 9204, [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] events@ 24-25 November www.paulrenemcc.co.za 3 November devrydistillery.co.za 17 November 10
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Cintron Pink Polo Paarl Support breast cancer awareness at the picturesque Val de Vie Estate in the Paarl-Franschhoek Valley. Dress in pink and white Comedy in the Vines Spier and watch a thrilling match of world-class polo. There’s loads of This summer put your feet up on the Werf lawn at the Spier Farm entertainment lined up, including a performance by GoodLuck, Kitchen, with wine in hand and a picnic basket, and enjoy an hour-long plus a luxury-car display, and great food and wine. comedy show with Rob van Vuuren cracking jokes under the stars. 021 863 6100, [email protected] 3 November www.spier.co.za/events 10 November
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Winterton Street Festival Drakensberg The main street in this Berg town is closed off for the day so that festival goers can enjoy a day of good food and wine, craft beer, a performance Christmas Country Fair Ballito by the Drakensburg Boys Choir, Zulu dancers Do your Christmas shopping early and enjoy a relaxed day at Collisheen Estate. More than and cultural activities. There’s also a vintage-car 100 stalls are selling beautiful handcrafted stocking fillers. While the girls shop, the men parade, horse and carriage rides, ziplines and can ecape to the ‘Man Cave’, a marquee set aside for all things male and robust, complete plenty of entertainment for the children. with a craft-beer stand. 084 567 8802, 082 548 9910 3 November [email protected], www.freshlocalmarkets.com 31 October-1 November
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Vintage Artisanal Market Wakkerstroom Open Gardens Elim Wine Festival Overberg Johannesburg and Rose Show Taste wines from the area and enjoy good Do your Christmas shopping in beautiful Mpumalanga company at the Black Oystercatcher wine gardens in the heart of Saxonwold Johannesburg. A country adventure for gardeners and farm. Pair wines, craft beers and ciders Pick from antiques, collectables, vintage nature-loving families. Enjoy the gardens, with local produce available at the market, clothing and handcrafted items. Then sit rose show and handcrafted food fair. and take home some beautiful craft items. down to a delicious breakfast or lunch with Wakkerstroom is also renowned for its Entertainment includes a sheepdog-herding coffee, or G&T from the gin truck. birding, so don’t forget the binocs. display, a vintage tractor parade, and live Instagram @vintagemarketjoburg, Facebook 083 347 2770, 062 137 3827 music. @VAMjoburg www.wakkerstroom.co.za 082 376 8498, [email protected] 25 November 10-11 November 10 November
November 2018 010 www.countrylife.co.za Email the details of your event, with a photograph, to [email protected]
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Jazz & Classical Festival Stellenbosch Music lovers can look forward to a feast of jazz and classical music at the newly- Delmas Kersmark renovated Amphitheatre at Spier wine Melville Koppie Hikes Johannesburg Mpumalanga farm outside Stellenbosch. Original and Explore the outdoors and take the 10km three- This long-standing Christmas market at recent compositions from these two koppie group hike on 11 and 25 November,or the Hervormde Kerksaal in Delmas has genres will be performed by young and a guided group tour on 4 and 18 November. something for every taste and budget. Fill established musicians, like jazz band Hikers need to be fit with good balance as your Christmas stockings at the gift stalls Skyjack (pictured here). Student talent is paths are rocky and steep. Children over while the children play in the shady garden. also showcased. six years old are welcome, but no dogs 021 685 0169, [email protected] 082 928 4317, 072 746 8713 are allowed. www.spier.co.za/events 3 November 30 October-2 November 011 482 4797, [email protected], www.mk.org.za
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Taste of Tzaneen Festival Limpopo Fedhealth IMPI Challenge This family event at the Fairview Hotel celebrates all that the Stellenbosch Lowveld has to offer. Enjoy all the sub-tropical fruit the area is This trail run with a twist at Wiesenhof Wildlife Park is known for its famous for, a potjiekos competition with Afrikaans actor Ben Kruger, beautiful, challenging trails and obstacles. It’s all about family fun, wine and gin tastings, local food, as well as browsing clothing, healthy living and enjoying the outdoors. Test your fitness levels and jewellery and decor stalls. challenge your fears. 083 488 3885, www.tasteoftzaneen, [email protected] 2-3 November [email protected], www.impichallenge.co.za 17 November
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The Beer, Bubbly & Gin Festival The George Gin Festival George Manger Charity Country Market Stellenbosch Pop in at The Fat Fish restaurant and taste Pretoria Taste all things local and crafted with passion. more than 20 craft gins, including homegrown Enjoy art, crafts, decor, entertainment and The festival takes place at the Anura Estate Free State sorghum gin, gin with subtle rose- a variety of food and beverages stalls on the outside Stellenbosch, and features beers from petal flavours, blue gin that changes colour first Sunday of every month iat this country boutique breweries, bubbly from award-winning when tonic is added, or the Phantom Gin market in Van der Hoff Road, Uitzicht. Funds local MCC makers, craft gins, street food and inspired by the wild spirit of Knysna. Enjoy raised go towards assisting the elderly. live music to add to a day of relaxation. with delicious canapés and live music. 027 229 3994, [email protected] [email protected], www.anura.co.za 044 874 7803, [email protected] www.mangercharitymarke.wixsite.com 24-25 November 24 November 4 November
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Stellenbosch Street Soirées Stellenbosch Greyton Art Walk Overberg Experience the vibrant street culture, lifestyle and cosmopolitan Take a stroll around this picturesque Overberg town and enjoy charm of Stellenbosch while feasting on street food and mingling all things art. Visit artists in their studios and open-air exibitions with fellow foodies and wine lovers. The Stellenbosch Street Soirées throughout the week. There is entertainment for children, take place once a month on #WineWednesday. All the fun goes including an art competition. down in Drostdy Street. 028 254 9564/9414, www.greytontourism.com 16-18 November 021 886 4310, www.wineroute.co.za 28 November
November 2018 012 www.countrylife.co.za !Ä 70 ŖX°¡ÃTæÉÉČÃÞ³¡ÃÍ«Ãó«¡ļļļ Ãē/ 1ÃÚÃ$2/à 10Ã^\Ã0ÄÄ
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VDOHV#VWDUOLJKWFR]DÃÃ Ã*HRUJLDQÃ&UHVFHQWÃ:HVWÃÃ &RQWDFWÃ6WDUOLJKWÃ+ROLGD\V ÃÃ ÃÃ %U\DQVWRQÃÃ IRUÃUHVHUYDWLRQV Ã ZZZVWDUOLJKWFR]D -RKDQQHVEXUJÃ COUNTRY KIT X GADGETS 10
Gadgets VIEW FROM THE TOP The Helicute VR Drone Kit is a must for getting a bird’s eye view of your outdoor activities, and for capturing your summer highlights. The 14cm x 14cm x 3.5cm drone is valued at R1 499. YouGotta Get www.capeunionmart.co.za COMPILED BY ZANÉL JORDAAN
SEE, HEAR, SPEAK WIN The Ring Spotlight Cam will keep you and your family safe with 1080HD video, LED spotlights and a 110-decibel siren. It has an HD camera with two-way talk and live view, so you can watch over your home from anywhere by linking it to your cellphone. Win a Ring Spotlight Cam valued WIN at R3 599. Giveaway Code: RING DRINK UP Have clean water wherever you go. The Brita Fill & Go Active bottle includes a filter disc to ensure that AS SIMPLE AS 1, 2, 3 your water is safe and delicious and it Turn smartphone photography into a true art form comes in different colours. Four readers by taking shots that stand out from the rest. can each win a Brita water bottle valued Experiment with this Aukey three-in- at R300 each. one camera-lens kit that gives www.brita.co.za, Giveaway Code: BRITA you different effects and fields of view with a fisheye, wide-angle and macro lens. Simply clip it onto your cellphone, and snap away. Win an Aukey 3-in-1 lens kit valued at R389. WIN www.itoys.co.za, Giveaway Code: AUKEY IN WITH THE OLD Save the world, one refurbished mobile phone at a time. WeFix repairs and replaces damaged parts of smart devices, which minimise electronic waste and is a cheaper alternative to buying a brand new device. iPhones, iPads, WIN Samsungs, Huaweis, LGs and DJI drones can all be fixed. Win a reconditioned iPhone 5 64GB from the new i2 Range valued at R3 999. 021 837 9800, hello@wefix.co.za, www.wefix.co.za, Giveaway Code: FIX
November 2018 014 www.countrylife.co.za GET A HANDLE HEIL ALE ON THINGS The uKeg mini keg keeps beer The 28.5cm x 18cm x 20.30cm or home brew cold, fresh and compact, waterproof Thule Shield carbonated whether on the Handlebar Bag allows cyclists to keep road or at home. It's made items like phones, maps, snacks and from durable, double-wall water bottles safe and close at hand vacuum-insulated stainless when going on adventures. It's easy steel with a CO2 regulator cap. to mount on your handlebar. Win a bag Valued at R5 640. valued at R900. www.wantitall.co.za www.thule.com, Giveaway Code: THULE
INSTANT MEMORIES Don't let your memories be forgotten in the folders of a smartphone or PC. The instant printouts from Fujifilm's Instax SQ6 bring photos back to life. This analogue camera produces images in minutes. It's ideal for travel snaps and easily fit into your pocket or wallet. Valued at R1 999. www.fujifilm.eu/za WIN SMELL THE COFFEE This hand-held, portable espresso brewer is perfect for the outdoors. Whether you're camping or on a roadtrip, the Nanopresso by Wacaco is weatherproof and small enough to fit in a backpack. The Nanopresso is valued at R1 299. www.yuppiechef.com
WIN
BRAND IT Give your braai a personal touch, by branding your meat. Design your own message – 'Happy birthday', 'Nice rump', or 'Don't touch, Dear'. Win a branding iron valued at R349. www.mantality.co.za, Giveaway Code: BRAND
We are giving away some of the items on this page. SMS the giveaway code (e.g. BRITA), your name, email and postal address WIN to 48402 before 30 November 2018. SMSes charged at R1.50 and free SMSes do not apply. Ts and Cs on page 72.
www.countrylife.co.za 015 November 2018 Image Club
The countryside through our readers’ eyes and lenses. Here are this month’s four winning entries in our photographic competition
First Prize A R1 000 voucher from Burblepix, which can be spent on photobooks, canvases and journals. Visit www.burblepix.co.za for more information.
Although, at first glance, this appears to be an average picture of PHOTOGRAPHER Harry Randell a white rhino (taken one morning in Zimbabwe), my eye keeps coming CAMERA Canon EOS 70D, 85mm lens back to it and lingering. The dust gives drama, the framing element of SETTINGS f/5.6 at 1/1000 sec, ISO 100 vegetation and branches draws my eye to the prominent rhino that stands alert and confused in a nicely off-centre position in the frame. A closer look reveals the other, larger rhinos in the background. The photo has atmosphere and, although from a technical point it’s a fairly simple photo, it’s nonetheless appealing.
November 2018 016 www.countrylife.co.za Our judge this month is Dale Morris, a regular contributor to COUNTRY LIFE. Born in the United Kingdom, Dale purchased a one-way ticket out, at the age of 18, and thus became an exceptionally well-travelled refugee. He finally put down roots but that hasn’t ended his regular photographic adventures into Southern Africa and beyond. Dale’s award-winning writing, and wildlife and travel photography have been published worldwide. See his images on www.geckoeye.com
Second Prize A R750 voucher from Burblepix, which can be spent on photobooks, canvases and journals. Visit www.burblepix.co.za for more information.
This image, taken in the late afternoon in Hluhluwe Game Reserve, could PHOTOGRAPHER Jacqui Bull win hands down for cuteness factor alone, but there is much more to it CAMERA Canon 5D Mark IV, 70-200mm lens at 200mm than those endearing ‘cuddly kitten’ and ‘puppy-dog eyes’ photographs. SETTINGS f/3.5 at 1/800, ISO 500 The colours are beautiful, and the relatively low angle makes the zebra ‘pop’, as does the use of a shallow depth of field. There is space on the left of the frame for the zebra to ‘run’ into, and the oxpeckers (despite the top one being cropped at the wing) add an extra element of movement to what might otherwise be a rather static frame.
www.countrylife.co.za 017 November 2018 ENTER OUR IMAGE CLUB COMPETITION Email your entry to [email protected] or enter online at Image Club www.countrylife.co.za. Read the competition rules online or phone Carlyn on 011 889 0726 for an email copy.
Third Prize A R500 voucher from Burblepix, which can be spent on photobooks, canvases and journals. Visit www.burblepix.co.za for more information.
Simplicity and serenity. That’s what this image of an African Spoonbill PHOTOGRAPHER Craig Gissing at Zibulo bird hide in Mpumalanga conjures up for me. Photographers CAMERA Nikon D500, Nikon 200-500mm lens at 330mm call this kind of exposure ‘high key’ – the photograph is overexposed, SETTINGS f/5.6 at 1/320 sec, ISO 1250 either intentionally or accidentally, and the results are often clean, white skies and bleached-out colours. I might have preferred a little crank on the contrast to give the bird a slightly less washed-out look, and I might have framed the image to include more of the reflection (for symmetry’s sake). However, it’s a lovely photo. Well done.
November 2018 018 www.countrylife.co.za SA COUNTRY LIFE @SACLMAG
Fourth Prize A R250 voucher from Burblepix, which can be spent on photobooks, canvases and journals. Visit www.burblepix.co.za for more information.
I think it’s the unusual topic that makes this photo so eye-catching. What on PHOTOGRAPHER Peter Belcher earth are those yellow circles for? Are these crop circles taken to the next CAMERA DJI FC6310 (Phantom 4 Pro) drone with a 24mm lens level? Do aliens now plant flowers and not merely flatten crops into patterns? SETTINGS f/5.6 at 1/1000 sec, ISO 100 If so, how nice. Actually, the circles of rapeseed (Canola) flowers you see here are Land Art, created to burst forth in the wheat fields outside Caledon by renowned landscape artist Strijdom van der Merwe. In this drone shot, the exposure has been managed well despite the presence of dark, cloud shadows and bright, sun patches. The dominance of the foreground circle contrasts nicely with the one further away to right of the frame, giving the image a certain level of depth. I feel like I am there, flying over those fields.
www.countrylife.co.za 019 November 2018 COUNTRY LIVING X BUILDER OF RIETBRON Splendid Isolation
November 2018 020 www.countrylife.co.za With its sweet waters and empty streets, the Eastern Cape village of Rietbron is the perfect antidote to the madness of city life. And much of its charm has to do with the efforts of one man WORDS JULIENNE DU TOIT PICTURES CHRIS MARAIS WWW.KAROOSPACE.CO.ZA
Anthony Cohen and Julienne du Toit walk through town. The oldest house, the Pastorie, is on the right. www.countrylife.co.za 021 November 2018 ietbron lies in the flat, brown emptiness between Beaufort West, Willowmore and Aberdeen. It’s a place of drought-hardened Dorper sheep Rand springbok that float like mirages in the distance. But tilt your head upwards. This is wide-sky country. Were the ground not so stony, this is where you would want to flop down in the middle of the road and watch clouds sail like tall ships from one horizon to the other. When we arrive, the veld is so dry the air seems to suck the moisture from our lips and eyeballs. Everything feels far away, especially the hope of rain. Driving in on the gently undulating dirt road from the Willowmore side, our first indication of life is the green smudge of trees around the graveyard, and then the top half of the face-brick Moederkerk with a flying springbok atop the spire. Surrounding the church are deceptively tiny dwellings built about a century ago, mostly as nagmaalhuisies by the farmers – places to come for communion, markets and matchmaking. Most of the large backyards boast a braai chimney and an outdoor privy. There are working windpumps, pepper trees, rain tanks and saltbush hedges – essential dryland garden elements. There is only one shop left – the Kapok Winkel – at the crossroads facing the township. If you want a car mechanic, head off to Beaufort West. A doctor? Willowmore
TOP: Scenery from the Willowmore-Rietbron road includes the odd windpomp, the odd pepper tree and vast vistas of brown, drought-bitten veld. ABOVE: The Moederkerk is in the centre of town, and the spire is topped by a flying springbok as a weathervane. RIGHT: Backyards often sport horses, sheep, chickens or a combination.
November 2018 www.countrylife.co.za ABOVE LEFT: Anthony Cohen-built or restored houses have a neat, harmonious look to them. ABOVE RIGHT: A house in mid-renovation, ready for painting, windows and shutters. has them. The weekly shopping? Ditto BELOW: Anthony explains the idea behind the ‘quoin’ finish and Karoo cubism. Willowmore. And the nearest mall is hundreds of kilometres away. Rietbron, with its almost total lack of amenities, is the perfect ‘getaway town’, a glorious escape from the crowds. We are here to reconnect with Anthony Cohen, who has had a quiet hand in introducing harmony and proportion to Rietbron over the past quarter-century. It’s not that difficult to track him down, dressed as he is in his signature floppy hat against the sun and oversized wool jacket against any chill. We first met Anthony in 2007. He started his professional life as a divisional council technician in Cape Town and moved to Rietbron in 1992. His mother had bought a house here in 1978 for the princely sum of R600. But, by then, the original old buildings and fixtures were already being altered and sold off. “Eventually I decided I must try to buy what I can and save what’s left. I’ve bought a whole section of the town, and I’m fixing up the houses. And the town is slowly reviving. structures around Rietbron, it is he. In the clay bricks from the veld, flat roofs rimmed The people who moved away long ago are houses he has restored, Anthony has stripped by parapets, high ceilings against the heat. coming back. away paint and plaster, right down to the clay Shutters are crucial for houses left empty for “My one regret is that I didn’t pitch up earlier bricks. Over the years, previous owners had any length of time. The windows are usually to save the old leiwater furrows,” he says. This often painted directly onto the lime-washed six-paned, often made with Oregon pine (which system of furrows traditionally waters the street plaster, which turns brittle over the years. is really Douglas fir), and covered with slatted trees and backyard groves of a small Karoo He feels it’s more practical to remove it all until or solid shutters (klappies). town. In the ‘interests of progress’, the furrows the house stands with its bones picked clean, Most houses in the main part of town cost were abandoned and water was piped to houses. ready for a facelift. about R380 000, according to Anthony, who As a result, many of the trees died. The old Rietbron’s homes were mostly built in says he and his sidekick of ten years, Brandon Padda Dam that fed one part of the leivoor the decades after the town was founded in Johnson, generally build for R4 000 per square system, has the look of a long-abandoned goat 1910, showing little sign of the fussy, frilly metre. They do everything, from windows, kraal. “The water furrows were built by farmers Victorian age, although many do have the gates, shutters and doors to bricklaying, given the work during the Great Depression,” characteristically curved stoep roofs – bellcast, plumbing and electrical. “We work properly. says Anthony. They were built without cement. Regency and bullnose. If something needs to dry for 24 hours, then If anyone knows the inner secrets of The architectural vernacular consists of we leave it to dry. Too many builders cut
www.countrylife.co.za 023 November 2018 COUNTRY LIVING X BUILDER OF RIETBRON
corners. But that can weaken the structure.” century. I used the idea in the township to and the Fibonacci series is mentioned. Between projects in the village, Anthony highlight an otherwise drab building. They’re “The Golden Mean is like a divine formula builds plinths on gravesites with the classic painted grey to resemble stone and to protect for harmony, balance and beauty.” Rietbron stone topping in such a way that little the corners from becoming soiled.” He admires the pragmatism of Karoo burrowing creatures like ground squirrels and What underpins his house plans and builders who came before him. “The methods meerkats can gain no entry. He also takes his everything he creates – from doors, shutters, they used make complete sense. So many of prowess out to the township. houses, to garden gates and even graves – is the the old houses used to have slate or stone at “I’ve got to show you this one extension elegance of mathematics and the Golden Mean. the foundations, for dampcoursing. When new I’ve done,” he says, eyes gleaming. “I call it “I design a house using a calculator. Everything builders come along, they just use cement for Karoo Cubism.” We take a drive out to the is about proportion and the ratio of 1.618.” dampcoursing, reasoning that it doesn’t rain all township to see his ‘Karoo Cube’. It is, indeed, Anthony explains that the classic builders that often in the Karoo. But, oh, it does. Water a thing of beauty, the envy of Petro Tshandu’s of old often used this ratio, which yields can’t penetrate slate, but cement actually draws neighbours in an otherwise-drab RDP ensemble proportions that are intensely and mystically it further and further up.” of identical little structures. Inside the perfect pleasing to the human eye. The Golden Mean He takes us to a house he has rebuilt for ‘cube’ is a lounge leading into the kitchen and apparently underpins the natural design of a client. Small but elegant and, despite the then the bedrooms. everything from the arrangement of petals, to missing fanlight above the door, it’s pleasing With the late sun gilding his face, Anthony spiral galaxies, snail shells and tree branches. and looks balanced. The aspect ratios are based explains why he added grey ‘quoins’ to the Even a healthy animal’s organs and the on a pentagram, or five-pointed Bethlehem star. corners, usually made by the ‘cross-hatching’ arrangement of features on an attractive face It appears to be similar in size to most Karoo of stones, but in this case with cement and have something to do with this harmonious brakdakkie dwellings, with a proportion of paint. “Raised plaster quoins were applied to ratio. Anthony starts speaking of five-pointed 1:1.5 that was used a century ago. many of the village houses in the early 20th stars, of golden triangles, perfect rectangles, “The little classic Karoo houses were
What underpins his house plans and everything he creates – from doors, shutters, houses, to garden gates and even graves – is the elegance of mathematics and the Golden Mean
ABOVE: Anthony takes Julienne du Toit’s notebook and draws a series of interlocking squares and rectangles, joined by a hyperbolic curve that widens into an ever-growing spiral. BELOW: The old water furrows were built by local farmers during the Depression of the 1930s. RIGHT: Every house has an outdoor toilet. But only one sports a giant Coke bottle.
November 2018 024 www.countrylife.co.za LEFT: One of the next houses Anthony and Brandon will be restoring to harmony and life. ABOVE: On the edge of town, an old home restored to perfection.
RIGHT: The Rietbron building team of designed with expansion in mind,” says Brandon Johnson Anthony. “The front facade was a blank wall and Anthony Cohen. with a central four-panelled front door. The BELOW: A house houses had only three rooms – a front room in restored by Anthony the centre, a kitchen to the left or the right and to include perfect a bedroom. So there would be one sash window squares and perfect rectangles. with shutters on each side and another set at the back with a four-panelled back door. “The majority of these houses has been expanded to the front, providing a central passage and a room to each side. A veranda was also added to the front, its front edge of course coinciding with the street boundary. It was never necessary to demolish any walls or remove any windows. It’s interesting to note that the original front door was in most cases moved to its new frame; its original frame was left to accept a new door with stained glass in the top panel.” What drives him to do this work? There are slim pickings in a tiny place like Rietbron, and margins are thin. “When I was still in Cape Town in the late 1980s, a colleague at Urban Design services, architect Andrew Berman, expressed his concern about a friend of ours, ‘What has he done? What has he achieved?’ “I will never forget that question. It has been my driving force ever since. I hope I am leaving behind a town that is more beautiful than when I found it.” O Map reference F4 see inside back cover
Anthony Cohen 076 019 5723
www.countrylife.co.za November 2018 LEFT: A diamond boat waits in the harbour for the conditions to allow for setting out to sea. ABOVE: The Malmokkie fog gets so thick on this part of the West Coast it’s often hard to navigate. BELOW: The orange-red soil of the area gradually whitens as you reach the coast. Diamonds &Dust Way up on the West Coast, Port Jolly is no ordinary town WORDS AND PICTURES ANN GADD
ABOVE: Rugged scenic beauty on the road from Springbok to Port Nolloth. RIGHT: The horse in the one-horse town.
November 2018 026 www.countrylife.co.za LEFT: It’s not everyday that your local café advertises arms and ammunition rather than cooldrinks and toasties. ABOVE: A trip to Alexander Bay revealed this old mining works near the beach. BELOW: The great raconteur George Moyses in front of the museum where he entertains tourists with his tales of diamonds, deceit and drink. BOTTOM: George’s daughter Helena Moyses has returned to Port Nolloth and doubts she’ll leave again.
he rich orange of the earth alters on the outskirts of Port Nolloth to a light, sandy ochre as we ride into town. Vegetation becomes sparser and the ever-present west Tcoast fog – known as Malmokkie – winds its way through town. Have we arrived on the movie set of an old Western? I believe you can tell plenty about a town from the local petrol-station café. If Tant Sannie’s koeksisters and vetkoek are on offer, you know you’ve come to a dorp where life is the way it should be – tranquil and welcoming. But in the Port Nolloth petrol-station café, I am not sure what to make of the camouflage gear, ammunition, rifles and fishing lures on offer. And no vetkoek or koeksisters. Clearly, Port Nolloth is no ordinary town. To add credence to the title ‘one-horse smuggling were contrived – from women town’, we find a gelding strolling untethered, carrying them in curlers under hairnets, to snacking the sparse grass next to a lamp post. swallowing them and even sewing them into (Apparently there used to be a herd, but this is self-inflicted wounds to avoid detection. the last one). “Go ahead,” I drawl to no-one I stop to chat about the problem to a local in particular. “Make my day.” policewoman whom I can neither name nor After being known as Robbe Bay because photograph. “People here have grown up with of its seal-culling operation, Port Nolloth diamonds,” she tells me. “They don’t see that became a port for the Okiep copper mines. taking a few for themselves is a problem, The original name was Aukwatowa, which anymore than is taking fish from the sea.” means ‘where the old man was washed away’ Then a police van arrives, and she nods (the day before our arrival, the name came officiously and jumps inside before I have eerily true when the sea claimed yet another the chance to enquire further. Apparently, life). When diamonds were discovered, every an estimated 30 per cent of diamonds mined wild adventurer this side of the equator (and along this coast is smuggled out. a few north of it) hit town, lured by tales of Predictably, talk in the town centres on instant fortunes and wanton women. fishing, diamonds and booze. But now the Stories of diamonds and trades of a ‘sakkie diamonds have dwindled and work for the men for a bakkie’ (a sack of diamonds for a brand- here has diminished. The result? Many have new bakkie), abound. Ingenious methods for had to leave town to find employment. Those
www.countrylife.co.za 027 November 2018 TOP LEFT: Someone with a sense of humour at nearby McDougalls Bay. Moyses, whom I meet at Port Nolloth Museum. ABOVE: Outside George “We’re catching fish that we’ve never seen Moyse’s beachside home before. Strange fish. And the flamingos that is his boat. The man clearly once were so much part of Port Nolloth seem has a great sense of humour. LEFT: Die Ou to have gone, at least for now.” (Although we Ou Skuur gift shop has do find them up north in Namibia). “Other an eclectic assortment birds have arrived – eagles for instance and the of decor items. Barlow’s Larks are still around.” Like her father, the delightful, roguish ex- diamond diver turned museum curator, George who are still in town rely mostly on fishing Moyses, Helena is a great raconteur and tells or on working on the few diamond-concession me about her life as a child growing up in Port boats that remain. Nolloth. “Dad wasn’t around much, but if he Taking a jaunt south to nearby McDougalls couldn’t give us time, he gave us freedom. As Bay (a mishmash of holiday homes set around kids we roamed wild. Some days when the a tranquil bay), which now almost runs into diamond hunting had been successful, we lived Port Nolloth, I meet Jeanie Hollands who has like kings. But most of the time we struggled to lived here for 26 years. “There is no work make ends meet. Dad promised my mom when for the men here. My husband is currently in they came to Port Nolloth that they would stay Egypt, heading off to work on an oil rig. He here for two years. It’s now 27 years later and used to dive diamonds. My 17-year-old son is they are still here.” in Cape Town training for his diving certificate No trip to Port Nolloth is complete without because he wants to come back and work for a visit to this museum. It was originally one of the private boat owners who operate started by Grazia de Beer, a glamorous and concessions. My younger son just walked out enterprising Italian who, after being schooled of school because he wants to catch snoek and in the Cape, moved to Port Nolloth with her crayfish – he says there’s more money in that husband, and spent 20 years collecting the than in school. Only my daughter has stuck artefacts on display in the museum, and with her studies.” running various bed and breakfasts. The Jeanie says there are strange things beachfront is named after her. happening in the town. “The snoek season The museum is now run by rough diamond normally lasts a month, but this year it’s gone George, who really gives a colourful glimpse on longer than three months. Guys are driving into the world of diamond mining, diving ABOVE: Bedrock is the oldest and most historic from Cape Town overnight to Port Nolloth to and the general history of the town. He’ll guest cottage in Port Nolloth. It once belonged to collect fish and sell it in Cape Town the next amuse you with stories about his ex-girlfriend Grazia de Beer, the Italian beauty after whom the morning, before driving back again.” who stole his diamonds, and his penniless beachfront is named. This turn of events is echoed by Helena friend who became a millionaire overnight.
November 2018 PORT NOLLOTH ◗ TRAVEL
ABOVE LEFT: Nemo’s beachfront restaurant is the place for fish Know Before You Go and chips. LEFT: Jeanie Hollands O Port Nolloth provides a gateway to Namibia has lived in the area most of her life. ABOVE: Vespetti’s restaurant via the smaller border post at Swartkops. on the beachfront hosts many It’s also a gateway to the Richtersveld a festive get-together for locals National Park. and tourists. BELOW: The Roman O Museum times are 10h00-16h00, but with Catholic Church built in 1904 is the George that’s more of a rough guide. oldest in the region. O Alexander Bay is an easy 85km trip north for a day’s outing. (Don’t expect anything in the way of restaurants in Alexander Bay.) It’s well worth a visit though and although you need to “Currently an average of two diamond divers sign in, you no longer need permits. die every year while dredging for stones,” O Kleinsee is 77km south of Port Nolloth on a dirt George tells us. “They work on average four road – it’s not in too bad a condition, but there days a month.” The risks these days don’t seem are some corrugations, so take it slow. worth the rewards. “Nowadays,” he informs us, “getting Where to Eat here is a simple affair but, in the late O On the beachfront, Nemos for fish and 1800s, embarking on or disembarking chips, mussels, breakfasts etc, and Vespetti from a steamer meant climbing into a large for Italian, seafood and pizzas. Hours vary cylindrical basket that was hoisted by chain according to season. and pulleys and unceremoniously dumped O Mar-e-Sol on Main Road is a great bar and onto the pier or ship.” grill. 09h00-22h00 George then shows us the actual menu from O The Scotia Inn restaurant in the hotel is open the Klipfontein Hotel, dated 10 December from early morning to late evening. 1876. Diners could enjoy a choice of tortoise or sheep’s head soup, followed by pig afval, Where to Sleep camel kebabs, white ants with onion, and O The Beach House and Cottage – opposite wild duck salami. Or the exclusive dishes like stroll back to our hotel, surrounded by the the beach, with great sunset views and in roasted flamingo and wild duck, Namakwa rough, tough beauty of this area, George’s walking distance of restaurants. Good for pigeon pie or boiled ostrich egg. My fish and parting words come back to me, “Remember, families. 074 107 2422 chips from the previous night feels like an don’t rush doing things in the morning here, O Scotia Inn, a friendly, old-style hotel on Beach infinitely better choice. else there will be nothing left to do in the Road. Restaurant on the premises and walking It’s time to take our leave from George afternoon.” Somehow, having nothing to do distance to other restaurants. Try an upstairs and head off to find the elusive vetkoek and seems like a splendid idea. O room with a balcony. 027 851 8353/8232 koeksisters, which we do in no time. As we Map reference D1 see inside back cover
www.countrylife.co.za 029 November 2018 TRAVEL X VAN ZYLSRUS
A splash of colour and a dollop of character alongside the road in Van Zylsrus.
In the Land of Sand & Soul In the far reaches orth of the large Northern is 169 kilometres north-west of Kuruman, Cape towns of Upington on the shortest route to the Kgalagadi from of the Northern Cape, and Kuruman, camel thorn Johannesburg, making it a convenient stopover. RON SWILLING trees, red sand, dry river beds Or, if you’re fond of exploring the area around and gasvryheid (hospitality) the Kgalagadi, as I am, it’s just 150 kilometres discovers Van Zylsrus, Nepitomise the region. The words are even east of Askham. the one-donkey Kalahari painted onto wooden posts on the main road I trundle into town in a cloud of dust from of the small town of Van Zylsrus – ‘Welkom the gravel road, to be dazzled by Kalahari town with a big heart in Van Zylsrus. Geniet Kalahari Gasvryheid’ charm, creativity and character. An rusty, old (Welcome to Van Zylsrus. Enjoy Kalahari rusty car with cactuses growing in the engine Hospitality). bay lies behind a stop sign with the words, The ‘one-donkey town’, as I hear it called, ‘Stop, Welkom in ons dorpie. Son, sand,
November 2018 030 www.countrylife.co.za sterre en hope siel’ (Stop, Welcome to our Tale and Ancient Molopo. paints the sand red, and watch the extraordinary small town. Sun, sand, stars and heaps of I explore the roadside decor and bright hotel transition from day to night that you find in soul). A sun made with radiating purple- interior before I meet with Petro for a late- the Kalahari. Elbie joins us for the sunset painted gemsbok horns looms over the rusty afternoon trip to their scenic sunset spot. “Look celebration and, as we drive back to the remains of an old Ford pickup and, around the what I have for supper,” she says on the way hotel for a creamy pasta and !nabas supper, bend, I happen upon the Vanzyls Rus Hotel, to the kitchen, arms full of Kalahari truffles he explains the decoration along the streets. a surprisingly colourful Kalahari find. (known locally as !nabas), manna from heaven “Before Van Zylsrus won kykNET Best Town Painted in burnt orange and deep blue, with after the rains. in the Northern Cape 2017, the community vivid mosaic creations of desert creatures, Out on the koppie, with a view of the got together and cleaned up the streets.” Petro its burst of vitality is a warm introduction to Kalahari, we feast on our snacks as the sun used her creative flair to decorate the corners this small town on the usually dry banks of the Kuruman River. So is the welcome from TOP LEFT: A creative friendly owners Petro and Elbie Jonker, who windbreak at the have played an active part in adding a dash Vanzyls Rus Hotel’s of vibrant colour to a town that was only sunset picnic spot linked to Eskom in the year 2000, has a KLK overlooking the Landbou Beperk (agricultural store), the burnished Kalahari sands. TOP RIGHT: Kuierhoekie Kafee, two churches, two bottle Petro Jonker with stores and still boasts old signboards pointing a handful of Kalahari the way to the Gemsbok National Park – one truffles, manna from of the parks that now makes up the Kgalagadi the earth. RIGHT: Transfrontier Park. Wooden signposts on the main street Petro shows me around the hotel, leading of Van Zylsrus me to the bright courtyard with aloes, welcome visitors succulents and stones. Wacky geckoes, and invite them lizards and scorpions decorate the outer to enjoy Kalahari walls of the rooms that bear names like hospitality. Meerkat Meander, Roller Retreat, Tortoise
www.countrylife.co.za ABOVE LEFT: The inviting entrance of the Vanzyls Rus Hotel. ABOVE: The Van Zylsrus and have meetings with farmers on colourful rooms of the the hotel veranda. Many loans were authorised hotel surround a peaceful on that stoep,” Elbie tells me and smiles. The courtyard with trickling hotel was rebuilt and modernised in 2007, when water and a creative succulent display. the Jonker couple left Johannesburg for the LEFT: Searching for Kalahari frontier land, and helped to transform the meerkat colony at a town that felt like the last outpost back then. dawn in the Kuruman The name of the town, as the story goes, River Reserve. comes from General Jakobus Albertus van Zyl, BELOW LEFT: Volunteer who fought with De la Rey in the 1914/1915 Melissa Wharram uses the quiet time in the Boer rebellion, and spent four days in the area morning to observe one resting up. As he left, he said, “The name of of the meerkat colonies. this place is Van Zylsrus (Van Zyl’s Rest).” A highlight of the stay is a trip into the nearby Kuruman River Reserve, of Meerkat Manor fame, to visit the meerkat colonies. Volunteers with the Kalahari Meerkat Project, with recycled material she found lying around, who are meticulously studying meerkat planting whatever the goats wouldn’t eat. behaviour, only allow visitors to accompany From Elbie, I hear several of the town’s them on Sundays, so as not to disturb the stories. “In December two years ago, after meerkats or their research. It’s something I’ve a few years of drought, locals gathered next wanted to do for a while and, the next morning, to the Kuruman river bed and prayed for rain. we have an early start and head to the reserve. A month later they gathered again, this time I glance at the outside temperature – bitingly next to the flowing river to give thanks.” He cold at minus one. also offers insight into the town’s past. “The The crisp day begins to lighten as volunteer Diamond T bus used to travel once a month Melissa Wharram and I set off for the Lazuli from Kuruman to Van Zylsrus and then to colony, one of the habituated groups in the Askham. The driver would pick up the large reserve that she is studying that morning. Other metal vats of cream from the farmers on his groups have names like Hakuna Matata and way past and deliver their payment in the Run Amok, names given to them by the steady vats on his return trip a month later, in an stream of international volunteers. The trend is arrangement of trust.” echoed in the individual names of the meerkats The hotel, once called the Gemsbok Hotel, in the groups, like the dominant female called and serving farmers, hunters and travellers, Filthy McNasty after a Belfast pub. has a long history. “Back in the day, the bank Melissa picks up the signal with her radio managers would travel from Kuruman to antenna and, after about two kilometres, we find
November 2018 032 www.countrylife.co.za ABOVE LEFT: Petro and Elbie Jonker at the Molopo river bed, bordering Botswana. ABOVE: There’s not much to beat sosaties and braaibroodjies with a view of the ancient Molopo. BELOW: Meerkats at Kuruman River Reserve their burrows as the sun starts to rise, warming warm up in the first rays of sunlight. our backs. It’s still too cold for the meerkats, who are snuggling underground. “They’ll usually only emerge when they’re warmer,” Melissa tells us, as a blue wildebeest bellows nearby. A Pearl-spotted Owl practises its scales and Cape Turtle Doves keep telling me I should ‘sleep laaaaater’. I’m beginning to agree. Eventually, the first brave meerkat emerges and suns itself on its hind legs. Soon, the others join him, standing like statues worshipping the sun god. “Mmmmm mmmmm hmmmmmm,” Melissa hums softly so that they learn to associate the soothing musical sound with the volunteers. She uses the early morning quiet as an opportunity to gently lift the meerkats into a dish of tasty cooked egg positioned on a scale, noting their weight while they enjoy a titbit. When the meerkats are sufficiently warmed up, they head off to forage, and we walk back through the long grass to our vehicle. Petro and Elbie have another Kalahari treat in store for later in the day. The Molopo River is the venue for our late lunch braai and we drive through land covered with suurgras and langbeen-boesmangras. At the junction of the Middelpits road to the Botswana border, Elbie Kalahari psyche, with Molopo – a Kalahari sun rules the day, where grass crowned with points out two massive pulleys that were linked name – still on the tip of everyone’s tongue. feathery seed heads follows the rain, and where to a pont in operation on the Kuruman River The land around us, dotted with kameeldoring a thousand stars light up the night sky. Here, when it flooded its banks in the great flood of (camel thorn) and witgat (shepherd’s) trees, is in the far reaches of the Northern Cape, the 1974, and flowed for six months. People were washed green at this time of year, and the sky Kalahari catches your heart. O stranded on both sides of the river until the looks like it’s flecked with feathers. We sit and Map reference C3 see inside back cover pulleys were installed. They are now strange take in the scene while our braaibroodjies and landmarks in a dry land. sosaties sizzle on the fire. Vanzyls Rus Hotel 053 781 0201, 082 574 7151 Our lunch spot overlooks the vast and As I was told earlier on my journey, when 083 383 8286, www.vanzylsrushotel.com ancient Molopo river bed. The great river you reach the Kalahari you have to shift gears. Visits on Sundays to the Kuruman River has left its mark on the landscape and in the It takes a while. This is where a determined Reserve can be arranged through the hotel.
www.countrylife.co.za 033 November 2018 HIKING XFISH RIVER CANYON Go Fish It’s the hike in Southern Africa, writes GERHARD UYS of his ¿ve days of self-reliance, isolation and toil in NamibiaÁs Fish River Canyon
November 2018 034 www.countrylife.co.za OPPOSITE: The Fish River Canyon sucks you into a world of isolated bliss. We hiked it in five days, but it’s easier in six. ABOVE: Leave the river behind for a shortcut over the desert plateau, and you step into a world more like Mars than anywhere on Earth. BELOW LEFT: A previous hiker placed these kudu remains against a rock. It must have succumbed to the drought of the past three years. BELOW RIGHT: Michael van Jaarsveld with a koringkriek. These buggers are everywhere. We even gave one a piece of biltong that he ate in less than five minutes. Get near them and they make a screeching sound.
www.countrylife.co.za November 2018 HIKING XFISH RIVER CANYON
ABOVE: The descent into the canyon is less than three kilometres but takes well over two hours. ABOVE RIGHT: Towards sunset on day one we wonder whether we will finish the hike in five days. RIGHT: The distinct tower of the Grünau Country Hotel, a favourite overnight stop for hikers of the Fish as it’s only 90 kilometres from the start.
hike does not start when your boots hit the dirt for the first time. It begins with a to-do list. This I realise while listening to the rhythmic munching Acoming from the back seat of the car, with the arm of our friend Liesl Muller extending itself every so often to me and my wife Mia in the front seats, offering us biltong or chutney- flavoured maize bites. The biltong and bites were with us because they were on the list as snacks for our time in Namibia’s Fish River Canyon, which is about marked ‘car snacks’, and won’t have any effect best place to overnight before setting off for 100 kilometres long. And if I am correct, we on our survival in the canyon. the canyon. We also top up on some Namibian are now digging into provisions supposed to Because the Fish River Canyon is so hospitality. The owner of the hotel boils us some sustain us while on a long hike in the middle isolated, you leave nothing to chance and, eggs for breakfast the next day and doesn’t even of nowhere. besides a food list, Mia started a list of what frown when we request a helping of grated This is not a good time to reduce provisions. to take to stay dry, warm, clean and healthy, cheddar cheese for the braaibroodjies we intend We have travelled about 1 200 kilometres a month beforehand. Weeks before the trip, our to make the following evening on the hike. from Johannesburg towards our destination group of 12 hikers also shared lists and photos Before first light the next morning, our in Namibia, and the nearest decent shop for of gear and food on a Visrivier 2018 WhatsApp car headlights break the darkness of the restocking is about 300 kilometres away in group. Paranoia abounds among hikers, it seems. 100-kilometre dirt road to Hobas campsite. Upington, back in South Africa. I say yes to We stop at the Grünau Country Hotel. Here we leave the cars for the four nights and another handful of bites as Liesl assures us Grünau is a small town with about 50 houses five days of the hike, and will catch a lift back this specific snack comes from a Ziplock bag surrounded by Karoo-like desert, and is the to them afterwards.
November 2018 036 www.countrylife.co.za ABOVE LEFT: Every so often someone drags along a bucket of paint and repaints the Vespa that remains of three brought into the valley in 1968 by madmen who wanted to ‘ride’ the canyon. None of the Vespas made it to the end. ABOVE: At some stages the Namib heat is so energy-sapping it feels more like a trudge than a hike to the next rest. LEFT: The sulphur spring merits an hour’s rest and a mud bath. Divert some hot water with rocks and make a Jacuzzi. BELOW: My backpack takes on a life of its own. What I can’t fit inside is simply strapped to the outside.
We nervously peer into the canyon because Two hours later we finish the 2.5-kilometre we know that, once we start down the path to descent. Our legs give way and we fall flat on the river, the only real way out is an expensive our backs under a boulder for some shade, and helicopter ride courtesy of our medical catch our first close view of the muddy Fish insurance. To calm us down, Tannie Heide River. I open a Ziplock bag marked ‘day one’ du Preez shoves home-baked brownies from and dig out biltong and trail mix, wolfing it her ‘car snacks’ Ziplock bag into our mouths. down like it’s my last meal, and rounding it off We chew gratefully and then begin the with a chicken-mayo sandwich. The others also descent. It’s like walking down a 50-centimetre- dig into snacks and we discuss hiking menus wide staircase of scattered, uneven rocks. like it’s an art to be studied. I hadn’t weighed my backpack before our start, After the chow we head off again and but now it feels overpacked and my legs are immediately the sand fights back our every turning to jelly. effort to advance. “I can’t accept this,” says
www.countrylife.co.za 037 November 2018 HIKING XFISH RIVER CANYON
Liesl in awe, as we walk deeper into the valley over the next four days no one knows. We find the murky, but clean, water. At each rest stop that stretches thin, with neck-bending high a spot between rocks to settle for the night. As we repeat our water routine. cliffs, ahead of us. The river curves its muddy we lose our battle against the last sunlight we At about the 15-kilometre mark on day two, way endlessly ahead and we are like ants can’t find enough wood for a fire, so I cook my a few palm trees are a sign that it’s time for among its enormity. The canyon is the largest sosaties on my camp stove. a break at the sulphur springs. At this little oasis, in Africa and it’s overwhelming. After dinner we lie in our sleeping bags and water at about 65ÁC seeps from underneath the The first two days of the hike are probably fall asleep while gazing at the stars. No one has palm trees into the river. And the advantage of the hardest as you have to descend to the river, a tent and, when a slow drizzle wakes us early hiking with a group largely of engineers is that begin grappling with sand and intermittently in the morning, we pull over canvas sheets and it takes one of them only a few minutes to move climb over car-sized boulders. Our friend wait it out. a few rocks to divert the water into a mud pool. Hendri van Zyl, who organised the hike, had Then we begin a routine. After breakfast This is what Michael van Jaarsveld does said he would not take any inexperienced of oats, rusks and coffee, everyone goes to and minutes later we all lie in the warm water hikers along and, after day one, we realise why. the river to get water. We add three drops of and soothe our already aching legs. It’s hard We cover only six kilometres before fading purifier for each litre of water, to make sure we to leave the hot spring behind, but we head sunlight forces us to down our backpacks. don’t get sick on the hike. The dust here is so off again. We spot the first sign of life in the How we will cover close to 100 kilometres fine that it never settles and every day we drink canyon, a horse grazing nearby and, for all its fairly good condition, we cannot see what it eats in this world of sand and rock. LEFT: The head of From day three the landscape gradually a catfish (barbel) marks the becomes flatter and we begin covering more 40-kilometre mark. Rocks, paint or animal heads than 20 kilometres a day. Here we also start along the way keep track seeing a lot of kudu and leopard spoor. “Jis of distance. BELOW LEFT: Uys, kyk daai sak,” my buddy Hendri chirps. Liesl Muller has a quick He is not the only one with comments. Thanks bite. Food is one of the big to Mia’s lists, my breakfast, lunch and dinner topics of discussion before, during and after the hike. each day are organised, but that’s all that I have BELOW CENTRE: Michael organised. For the rest, I’m fraying at the edges van Jaarsveld takes and my backpack is proof. a breather. BELOW RIGHT: Every morning when I finish packing and Michael leads the way. the group begins to head out, I realise I’ve He had hiked the canyon before and his knowledge forgotten to pack some bits and pieces, and is a great help.
November 2018 www.countrylife.co.za RIGHT: Walking over soccer ball-size rocks takes a massive amount of time. But your ankles will eventually forgive you for the pain. BELOW RIGHT: The grave of the German soldier Thilo von Trotha who was killed here in the Nama wars. Some hikers leave a bottle of whisky buried under a nearby tree for friends who hike the Fish months, even years, later. BELOW FAR RIGHT: Leopard spoor! We hope to see it but, alas, a creature too clever.
end up strapping them to my backpack. Which means I have a braai grid, slops, swim shorts, scarf (for the sun), my rubbish bag (you have to carry your rubbish to the end) and my cup, all hanging from my backpack. The word ‘hobo’ flies around freely. And although the backpack lightens after every meal, it seems to be growing in size. Following the river for three days becomes a safety line. For one, the river has water. And if you follow it you will end up at your final destination, the Ai-Ais Hot Springs resort, even without a map. However, now and again you do need to take shortcuts away from the wider horseshoes of the river. On day three we wet our hats and scarves and take our first shortcut away from the Can You Do It? river up to the desert plateau. Around us, O Ideally, you should have hiked a few three-to-four night hikes if you want to attempt The Fish rock towers jut into the sky like the arms of – it’s not for inexperienced hikers as it takes some mental stamina to get through. The hiking is fallen giants. Here it is only us and a zebra over relatively flat terrain and the strain is less than hikes in hilly areas, and can be done over carcass. But we are not alone, but welcomed five or six days. Namibian authorities require that a minimum of three people hike together. to the vastness by koringkrieke (armoured O The build-up to The Fish is much worse than the actual hike. There are massive doubts – the ground crickets or corn crickets) that screech long distance, the fact that help is so far away if there is an emergency, the limited information at us when we get too close. These creatures on the internet, the doubts about whether it will be boiling hot or freezing cold. But once your become our daily company. boot hits the dirt, you settle into the familiar routine of hiking life. The shortcuts are a must as the hard desert O Even though we only covered 6km on day one, and about 15km on day two, keeping at +20km landscape gives you new perspective on on the following days saw us finish by about noon on day five. solitude. Every ten kilometres, white paint on a boulder announces another small victory. Getting There And before we know it, we hit the 80-kilometre O On the way to Namibia, a stopover in Vryburg in the North West makes the 1 200km (2 400km mark on day five. We sit around grateful to be both ways) trip much less tiring. We stayed at Game View Lodge 053 927 1320, 084 020 2844 almost there but with a sense of dismay that www.gameviewlodge.co.za the hike is nearly over. Everyone checks fitness O In Namibia we stayed at the excellent Grünau Country Hotel the night before the hike. watches and compares distances covered, while +264 63 262 001, www.grunaucountryhotel.com finishing off the last snacks. O The safest bet is to go in two vehicles. One can be left at Ai-Ais resort, and the other at the At this point the big question on everyone’s Hobas Campsite, but the resorts do have lift facilities. Note that you travel more than 100km lips is which is worse? Walking over sand, or of very good dirt road to get to the start of the hike. playing hellish hopscotch over fields of large O We entered Namibia through the Nakop/Ariamsvlei border post. Remember your passports, rocks? I’ll take rocks over sand any day. proof of vehicle registration, and proof of medical insurance for the trip. But for now the Ai-Ais resort, with its O You must book months ahead. Namibia Wildlife Resorts 021 422 3761, [email protected] promise of beer and hamburgers, is ahead of O There are various maps available on the internet. Hobas campsite provides a map at the us. And so we trudge on into the last kilometres beginning of the hike. of beautiful isolation. O
www.countrylife.co.za 039 November 2018 LEFT: Boetie Bester in his garlic-festooned shed. BELOW: Bulbs like garlic thrive in the Karoo.
Garlic by Boetie Bester The very nature of a country harvest feast can be found in the ¿rst week of November on a rickety table in the middle of a perfectly ramshackle pub in the Karoo village of Nieu-Bethesda WORDS JULIENNE DU TOIT PICTURES CHRIS MARAIS WWW.KAROOSPACE.CO.ZA
nce upon a time, Boetie a market-garden genius, now passed. There has eight to 12 cloves that must be broken Bester was the 17th-best truck was a bumper crop that year and most apart so that about 70 000 little segments can driver in the world. Today, subsequent years, including the present one. be re-planted separately by hand. the genial and multi-talented Garlic does well in the Karoo. Planted in The idea for a garlic harvest festival was Boetie is the barman at the April, it fattens underground during the icy probably born in the Ramstal pub over a couple ORamstal pub in Nieu-Bethesda, and a garlic winters. Sometimes its thin, green leaves of beers shared by barman Boetie and co-owner, farmer of local repute. (which are ignored by almost every herbivore) Ian Allemann. In fact, that venue is most likely the He and his wife Pikkie drove up from their are covered in frost or poke above kapok and festival brainstorming centre of Nieu-Bethesda. base in Port Elizabeth many years ago and had snow. Boetie grows an Egyptian cultivar of the After all, on a hot day in the Karoo Heartland, a look at the tiny mountain village famous for smelly bulbs. ÂThe Ancient Egyptians would with a cold beer to hand, itÁs possible to dream its Owl House. They didnÁt like it much. ÂBut feed it to their slaves, and it kept them healthy. up all sorts of crazy stuff. Like a pumpkin festival, then we came back, spent four days here and We have the pyramids thanks to garlic.Ã a midwinter festival or, yes, a garlic-harvest really connected with Nieu-Bethesda,Ã he says. This is the real deal, not that insipid irradiated festival to celebrate the barmanÁs bounty. They loved it so much they bought two stuff imported from overseas. BoetieÁs crop, Anyone can play. The buffet table is varied plots. On one they built a sprawling bungalow hanging from the rafters of a shed and piled in and constantly replenished throughout the of a house, and on the other they planted great heaps, is sold to buyers in Graaff-Reinet, evening. Each person (entirely voluntary) garlic. They were mentored by someone Port Elizabeth and beyond. Growing garlic is is asked to bring along a casserole-size dish called The Brigadier, by all accounts quite labour intensive. Boetie says each bulb of something garlicky, cooked with a liberal
November 2018 040 www.countrylife.co.za NIEU-BETHESDA GARLIC FESTIVAL ◗ COUNTRY LIVING
LEFT: The fertile soils of Nieu-Bethesda, high in the Sneeuberg mountains. Perfect for sheep and garlic. ABOVE: Ian Allemann, owner of the Karoo Lamb and Ramstal, concentrates on peeling yet another clove of garlic.
infusion of Boetie Bester’s garlic harvest. The garlic is free and so are the meals, placed on the table in waves of hospitality from local homes and eaten all through the evening. Meanwhile Mr Garlic himself, Boetie Bester, holds court in the way he does every night behind the bar, which is hardly at all. He’s the perfect barman, chatty when you want LEFT: Fat garlic cloves, some chilli and ginger, ready him to be, quiet when not. A real mensch. for the pot. ABOVE: Inside the Ramstal, the first wave “Sometimes visitors say they don’t have of food hits the long, rickety table. enough cash and there’s no ATM. I say you can pay me tomorrow. And they ask if I don’t want The Garlic Harvest Party is held on the first to take their car keys. They’re amazed when Friday of November at the Ramstal bar, I say no. They almost always pay. Daar’s min sleeper hits of all the foods presented by local Nieu-Bethesda. Bring something garlicky. mense wat gespring het” (There are few people cooks – some kind of garlicky peanut brittle www.nieu-bethesda.com who got away). that proves hopelessly addictive. Usually he presides over a pub that hosts Boetie actually has his Springbok colours in Believe It or Not more dogs than people. But at the beginning the little-known sport of truck driving. He has O Garlic is one of the first food flavourings, and of November, for the town’s Garlic Harvest competed across the world, first in the regional archaeological records show it was used more Festival, the ratio is switched. The food keeps Eastern Cape championships, then he became than 7 000 years ago. coming. Garlic bread. Garlicky chicken-liver the overall South African champion, and then O There are 450 species of garlic, all members pâté. Spinach, cheese and garlic. Honey- represented the country at the World Truck of the lily family. roasted garlic and chilli. Lasagna, asparagus Driving Championship in France, where he O It has antiseptic and antibacterial properties, tartlet, prego steak, sausage, meatballs, garlicky cracked 17th position. It’s all about precision and can be used on open wounds. It was used chocolate cupcakes. driving, navigating obstacles with millimetres for that very purpose during World War II. Victoria Nance, genius vegan bookshop to spare and reversing along narrow tracks O Apart from antimicrobial properties, garlic is owner, has brought along garlicky vegan with a trailer. said to be useful in lowering cholesterol and Karoo sushi. Willie Olivier, originally from When he and Pikkie first came here, he was blood pressure. Rustenburg and owner of the peach-coloured struck by the “rustigheid wat aan my gevat het” O The first labour strike was over garlic, 5 000 house up the road dubbed the pampoenpaleis, (the peace that touched me). Nieu-Bethesda years ago. Egyptian slaves downed tools when has brought garlic snails. The subject of turned out to be the perfect hidey-hole for their garlic rations were cut. whether they are from his garden exercises the a refugee trucker escaping the fast lane. And O Six bulbs of garlic were found in King bantering barflies for quite some time. Artist the garlic’s not bad either… O Tutankhamun’s tomb. Albert Redelinghuys shyly presents one of the Map reference E5 see inside back cover
www.countrylife.co.za 041 November 2018 My Kingdom for a Horse Cake for cordial, spring onions for a pair of tights, and artisan breads so good they could probably fetch an arm and a leg. Bartering is booming at exchange markets in the KwaZulu-Natal Midlands WORDS AND PICTURES ANDREA ABBOTT
artering, according to my Collins involves negotiation and thus a mutually fair honest way of trading that started going out of English dictionary, is ‘to trade outcome? But then I got to thinking about some fashion after the Lydians began minting coins goods, services, etc in exchange modern instances of bartering. You know the in around 600BC. (One such coin, by the way, for other goods, services, etc, type I mean. Like a cabinet post for a passage can fetch a pretty penny now, up to $11 000, rather than for money’. My to India or a coal mine. I must confess, though, my online search revealed). Nevertheless, Bwell-thumbed dictionary (which I wouldn’t to having engaged in similar questionable bartering survived and is making a comeback exchange for all the tea in China) indicates negotiations when I struck a deal with my good as evidenced in the number of exchange further that the term barter derives from the friend and hairdresser, Daniel. A haircut for markets cropping up in the KZN Midlands. Old French barater – to cheat. a dozen beers (my husband’s). At the last count there were two in Howick, I found that surprising. Bartering surely On the whole, however, bartering is an and one each in Tweedie, Hilton, Rosetta,
November 2018 042 www.countrylife.co.za EXCHANGE MARKETS ◗ COUNTRY LIVING
CLOCKWISE FROM FAR LEFT: At the iThemba stand, Nikesiwe Mdladla (left) and Lunga Dlungwane (right) swap seedlings for marmalade with Moraig Peden (centre). M Howick exchangers barter at the Miller Street Common. M Lovingly made Love Bread is snapped up at the Tweedie market. M Penny Maitland-Stewart (back) barters some of her giant cabbages and broccoli with market founder, Karen Zunckel. M A bunch of spring onions for a pair of tights. Nikki Brighton (left, one of the founders of the Howick market) and market gardener extraordinaire, Chisoma Bean. M At Howick, beautiful beetroot up for exchange.
Having spent more time than I care to quantify slaving over a hot stove, I couldn’t agree more. “Remove the money and exchange becomes pure joy,” Nikki remarked
Mpophomeni and Curries Post. Intrigued, of it. My mint was exactly what she needed for books, lettuce for lemons, kitchen utensils I went to check out a few. that day.” The notion of need got me thinking for tree tomatoes, spring onions for a pair of Before I went, people were curious about of poor old Richard III who, in Shakespeare’s tights, a naartjie for a hug. how value is assessed to ensure a fair deal. But play of that name, cries out, ‘A horse! A horse! “Money becomes an obstacle to the true as I discovered when I arrived at the Howick My kingdom for a horse!’ Who, in similar value of something,” Nikki said, spreading out Exchange one cold Wednesday morning, circumstances – horse slain on the battlefield, her wares on the ground. “There’s huge worth value in bartering is seen differently to how bloodthirsty enemies baying for blood – in the time it takes to grow produce, or harvest the commercial world sees it. “It’s nothing wouldn’t offer such an exchange? seeds, or bake.” Having spent more time than to do with monetary value,” Nikki Brighton, But back to a gentler bargaining field, the I care to quantify slaving over a hot stove, co-founder of the market with Pam Haynes Miller Street Common where the Howick I couldn’t agree more. “Remove the money and explained. “It’s about sharing abundance. And Exchangers were swopping produce and goods exchange becomes pure joy,” Nikki remarked. also what a person might need or want.” Right with nary a thought to cash, and without any It certainly seems so. Bread baker Carol then, I could vouch for that. I was so cold, I’d unseemly haggling. Addis, who lives in Lions River ten kilometres have bartered my soul for a cup of hot coffee. Amid frolicking dogs and children (neither away, said, “The barter market is the best To illustrate her point, Nikki described one up for barter, the parents pointed out), beautiful thing that’s happened to me. I knew no one of her more memorable exchanges: a bunch home-made artisan bread was snapped up for in Howick until I started attending the market of mint for a Zara blouse. “The blouse was of equally beautiful home-grown beetroots. Cakes and began making friends with many like- no use or value to the owner; she’d grown out were swapped for cordials, locally grown seeds minded people.”
www.countrylife.co.za 043 November 2018 COUNTRY LIVING X EXCHANGE MARKETS
That sense of community is what the A key feature is the seedling stand unopened packet of fishnet stockings a friend exchangers at the Hilton Produce Exchange facilitated by NPO iThemba, an organisation (I hope she’s not reading this) had traded me emphasise too. “Every community should founded to uplift the nearby community of for a piece of chocolate cake days earlier. The have a barter market. It’s so fulfilling to spend Sweetwaters. The organically grown seedlings stockings remained in my car, though. They a morning with like-minded people,” said are part of a programme to improve nutrition didn’t seem appropriate to the occasion. Kevan Zunckel, whose wife, Karen pioneered in Sweetwaters, encourage community But I was lucky. Kevan explained that, Hilton’s market. members to grow food, and create sustainable while bartering is preferred, it’s not always “I’d wanted to do one for a long time but income. Karen hopes Sweetwaters residents practical and cash is then permitted. I was wasn’t sure if anyone was growing food in our will, in time, also bring their vegetables to thrilled. Those veggies outclassed anything town,” Karen explained. “I put a message on barter. you’d find in a regular commercial store. the Hilton Facebook page to gauge if there’d Meanwhile, other local growers barter “As an environmentalist, I’m very aware of be any interest. Within 24 hours there were 200 exceptional fresh produce like the most the commercial world and the rut humanity is responses.” The weather was appalling for the splendid cabbages, broccoli, cauliflowers, in,” Kevan said, adding that a community that first market and Karen was sure no one would and oyster mushrooms I’d ever seen and that trades not only in goods but knowledge and pitch up, but people did and, nearly three years I wanted with all my heart right then. I had skills offers a more sustainable way of living. later, the market is going strong. nothing to exchange though, other than an He described helping someone out with his beehives and, in return, being given “a bunch” of chickens to take home. Those chicken eggs LEFT: Karen Zunckel, pioneer of the Hilton are now among the produce Karen and Kevan market, with her bring to the market. On my visit, a dozen daughter Jessie and fetched a heap of fabulous oyster mushrooms. husband Kevan. Bartering as a way of life is a message I heard again when I attended Barter it Bru
LEFT: One person’s unused goods can be indispensable in another household. ABOVE RIGHT: At Hilton, free- range eggs go for a heap of organic oyster mushrooms. RIGHT: Honestly heirloom. Beans of a quality and variety you’ll rarely find in a regular store are up for exchange at the Howick barter market.
November 2018 044 www.countrylife.co.za ABOVE LEFT: Dion Bean peruses the wares and produce on offer at Howick’s Miller Street Common. at Tweedie. The oldest of the Midlands’ barter ABOVE: Howick resident Bridget Ringdahl with Harriet markets, it celebrated its fourth anniversary on (left) and Impy (hairy blur to the right) and the morning’s the day I visited. Says founder, Sarah Derrett bartered treasures. ABOVE RIGHT: Baker of the best whose artisan breads are so good they could bread, Carol Addis says the barter market is the best thing that’s happened to her. RIGHT: Sarah Derrett, probably fetch an arm and a leg, “In the Dargle founder of Tweedie’s Barter It Bru market, trades a loaf Valley where I live, we barter among ourselves for manure. BELOW RIGHT: At Tweedie market, Gary all the time.” Battersby gives new meaning to ‘going for a song’. Regular market-goer, Norma Bode echoes that. “I’m part of a WhatsApp barter network “I’m part of a WhatsApp and we exchange whatever we have, be it skills, produce or goods. Even my son, barter network and we who has a traditional barber shop in Hilton, exchange whatever we often exchanges haircuts for products or have, be it skills, produce professional advice.” I didn’t ask if beers ever entered the equation. or goods At Tweedie that morning, the convivial group swapped bread for horse manure, avos for pickled walnuts, cake for organic salad Sounds like my kind of place and one packs, scones for seasonings, clothes for Jersey for which I’d swap malls, mass-produced milk and cottage cheese. Other items went for goods, and wilting, shrink-wrapped a song, Gary Battersby playing his guitar to vegetables any day. O entertain us all. Map reference D8 see inside back cover As with the other two markets, the emphasis is on community, sustainable living, organic Where to Go fresh produce, and knowledge sharing. And O Howick Exchange Miller Street Common on everyone present seemed to walk that talk. Ridge Road. Second Wednesday of the month Belinda Hay and Emil Cloete, for example, are 8.30-10am and the last Saturday of the month farmers who focus on permaculture training 9.30-11am. and developing holistic, organic systems of O Hilton Produce Exchange James Craib Park, food growing. Similar ideals inspire a new 3 Committee Lane, Hilton. Third Saturday of the venture Sarah has set up in a blue wood cabin month 9-10am. not far away on the R103. “The Growcery O Barter it Bru Tweedie Junction (where Full of Store and Farmacy,” she says, spelling out the Beans Coffee shop is) First Saturday of the month words, “is an organic community co-op that 9.30-11am. supplies a reliable source of truly organic fresh O Contact Facebook: Midlands Barter Markets produce with barter options provided.” web.facebook.com/groups/midlandsbartermarkets
www.countrylife.co.za 045 November 2018 COUNTRY LIVING X SA COLLEGE FOR TOURISM The Cooks are in the Kitchen The SA College for Tourism in the Karoo town of Graaff-Reinet is the gateway to a career in hospitality for students from the far corners of Southern Africa WORDS AND PICTURES CHRIS MARAIS WWW.KAROOSPACE.CO.ZA
n a perfect summer’s night welcome the kids from Nqweba Secondary township-style. A clutch of baby chefs, dressed in Graaff-Reinet, the old School – and general excitement levels are in their serving whites, checked pants and Panorama Motel becomes stratospheric. sensible shoes, mingles with teachers, parents, a Hollywood hotspot as This, you must understand, is the Karoo brothers, sisters and buddies out at the entrance, swanked-up teenage couples Heartland, world of the kortbroek, the two-tone cellphone cameras set to Low Light Mode. This, Ogather for their matric dance. co-op shirt and, for the girls, flimsy shorts to indeed, is the Night of a Thousand Selfies. In a ritual that has more in common with the handle the heat. Not for nothing is the local As the sun dips over the mountains, Academy Awards than a platteland jamboree, attraction named the Valley of Desolation. a cavalcade of big, growling bikes arrives, the kids from the SA College for Tourism But here, for tonight, we’re in La La Land – followed by a line of gleaming cars at a stately
The essential breaking of the egg ritual, as the lesson begins. From the left: Busisiwe Vazi, Nasilele Lubasi, Matimba Magale, chef Petru Alberts and Casey Ngiba.
November 2018 www.countrylife.co.za LEFT AND RIGHT: Local paparazzi led by official photographer Neco Bokwe take stills of the couples just before they enter the venue. BELOW: Graaff-Reinet, home of the SA College for Tourism. BOTTOM: Mantswaki Pietersen from Jagersfontein in the southern Free State arranges a tray of roasted fruit slices.
limousine pace. The gorgeous couples emerge. The crowd goes ballistic, “Halala! Halala!” Lissom girls step cautiously out of the sedans, briefly adjusting their satin dresses and hairdos before high-heeling it down the walkway to where the photographers await. The boys are rake-skinny with those tight stovepipe pants that end just above the ankles, leading to fancy socks and fancier shoes. They’ve all had their hair cut. Even in the gathering gloom, lots of them are wearing dark shades and soft caps. Our old friend Neco Bokwe, a veteran newspaperman based in Graaff-Reinet, leads the ‘paparazzi pack’ of younger photographers crowding the entrance. He stops each couple, makes them swivel this way and that, tugs at because the principal wants all this annual a young man’s collar, charms a shy smile out party fuss done and dusted so that everyone can of the youngster’s beautiful girlfriend and steps concentrate on their school books and, of course, back to take their photograph. matric exams later in the year. After more than a dozen photo ops, Neco On the other side of the serving tray, the shoves his cap to the back of his head, takes students at the tourism college come from a five-second breather, looks up at the first- all over the Southern African Development floor balcony and winks broadly. At us. Community region – deep-rural South Rewind here. Jules and I are on a day-in- Africa, Malawi, Namibia, Zimbabwe and the-life assignment at the college. The complex Mozambique. They’ve been here since mid- – formerly the legendary 50s-style Panorama January and, to date, have spent their first Motel – stands on a hill overlooking South weeks learning the finer points of hygiene, Africa’s fourth-oldest settlement. basic kitchen skills and room maintenance. Every year, the institution takes in ninety They have only recently been formally students, mostly women. They study cooking, introduced to the college cooking pots, and bartending, housekeeping and front-of-house tonight will be serving a three-course meal skills along with operating computers, writing to more than 100 matrics and their partners. a CV, life skills, running a budget and learning No stress, mind. to work as a team. Down in the dining room, some of the We’re here to follow the catering preparations students are smoothing the tablecloths, setting for a matric dance. It’s held earlier in the year the crockery and cutlery, polishing the glasses,
www.countrylife.co.za 047 November 2018 spacing the salt and pepper cellars, chairs and tartlets and cinnamon ice cream. salad forks just right, under the eagle eye of Chef Petru patiently guides the youngsters food and beverage tutor Morné Knoetze. from total bewilderment to something The rest are in the kitchen, swanning around approaching a state of kitchen awareness. She chef Petru Alberts, a Cradock original. She has does this with a constant overlay of comforting designed a special menu and most of the prep chatter, winning them over with anecdotes is happening right now. Students are adding from her childhood on a Karoo farm. And finishing touches to the starter, which contains when they fluff something, Petru does not bacon, chicken, celery and cream cheese. The mock or belittle. She simply helps out the main course is a buffet featuring lamb, stuffed hapless student with an air of stern fondness. chicken roulade, broccoli, cauliflower and rice. She says, “This is what I love – watching these The dessert is poached pear with frangipani frightened young people who know nothing at first, growing in knowledge, skills and TOP LEFT: Clustered around chef Petru Alberts and the confidence.” salad preparations are Casey Ngiba, Nasilele Lubasi Petru has been there, done that and got the and Busisiwe Vazi. TOP RIGHT: Tourism students chef’s apron under her equally tough mentor, begin their year-long adventure by learning the basics Marelise van Niekerk, at Boland College of hospitality. LEFT: Pride in the kitchen, with (from Hospitality and Catering Services. It was left) Nkhesani Mahesa, Greatful Gumede, Bongani also from Marelise that Petru learned how to Sambo and Busisiwe Vazi. Peeking in are Phumzile Mkhumbuzi and Rosalia Cornet. BELOW: André Kilian, layer flavours into her food. With her young executive director of the SA College for Tourism. cooks-in-training gathered about attentively, she explains why so much brandy is added to a pot of sauce for the roulade. “Won’t the guests be drunk?” one of the students asks her. “No,” says Petru with a smile. “The heat will evaporate the alcohol.” She shows them how to complement flavours and, in months to come, how to make a plate of food look beautiful. “Many of these girls are from such deep rural areas, that they have only encountered an open fire or paraffin stove. The wonderful thing is that, by the end of the year, they will follow a recipe and cook a three-course meal.” Mantswaki Pietersen comes from Jagersfontein in the southern Free State. She is one of seven students from the town,
November 2018 www.countrylife.co.za LEFT: Classroom session at the Drostdy with Louw van der Walt. ABOVE: Christopher Prins and Juliet Mnisi, one of the top students, chosen to work at the Drostdy for an extra year’s training. BELOW: The pre-dinner, alcohol-free cocktail hour with Spandaukop in the background.
sponsored for the year-long course by the Itumeleng Community Trust, the social responsibility body for the local diamond recovery plant, Jagersfontein Developments. “I’m here to make Gillian Vermaak (manager of the Trust) proud,” declares Mantswaki. We leave Petru and her ‘kids’ briefly and drive into the heart of Graaff-Reinet for an appointment with André Kilian, executive director of the College. We meet him at the Drostdy Hotel, where 20 of this year’s top students will end up working for another year. It’s like the ‘finishing school’ section for this select group. Here we meet Juliet Mnisi who saw an advert for the college on the wall of the tribal authority offices in her sprawling home village of Malamulele, northern Limpopo. She aims to be a food and beverage manager one day. their initial year of training. Tourism is is not only a maths whizz, he’s one of the The SA College for Tourism was the a game-changer for these young adults, and coolest guys in the room. And his partner, brainchild of the late Dr Anton Rupert. “The the confidence they gain is quite dramatic.” Zandile Maclean, could have stepped out of idea was to do something for the people from Since the college opened its doors in 2001, the pages of Young Vogue. They sip sparkling rural areas, who were most affected by the success stories have been mounting. More grape juice from Champagne flutes and nibble unemployment and lack of opportunities,” says than 90 per cent of students who graduated on the vegetable spring rolls that student Casey André Kilian. “Specifically the young women.” there are fully employed in the hospitality Ngiba is frantically frying up in the kitchen, The college falls under the Peace Parks industry and many have their own businesses. carried out by waves of trainee waiters. Foundation. “The remarkable thing about As a special incentive, the two top students And among the nervous clatter of pots and a training in hospitality is that it doesn’t matter get to work for a stint at a luxury guest house pans and the last-minute preparations, young what race, religion, creed or background you in Portofino, Italy, thanks to one of the many Busisiwe Vazi of Port Elizabeth is falling have,” says André. “If you are a hard worker, sponsors who support the college. deeply, madly in love – with the cinnamon have useful skills and are trustworthy, you can But back to the Night of a Thousand Selfies ice cream she has been mixing. “I’m looking land a job anywhere.” up at ‘The Pan’. Guests are guided upstairs to forward to telling my parents back home this Louw van der Westhuizen is the course tutor the fancy cocktail party in the function room summer, ‘Relax folks, tonight I’m gonna make based at the hotel. “Real-time pressure working on the first floor. From here, the view of the pudding!’” O in a high-end establishment – that’s what their Spandaukop is jaw-dropping. Map reference F5 see inside back cover stint at the Drostdy means to the students,” Photographer Neco Bokwe is fit to burst he says. “It’s an invaluable step up from with pride. His matriculant son Allistair Jaftha SA College for Tourism www.peaceparks.co.za
www.countrylife.co.za 049 November 2018 LOCAL FLAVOURS XKOWIE CRAFT-BEER ROUTE
Hop Along the Kowie
A few crafty brewers ong before craft beer became The Little Brewery on the River at Port the rage, my father turned our Alfred’s Wharf Street waterfront has a jaw- ensure thereÁs fne ale to garage into a microbrewery. dropping setting on the Kowie River, where be had along the length At a time when my friends’ rowing fours in training streak past chugging parents were warning their pleasure craft. of the Kowie River, Lteenagers against imbibing alcohol, Dad Stopping in on a sunny day for a brewery from the pretty seaside was trying to get us to drink beer with him. tour and tasting with my beer-loving friend Visiting boyfriends were only too willing David Forsdyke, an incoming tide was town of Port Alfred to and, after a quart with Dad, would earnestly lapping against the jetty where three-masted promise me the sun, moon and stars and sailing ships used to offload their cargo more the scholarly environs ‘anything, really anything’ I desired. than 100 years ago. The brewery is in the of Grahamstown Home brew can spoil a girl’s taste for oldest commercial building in Port Alfred commercial beer, so when I moved to Bathurst and these thick stone walls have seen WORDS AND PICTURES I was delighted to discover the microbrewing a succession of occupants, from harbour MARION WHITEHEAD trend had already put down roots in this part masters to cinema patrons. of the world. Our tour starts upstairs in the next door
November 2018 050 www.countrylife.co.za OPPOSITE PAGE: The Little Brewery on the River is housed in Port Alfred’s oldest commercial building. ABOVE LEFT: Bethwell Dube explains how he varies the hops and malted barley for each variety of beer. ABOVE: Pleasure craft chug along the Kowie River as it meanders through Port Alfred.
ABOVE: Delroy Chipumuro taps a keg for a tasting building where we meet senior brewer tray at the Wharf Street Bethwell Dube in a tasting room furnished Brew Pub. RIGHT: Genial with two long pews from a decommissioned Brew Pub owner-chef synagogue, which bear witness to a very Bram Coetzee was coaxed into taking over the Brew different type of service these days. Bethwell Pub next door to The Little shows us the main ingredients of their beer Brewery after his dad (aside from rainwater) – hops and a range of became the consultant malted barley. brew master there. “Taste them,” he offers. The roasted malt that gives stout its rich colour has a coffee- ish taste and the small piece of hops pellet is The Little Brewery on the River was Bethwell nurtures like a spoilt child. “We reuse bitter. “We use the Saaz hops from the Czech started ten years ago by Ian Cook who it 14 times, but even then it’s still active enough Republic for the sweeter Kowie Gold Pilsner. brought in Colin Coetzee, formerly of SAB, to bake bread.” It’s our most popular beer,” says Bethwell, as a consultant brew master. Bethwell was We choose to do our tasting in the explaining how he varies the proportion of Ian’s curious gardener. “Mr Coetzee taught atmospheric Wharf Street Brew Pub next hops and malt in their range of four beers, me all the secrets of beer,” says Bethwell, door, where Colin’s son Bram is owner-chef from the pale pilsner to a robust stout. who brews three times a week in season, and has retained the ‘good-time emporium’ feel We troop downstairs to the brewing room. making up to 1 000 litres at a time. “Nothing of the old building. The Kowie Gold Pilsner Standing amid giant stainless-steel kettles, is wasted,” he says. “The used mash goes to is pure liquid refreshment on a warm day and Bethwell explains the process of turning local farmers to feed their sheep, cows and goes down a treat. We work our way through water into good ale – getting the temperature goats. It’s a very good protein supplement.” the Benn Koppen Lager and the Coin Ale to just right to cook the starch out of the malt, We sip some pilsner that’s had two weeks to sthe Squires Porter, at six per cent alcoholic rinsing it and adding hops before it goes to the settle before it is filtered and carbonated, and content the strongest of the beers. Stouts are fermentation tanks for eight days. see the very active yeast, a precious commodity normally David’s favourite, but today his vote
www.countrylife.co.za 051 November 2018 ABOVE: Heading off on a wild back route through the Waters Meeting Nature Reserve to follow the Kowie River to its source. BELOW: Village Bistro co-owners Annie and Barry Hartley make mellow music and good chemistry together.
ABOVE: Brian Thomas demonstrates the correct way to pour home brew – slowly and leaving the last sediment at the bottom of the bottle. BELOW: André Roodt contemplates beer names, from Bistro Bru to Ja Bru!
for best beer goes to the Kowie Gold. butterfly stage, where it is turning into Our appetite for craft beer well and truly a business. “We aim to supply local pubs,” whetted, our next stop along the meandering says André. Kowie River route is Bathurst, often Their all-natural beer is not pasteurised or pronounced Baa-thirst by regulars at the Pig filtered, so doesn’t have a long shelf life. It’s and Whistle, one of the oldest licensed pubs not carbonated either. “We add a little sugar in the land. But we skip this watering hole as when we bottle, which gives a secondary we’ve arranged to meet two self-proclaimed fermentation and natural bubbles. The big
‘hop heads’ from the Bathurst Homebrew Club breweries carbonate with CO2 in order to at the Village Bistro, a couple of doors away. stabilise large volumes of beer,” points out “To beer or not to beer: it’s not a question, Brian as we sip the Bistro Bru. It’s hopped at it’s a necessity,” is the leg-pulling welcome the end of the boil of a 25-litre batch, and is too greeting we get from André Roodt and Brian bitter for my taste, but it reminds David of an Thomas. Given their enthusiasm for making – ale he used to enjoy in London. But their rich, and sampling – ale, they are surprisingly slim. dark stout with a creamy head gets enthusiastic “I have a high metabolism,” says André with endorsement from both of us. a chuckle, coaxing the cap off one of his Indian Once they have a licence, the Bathurst Pale Ales, which he’s christened Bistro Bru for Homebrew Club will sell its beers from Bleak club members Annie and Barry Hartley, co- House, a historic building in the centre of owners of the Village Bistro, who are making Bathurst, where André’s wife Cindy has chilled music at the other end of the restaurant. a cake shop (at a local fundraiser, someone What was an expensive hobby, sourcing recently bid R800 for one of her death-by- ingredients from far afield has reached the chocolate confections).
November 2018 052 www.countrylife.co.za KOWIE CRAFT-BEER ROUTE XLOCAL FLAVOURS
ABOVE: David Forsdyke gets the low-down on Featherstone’s range of ales from brew master Mark Riley. RIGHT: Visitors to Featherstone Brewery’s tasting room are welcome to bring their picnics and braai. BELOW RIGHT: 'Alewife' Clare raises a glass to hubby Mark Riley’s latest brew.
Meantime, nature lovers can pay a small fee to walk in the park at Brian’s wife’s art gallery, Just Off Centre, where the farmers’ market is held each Sunday morning. And if someone looks thirsty after their walk, Brian might just offer a taste of home brew… David and I continue tracking the Kowie River, taking a wild back route through Waters Meeting Nature Reserve to its source in the hills south of Makhanda (Grahamstown's new name). This is where Featherstone Brewery taps clear water from a spring in the hillside to craft six fine beers. Mark Riley started brewing as a hobby and finally gave up his day job teaching primary school to brew full-time at their farm nearly three years ago. “I bought the largest stainless-steel pot I could find online and adapted it. We built most of our equipment ourselves,” says get caught out downing too much of it. I’m to hike to the eye of the spring from where Mark. “It takes a month to make a batch of surprised when he prefers the Bell Ringer our beer sprang. But somehow the hops has 150 litres – two weeks to ferment and two Rooibos Infused Pale Ale to the fuller-bodied robbed our legs of their vigour and we sit weeks to condition.” Drostdy English Ale as he doesn’t enjoy the atop the first hill, marvelling at the miracle Mark normally brews twice a week and health tea. of turning water into beer… O ‘alewife’ Clare manages the business side As we sip the US-style Golden Mole Indian Map reference F6 see inside back cover of things. With a young family of their own, Pale Ale, Mark explains the strong hoppy taste. they’ve made Featherstone a child-friendly “Hops was used to preserve beer as well as venue – there’s a play area for kiddies while flavour it, especially on long sea voyages.” Hoppy Hunting Grounds the adults imbibe in the beer garden or on the Tumble Bug, a rich, smooth stout named O The Little Brewery on the River does tours newly built deck atop the tiny pub. for the local dung beetle, has a roasted and tastings weekdays at 11h00 and 14h00. Farm hikes connect to the Odenburgia coffee flavour and instantly gets my vote 046 624 8692, www.littlebrewery.co.za network of trails that Mark explores regularly as opposed to the Blaauwkrantz Porter. O Bathurst Homebrew Club André Roodt when he goes out trail running. “People can “Tumble Bug is good paired with strong 072 603 7212, Brian Thomas 072 090 6757 also hike here from Mountain Drive or Grey cheese,” advises Mark, “whereas the O Featherstone Brewery tasting room and beer Dam and get a taxi back to town,” says Clare. Blaauwkrantz with its unusual coriander garden is open on Friday, Saturday and Sunday “Or just bring a picnic and braai.” and orange undertones is an after-dinner afternoons, more often during the holidays, and Our tasting starts with the aptly named type beer that goes well with chocolate.” by special arrangement for groups and food Oldenburgia, a Weiss beer that is so refreshing Talk of food reminds me of the picnic pairings. 078 040 0982 and light David declares one could easily goodies we brought, and we leave Mark www.featherstonebrewery.co.za
www.countrylife.co.za 053 November 2018 LEFT: An oasis of home-style food and great coffee, Toeka se Dae is on the R516, the easiest route to Bela-Bela off the N1. ABOVE: Tree-lined streets in the heart of suburban Bela-Bela. BELOW: Waterfront Nursery and Animal Farm with its petting zoo, tea garden and koi pond is popular with families and tourist alike. The
Pot an easy-to-reach refuge from the big city. My mother Jean, who is 87, last visited Bela-Bela as a 15-year-old schoolgirl. Back then the hot springs pooled at the centre of that Boils what was a very small town aptly called Warmbaths. Just as apt is the town’s name etting lost in the ever-sunny, change to Bela-Bela, which in Tswana means farm-quilted area around ‘the pot that boils’. “There was just one pool Bela-Bela in Limpopo is not – that was it,” she says, as we drive past the FIONA ZERBST a bad thing if you’re a fan of enormous Warmbaths Forever Resort. discovers much more burnished bushveld, small It was Voortrekker Carl van Heerden who Gfarmstalls, and general stillness. established the first farm in the area at the to Bela-Bela than The region – about 160 kilometres north of mineral springs, named Het Bad – the area was Joburg – forms part of what used to be known originally a swampland and legend has it that hot baths as the Springbok Flats, where springbok elephants used to wallow in the healing waters. PICTURES FIONA ZERBST AND SUPPLIED frisked and pronked in abundance. These Local farmer Harold Nicolson, whose days, you’re more likely to see cows, wheat, father farmed in the region for 60 years, has sunflowers and roadside stalls selling oranges a few stories to tell about Bela-Bela. “The and avocados. Just an hour’s drive from Voortrekkers would have read about the Pretoria if you take the N1, Bela-Bela is healing waters of Shiloah in the Bible – they
November 2018 054 www.countrylife.co.za BELA-BELA ◗ TRAVEL
CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: Hettie Pretorius, owner of Peet went around with guns and Bibles – and they se Padstal, says her husband ran probably thought these springs were healing a wood factory from the premises waters,” he says. “The settlers were looking but it burnt down in 1990. for Jerusalem. In fact, they thought they had MMabula is a Big Five destination, with 60 mammals and 300 bird discovered the source of the Nile when they species on the property. M Farmer saw a river full of crocodiles.” Harold Nicolson’s father was The famed healing waters lure visitors one of the first farmers in the to the region to this day, but so do the region. MThe old high-school bus nearby golf and wildlife resorts; in fact, was donated to Peet se Padstal and has proved an invaluable tourism drives the local economy more than landmark for tourists. M Zebula agriculture. The town itself, which attained Golf Estate & Spa has been built village-town status back in 1932, has no urban on 1 600 hectares of bushveld, pretensions and parts of it are in disrepair – it with the golf course designed fragments into quiet, tree-enfolded suburbs by Peter Matkovitch. that lend themselves to a daytripper’s fantasy of settling somewhere very peaceful. You need to drive a little distance for something more back when, as well as a stuffed manikin on pies. “We make them fresh after we have than a burger and beer, or a whip-through of a donkey cart, holding the obligatory bottle hunted the game ourselves,” she says. the brand-new Bela-Bela Mall. of hooch (which is empty – he drank the lot). Hettie opened the farmstall in April 2009 This is how we find Peet se Padstal, on the Inside is an airy tearoom that leads onto and added on a large crafter’s market, which long ribbon of R516 that stretches towards a garden with chickens and a large bird cage. boasts mostly handmade goods (including Rooiberg and Thabazimbi. Hettie Pretorius’ Relaxing among very polite, well-behaved pottery, beaded jewellery, wirework, home- haven for road-weary travellers is easy to find – dogs, we enjoy the best fridge cheesecake this made preserves, T-shirts and wooden furniture it’s fronted by a charmingly ramshackle, yellow side of the boerewors curtain, and Hettie says crafted on the property) from about 80 school bus that was the high-school bus way her other specialities are vetkoek and venison suppliers. “We try to source items you can’t
www.countrylife.co.za 055 November 2018 LEFT: George, your friendly ‘host’ at the restaurant and farmstall Toeka se Dae. RIGHT: Mabula horses are all rescues schooled for outrides. BELOW: Two safari drives a day are offered to day visitors at the Big Five Mabula Game Reserve.
LEFT: Wisdom at Peet se Padstal. RIGHT: Silke von Eynern, who runs Bambelela Wildlife Care and Vervet Monkey Rehabilitation, with young rescue Bernadette, aka Bernie. Rescues don’t take easily to people they don’t know, but Silke is ‘family’.
the bush here, despite the lights of Pretoria glittering on the distant horizon. I also managed to see a group of Southern Ground Hornbills preparing their nests for the night, which was a treat. Mabula is home to the find elsewhere,” she says, “and source from as Mabula Ground-Hornbill Project, which is doing far afield as Cape Town.” phenomenal conservation work with regard to We continue along the R516, turn right onto this iconic species (it is classified as Endangered the R101, and find ourselves in the vicinity of in South Africa and Namibia, according to the Zebula Golf Estate & Spa, and Mabula Game International Union for Conservation of Nature’s Lodge. I attended a Southern Ground-Hornbill Red List of Threatened Species, and could soon stakeholder workshop at Mabula last year, but becoming Critically Endangered without further felt like a tourist despite being a South African. protection). After a truly freezing night-drive towards From the N1 (or the R101 north), we take Founded by Silke von Eynern, who the end of winter, and gazing up at the Milky the R516 and slew off at the Groot Nylsoog immigrated to South Africa from Germany Way with a bunch of scientists (including Road – a teeth-grittingly uneven dirt road – to with her husband in 1990, the centre focuses a father and son from Wales, who said the only Bambelela Wildlife Care and Vervet Monkey on releasing rescues back into the wild on time they had seen the Milky Way more clearly Rehabilitation. Braving the dirt road is worth monkey-friendly farms. “Since 2010, we was in Kenya), I was convinced I’d never it, as Bambelela is in the most beautiful valley, have successfully released 15 troops of regain sensation in my fingers. But after dinner with access via Leopard’s Rock Country Estate vervet monkeys – more than 400 monkeys,” beside an enormous fire in the boma (where (you need to book so you can get an access says Silke. Visitors are taken on a tour of the everything from crocodile carpaccio and permit). We can’t help but relax as soon as we facilities, where volunteers are hard at work lamb masala was on the menu), I felt a whole arrive, and watch vervets, baboons and cats bottle-feeding young vervet rescues or assisting lot better. It’s possible to feel you’re deep in frolic around the lemon trees. in the ‘hospital’.
November 2018 056 www.countrylife.co.za BELA-BELA ◗ TRAVEL
CLOCKWISE FROM ABOVE: Piet Erasmus and his son, Pieter Jr, are the joint owners of Toeka se Dae – There are a lot of ‘settlers’ in Bela-Bela, like a restaurant, farmstall and liquor Silke, who initially chose her farm so she could store. “Things have changed here, keep game. “But I didn’t know that plains but life is still very slow,” says Piet. ABOVE RIGHT: People donate old game doesn’t like to be in a valley – they all objects to Toeka se Dae. M Vervet ran away to neighbouring farms,” she says with monkeys and baboons are protected a laugh. Another ‘settler’ is Pieter Erasmus, in terms of both national and who bought the farmstall Toeka se Dae when provincial conservation legislation. he moved to Bela-Bela from Johannesburg. M The grave of Christina Pretorius, wife of General Andries Pretorius. “We saw the business was for sale three-and- She passed away after a bout of flu a-half years ago and snapped it up,” he says. and had been brought to Warmbaths “Toeka se Dae means ‘back in the day’, from in the hope that the mineral waters the time of the ox wagons. We liked the name would restore her to health. and kept it, like everything else here. We love collecting things.” At this colourful restaurant and farmstall, political icons like the late Minister of we find everything from locally produced jam, Environmental Affairs, Edna Molewa, with farm-baked bread and home-made venison the option to stop and drink pineapple beer pies, to Nguni and springbok hides and leather while listening to Ma Brrr, Caiphus Semenya, tack for horses. “We source a lot from local Yvonne Chaka Chaka and more. Schoolkids farms and furniture makers,” says Pieter. “For run alongside the cart, laughing and waving, example, we get jams and preserves from Ina and everyone has a great time. Lessing Konfyte & Ingemaak, which is just on In fact, I’ve had a great time every time I’ve the other side of Modimolle.” visited Bela-Bela. There’s something about the Pieter enjoys the warmer weather in Bela- place that lures us back. And it’s not just the Bela. “It’s at least four or five degrees warmer granadilla cheesecake. O than in Johannesburg, and it gets really hot Map reference B7 see inside back cover in summer, but it’s never humid,” he says. “At least we had a lot of rain this year.” Our last stop is in Bela-Bela Township, Handy Contacts [email protected], www.toekasedae.co.za where entrepreneur and gender activist Bambelela 014 736 4090, 083 454 8441 Mabula Game Lodge 014 734 7000 Semakaleng ‘Sma’ Mothapo, also known as [email protected], www.bambelela.org.za [email protected], www.mabula.com ‘Sista F’, runs a hugely entertaining township Peet se Padstal 014 740 0053 Warmbaths A Forever Resort 014 736 8500 tour with the help of a glorious leather-clad [email protected], www.peetsepadstal.co.za www.foreverwarmbaths.co.za donkey cart with built-in sound system. We Toeka se Dae 082 570 7923 M Court Tours 060 691 5898 ride up and down the streets that birthed
www.countrylife.co.za 057 November 2018 November 2018 058 www.countrylife.co.za SANBONA WILDLIFE RESERVE XHIKING
Softly, in Sanbona Early mornings on foot in Big Five territory, where the San once roamed. Fireside tales and walks under the Klein Karoo stars. FIONA MCINTOSH is exhilarated by the stillness of Sanbona’s vast plains PICTURES SHAEN ADEY
We leave pre-dawn for a morning walk, a magical time to be in the bush.
www.countrylife.co.za 059 November 2018 CLOCKWISE FROM ABOVE: Casper Bester, our passionate guide, turns out to be a fount of information. MThe campfire is the social hub of the temporary Explorer Camp. MAs dusk falls on our first night we spend 20 minutes watching this cheetah. Being out in a big game reserve at night is an exhilarating experience. MCamping in true safari style. The kettle is always brewing on the fire.
heetah, oryx, eland, We walk through low scrub big eland,” says our to where the giraffes are grazing. guide Casper Bester, But there’s still no sign of the pointing out different cheetah. “He’s probably lying under spoor in the red sand. a bush – so well camouflaged that we’ll “CWe’re on the trail of a collared cheetah which, struggle to find him,” remarks Casper as I’m revelling in this two-day wilderness using telemetry (a radio-tracking system), we scour the veld. adventure. Although we’re only three hours Casper has located in the area. He’s frustrated. Suddenly our vigilant guide stops and holds from Cape Town, there’s a sense of space The sun is going down. If we don’t find the cat up his hand. “Get in behind me,” he whispers. and remoteness, and the only lights are far soon we’ll have to return to camp. The cheetah is under the guarrie bush that in the distance. “It’s not often that guests “He’s close,” says Casper. “Look at the we’ve just rounded. We back off until we’re are out on foot after sunset,” Casper says, giraffes, they’re all looking towards that kloof. about ten metres from the animal. “Look at his picking up the pace as we hit the sand. They know where he is.” We continue walking full belly,” says Casper with a smile. “Don't “We can walk at night in this section of the quietly in single file. I’m a trifle nervous to be be scared, he won't hunt again for a couple of reserve because of the openness and low out here on foot, but Casper instils confidence. days.” For the next 20 minutes we observe the density of predators, but it’s rare.” Earlier that afternoon we left our base, lazy creature as he swishes his tail and rubs Camp coordinators Peter-John Roodtman the tented Explorer Camp in the north-east of his face like a cat, occasionally lifting his head Sanbona Wildlife Reserve, a 58 000-hectare from his prone position to look at the zebras Big Five spread some 40 kilometres east of that graze unconcerned, nearby. Montagu on Route 62. We climbed a koppie to Just about to give up, Casper is thrilled see what game was in the vicinity and spotted, at the sighting. Photographer Shaen Adey, who just below us, a herd of zebras, three big spent many years working in conservation, is giraffes and, judging by the strong pulse on also amazed to see a cheetah this close in the the VHF radio, a male cheetah. wild. Suddenly she becomes animated. “Look, “He killed a springbok this morning,” look.” A brown hyena lopes past less than Casper explains. “So he’s full, and poses no 50 metres away. “I’ve never seen a brown hyena threat to the plains game.” We descend the while out on a walking safari,” Casper raves. koppie and cross a knersvlakte – a plain of As we walk back to camp we see the first star white quartz studded with tiny succulents. twinkling in the dark-orange sky. The air is still, Stopping to study some stone plants, we learn Cape crows fly overhead. We hear the snort of that there are 19 vegetation types on Sanbona, zebra, but otherwise it’s quiet, the only noise the where the dominant biome is succulent Karoo. crunching of our footsteps on the quartz pebbles.
November 2018 060 www.countrylife.co.za SANBONA WILDLIFE RESERVE ◗ HIKING
CLOCKWISE FROM ABOVE: Our final hike is up to Tilney Rock Art Shelter, one of the best rock art sites on the reserve, and with a splendid view to boot. M There are a variety of succulents on Sanbona’s knersvlakte, such as the pink, spiky-flowered ash bush (Mesembryanthemum junceum) and these cute little baby bums (Gibbaeum heathii). MOur new-found Brazilian friends Leonardo Bosso, Fernanda Bosso and Sidnéia de Carvalho have never been to Africa before and are fascinated by our bush adventure.
and Desmond Jaggers are there to greet us as some of the stories that the San people, we arrive back at our temporary bush home. former inhabitants of the area, told about the The other guests in the party, a family from constellations. Brazil, Leonardo Bosso, Fernanda Bosso “Well Casper, you have problems ahead and Sidnéia de Carvalho, have never been to tomorrow if you’re to match today,” teases Africa before. It’s been quite an introduction. Shaen as we retire. And he does. In the They’d chosen Sanbona’s Explorer Trail on the morning we drive a short way to the river then recommendation of a friend. It’s exceeded their head on foot for a thicket. Within a few minutes expectations already. we emerge into a clearing to see a large herd After freshening up in an outside shower of elephants. They’re restless, so we move built into a 700-year-old Schotia afra tree, on along the river bed, ducking under low we regroup around the campfire where Desmond serves G&Ts and snacks as we study our photos under the light of lanterns, and quiz Casper about the telemetry system and the reserve. “We were lucky today,” he says. “The telemetry system helped, but it was also about knowing the behaviour of the animal you’re searching for and observing the other game.” Sanbona has a conservation team that monitors the predators daily for research purposes, so their feedback is invaluable. We wolf down lamb and vegetarian potjies around the campfire, hungry after all the excitement. Then we’re treated to a tour of the night sky, during which Peter-John recounts
www.countrylife.co.za 061 November 2018 HIKING XSANBONA WILDLIFE RESERVE
branches and brushing aside thorn bushes until disturbing the solitary hippo. tells us. “If we keep still they’ll come close.” Casper signals for us to come close. Following As Casper points out the extent of the We can’t resist the opportunity so sit down in him quietly we scan the bush, eventually reserve, we listen to the bush sounds of ‘snoring’ the sand. Sure enough, the trio approaches to spying five white rhino. leopard toads and the distinctive Cape Turtle within a few metres. The elephant, a herd of We leave the river and climb to a viewpoint Doves. “In the morning they instruct us to 12, are nearby, this time much more settled. overlooking a dam where we stop for a coffee ‘work haaarder, work haaarder’, while in the Several are asleep. Others are eating. We watch break. Two South African Shelducks fly in, evening it’s ‘drink laaager, drink laaager’,” enthralled as they tear at the branches. Two jokes Casper. youngsters are particularly entertaining as they There are some unusual vegetation types tussle then run to the safety of their mother. in this section of the Klein Karoo, including Continuing our walk we play the ‘spot ranteveld and arid fynbos, which is found in the footprint game’ that we’d so enjoyed the the sandy-rocky soils of the Warmwaterberg previous day – rhino, ellie, hippo, big ellie, slopes and surrounding hills. We see many giraffe, steenbok, lioness, big lion. GULP. vygies, along with starfish-shaped black “They came through this area earlier,” Casper carrion flowers. reassures us, “but they’re now a couple of Descending to the plain again, we pass kilometres away, down by the river. We’ll take the dam wall and circle back to where we’d a drive later to see if we can find them.” spotted the elephant earlier, stopping to inspect A gentle climb takes us up a rocky slope to the thicket we passed. Of particular interest is a picnic site where Peter-John and Desmond the thick gum hanging from the sweet thorn have laid out a breakfast spread. Then it’s (Vachellia karroo). back to camp. Three long necks protrude from the After a midday siesta we drive to a cliff woodland. “Giraffe are very curious,” Casper overlooking the river where, Casper’s been
ABOVE: The starfish-shaped flowers of the black carrion (Tridentea gemmiflora), a typical Karoo plant found in rocky habitats. It is often browsed by small game. RIGHT: Our bush breakfast at a raised picnic spot was most welcome after the exertions of the second morning. BELOW: Coming close, on foot, to a big herd of elephant is quite an adrenalin rush. But we feel safe in the hands of our experienced guide. BELOW RIGHT: Down time is spent relaxing in our tents or in the communal ‘library’.
November 2018 www.countrylife.co.za CLOCKWISE FROM LEFT: The camp was rustic but our camp managers, Peter-John Roodtman and Desmond Jaggers went out of their way to make us comfortable. M Finding a hippo skull, Casper explains how the ears, eyes and nostrils are all in same plane. As a result the hippo can hide underwater with only ten per cent of its body exposed. MWe can’t approach the lions on foot, but spy them in the river bed from a koppie. M Our final hike is up to the Tilney Rock Art Shelter, one of the best rock art sites on the reserve, and with an amazing view to boot. M Sanbona Wildlife Reserve general manager, Paul Vorster.
informed, lions were sighted. There’s no sign river bed. As I watch them, and the reactions of the cats but we see plenty of giraffe and of my companions, I’m acutely aware of elephant on the floodplain. “Let’s walk up how privileged we are to be out on foot, the koppie,” our guide suggests. A 15-minute encountering animals close up and venturing stroll takes us to the top of the hill from where into areas of the reserve that the majority of we train our binos on clearings in densely visitors never see. vegetated valley floor. “There,” exclaims But it’s not over yet. There are two more Fernanda. Despite never being in the bush treats in store on the drive back to our car. before, she’s the first to spot the reclining lion We stop at Bellair Dam to admire trilobite and lioness in the distance and is beside herself fossils and, a little further on, hike up to the with excitement. Tilney Rock Art Shelter, a vast overhang On our final morning we rise early and hike in the sandstone cliffs. “There are several up the koppie behind camp to enjoy sunrise. shelters containing rock art on the reserve, Bags packed, we go in search of the lion again, and some paintings date back more than passing a hippo skull by the side of the road. 3 500 years,” explains Casper as he interprets of Africa safari that I had not expected to find “It was dragged here from the nearby dam the various scenes. in the Western Cape. O by hyena,” Casper explains, demonstrating “The Karoo is a hard, dry place,” adds Map reference F3 see inside back cover the way the hippo jawbone is articulated to Sanbona’s general manager, Paul Vorster, who produce their signature ‘yawn’. “Ivory doesn't joins us on the walk. “But to the San it was Up to it? discolour, and was used for making dentures,” a place of life, a place of protection and O Sanbona Explorer Camp offers two-day walking he says. “President George Washington’s false resource, a place of reason. ‘Sanbona’ means safaris tailored-made to the fitness and teeth were apparently made of hippo ivory.” ‘vision of the San’. By bringing you close to interests of each group (we averaged We cross the river and he leads us up to nature at our Explorer Camp we hope to give 5km a day). Participants must be between a viewpoint on a nearby hill to scout the area. you some understanding of how the San lived, 16 and 60 years old. Departures are every We’re treated there to a spectacular view of and how they would have seen the Karoo.” Friday during summer (October to April). both the brown and white lions relaxing in the It has been a splendid adventure, a real out O 021 010 0028, www.sanbona.com
www.countrylife.co.za 063 November 2018 Old Fourlegs & Other Fossils With painstaking patience, palaeontologist Dr Rob Gess is startling the world with his discoveries outside Grahamstown WORDS MARION WHITEHEAD PICTURES MARION WHITEHEAD AND SUPPLIED
t was an unusual invitation. “Come for, I first visited Rob in his ‘lab’ at Albany “I get international post-grad students asking if over and split some shale at my place,” Museum, where he is a research associate. they can come and work in my ‘lab’ for a year,” Dr Rob Gess said at the Bathurst It’s in a historic building that the museum he says with a chuckle. Farmers’ Market one Sunday morning. owns in Grahamstown, and ‘lab’ is a rather Posters telling the story of some of his My curiosity was piqued – Rob is grand name for the basement he occupies remarkable fossil finds from the late Devonian Ithe town’s resident palaeontologist and his with thousands of fossils, millions of years period adorn the walls of the room where he fossil finds from the N2 road cutting outside old, neatly labelled and stacked on shelves lays out his 360-million-year-old specimens. Grahamstown in the Eastern Cape have made from floor to ceiling in pie boxes with Some are mysterious marks on rocks, but waves in scientific circles internationally. Tons ‘Freshly baked’ printed on them. others are delicate traces of leaves of primitive of rock form a rather unusual feature in his “This used to be the staff quarters and plants, seaweeds and fish. One of the most garden. “If you find a new species, I’ll name kitchen of the Catholic priest’s house. South recognisable creatures is a scorpion Rob named it after you,” he added casually. Africa’s first diamond was identified here,” Gondwanascorpio emzantsiensis and is the To get some idea of what to look out he tells me, as we descend narrow stairs. oldest known terrestrial animal from Gondwana,
November 2018 064 www.countrylife.co.za PALAEONTOLOGIST ROB GESS X HERITAGE
OPPOSITE: Dr Rob Gess with one of his amazing fossils of a tetrapod, illustrated in the painting behind him. ABOVE LEFT: Waterloo Farm today. The N2 Grahamstown bypass makes a deep cutting, exposing a seam of rich, fossil-bearing rock. ABOVE: Rob has a second shed of fossil-rich rock stored in his donkey paddock. For their honeymoon, he and Serena travelled from Bathurst to Knysna in a home-built cart pulled by their beloved donkeys. LEFT: The Old Priest’s House, where Rob has his ‘lab’, is part of Albany Museum. the supercontinent that split into Africa, South their entire anatomy can be studied under America, Australia, Antarctica and India. a microscope. “They’re Africa’s oldest-known Most of the fossils come from Waterloo coelacanths, discovered only 100 kilometres Farm south of Grahamstown, once part of from where Africa’s youngest coelacanth was a shallow lagoon on the southern coast of first caught.” Gondwana. The farm was within the Antarctic So Rob named it Serenichthys kowiensis Circle, which was not as cold then, and has after his wife Serena and the Kowie River yielded exceptionally well-preserved fossils. that has its headwaters near Waterloo Farm – “Something different happened at Waterloo a neat symmetry with Latimeria chalumnae Farm. It's the only coastal site of its age where West Indian/African coelacanth named after the soft-body remains of vertebrates are found,” East London Museum curator Marjorie says Rob. “That’s what sets it apart.” Courtney-Latimer, who alerted the world to Over time, mud from the bottom of the the existence of the coelacanth, a living fossil lagoon was compressed into sedimentary thought to have been extinct for millions of rocks. Deep inside them, Rob has discovered years until it was caught in 1938 by a fishing and described some 21 species new to science, trawler off the East London coast near the including a fossil of the oldest lamprey fish Chalumna River. in the world (Priscomyzon riniensis), with Rob’s latest find of the bones of two its sucker disk intact, and the most fully tetrapods, early four-legged creatures reconstructable charophyte water weeds known from the Devonian. Hexachara riniensis ABOVE: A delicate was the first fossil to have a Xhosa-derived piece of 360-million- name – Rini/Rhini is the Xhosa name for year-old Devonian Grahamstown. Finds here are high-impact seaweed, preserved stuff. They’re unique and special, with lots deep within ancient of firsts,” says Rob. mudstone. LEFT: Serenichthys The Devonian is often called the age of kowiensis is Africa’s fishes. The lagoon was a coelacanth nursery earliest-known and Rob has found dozens of whole baby species of coelacanth. coelacanth fossils, some so well preserved
www.countrylife.co.za 065 November 2018 HERITAGE X PALAEONTOLOGIST ROB GESS
ABOVE LEFT: As a birthday present for his wife Serena, Rob named a coelacanth fossil find Serenichthys just to double check,” explained Rob. “I’ll kowiensis in honour of her support never forget that afternoon.” for his work. ABOVE RIGHT: Prof Roy Why did he name it Tutusius? “It’s a creature Lubke, owner of Waterloo Farm, says that led us out of the stagnant swamp into that his historic farmhouse probably sits above a continuation of the seam of a brave new world in the sunshine, so I thought fossil-rich rock. LEFT: Palaeontologists of Archbishop Desmond Tutu. An amazing Dr Rob Gess and Prof Per Ahlberg had man,” says Rob, who was a conscientious their paper on southern Gondwana’s objector, refusing to serve in the apartheid army. tetrapods published in Science After Rob found the distinctive shoulder magazine recently. (Photo by Steven bone of another tetrapod he named Umzantsia Lang). BOTTOM: Rob does sometimes use a chisel to chip open the rock. (from the Xhosa word for south), international tetrapod expert Per Ahlberg hotfooted it out from Sweden and together they identified more something like a cross between a fish and branch of the tree of known Devonian tetrapods,” fossilised tetrapod bones. “This is one of the a crocodile, was published in Science magazine explains Rob. “Mesosaurus at 290 mya [million most significant tetrapod discoveries of recent in June this year together with co-author Prof years ago] used to be the earliest thing with decades,” says Ahlberg. Per Ahlberg of Uppsala University in Sweden. legs known from Africa, so this takes us back The Waterloo Farm fossil bed was It’s caused a stir, as this is the first time another 70 million years. Umzantsia and discovered in 1985 when a deep road cutting tetrapods have been found outside the Tutusius are on the common ancestoral stem was made as part of the N2 bypass constructed Devonian tropics, forcing palaeontologists of all land vertebrates, or tetrapods – meaning to avoid protestors where the old main road to rethink some of their theories about how four-footed creature. We’re all tetrapods, went through the township. “Construction was vertebrates moved from water onto land. The whether we’ve later developed wings or arms.” rushed through for political reasons,” explained evolution of tetrapods from fishes during the Rob is South Africa’s principal researcher Rob. “If they’d done a more thorough Devonian period was a key event in modern on the Devonian period’s marginal marine geological assessment, they’d have realised the humans’ distant ancestry. and terrestrial ecosystems, as well as early rock they were going to cut through was very “Umzantsia amazana is on the lowest vertebrates, and his work at the Centre of unstable and hazardous for road building.” Excellence at Wits University is supported Back then, Rob was still a schoolboy but by the Department of Science & Technology had already been bitten by the fossil bug. National Research Foundation, and the “Prof Norton Hiller, the Rhodes University Millennium Trust. geology department palaeontologist, was my “Deep down, I was always hoping that mentor. He used to tell me where I might find I would find the remains of Devonian tetrapods fossils and then discuss them with me.” at Waterloo Farm, even though the text books Rob’s parents, entomologists at the Albany suggested that it wasn’t at all likely,” he said. Museum, were friendly with the Rhodes botany “I was splitting shale with my student Chris department’s Prof Roy Lubke, who owned Harris when I found the cleithrum [shoulder Waterloo Farm. One day, a visitor who came bone] of Tutusius umlambo. I just knew that for tea picked up a fossil where the farmyard this was what I’d spent years looking for. gave way to the new road cutting through dark I went all quiet and then abandoned what grey mudstones of the Witpoort Formation. I was doing and went to fetch the literature It wasn’t long before Rob was scratching
066 www.countrylife.co.za ABOVE: Dr Gess and his student Chris Harris examine some around with a spade and pick, spellbound by of their fossil finds in their the fossils. basement ‘lab’. ABOVE RIGHT: “My wife Mary Lynn got a bit of a fright Dr Gess on site with the Sanral when this kid covered in black dust asked if team that helped him move 70 tons of fossil-bearing rock he could use the garden tap,” recalled Roy, from the road cutting outside when I visited Waterloo Farm with Rob. As he Grahamstown in 2007 to his showed me around the rambling old farmhouse, donkey paddock in Bathurst. Roy explained the farm was named Waterloo RIGHT: The fossil of the by its owner in the 1820s, who was a survivor Diplacanthus, an ancestor of the famous battle against Napoleon. of sharks in the Devonian period, found at Waterloo Farm. He supports Rob’s dream of creating an in BELOW: Rob’s reconstruction situ exposition behind the cutting. “It would of the Diplacanthus. Here it be a great tourist attraction for Grahamstown,” swims through Octachara says Roy. Meantime, Rob is working with crassa water weeds. SA National Roads Agency (Sanral) to erect interpretation boards at a new picnic site beside the N2 east of Grahamstown, where the road is found my first fossil – a fish scale. “Hyneria, currently being upgraded and where his post- a lobe-finned fish,” commented Rob. More grad student, Chris Harris, is excavating more rocks and fish scales later, I found a beautiful, promising fossils. delicate bit of Devonian seaweed. “They’re Over the years, Rob has made allies at Sanral, quite common at this site, we find hundreds,” having convinced them of the international says Rob. “But they’re rare in the rest of the importance of his finds from Waterloo Farm. world, just a few dozen found.” In 1999, they gave him a gang of labourers to Rob’s intent on finding more pieces of his manually mine 30 tons of fossil-bearing rocks tetrapod puzzle. Somewhere in the pile of rocks from the site, and a flatbed truck to transport it in his garden shed, there must be more, perhaps to his garden in Bathurst, some 45 kilometres a whole skeleton? All it takes is time and away. Again in 2007/8, when the decaying patience – and a blunt butter knife. O shale started sliding down the cutting and major Map reference F6 see inside back cover repairs were required, Sanral helped Rob collect another 70 tons of fossil-bearing rock. Taking Rob up on his invitation, I joined Our Evolution Story in Fossils all land animals from fish. The ripple-like him one afternoon, splitting rocks at his rather O South Africa already has the best-preserved patterns on the bones of Umzantsia are unusual garden shed. Sitting at his workbench, fossils shedding light on the emergence of referenced in its species name, Amazana, the ponytailed palaeontologist picked up his humans from pre-human ancestors. The world’s meaning water ripples in Xhosa. tool of choice for tackling the 100 tons of rock best series of fossils documenting the evolution O Albany Museum in Grahamstown is the official – a butter knife. of mammals from their reptile-like ancestors repository of fossils for the Eastern Cape and Watching him slide it into the cracks come from the Karoo. Now we can add some fossils from Waterloo Farm are on display between the layers of soft sedimentary rock, important insights into the emergence of there. 046 622 2312, www.am.org.za I soon picked up the technique and in no time
www.countrylife.co.za 067 November 2018 Take Home a Piece of Kruger Pop in to Skukuza’s indigenous nursery and pack away a real piece of the Kruger National Park in your boot WORDS SUE ADAMS PICTURES SUE ADAMS AND MELANIE VAN ZYL
henever I visit the Kruger “We like people to take a wander here for treating colds and asthma. National Park, I long to and ask us for advice,” says Meurel Baloyi, “Because of the harvesting of wild bring home a sausage tree manager of the nursery. “Our purpose is to plants they are now Endangered, and the or a baobab tree in my educate, and offer a piece of Kruger to take nursery propagates them as part of a local boot. And some vivid- home.” Meurel’s eyes light up as she walks distribution and engagement project with Wpink impala lilies. What a surprise, then, to find me around the nursery, discussing plants and local communities,” says Meurel. “For Skukuza Indigenous Plant Nursery, and be able their uses. instance, last year we gave away more than to do exactly that. She gives example of the Warburgia 12 000 warburgias to local people, which will Tucked on the outskirts of Skukuza Rest salutaris, the pepper-bark tree, and wild hopefully reduce the pressure on our wild Camp and Skukuza Staff Village, and around ginger, Siphonichilus aetheopicum, both populations.” the corner from the golf course, the five-hectare of which are used by traditional healers – She explains that, at the nursery, they are nursery is set under a huge canopy of trees and the bark, leaves and roots of the pepper-bark always looking at what they can do to protect is easy to miss. I’m so glad I didn’t. to treat flu, and the roots of the wild ginger the biodiversity of the park but that this means
November 2018 068 www.countrylife.co.za CLOCKWISE FROM OPPOSITE: Propagated at Skukuza nursery, the Cape honeysuckle (Tecomaria capensis) flowers have a nectar much loved by sunbirds. M A variety of towering trees provide year-round shade for visitors. M About 170 plant species are laid out in sections such as succulents, trees, shrubs and waterwise plants. MOn the lookout for plants that attract birds, Gideon Hill and Alex Coetzee come across a toad tree (Tabernaemontana elegans), so named for its fruit that has a green skin covered in pale warts. MMeurel Baloyi, manager of the nursery, with a Kei-apple (Dovyalis caffra). It’s fast growing, makes a good spiny hedge, and the fruit produces excellent jam.
www.countrylife.co.za November 2018 CONSERVATION X SKUKUZA NURSERY
CLOCKWISE FROM LEFT: Honorary Ranger George Mabuza is a volunteer at the nursery. M Kudu lilies love sunshine and sandy soil. M With more than 20 years’ experience at the nursery, Samuel Munzhele is a walking encyclopedia on local indigenous plants. M Great care is taken with the bonsai plants that line these metal shelves.
nursery, it’s worthwhile asking the staff for advice as you might miss something. George Mabuza, one of the SANParks Honorary Rangers (a group of unpaid volunteers that give their time to national parks), works in the nursery, and has been an Honorary Ranger for more than 20 years. “I’m a retired school principal and live just outside the park,” he says, showing me a Lowveld bitter-tea (Vernonia colorata), with white, fluffy flowers that attract butterflies.” Meurel explains that the nursery works with a number of organisations, depending on the need. For example, the international Organisation for Tropical Studies, which focuses on the responsible use of natural resources, is experimenting alongside the nursery with trees such as marula, leadwood working with local communities. “People also “We harvest seed from across the park and and knobthorn to research their medicinal come in to Kruger to harvest illegally, and it’s work with field rangers, teaching them how to properties. in our interests to propagate and encourage the collect the seeds,” says Meurel, who is about “We are also experimenting with different communities to grow their own trees.” to go up north to Olifants to look for ironwood ways of germinating seeds,” says Meurel. The Skukuza nursery started in 1973 seeds. She stops to chat to Samuel Munzhele, “Originally we thought a marula seed needed when a botanical garden was planted next to one of her plant mentors who has been in the to go through the stomach of an animal to Skukuza. It also supplied indigenous plants to nursery for 27 years. Seeds are sold at the germinate effectively. However, we find it all the Kruger camps. Although the botanical nursery (and not outside the park) and advice works just as well to soak the seeds. Some garden no longer exists, every camp in the on propagation is freely available. seeds need to be soaked longer than others. park now has indigenous gardens, and staff You’ll find 170 plant species laid out in We have also experimented with opening the are supplied with indigenous plants for their sections, with aloes and succulents in sunshine, seed cases of leadwood trees to see if that gardens in Kruger, and at their private homes. and some of the smaller baobab and marula aids germination, but it doesn’t make any But now the main purpose of the nursery seedlings in shade. It’s divided into sections difference. And a baobab should be planted is to provide Kruger camps and the local – such as succulents, waterwise plants, trees in shallow soil while marula seeds need to be communities with plants, as well as educate and shrubs – but, although you’re more than planted deeper.” people on the benefits of indigenous plants welcome to stroll about on your own at the The Wetlands Board Walk is a lovely
November 2018 070 www.countrylife.co.za CLOCKWISE FROM TOP: Between the nursery and golf course runs a boardwalk that provides great birding opportunities. M Meurel explains that wild ginger is not for sale but is propagated in the nursery, to repopulate the park, where it is Endangered. M The gorgeous impala lily is listed as a Red Data species in Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe. M The nursery is shaded in many parts by large wild figs and marula trees. In the sunny sections you’ll find aloes, succulents and other indigenous sun lovers. M Next to a play area there are picnic spots and a tea garden run by the Honorary Rangers, open on the first Sunday morning of the month.
sector of the nursery. We wander through the rehabilitated wetland with a malachite kingfisher flashing through the trees. “Many of these trees have medicinal properties but be careful of eating the leaves of this,” says Meurel, pointing out the toad tree, with a glint in her eye. “If you do, locals believe you might well have twins.” Not everything is for sale at the nursery, as it is not allowed by law to sell plants classified as Endangered. “It would create a market for these plants that cannot be controlled,” explains Meurel. But there is a wide choice of indigenous plants and seeds for sale. I buy my fill of impala lilies and baby Handy Info baobabs but wish I could take some rhino- O If you enter the park through Paul Kruger Gate and take the Skukuza Road, the turn-off to Lake dung compost (collected by the nursery from Panic and Skukuza Indigenous Plant Nursery is marked and to the left, a couple of kilometres the rhino-holding boma, and only used in the before Skukuza Rest Camp. nursery) as I am sure my plants will feel more O You are welcome to take a picnic and enjoy the nursery’s shade. at home. O O If you make a purchase, keep your till slip as the gate guards want to see it going out of Kruger. Map reference B8 see inside back cover O Pop in to Lake Panic Bird Hide – it’s a peaceful place to spend some time. Some say it got its name shortly after it was built in 1975 when, after a cloudburst, there was a fear that the dam Scan here for 6 other wall would give way. Others say the story is that the dam was the reliable water supply for not to be missed Skukuza and there was no need to panic in drought. experiences in Kruger O For more info www.sanparks.org/parks/kruger/tourism/nursery
www.countrylife.co.za 071 November 2018 COMPETITION
WIN A Luxury Stay at Worth Jock Safari Lodge in Kruger R35 840
ock Safari Lodge is named after local legend Jock of the and sleep-outs. Small groups and families with children are Bushveld, the canine hero of Sir Percy Fitzpatrick’s story accommodated in the private camp Fitzpatrick’s at Jock that of courage and loyalty. is within the same concession. The lodge is situated in the south-western corner of Activities include daily game drives, wilderness walks and the Kruger National Park, and with 6 000 hectares of visits to rock art sites, birdwatching, stargazing and spa treatments. Jexclusive traversing rights Big Five viewing is a certain highlight. There is also a Kids on Safari programme for children. It has recently undergone a revamp, adding all modcons expected Jock Safari Lodge is the ideal getaway to experience the by discerning travellers, while retaining its rich history and heritage. Kruger’s rich history and its abundant plant and The 12 secluded, thatched suites all have views of the river bed wild life, or simply to relax and enjoy fine from a private deck, and each has an outdoor Victorian bath and South African cuisine and wine. shower, a plunge pool and an enclosed day bed for daydreaming www.jocksafarilodge.com
The Prize To Enter • Two-night stay for two. • Daily game drives. SMS the word JOCK, your email and postal address to 48402 before • All meals. • Guided wilderness walks. 30 November 2018. SMSes cost R1.50 each and free SMSes do not • A selection of house beverages. • TheprizeisworthR35840. apply. The prize is not transferable and cannot be converted to cash.
TERMS AND CONDITIONS 1. SMS errors will be billed. 2. Participation is free and open to anyone other than employees of Caxton Publishers, their promotional partners and printers, their advertising and promotional agencies and their immediate families. 3. The judges’ decision is final. 4. Prizes are not transferable and cannot be converted to cash. 5. Offer valid for SA residents only. 6. To comply with the Consumer Protection Act, postal entries will no longer be accepted and winners will be required to supply their ID number. 7. There is no limit to the number of entries per reader. 8. The winner is randomly selected after the closing date of the competition. 9. Any extra costs incurred such as transfers, beverages, telephone and laundry, conservation contribution and all additional expenses not mentioned will be for the winner’s account.
November 2018 072 www.countrylife.co.za WATERBERG X BIRDING HOTSPOTS
Marataba’s Magic Mix Blend together the rivers, savannah, valleys, gorges and Àat-topped mountains of the Limpopo Waterberg and you have abundant birdlife WORDS AND PICTURES PETER CHADWICK WWW.PETERCHADWICK.CO.ZA
A Woodland Kingfisher
www.countrylife.co.za 073 November 2018 BIRDING HOTSPOTS XWATERBERG
n a dazzle of blue, the Woodland Kingfisher (3 on checklist) flies like an arrow into a gnarled tree that is the centrepiece of Marataba Safari Lodge’s front lawn. On landing, the Ibird (which must have been a male) raises its wings wide and high, and gives that loud and vibrant call so characteristic of the bushveld. Out of a hollow in one of the large branches, the kingfisher’s partner emerges and, for a few moments, the pair display in unison. It’s the onset of summer and, like so many others, the two birds are in the swing of breeding. On the lawn, a small family group of Swainson’s Spurfowls (6) scratch about and peck at grass seeds, and a troop of vervet monkeys tumble about in play. Lesser-striped Swallows circle continuously among Alpine- and White-rumped Swifts, and TOP: In the northern areas of South Africa, make occasional dips under the rafters of the the Waterberg was the lodge roof in search of a suitable site to build first region to be declared their mud-pellet nests. Everywhere, life is a UNESCO Biosphere abundant and I relish the thought that this is Reserve. ABOVE: The only the introduction to a few special days. Matlabas River flows for a few months each Marataba Game Reserve, a private year, from just after the 23 000-hectare concession, is incorporated in early summer rainfall the Marakele National Park that lies just three until March, when it is hours to the north of Johannesburg in Limpopo. a magnet for birdlife. The reserve is a place of wildness, beauty and RIGHT: Cheetahs are re- biodiversity dominated by spectacular views of establishing themselves on the open plains of the Waterberg mountains, with their flat crowns Marataba. and deep valleys and gorges. Dissecting rivers
November 2018 www.countrylife.co.za ABOVE LEFT: Darryn Murray keeps an eye on a young elephant crossing the road. Wildlife at Marataba is generally relaxed, allowing for wonderful close encounters. ABOVE: Two pride males patrol their territory in search of a meal. LEFT: Hippos are plentiful. Aboard the Miss Mara on the Matlabas River we unwittingly intrude on a tender moment between mother and child. BELOW: Dung beetles clamber over a pile of elephant dung.
provide a constant life-source that attracts are rolled away and buried. baboons wanders over the exposed mudflats, abundant wildlife, and a bird-species list that While watching this world in miniature, disturbing African Jacanas, a pair of Black shows an excellent mix from the arid west and we hear the sound of breaking branches and Crakes and a flock of White-faced Ducks that the moister bushveld east. the soft rumbling of elephants, and set off only rise in flight with loud whistling calls. Floristically, it’s also an exceptional area, to round a bend and find ourselves in among This commotion flushes an African Fish with vegetation that varies from typical bushveld a magnificent, relaxed herd. As the elephants Eagle (8) perched in one of the numerous to fynbos and forest, and includes species more move slowly through the dense shrubbery, dead trees waterlogged in the middle of the typical of the Kalahari. Man has also had colourful Swallow-tailed Bee-eaters, as well as river. We hear the deep grunts and bellows of a long history in the area, and rock art has been White-fronted Bee-eaters (1) swoop around the hippos and, from a steep bank, look down on discovered in many of the caves and overhangs. beasts to snatch up disturbed insects. a mother hippo playing with her young calf, With mid-afternoon approaching, I head After a blissful half-hour, Darryn suggests mouthing it and splashing it with water and out in an open Land Rover with Darryn we move to his favourite part of the reserve. then diving under it to gently push it into the Murray, my host and guide at Marataba. “It’s a series of long, wide pools along the air. The calf revels in all of this and gives its We stop occasionally at the herds of impalas, Matlabas that are interspersed with dense best at playing back. zebras, kudus, giraffes and wildebeest, and reedbeds,” he says. “Birds are always Darryn drives us down to a wide concrete Darryn gives interesting bits of information plentiful.” There we find African Spoonbills, bridge where we stop for sundowners and about each. Fresh signs of an elephant herd Glossy Ibis, Squacco Herons and Grey Herons snacks while watching the clouds become have us stopping at one of their dung piles to feeding in the shallows and, out in the deeper a deep red and purple that reflects in the watch a horde of dung beetles scurrying about water, African Darters and White-breasted Matlabas. Rising insects over the water attract and digging deep to form balls of dung that Cormorants diving for fish. A troop of chacma dozens of bats. The occasional Fiery-necked
www.countrylife.co.za 075 November 2018 BIRDING HOTSPOTS ◗ WATERBERG
Nightjar and Black-crowned Night Heron fly they fly up to safety in explosive bursts. past like ghosts in the twilight, as the calls of We head for a small, isolated waterhole Burchell’s Coucal (7), Spotted Eagle-Owls away from the river, and sit for an hour and Verreaux’s Eagle-Owls echo from the watching the comings and goings of many surrounding bushveld. animals as they quench their thirst. Red- Early next morning we are barely out of billed Oxpeckers riding pillion on the wildlife camp on our game drive when we come across clamber down from the animals as they drink, a pretty spectacular start to the day – two pride to enjoy the water as well. SEASON AND WEATHER males patrolling their territory, searching for Mixed flocks of Blue-, Black-faced- and Marataba is a year-round destination, with something to fill their bellies. A trio of cheetah Violet-eared Waxbills cautiously drink the best season for birdwatching between is next on the list, cavorting and playing in alongside Green-winged Pytilias, and a special October and April. Summer temperatures reach a game that obviously teaches them the basics find has Darryn whooping with excitement. 32°C, while winters are mild with an average of how best to pounce on prey. “The Orange-breasted Waxbill is a new lifer temperature of 21°C. Most rain falls in the Birds are also very active, and migrant for me, and I am sure it’s a new species for summer, in short thunderstorms only lasting Red-backed Shrikes (5) and Yellow-billed Marataba.” a few hours. Kites (10) are constantly encountered. A Lanner It’s a small bird that highlights just how HABITAT Falcon (4) swoops in and perches in a dead tree many secrets the magnificently diverse The region is semi-arid and is the only savannah and his presence panics Southern Yellow-billed landscape of Marataba still have to be biosphere in the world. The sandstone mountains Hornbills (2) , Cape Turtle Doves and Namaqua uncovered, and leaves me determined to of the Waterberg are a prominent feature in this Doves (9) feeding on the ground among Pin- return to this special patch of wilderness. O sandy and mountain bushveld area. Sourveld Tailed Whydahs and Red-Billed Queleas, and Map reference B6 see inside back cover grasslands are scattered on the summits. SPECIALS TOP RIGHT: Red-billed Oxpeckers Cape Vulture clamber over an impala ram White-backed Night-Heron as it drinks from a waterhole Verreaux’s Eagle-Owl during the late afternoon. LEFT: Half-collared Kingfisher We spot many giraffes at Mountain Wagtail Marataba. After this one has Gurney’s Sugarbird had its fill of belly scratching against the bushes, he uses GETTING THERE his mate as a more convenient head scratcher. BELOW LEFT: Located in the Marakele National Park in the Marataba main camp is secluded Waterberg mountains, Marataba is a 23 000ha among the splendid semi- private concession in Limpopo. Driving time deciduous bushveld, overlooking from Joburg is about three and a half hours the plains where wildlife loves along the N1. Drivers must present a valid to congregate. BELOW: It’s surprising not to see vervet driver’s licence and vehicles must display monkeys on the lawns of the a valid licence. Guests can also fly directly main lodge. to the Matla Mamba airstrip 25 minutes from Marataba. ACTIVITIES Marataba offers a wide range of activities, from morning and afternoon game drives to bush walks, boat trips, wildlife lectures and stargazing. It also has a spa and is a favourite wedding venue. Luxury accommodation is available at the Marataba Safari Lodge and Marataba Mountain Lodge. CONTACT Marataba 014 779 0018, [email protected] www.marataba.co.za
November 2018 076 www.countrylife.co.za
CHECKLIST Peter Chadwick’s Top 10 birds to spot in the Waterberg
1. Perhaps one of the most commonly encountered pairs. A fearless hunter, it catches its prey after vegetation in search of prey that can include bee-eaters in the bushveld, the White-fronted a dashing flight or scoops it up from the ground. snakes, lizards, bird eggs and chicks, and even Bee-eater (Rooikeelbyvreter) favours areas Insects, small mammals and small birds up to the small rodents. It is cumbersome in flight. adjacent to wetlands and rivers, and can be seen size of sandgrouse are the usual prey, although 8. The African Fish Eagle (Visarend) is an in small groups hawking insects from prominent larger game birds are also taken on occasion. unmistakable African icon, and its ringing call, perches. At the start of the breeding season, males 5. The male Red-backed Shrike (Rooiruglaksman – given with head thrown back, is a prominent catch and present insects to females as part of pictured) differs vastly from the female in plumage feature of our rivers and waterways. The female is pair bonding. and coloration. The female shrike is brownish larger than the male and can also be distinguished 2. The female Southern Yellow-billed Hornbill above with a pale, streaked breast and flanks. As by a more extensive white on the breast. (Geelbekneushoringsvoël) has a shorter bill with a Palearctic migrant, the birds return each summer 9. The Namaqua Dove (Namakwaduifie) has a less-prominent casque than the male, and the to Southern Africa, often to the exact location in a widespread distribution across South Africa juveniles have a darker head and throat area. Their successive seasons. but favours more arid areas. Although breeding rapid drawn-out call builds in intensity, given with 6. Usually found in small groups of three to six throughout the year, it prefers spring months and wings fanned out high and head lowered. birds, the Swainson’s Spurfowl (Bosveldfisant) builds a rough stick nest in a small tree or large 3. Spring hasn’t officially started in the bushveld is a common resident of dry savannah. It is easily shrub. Two off-white eggs are the usual clutch. areas of South Africa until the first calls of the recognisable from other spurfowl species by its 10. The Yellow-billed Kite (Geelbekwou) is Woodland Kingfisher (Bosveldvisvanger) are dark-brown plumage, dark legs, and bare, red face. a long-winged, dark-brown raptor with heard. The birds are inter-African migrants that 7. Most often seen sunning itself in the early a distinctive forked tail. It is slightly smaller return to the south to breed in hollows of trees. morning or late afternoon from the top of a large than the similar-looking Black Kite and is easily 4. The Lanner Falcon (Edelvalk) is a large wide- bush, the Burchell’s Coucal (Gewone Vleiloerie) distinguished by its yellow bill. It’s an intra-African ranging species usually encountered alone or in spends most of its time clambering among dense migrant that hunts and scavenges on the wing. The Agony & the Ecstasy And the cause of both? A slackpacking trail through the Karkloof Forest in the KwaZulu-Natal Midlands, writes ANDREA ABBOTT
November 2018 www.countrylife.co.za KARKLOOF FALLS2FALLS X HIKING
t the end, my knees were on where some of us were staying for two nights, their knees, pleading to be put others at nearby Rockwood Lodge. Both out of their misery. But my establishments are at the foot of the Karkloof hitherto pinched sciatic nerve Forest through which we were to hike the next had freed itself (oh happy day). day to Grey Mare’s Tail Falls, and from there AAnd the reason for all the pain and the joy? down another trail back through the forest, The three-day Karkloof Falls2Falls slackpack a round trip of 18 kilometres. across hill – let’s make that mountain – and We set out at the crack of dawn, the air dale in the KwaZulu-Natal Midlands. crisp and the sun softening the early morning “Slackpacking,” said Julia Colvin, hiker/ chill. The trail led us first through a grove of cyclist dynamo and founder of Spekboom flowering Buddleja auriculata, whose heady Tours, “is gentle hiking. Instead of carrying perfume drifted with us even after we’d entered a heavy backpack, eating two-minute that mistbelt forest. At nearly 1 000 hectares, noodles, and sleeping in a cold cave or tent, the Karkloof Forest is the second-largest slackpacking gives people the option of indigenous forest in South Africa, after the luggage transfer, a warm bed, and a home- Tsitsikamma/Knysna Forest. cooked dinner to look forward to.” Put my In this mystical realm, shafts of sunlight name down for that. pattern the fern-carpeted floor in shades of Our group was an eclectic one comprising, gold and yellow, rope-like lianas reach across among others, a barista, teachers, an architect, trees, the gnarled remnants of ancient trees a renewable-energies expert, environmental are abstract artworks, and mosses clothe rocks activists, an author or two and a disciplinary that lie scattered about as if tossed there by officer. Some had flown in from the Western an angry giant. Cape and Johannesburg and a few were There were benign giants too, such as already well acquainted. Several, like Julia an impressive Cussonia spicata (cabbage specimens exist but it’ll be decades before herself, and Penny Rees who initiated and led tree), whose trunk circumference measured yellowwoods once more dominate. We hugged the 2012 Mayday for Rivers Source to Sea six women’s outstretched arms. Enormous trees and sensed their beating hearts. One Walk on the uMngeni River, were seasoned knobwoods (Zanthoxylum capense) were even wore its heart on its trunk, lichen having hikers. Others were less so. Common to a favourite. With their weirdly wrinkled, formed in such a shape. If ever there was a tree all, though, was our love of nature and the knobbly trunks they made me think of to love, this was it. fact that we were all women. “Men aren’t Klingons. Calls of forest birds such as the Knysna excluded,” Julia said. “It’s just how it worked Absent were the giants that once guarded Turaco, and tracks of mammals like bushbuck out this time.” that forest – mature yellowwoods (all three and even a leopard, reminded us we were not On the eve of the hike, we gathered for species), the victims of extensive logging for alone. Who could tell how many sets of eyes a fine dinner at Thistledown Country House, almost a century starting in the 1850s. Younger watched us as we passed by?
OPPOSITE TOP: Climbing a stairway of rocks through the Karkloof Forest to the spread of grasslands at the top. OPPOSITE BELOW: A six-woman Cussonia trunk. In front are Louise Higginson, Garlai Combrink and Tamryn Gonzga. TOP RIGHT: Hike leader and founder of Spekboom Tours, Julia Colvin is never happier than out on a trail. LEFT: Penny Rees hugs the tree that wears its heart on its trunk. BELOW: The splinter group on top of the world.
www.countrylife.co.za 079 November 2018 HIKING XKARKLOOF FALLS2FALLS
We emerged from that forest to an immense back through the forest, we split from the main scale. Penny and Nikki told us that more such grassland beneath an improbably blue sky. group and, with Penny Rees in the lead, strode sites occur elsewhere in the Karkloof and that A path led through swaying grasses and crossed across the top of the world. The views were their origin remains a mystery. a glittering stream where we filled our water the widest imaginable and Penny and another The narrow trail down proved slippery and bottles before making for the viewsite. There, Howick resident, Nikki Brighton, identified almost vertical in places. It was here my knees near the lip of the falls that, awaiting rain, was landmarks like Swartkop, Midmar Dam, began to complain and where, I believe, my a trickle, we shrugged off our daypacks and iNhlosane mountain, Kamberg, Giant’s Castle, sciatic nerve was jolted out of its pinched state. recharged our batteries. How tempting it was to the Ampitheatre, Mount Gilboa, Blinkwater But what a forest. stay there, dozing under the sun and absorbing Nature Reserve, Albert Falls Dam, Table Although part of the same system we’d the stillness. But with more than half the Mountain (yes, we have one too) and Otto’s walked through earlier, it was different – distance remaining, we had to move on. Bluff hill. denser, cooler, thickly draped in moss and Still, some of us couldn’t tear ourselves We lunched on roast-vegetable wraps ferns and lichen, and with groupings of away from that upland. Having established that near a group of rocks that brought to mind colossal boulders that seemingly propped up another trail at the distant end of the plateau led Stonehenge in the UK, although on a smaller the hillside. Step by careful step, we picked our way down that path until, at last, the scent of buddleja reached us, announcing we were almost home. To begin with, day two was a Karkloof Canopy Tour followed by a 20-kilometre hike to Karkloof Falls and back via a different route. But rain and mist made cowards of most of us and, after waiting in the unfulfilled hope of a weather change, we abandoned Plan A and moved on to our next guest house, Amber Avenue outside Howick. There we made ourselves at home, sipping red wine, and generally solving the world’s problems. ABOVE: The mysterious standing stones sited where the views are enormous. A man-made sacred arrangement We could easily have kept that up but Julia or purely natural? RIGHT: Maureen van den Bergh zips galvanised some of us into walking through through the Karkloof forest. BELOW: A well-earned thick mist across farm lands (Julia has the rest on the viewsite at the top of Grey Mare’s Tail Falls, owners’ blessing) from where, she said, the at that time before the rains a mere trickle. When in full views of Midmar and Albert Falls dams are spate, and seen from below, it resembles the flowing tail of a galloping grey mare. BELOW RIGHT: One of the few exceptional on a clear day. But that’s the level areas in the steep forest that the ‘grassland’ group Midlands, where mist is a fact of life in any tackled on the way down.
November 2018 080 www.countrylife.co.za ABOVE: Mist-filled moments at the entrance to the season. I don’t know why they don’t just call Karkloof Conservancy the region the Mistlands. headquarters and Gartmore A sparkling world greeted us on day three Farm on our way to Karkloof so it was back to Karkloof to slide on cables Canopy tours. ABOVE RIGHT: Knysna Turacos are through the forest, a daunting albeit thrilling among the special birds exercise for bathophobes like me (with a fear that live in the Karkloof of depths), before resuming the original plan forest. RIGHT: Hay there! for the day – hiking the length of the uMngeni Hiking across farmlands Valley Nature Reserve. in mist on day two had its lighter, even atmospheric We entered at the furthermost point and moments. Let’s rename the followed a contour path along the ridge above Midlands the Mistlands. the deeply incised valley. This is another place BOTTOM: The uMngeni where grand panoramas arrest you all the way, River Nature Reserve on and where multiple waterfalls – not only the the last day of the hike. famous Howick Falls – spill down cliffs to join the uMngeni River on its sea-bound journey. apocalyptic scene to gild the grasslands Footnotes At an unoccupied self-catering cottage about and highlight the zebras grazing there. O The next Karkloof Falls2Falls hike is scheduled mid-way, awaited a treat of several bottles of We stared in awe at this mysteriously for 22-25 November 2018. MCC and an outstanding buffet lunch, supplied changed world, then picked up our pace to O Six more slackpacks, some of them in the and set up by a top local caterer. As Julia had escape whatever the heavens had in store. But Dargle area, are scheduled for 2019 and Julia said, no two-minute noodles. no cataclysmic event struck and, as we reached is planning a Midlands Conservancy camino Our appetites satisfied, we started out the car park, those menacing clouds vanished. encompassing all the conservancies in the on the last leg of the hike, I on my last That rare skyscape proved the grand finale Midlands, from Nottingham Road to the legs. It was late afternoon and we still had to a grand hike that, we all agreed, had enriched Karkloof. Julia also organises and leads cycle several kilometres to cover when a celestial us in many ways and left us all the better for tours, including one through the battlefields. phenomenon stopped us in our tracks. As if it, just as the nurturing spekboom – the plant 076 819 0615, [email protected], from nowhere, dark forces assembled above that gave its name to Julia’s company – does www.spekboomtours.co.za us, blacking out the sky. And yet, the lowering wherever it grows. O O Karkloof Conservancy manager, Twané Clarke sun reached through the bottom of that Map reference D8 see inside back cover says Karkloof Forest has many landowners, among them the Shaw family, descendants of one of the first families to settle in the Karkloof. “We refer to the Shaws as being Forest Custodian, as they do own a vast portion of the forest and work hard to protect it.” Other owners include Wildlands, and KZN Wildlife that owns a portion that falls within the Karkloof Nature Reserve. The grasslands above the forest are also privately owned. karkloofconservation.org.za O For more info on the Standing Stones, read Nikki Brighton’s blog at midlandsmosaic. wordpress.com/2017/04/23/sacred-stones
www.countrylife.co.za November 2018 Unusual Stays There’s nothing ordinary about these country escapes
November 2018 082 www.countrylife.co.za Country Escapes
Swaziland Beehive Village, Mlilwane Wildlife 1Sanctuary Malkerns Mlilwane (which means ‘little fire’ in siSwati) Wildlife Sanctuary is Swaziland’s trailblazing conservation area established back in 1961. In true dedication to the name, there’s a cosy fire each evening that even the warthogs can’t resist. You’ll find them huddling close to the coals along with the guests. Although there are various budget options at the sprawling resort, I stayed in one of the traditional beehive villages at Mlilwane on my first night to celebrate the newly named Kingdom of eSwatini. I was shown to the laager of Swazi-style huts by my guide who reassures, “If you hear strange noises in the night, it’s just the impala fighting.” I had to duck to walk into the en suite grass hut, which is intricately woven together and surprisingly spacious within. for the structure. In the morning I woke to the stirring sound “How long does it take to build one of these?” I asked. “How fast are of a Fish Eagle calling, and the grassy lawns outside being home you at knitting?” he replied. The women have to first weave the ropes that to tolerant wildlife grazing peacefully. – Melanie van Zyl form the walls and ceiling, while men go out to fetch the wooden poles www.biggameparks.org
Western Cape National Park, and is ideal accommodation when exploring the Harkerville Tree Top Forest Chalet Knysna section of the park, particularly the Harkerville walking 2 Dendrophile – that’s the official title for and mountain-biking trails. – Bronwyn Mulrooney a person like me who absolutely adores trees. 012 428 9111, [email protected], www.sanparks.org I seek out forest destinations whenever I can, and revel in the chance to live among the leaves for a night or two. But no place has really immersed me in the forest, up high, right beneath the canopy, as SANParks’ stilted tree-top chalet did. More of a lavish, self-catering log home than a chalet, Tree Top conceals itself between the trunks of towering white pears adorned with lichen and draped in old man’s beard. In fact, driving up to the chalet along the private road that cuts through this protected piece of wilderness, we almost missed it. Standing on the deck – built around the trees – and marvelling at its forest cocoon, I couldn’t help but think that Tree Top felt, in a way, as elusive as the secretive elephants that still haunt this famous forest. Up there, the magic of both trees and tuskers is palpable. Tree Top boasts two large bedrooms, two bathrooms, and an uber-comfortable lounge with roomy couches, all of which open onto the deck. A modern kitchen, aircon, filtered water on tap, DStv and open fireplace, complete what can ultimately be described as a luxury tree-house hideaway. Tree Top is the only treehouse in the Garden Route
www.countrylife.co.za 083 November 2018 Country Escapes
KwaZulu-Natal The accommodation Sycamore Avenue Treehouses Mooi River runs as a dinner, 3 From the ground they certainly don’t seem like ‘real’ tree- bed and breakfast houses, but once access is granted via a twirling staircase and I am establishment with enveloped in warm wooden interiors with views through branches. a central dining room and This creative, stilted home certainly deserves a tree-house tag. bar area, but tea, coffee and There are six tree-house options, but Pegasus is my favourite, and a kettle are available in the a magical piece of woodwork with intricate windows, curved roof room, along with wine glasses. The trellises and a sweet balcony that looks out from a small pine forest. fantastical decor may not be for everyone, It’s cleverly laid out and includes a big spa bath, and fireplace and but it’s certainly unusual and makes for a really fun stay in Mooi heaters to keep the open-plan bedroom cosy. Little proverbs have River with close access to the merry Midlands Meander nearby. been carved into the windows and walls such as ‘Aren’t you a sight My only gripe was that I could sometimes hear the N3 highway. – for sore eyes’, in the mirror frame and (appropriate for a flying horse- Melanie van Zyl themed dwelling) ‘Do not look the gift horse in the mouth’. 033 263 5009, www.treehouse-acc.co.za
November 2018 084 www.countrylife.co.za Namibia The Quivertree 4Forest Rest Camp Keetmanshoop Ever stayed in an igloo? But not the Eskimo kind (we are talking desert here), rather one made of fibreglass, apparently once used to accommodate railway workers. The Quivertree Forest Rest Camp on the farm Gariganus just 13 kilometres north-east of Keetmanshoop on road M29, offers tourists this unusual accommodation in the middle of a beautiful Namibian landscape, surrounded by a natural quiver-tree forest. Stepping into one of the five igloos, I was immediately the classic tree/star shot night, while aware of the pleasant and surprising coolness inside – a relief the dolerite-rock formations at the from the outside heat. Walking down tiled steps I found an Giants Playground on this working elegantly decorated bedroom with three single beds and farm provide intriguing viewing. In the a fully equipped kitchen, as well as a bathroom and aircon. middle of nowhere, this comfortable Each igloo has its own patio and there is a communal braai igloo oasis was an unusual and pleasant area, boma and swimming pool. There are also two guest surprise. – Ann Gadd houses for larger groups. The quiver-tree forest provides 083 768 3421, [email protected] endless photo opportunities, as well as the chance to capture www.quivertreeforest.com
KwaZulu-Natal en suite facilities. However, we were grateful for the modern Ecabazini Traditional Zulu Village ablutions with piping-hot showers. Each hut could sleep 5 Albert Falls four and all linen was provided. Instead of exploring the Zulu heritage runs deep in KwaZulu-Natal and my interest in area, we focused on the rich, cultural experience offered this fascinating culture led me to Ecabazini, a traditional Zulu here. We learnt the art of handling cattle and witnessed the village in the heart of the Midlands region. After a scenic daily chores performed in the homestead, enjoyed typical drive into a picturesque fertile valley, there on the shores Zulu fare and vibrant Zulu dancing. The cry of the Fish Eagle of Albert Falls Dam we found the authentic Zulu homestead. and abundant birdlife enhanced the unique experience. For Traditional huts, paraffin lamps, fire-cooked meals and cattle those who prefer a more genteel experience, there is a self- in kraals created a credible ambience. We were allocated catering, more modern section. – Olivia Schaffer one of the five huts and were not surprised by the lack of 084 746 9741, www.ecabazini.co.za
www.countrylife.co.za Nothing is as much fun for little Gray Stockil-Smith than putting together the puzzle of table-top pieces for dad Stephen Smith.
Table Talk STEPHEN SMITH’s home is fairly compact and, to ¿nd some extra surface area without cluttering their space, he comes up with a trestle table that doubles as a wall hanging PICTURES REDMAN MEDIA
November 2018 086 www.countrylife.co.za TRESTLE TABLE ◗ DIY
You need 4 x 45° triangles of 38mm wood, the short sides Cost About R1 200. If you use other timber this O 1 x 800mm x 1 200mm x 8mm piece of plywood being 100mm will obviously affect the price. (table underlay) O 1 length 10mm dowel Difficulty 3 out of 5 O Pine Cutting list O 2 x 8mm x 65mm nail-in wall anchors Time A day, plus a few minutes a day for 3 days 2 x 845mm x 100mm x 18mm (short table sides) O 220-grit sandpaper for painting. 2 x 1 245mm x 100mm x 18mm (long table sides) O Spray paint in three colours (I used Rustoleum Assistant Not necessary, but definitely helps. 4 x 735mm x 70mm x 38mm (legs) Chalked Spray-Paint in White, Serenity Blue and 2 x 250mm x 38mm x 38mm (top leg rails) Blush Pink) Tools 2 x 405mm x 70mm x 38mm (bottom leg rails) O Polywax wood sealant (I used Woodoc 5) Kreg jig, saw/jigsaw, cordless drill/screw driver, 2 x 245mm x 38mm x 38mm (leg supports) O Wood glue screw driver bit, sander, hammer drill, 8mm 2 x 60mm x 75mm x 18mm (leg locks) O Carry handle masonry drill bit, pencil, ruler.
18mm 45° 18mm
45° 1236,0mm 1200,0mm 836mm 800mm
Step 1 Using your Kreg jig, drill Step 2 The four table sides need to Step 3 Leaving an 18mm lip around pocket holes in all four edges of the be cut to fit the sides of the table, with the table, glue and then screw the table underlay, about three in the short 45° edges angling out. See the diagram four table sides to the table underlay edges and five in the long edges. to make it easier to understand. using the Kreg holes you’ve drilled. The easiest way to do this is to lift the table underlay off the work surface using 18mm planks, and line the sides up with the work surface.
Step 4 Screw the scrap triangles into the four corners of the table, below the table underlay, for extra strength. Again, use a Kreg jig for this.
www.countrylife.co.za November 2018 10° converging
250,0mm
735,0mm 45° parallel
10° converging
405,0mm
Step 5 Time to make the legs. Cut the ends Step 6 Screw together two legs and one top rail, using the Kreg jig of the legs at 10°, and parallel. Cut the ends of the and glue. The top rail should be flush with the top of the legs. Slide the rails at 10°, angled into each other. The long edge of longer rail into place, about halfway up the legs, and fasten it in place the short rails should be 250mm and the long edge using glue and the Kreg jig. Repeat with the other legs. of the long rails should be 405mm. See diagram for a clearer understanding.
Step 7 Lay the two sets of legs Step 8 Glue and screw the leg into the base cavity, the top of the legs support into place. Repeat with the Step 9 Drill a 10mm hole 43mm against opposite ends of the table. They other set of legs at the opposite end of from the 75mm edge of each of the will nestle together. Push one set of the table. 60mm x 75mm blocks. Glue and screw legs firmly against a short wide of the these blocks into place, up against each table. Push a leg support against the bottom rail. Use a piece of dowel in the bottom of the top rail, and mark where 10mm holes to ‘lock’ the legs in place it goes. when not needed.
November 2018 088 www.countrylife.co.za TRESTLE TABLE ◗ DIY
Step 11 Decorate the tabletop (see below). Step 10 Attach a carry handle to one of the long sides of the table and paint the table white. Step 12 Drill two 8mm holes in The table is almost complete – you just need to a wall, insert two 8mm wall anchors decorate the surface of the tabletop. and hang your new art table.
Decorating You can decorate the tabletop with any pattern, using 18mm-thick wood. I created a chevron-style zigzag. Otherwise you can do stripes or just cover a piece of 18mm plywood in material or paint and fit this into place. To do a chevron, follow the next few steps:
You need O 14 pieces of wood cut to 280mm x 100mm x 18mm, with 45° parallel ends O 7 pieces of wood cut to 570mm x 100mm x 18mm, with 45° parallel ends O About 12 more pieces of 100mm x 18mm wood, to cut to fit the gaps
Step 1 It’s now a jigsaw puzzle. Start in a corner and fit the shorter pieces Step 2 Once your pattern is of wood against one long side. Then fit the longer pieces against them, in a row, complete, take pieces out one by one followed by another row of shorter pieces. Then, using a pencil and ruler, mark and number them on the bottom, and pieces to fit the gaps, cut them, and slot them in. on the table underlay.
Step 3 Sort the pieces into piles Step 4 Glue the pieces back into that will be painted in the different place, using the numbers to keep your colours and paint them. pattern regular. O
www.countrylife.co.za 089 November 2018 Wheels
Safe Inside and Out Get peace of mind with the BMW X3 WORDS STEPHEN SMITH PICTURES SUPPLIED
or the first time I truly appreciate why so many people buy, or at least hanker after, a premium softroader SUV BMW X3s. It was a Friday in July, cold, rainy and misty, and the roads were busy. Emily had just dropped me off in the KZN Midlands at a work event, and she was carrying Fon without me to Winterton and the sanctuary of her beloved farm. As I watched her drive off, our first child ensconced in his seat behind her and the second still womb-bound, I was thankful that my little family was travelling in a vehicle that prioritised safety, as the lengthy list of active and passive safety features attest to. Perhaps I should take this opportunity to explain all these features. By ‘active safety features’ the car industry means technology that works to prevent accidents from happening – they are always active, keeping you safe on the road. These features are generally electronic driving aids such as ABS braking systems, brake assist, traction control, stability control and the like, although over the past few years they have expanded into TOP: The X3 handles better than most sedans, never mind SUVs. ABOVE: The interior is unmistakably BMW, and you can’t gripe about that. radar-based systems that detect what is happening around the vehicle. Take a look at the X3 for example: in addition to the braking and traction control systems mentioned above, it has a system called Control, which slows the car down and maintains a preset distance Active Protection – in the event of a collision, the system tensions behind the vehicle in front of you when necessary; and light city the seat belt, automatically closes the windows until there is just a braking. It’s quite phenomenal what a premium modern car does on small gap, closes the panoramic sunroof and automatically brakes our behalf, even excluding things like switching the lights on when the vehicle to a stop. Then there are the other clever systems that it gets dark or the windscreen wipers on when it starts to rain. make up Driving Assist Plus (optional, unfortunately): steering and The X3 also has all-wheel drive across the range, something lane control, which keeps you in the correct lane; Active Cruise that can almost be considered an active safety system in that it
November 2018 090 www.countrylife.co.za ABOVE: Little details add up. ABOVE RIGHT: Their design is as safe their cars. FACT FILE TRANSMISSION: 8-speed automatic NAME: BMW X3 xDrive 20d POWER OUTPUT: 140kW BODY TYPE: Five-seat SUV TORQUE: 400Nm (or SAV – Sport Activity Vehicle helps so much with traction in bad weather and on gravel roads. DRIVETRAIN: All-wheel drive in BMW parlance) CLAIMED FUEL Passive safety features are those that keep you in one piece ENGINE CAPACITY: CONSUMPTION: 5.7ℓ/100km should you be in an accident (they are passive unless they are 2.0-litre turbodiesel PRICE: R690 200 needed). The most obvious of those are the airbags, of which the X3 has a full complement, as well as things like deformation zones, which absorb energy and direct it away from passengers. Safety aside, what’s the X3 like? It’s great – a truly brilliant WHEELSPIN vehicle. With it, BMW has emphasised its tradition of BMW Speaking of safety… cars being engaging to drive, and there are very few sedans Speaking of safety, the Volvo XC40 out there that handle this well, let along SUVs. Engines range (one of our favourite cars of the past 12 from a 2-litre turbodiesel (140kW/400Nm) to a 2-litre petrol months), has been awarded a five-star (185kW/350Nm), and a 3-litre turbodiesel (195kW/620Nm) to rating in the Euro NCAP tests. Volvo a 3-litre petrol (265kW/500Nm). As always, I’d pick the little continues to lead the way in terms of diesel, mainly for the fuel consumption of 5.7Ɛ/100km, but also safety, and all tested Volvo cars on sale for the loads of torque that make real-world driving such fun. The today have received five stars in their respective Euro NCAP assessments. engines are all exceptional, as are the 8-speed automatic gearboxes. Last year, the XC60 was crowned the overall best-performing large off-roader, I recently read somewhere that brave design is what elevates the and the best overall performer in the prestigious Euro NCAP 2017 Best in ordinary. I wish BMW designers would read the same thing – their Class safety awards. The XC90 received the same accolade in 2015. The XC40 design is as safe as their cars. The X3 is what it is – a handsome has also been named the 2018 European Car of the Year, the first time a car and sporty SUV that evolves a little with every new generation. from the Swedish company has won this award. If only the designers would tear up the old blueprints and start from scratch. Start from a little dollop of inspiration that came to them A muddy good idea from Landy at breakfast time, a moment that they couldn’t ignore, that forced Land Rover has launched a range of new lifestyle packages, officially called them to scribble the first lines on a paper napkin and rush into ‘Gear’, that can be bought with your new Discovery or ordered later, and the design office to have an animated ‘eureka’ discussion among a cycling package is the first one to be made available. It features either themselves. It is a spectacular vehicle encased in an unspectacular a towbar-mounted bike rack or roof-top bike racks (made by Thule), as well progression of the original design, and it deserves better. as mudflaps (yip, Discos don’t come with mudflaps), a waterproof rubber It’s nice to know that the X3 is locally made in Rosslyn, outside bin liner and waterproof rubber foot-well mats, and even a first-aid kit. Best Pretoria, so you can get that warm fuzzy feeling as you peel the of all, the fitting of the bike racks is Proudly South African label off your new car, and tell your friends backed by Land Rover, which means your this interesting fact around the braai. And it’s also nice to know warranty remains intact. And, contrary that if your family is somewhere without you, driving in the rain, to expectations, you can actually save that they’re about as safe as possible. Prices start at R690 200, money buying your bike rack from Landy but it is very easy to spend a vast amount of money adding extras instead of an outdoor shop. For more to your X3. The base price of my test vehicle, an X3 xDrive information www.landrover.co.za. 20d, was R690 200, but the price as tested was R947 764. O
www.countrylife.co.za 091 November 2018 Books New publications about our magnificent country and its inspiring people
BOOK OF THE MONTH Errol ‘EK’ Moorcroft. It covers his time as a student at Grootfontein Agricultural College This is how it is, True stories from South Africa outside Middelburg in the Karoo, more The saying ‘You can go faster alone but further together’ sprang to mind specifically when he worked as a wool-classer when I saw this book being launched. Each of the ‘true stories from South during his holidays. Moorcroft joined a team of Africa’ would probably not have made it into print had they been released world-class shearers, who mostly hailed from alone, but as a collection they reveal much about the heart and soul of the Eastern Cape and Lesotho. He relates their South Africans, whose voices would otherwise not be heard. There’s Kathija experiences on distant farms, mostly deep in Yassim’s Perfect Hues of Green describing how she escaped an abusive the mountains of the Free State and KwaZulu- marriage, Linda Kaoma’s tragi-comic story of a little girl who lets the cat out Natal. Moorcroft, who is more famous for his of the infidelity bag, Giles Griffin’s moving poem Gone Viral dealing with the HIV demon, and so later role as a South African Parliamentarian, many more. All by people like you and me. All of them part of the Life Righting Collective (LRC), has a narrative ability that is 100 per cent founded by Dawn Garisch. A number of them read from their work at the launch of the book Eastern Cape. He writes with affection, insight – a move even braver than putting your trauma, pain, pleasure and joy down on paper for all the world and humour about a singular, often isolated, to see. The success of the LRC is that members have found their voices in collective workshops community of tough rural types. This is a good where they’ve been held, reviewed and encouraged to grow and improve, not just by Dawn, but Christmas stocking-filler. by their peers so that they really can go so much ‘further together’. This book is the proof. Author: Errol Knott Moorcroft Reviewer: Chris Author: Life Righting Collective Reviewer: Nancy Richards Publisher: Fanele Price: R250 Marais Publisher: Footprints Press Price: R240 ISBN: 978-1-92823-256-8 Giveaway Code: STORIES ISBN: 978-0-63993-262-0 Giveaway Code: WOOL
The Broken River Tent If the purpose of a book is to take its reader into times and places about which they know little or nothing – while putting them inside the heads of others, then The Broken River Tent succeeds with flying colours. Part philosophy, part history combined with modern musings, an education on many things, not least the land struggle between the Xhosa people and British in the Cat Among the Pigeons coelacanths lay eggs the size of tennis-balls that 19th century. Not content simply to present A book to dip into for a quick read, which doesn’t only emerge after 13 months; rain frog females the facts, Ntabeni tells his tale through Phila challenge your intellect. Ideal for holidays or can store sperm for a year, making mating only (with his thoughts on life, love and everything weekends away in the country. This is one of an option. Each easy-reading section is about else) who gets visitations from Maqoma, chief those. Muirhead has a delightful style, playful one creature, from gorillas to rain frogs, wasps at the centre of the Xhosa resistance of the and amusing while telling tales of beasts we to hadedas and cuckoos, 38 in all. Drawings by time. To give you the historical flavour: ‘“Now know. Plus a new fact or two about each of his Patricia de Villiers are amusing, without making that we are about to enter the seasons of my subjects, which will allow you to bedazzle your the animals grotesque. life I think it proper I give a formal introduction,” companions over the next braai. Here are a few Author: David Muirhead Reviewer: Peter Sullivan Maqoma said solemnly, “... many places I’ve facts from the book that were new to me: killer Publisher: Penguin Random House Price: R180 seen, but there are none as dear to my heart whales are dolphins and there are two species of ISBN: 978-1-77584-513-3 Giveaway Code: CAT as the alluvial soil of Ngcwenxa.”’ And the them; dragonflies are among the oldest species contemporary style: ‘”And off we go to explore in Kruger, at about 300 million years compared The Wool-Classer, the Shearers wounds of history,” Phila joked while Matswane to crocs at 200 million; the global skimmer and the Golden Fleece was tying the laces of her takkies. “Now, now dragonfly migrates 18 000 kilometres to India Those who have watched shearing on a South babes!” She clicked the car alarm and the over hostile seas, and the progeny migrate back; African sheep or mohair farm will describe the hazards winced’. strange, but true. The scientific name for banded strength, swiftness and absolute focus of those Author: Mphuthumi Ntabeni Reviewer: Nancy mongoose is Mungos mungo. I love it. Pythons at work. This charming volume of 18 stories was Richards Publisher: Blackbird Books Price: R250 can hold their breath underwater for an hour; written by one of those men, the legendary ISBN: 978-1-92833-745-4 Giveaway Code: RIVER
We are giving away two copies of all the books reviewed on this page. SMS the giveaway code (e.g. WOOL), your name, email GIVEAWAYS and postal address to 48402 before 30 November 2018. SMSes cost R1.50 and free SMSes do not apply. Ts and Cs on page 72.
November 2018 092 www.countrylife.co.za Author Interview
With a deft pen and an agile mind, academic wordsmith Imraan Coovadia turns time travel on its head – at the speed of light and thought in A Spy in Time WORDS NANCY RICHARDS PICTURES SUPPLIED
t’s interesting that both and go back and kill your grandfather. Gandhi and Mandela liked How does changing the past affect the future? Tolstoy. Mandela in particular, What are moral implications, and how does his relationship with books it feel for someone from the present to go was very intense.” Imraan back to the past? As a genre it goes back ‘‘ICoovadia, director of Creative Writing at the a long way; Mark Twain wrote A Connecticut University of Cape Town, is a fountain of Yankee in King Arthur’s Court back in 1889.” literary knowledge. “Hitler was a great reader, To fill you in on the time and travel but he only read what he wanted to know.” aspect, the book moves from Marrakech Conversation irresistibly digresses from the 1955, to Jupiter 10^5 and Constitution Hill topic on the table – his latest book. Clawing 2271, Rio 1967, The Underground 2489 it back, I wonder why time travel. “By the to the Day of the Dead 11 March 2472. time I’d finished Tales of the Metric System So, been there? “Marrakech was completely [his previous title] I wasn’t sure what kind invented, as was Jupiter, but I’ve been to of book I could write, but I wanted to make Rio a few times. Brazil interests me a lot. sure it was deeper or more interesting than South Africa has a similar population, but the ones before. So I needed to change the angle dynamics of race play out very differently. at which I understand things.” Such is the They’re a happy country, we’re not.” way an academic mind works, decisions But what of the spy himself, Enver about book writing are not taken lightly. Eleven? “He’s an apprentice spy, he has to “I think a lot about storytelling and what be mentored into the profession. We think it means. A novel is a machine for generating of mentoring as positive, but spy training interest in a reader and the joy of this book is is often about getting them to be more that it’s populated with lots of little machines. dark, it’s a classic part of a spy novel.” Tom Clancy [best-selling American spy Protagonist Eleven is also black. Intentionally. novelist] filled his books with details of gun “I wondered what a South African fiction calibres and so on.” Spy is not short on detail, writer had to say that’s different from an I speculate that for one with a full-time nor on mind-boggling concepts – holograms, Armenian, for instance, so I looked at race job in words, finding mental space to write this encryptions, phosphorescence, multiverse and and inversion. In a period where hierarchies must have been a challenge. “People imagine reflection sickness. “But I didn’t want all the are different, I wondered what opportunities as a writer you lock yourself up and write tech to dominate the story. I just wanted it to time travel would have for inversion. What morning to night, but no one’s attention span move along – with velocity.” And speed it fresh perspectives it would give. We should is that long. Churchill said the mind doesn’t has, with substance and subtlety for wheels. be telling stories in a natural way about need to rest, it just needs change. Writing is Always voracious, Coovadia says, people of different colours. For the agents like that – it needs to fit into your day. It’s “Growing up, I loved reading sci-fi, and for in Spy, the past is like a racial museum.” a cottage industry really. Like baking cakes.” O this book I re-read a lot. There are dozens of I mention Black Panther. “I finished this anthologies of time travel – the theory of it is book long before Panther came out, but so A Spy in Time is published by a well-trod path. The key thing is the causal far Hollywood has been a fantasy machine Penguin Random House (R260) loop. What happens if you are the grandchild for white people. Panther changed that.” www.penguinrandomhouse.co.za
We are giving away two copies of A Spy in Time, SMS the giveaway code SPY, your name, email and postal address to 48402 GIVEAWAYS before 30 November 2018. SMSes cost R1.50 and free SMSes do not apply. Ts and Cs on page 72. Prices subject to change.
www.countrylife.co.za 093 November 2018 FUTURE WATCH Big Data’s Heading For Your Farm We’ve moved from subsistence to commercial agriculture, writes COLIN CULLIS, and are now on to precision farming with drones, massive data sets and artifcial intelligence
ore than 10 000 years ago, hopefully, the long tradition of innovation and looking for patterns, problems and potential our ancestors hit on the idea regulation can address some of these issues. – things even the most attentive farmer won’t of planting the grain they had Tractors have been one of the superstars to notice until you point it out. An orchard that been collecting in the wild, to transform agriculture. The traditional versions looks healthy from the ground might have trees harvest the crop in the future. still rumble across the land, but modern without enough water, and the stress of this MBut this presented a problem, as it meant they versions look very different. Massive air- isn’t easy to see in visible light, but in infrared had to come back, or stay nearby. Looking after conditioned units use GPS to follow ploughing it stands out. Typically, it’s only the smaller or a plant triggered the most significant shift in or harvesting paths autonomously, and have lower-grade fruits that indicate a problem. Now human history – agriculture and settlement – high-tech attachments to do almost anything. this can be fixed before the first fruits start to and the future of innovation flowed from these Now we need more brains to control them. form. Insects also leave telltale signs, but in two decisions, although there are some who Those ‘brains’ may be drones, massive data large fields, at eye-level, you only notice them make a good argument that we should have sets and artificial intelligence. Welcome to the when you already have damage. stuck to our nomadic roots. next generation of farming. From subsistence to While the survey models are still based on Looking after a small patch of land was not commercial agriculture, we are now moving to the tree level, future scans from closer to the too complicated, but as settlements grew and precision farming – giving the care and attention trees will begin to track the health and potential needed more food, the fields needed to grow of a small-scale farmer to every plant and animal of every tree and of each fruit on them. A farmer too. Basic implements proved back-breaking of the vast fields and herds of commercial won’t have to use a rough estimate about the for farmers, so animals were used to make production. Some examples can be found in season’s yield, as the scans are quite specific, things easier, and were farmed as well. South Africa, as tech start-ups try to become and focusing on the trees that need the extra help In 1800, some 9 800 years later, humanity more valuable to a farmer than his trusty tractor. means less fertilisers, pesticides and time to treat had settled most of the world and the global You can’t manage what you can’t measure, an entire orchard. population reached one billion. Just a century and so the drone’s first task is a survey. Filming In South Africa’s mix of commercial and later, we reached two billion. By 1959 it was a field with video and in infrared creates a view small-scale farms, the opportunity is for the three billion. In 1974 we passed four billion; of what is in the field and in what condition tech to be shared, in the same way a hive of five billion by 1987; six billion just 12 years it is. Add prevailing weather conditions, soil bees is moved around to pollinate many fields. later, and seven billion in 2011. There are now conditions, elevation, moisture levels, pest Everyone has access to the best techniques, and 7.6 billion humans on Earth. concentrations, everything. everyone’s output improves. However, just 29 per cent of the Earth’s Then the artificial intelligence gets to work, The industry is still in its infancy, surface is land. Of that, 71 per cent is suitable for habitation, half used for agriculture. That means just ten per cent of the planet’s surface Seeing a drone hovering over a farmer’s field might needs to feed us all. We do harvest a lot from still look odd now, but soon they could be as common the sea, but more on that later. as tractors in helping farmers grow as much food as This illustrates the pressure on farmers to efficiently as possible. supply us with enough food. To achieve better yields, they have improved crops, animal breeds, planting methods, farming techniques, pest control, fertiliser and antibiotics. But it has come at a cost. Some farming practices are not kind to the animals, the farm workers or the environment. Reliance on pesticides, fertilisers and antibiotics can have the opposite effect of what was intended but,
November 2018 www.countrylife.co.za Using the continents as a proxy for sizes, this graph shows what percentage of land is used for agriculture. Just over a third of all land is used to feed us, but almost all of that is to feed the animals we eat. As more of our growing population begins to add meat to their diet, we may see some serious challenges to maintain production. experimenting with tiny robots that wander the fields looking to zap individual weeds, and drones that plant trees on steep slopes to prevent erosion, and fertilise fields where needed. Doing what’s needed is low or prices aren’t high enough, the season will be automated. An experiment in the UK where it’s needed is the first part. Looking after could end with no profit or even a loss. A few has already completed a season of sowing individual trees and plants, even a single fruit, bad seasons and the farm could fail. to harvest without a human setting foot on is the next part, to increase yield and reduce Stockmarkets created futures markets, the field. Robo-cowboys will herd cattle and loss and waste. allowing companies with capital and an robots will pick, sort and pack produce. It’s not The technology being developed can even appetite for risk to agree to cover the farmer’s a bad thing, but the change is happening fast. be used in your garden – gardening ‘bots’ cost and get a guaranteed price for the crop In some cases that helps farmers who can't find will look after a flowerbed or a crop of your when ready. It may mean the end of bumper- enough workers, but as adoption grows it might favourite vegetables – and having green fingers profit years, but it ensures no big-loss years. see workers in other areas lose out with no will not be as important as your ability to code. Now, that investment is open to all of us online, alternative jobs available. But once big data heads down to the farm, we can invest in our favourite crops or the The oceans have long been a bountiful you can expect there to be a lot more for it bees used to pollinate them. We can buy cattle, harvest, we just needed to know where to to do. Fruits and vegetables ripen seasonally, which the farmer rears, and we share the profit fish. However, overfishing, pollution and but demand for them can occur when none is once they are sent to market. environmental change have seen it get harder available. Keeping produce at low temperatures As cities spread into what was once to catch enough, and so we have farmed at sea slows ripening and, by setting up contracts farmland, we have started to build vertical too. Heavy commercial marine aquaculture ahead of time, a farmer can supply just the farms. Housed in buildings with controlled really took off in the 50s and, despite us now right amount of a product as the demand peaks, temperature, lighting and nutrient levels, they producing more from marine farms than what rather than deliver everything as soon as it’s are isolated from pests and able to produce is caught wild, there is still much to learn. For ready, only to have supply exceed demand, more volume in less space, using less water. all the success, we may know more about what leading to waste and financial loss. But this farming takes more energy, and not to avoid rather than what to do. Managing the farmer’s inventory, ripening all plants have proved economical to grow yet. The final challenge to large-scale agriculture times, even transport logistics via a connected The option to use more greenhouses could is getting it to your plate. Food miles are system should give farmers more security be a way to remain competitive, and even calculated as the distance that a product travels and consumers a more steady and economical help regions affected by climate change. from where it was farmed to where it was supply. The smaller specialist growers can Around Almeria in Spain, there are so many consumed. By moving food around the globe supplement shortfalls, or allow consumers greenhouses you can see them from way up in we can ensure a supply of anything all year willing to pay more for organic or specific the air. This option has significantly increased round, but the travel adds to the environmental varieties, to buy from farmers countrywide production and yields, and lowered the impact and the cost. using a shared platform. average temperature, even as the temperature Experimental growing spaces are being There is another factor that can smooth the of surrounding areas has increased. But its tested to grow anything anywhere, even ocean potential for risk – investing in the crops before downside is the amount of plastic used, and it fish species inland. We are still many years they are harvested. Typically, a farmer takes the has not resolved how best to support the many from achieving this, but it’s crucial that we do, risk to spend capital to buy seed, fertiliser and low-paid workers needed for the operations. not just to benefit us in a time of environmental pesticide, and invest time and effort in growing Labour has been a significant component change, but to allow us to grow food in space. a crop in the hope that, once it is sold, his profit of agriculture, and still is, but the numbers have Once this is possible we can live in space and exceeds the cost and debt incurred. If the yield been reducing steadily, and in time most tasks settle other places in the solar system. O
www.countrylife.co.za 095 November 2018 Restaurants FIONA MCINTOSH enjoys the food and vibe of the Cape Peninsula
The Hub Café, Scarborough 021 780 1047 a range of vegan/vegetarian options, both Àour-based and gluten-free ne of the Cape Peninsula’s most popular eateries is on pizzas, classic ¿sh and chips, free-range burger and steak dishes, as Scarborough’s main drag, footsteps from the sleepy village’s well as daily specials. Meals are well-presented using ingredients that Owonderfully wild beach. are ethically, and where possible, locally sourced. My ¿rst visit was on a glorious autumnal evening, so we sat out We drooled at the sight of the pizzas and big bowls of mussels at on the deck sipping sundowners. The vibe was relaxed and happy. the table next door. After sharing a Celebration Platter of dips, olives No one seemed in a rush. It was so beguiling that, as night rolled in, and slow-roasted tomatoes served with freshly baked garlic, rosemary we covered ourselves with blankets rather than move indoors, though and olive Àat bread (R78), I dithered between the yummy-sounding the wood panels and glowing ¿re were warm and cosy. Quinoa and Parmesan Crusted Free-Range Chicken Breast (R118) and The menu is fairly small, but has something for everyone, with the Sag Aloo, an Indian spiced potato cake on a bed of coconut-curried red lentils (R98), ¿nally choosing the latter. Served with yoghurt raita (or coconut milk raita for vegans) and a crispy poppadom, it was an excellent choice. My partner, a wannabe surfer, chose the Outer Kom pizza (R96) much for its name as make-up, but the super-thin base generously topped with salami, baby tomatoes, garlic, fresh basil and basil pesto (their own in-house sauce) was a winner. ThereÂs also an oyster-bar menu with exotic options such as gin-infused Purple Oysters (R28) and Naked Oysters (R18). Drinks include fresh juices, cocktails, a small but interesting wine list and excellent coffee. The Hub Café is open Tuesday to Friday 12h00-20h30, Saturday 9h00-20h30 and Sunday 9h00-15h30. The Foragers Deli & Whole Food Store downstairs, a favoured haunt for surfers and cyclists, is open daily from 09h00-18h00 for breakfast and lunch.
Espresso.kom, Kommetjie 021 783 0342 s the name suggests, Espresso.kom prides itself on its coffee, and itÂs where I head for brunch and my caffeine ¿x Awhenever I’m in the Kommetjie area. Tucked away under the trees in the centre of the quirky village, the long-established, dog-friendly restaurant is always busy, particularly with families – parents can enjoy some chill time as the kids enjoy the jungle gym and play hide and seek in the trees. The extensive menu is wholesome and good value, with a few unusual items like Arnold Benedict, which I hadn’t come across before but, thanks to Google, learnt has an interesting derivation – poached eggs on two hash browns with smoked salmon, roasted tomatoes topped with grilled mozzarella and Hollandaise sauce (R95). There’s a health brekkie, raw juices and smoothies for those watching their waistlines or wanting something less rich. Similarly, the choice of lunch items ranges from hearty meals of prime rump steak, chicken schnitzel, stir-fries, burgers (beef, chicken or veggie) and the pasta of the day, to large fresh salads. The spicy, chermoula chicken topped with marinated apricots ¿nd it hard to resist the freshly baked desserts. (R75) is my favourite, and there are wraps, pita pockets and sarmies. There’s a kiddies menu, and drinks include craft beers and I recommend the grilled ¿sh Á hake with lime, ginger and coriander a small but well-priced list of wines. butter served with couscous and veg (R110), and the chilli poppers Open daily 08h00-15h00 and for specials evenings (generally (R30) which are to die for. And if you still have space, you might curries and burgers) every Tuesday and Thursday until 20h30. O
November 2018 096 www.countrylife.co.za GREG LANDMAN meets the country’s top winemakers Fine Wine
WINEMAKER Johan Reyneke of Reyneke Wines
t’s probably the herd of Nguni cattle ambling over the hill from the family farm that puts it all into perspective. None of them is numbered, all of them have names, and the herder regards this ‘family’ as part of his very existence. The Reyneke farm is called Uitzicht – high up, off Polkadraai Road, the farm draws its name from the glorious views all the way to the Icoast. It is here that Johan Reyneke is making a name for himself and his superb wines, both in South Africa and internationally. The term biodynamic conjures up a kind of mystique in many people’s minds, but here it all becomes clear. Johan says, “There’s a lot to be said for the way that wine used to be made. When the Reyneke farm began as Uitzicht in 1863, there were no chemicals or technological advancements, just the land and nature.” He believes in as little interference as possible, using the manure from the cattle to nurture the land, and natural weed enemies and insects to restore the balance of nature. He puts it all in a nutshell when he says, “We have made great progress. We are almost back where we started.” He and winemaker Nuschka de Vos work together closely to ensure their much- awarded wines are all notable for their clean approach, full of natural fruit flavours. None of them tastes as if manipulated, rather that they have all been helped to be the best they can be by a natural approach.
Organic White 2017 Cornerstone 2015 Biodynamic Syrah 2016 Sauvignon Blanc/Semillon blend, Delicious Bordeaux-style blend Fabulous perfumed nose with packed with flavours of Cape of Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet spicy notes and plenty of luscious, “As a student I got a job as summer fruits, some citrus, even Franc and Merlot. All profits dark-ripe berries, fulfills its a grape or two smooth and from this wine go to the workers promise in gorgeous complex a farm labourer and fell in love clean, goes down a treat. R80 after whom it is named the mouthfeel. Fresh, vibrant and cornerstone and partners of the elegant. R175 with the vineyards business. R195 Johan went to Stellenbosch to study philosophy, which doesn’t seem such a big jump to what he is now doing. He says, “As a student I got a job as a farm labourer and fell in Try Serve Heaven with red-meat love with the vineyards.” Johan lives at Uitzicht with his wife with roast with grilled casseroles chicken or Mila, an artist, and their two daughters Isabella and Tallulah. fillet steak and ham pork sandwiches He is an avid surfer so holidays are spent at the ocean. When asked what he wants to do most in life he says, “Travel till I want to come home. Write a book. See my kids do well in life.” He is obviously well balanced – just like the land he lives on, where the vineyards are herbicide, pesticide and fungicide free. Johan says, “Instead of spraying weeds with poison we carefully select and grow companion plants to outcompete the weeds. These companion plants have the ability to fix nitrogen from the atmosphere and help break up compacted soil. While all sorts of poisons are usually used to combat pests, we simply release their natural predators, like ducks. There is nothing more delicious for a duck than a fat, juicy snail. No poison leaching into the grapes. No expensive fertiliser, because the ducks do that for us, and everybody is happy.” Including everybody who buys his wines. Read more of Greg REYNEKE WINES STELLENBOSCH 021 881 3451 Landman’s Go to www.countrylife.co.za food and wine stories www.countrylife.co.za 097 November 2018 Loving
itAt the ManorLocal House restaurant on Stanford Valley estate, chef Jonathan Davies doesn’t just pay lip service to the inspiring produce of the Overberg WORDS MARIANA ESTERHUIZEN PICTURES DANIELA ZONDAGH
ears ago, whenever we drove a tension with the rural landscape that both the Klein River Mountains, that we decided to from Stanford along the R326 surprises and engages. move our art collection to the farm. We felt that towards the Akkedisberg Pass, It’s a far cry from the farmhouse of years the beauty of this setting and the homestead Good Hope farm on the right gone by, until we are greeted by Elsabé Nauta, should be shared.” always caught my eye, with and all the warmth of a traditional Overberg They immediately set to work after their Yits Cape farmhouse and stables perched above homestead envelops us. Elsabé, born and bred offer was accepted, and opened the doors to lush green pastures. on a farm in the Stanford district, has a strong the Manor House restaurant in November Today, the sign at the entrance welcomes us bond with her birthplace. Early in 2015, when 2015. With their extensive art collection they to Stanford Valley guest farm. From the road, she and her husband Reinder visited her family truly succeeded in reaching their goal to create the farm still commands a second glance, with farm, they discovered that Stanford Valley farm a space where the beauty of the rural setting whitewashed buildings and horses curvetting in was on the market. is echoed by the beauty of art. And the same the paddocks. But step inside the Manor House “We both fell in love with the understated thread runs through the offerings of their table. and the space is transformed. charm of this lovely Overberg lady,” she says. They soon collected a small team of The elegant interior with mid-century “Some of the outbuildings were already used as dedicated staff, with the kitchen headed up modern furnishings and an extensive collection accommodation, so we turned the homestead by chef Jonathan Davies, who hails from of South African and international art (which into a restaurant for our in-house guests as well Wales. Jonathan was exposed to the hospitality would not cause the slightest raise of an eyebrow as for the public. We were so inspired by the industry from an early age, as he grew up on the Atlantic Seaboard of Cape Town) creates beauty of this rural pocket and the views of visiting his father’s pub since before he can
November 2018 098 www.countrylife.co.za JONATHAN DAVIES X COUNTRY CHEF
CLOCKWISE FROM OPPOSITE FAR LEFT: The Manor House and remember and started helping out when the events venue are the hub of the he was old enough to carry a glass to annual mountain-bike race in the the kitchen. fynbos hills behind it. M The profile He holds dual qualifications in the of the old farmstead is preserved, but stack doors and windows hospitality industry, and trained in both open wide to bring the Klein River kitchen and management. “One of the Mountain up close. M On a visit to highlights of my career in Wales was Amsterdam, the Nautas bought when The Crown at Whitebrook was some works by Dutch artist Petra awarded a Michelin Star while I was Lunenberg. MJonathan Davies, executive chef, checks the first their director of operations,” says pickings of the season’s French Jonathan. artichokes. Future projects on the So, Stanford is a long way from farm include a job-creation project Wales, how did he end up at the Manor to enable independent vegetable House? Serendipity stepped in when growers. MEarly morning and the horses are keen for a gallop along a very special guest dined at The the mountain-bike trail. M Mid- Crown at Whitebrook. The late Sir century modern furnishings, original David Graaff, then owner of De Grendel art and magnificent proteas adorn wine estate in Cape Town was at that the dining area on the stoep. stage establishing a restaurant on his estate. He knew he had found just the right person to help him with this project after dining at The Crown, so he invited Jonathan to set up consists of sous chef Mary-anne Lehman and and head the new restaurant on his estate. commis chef Andrew Sibanda. Jonathan pays For Jonathan the decision to move to South homage to what he sees as the foundation of Africa was quite easy. “Since my childhood, the food at the Manor House restaurant, a place I regularly visited South Africa because of that upholds the traditional dishes of the region. family here,” he says. “And my wife is South Back in the kitchen where Mary-anne is busy African, she comes from Pretoria.” Both he and making bobotie, Jonathan cites this dish as an his wife were also keen to raise their family here. example of local excellence. “I could follow So, the family upped sticks in Wales Mary-anne’s instructions precisely, but I shall and Jonathan launched the restaurant at never make the dish as well as she does, it is De Grendel in 2012, with Ian Bergh by his in her genes.” side. He handed over the reigns at De Grendel The Manor House vegetable garden is to Ian in 2016 to start a consulting company kept firmly in sight for any produce that that led to him joining the Manor House team can make its way to the table via the kitchen. in March this year. We photograph and sample a beautiful fresh- In the kitchen, chef Jonathan’s brigade tasting apple and fennel slaw, the fennel
www.countrylife.co.za 099 November 2018 LEFT: The Manor House restaurant has typical, old Cape features like quarry-tile floors and a reed ceiling. ABOVE: Chef Jonathan Davies, Andrew Sibanda and Mary-anne Lehman enjoy putting the final touches to the duck with beetroot and fennel risotto.
picked an hour beforehand. Jonathan is also hugely inspired by the quality of the produce of the area. And he doesn’t only pay it lip service. On the ingredients list for his summer menu are cheeses from Klein River Cheese and Stone House Cheese, trout from Langekloof Trout, and local wines and beers feature frequently. He does plenty of driving between Cape Town and Stanford and seems to make good use of the trips. “A while ago, en route to Manor House, I drove past the apple orchards at Grabouw and decided there and then to change the line-fish recipe on the menu. I used those lovely fresh-tasting Granny Smith apples, ABOVE: Elsabé Nauta on the brand-new Me Too puppy dog sculpture by Finnish designer Eero Aarnio. and Cluver & Jack dry cider, celeriac, mussels The Nautas are constantly adding works to their and cream, and voila, a new dish was born.” art collection, with more sculptures planned for the Taking local produce even further, garden. RIGHT: The mountains provide an ever- Jonathan is busy creating a dish, for which the changing backdrop, with each season bringing its ingredients will be sourced, “from where you own fynbos blooms. BELOW: The front-of-house threesome at Manor House – Rodgers Chiredzero, turn onto the R326 at Stanford, to end at Stone Sarah Dix and Alex Chibvongodze. House Cheese,” he enthuses. And the name of this dish? “Route 326.” Clearly the man enjoys a challenge, evident in his parting shot to me, “When I stop learning I have to leave the industry”. O Map reference G2 see inside back cover
Manor House is on the R326 and is open for breakfast, lunch and dinner on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays, and for breakfast and lunch on a Sunday. 072 198 0862, [email protected], www.stanfordvalley.co.za
Recipes supplied and approved by chef
www.countrylife.co.za JONATHAN DAVIES X COUNTRY CHEF
Chicken Croquettes with Caesar Salad (Recipe on page 102)
www.countrylife.co.za 101 November 2018 COUNTRY CHEF X JONATHAN DAVIES
Chicken Croquettes • 20ml Worcester sauce Raka Shiraz Chutney Serves 10 • 2ml soy sauce • 10ml olive oil • 4 tbsp oats • 8 onions, sliced • 500g free-range roast chicken, shredded or any strong cheddar cheese • salt and pepper • 100g castor sugar • 200g butter • ¼ cup Klein River Grana • a little oil for frying • 100ml Raka Biography Shiraz (or Shiraz of choice) • 150g flour or Parmesan cheese • 100ml red wine vinegar • 500ml milk • 2 eggs, beaten • 1 tbsp Dijon mustard • Panko breadcrumbs METHOD For the chutney, heat olive oil in a large pot. Add the onions • sprig of thyme • oil for deep-frying and gently fry for about 5 minutes or until onions are translucent. Add • 1 cup Klein River Overberg the sugar and cook for a further 10 minutes. Add the wine and vinegar and gently cook until all the liquid has evaporated and the onion mixture METHOD In a saucepan melt butter, then add flour and cook for at is soft and sticky. (The chutney can be refrigerated for 4-5 days.) least 3 minutes. Warm the milk, add the Dijon mustard and thyme, and Combine all the burger ingredients in a large bowl, mix well with allow to infuse. Then slowly add the warm milk to the roux and cook fingertips but don’t overwork the meat as this will make it tough. Form for 5 minutes over low heat, stirring continuously. Add the cheese and into 6 patties. Fry the patties over a medium to high heat for about 2-3 continue to stir until the cheese is melted. Mix in the chicken and allow minutes on either side, or till done to your liking. Serve the patties with the mixture to cool. Spoon into a piping bag with a 1cm nozzle, and pipe rocket, mature cheddar, sliced tomato and the Raka Shiraz chutney. a long log onto cling wrap. Roll up tightly and allow to cool. Cut into Wine suggestion: Birkenhead Honey Blonde Ale desired lengths. Dip in egg, then breadcrumbs and fry. Serve as a snack or with a Caesar salad. Wine suggestion: Seven Springs Vineyard Unoaked Chardonnay Apple and Fennel Slaw with Sherry Vinaigrette Serves 4
Camembert, Leek and Blueberry Parcel • 1 tbsp honey • 4 tbsp sherry vinegar Serves 4 • 2 garlic cloves, finely chopped • 8 tbsp olive oil • 1tsp English mustard powder • 3 young fennel bulbs • ½ medium onion • 60g blueberries • 2 tbsp lemon juice • 2 Granny Smith apples • 1 leek • 8 filo sheets • 30ml olive oil • 2 Stone House Camembert wheels (or similar) METHOD To make the vinaigrette, place honey, garlic, mustard • 100ml cream • 50g butter powder, lemon juice and sherry vinegar in a bowl and allow to sit for 10 minutes to allow honey to dissolve. Whisk briskly while METHOD Slice the onion and leek finely, not using the very slowly adding olive oil. course green leaves of the leek. Heat olive oil in a frying pan, add For the slaw, trim the stalks and fronds from the fennel bulbs, the onion and sauté until soft and translucent. Add the leek and keeping the fronds. Finely slice the fennel bulb, grate the apples sweat off until soft, about 5 minutes. Add the cream and season, (skin on), and combine in a serving dish. Dress with the sherry then reduce roughly by half. Allow the mixture to cool down vinaigrette and season to taste. Mix the fennel fronds through just completely, then add the berries. before serving. To assemble, take two sheets of filo. Brush one with melted butter, then place the second on top and repeat. Place the double layer of filo in Duck with Beetroot and Fennel Risotto with a Crispy Egg an ovenproof ramekin the size of the Camembert cheese. Place ¼ of the Serves 4 filling on the filo, cut the Camembert in half horizontally and place skin side down on top of the mixture. Gather the sides of the filo and bring 4 free-range duck breasts • ½ cup sour cream together. Gently twist and seal, and cut the excessive pastry off. Brush Risotto • salt and pepper with melted butter. Repeat for the other three ramekins, then bake at • 90g butter Crispy Egg Yolk 180ÁC for about 15 minutes or until golden brown. • 1 large onion, diced • 4 egg yolks Wine suggestion: Lismore Viognier The Age of Grace • 1 baby fennel bulb, sliced • 1 egg • 500g Arborio rice • plain flour and breadcrumbs • 150ml white wine • oil for frying Perfect Burger • 200ml beetroot juice Orange Soy Sauce Serves 6 • 1.5Ɛ chicken or vegetable stock • juice of 6 oranges • 150ml Klein River Grana or Parmesan • 50ml soy sauce • 1kg ground chuck • 2 eggs, whisked Horseradish Cream • 3 star anise • 2 tbsp coriander seeds, crushed • 2cm root ginger, grated • 1 tbsp horseradish sauce • 100ml honey
November 2018 102 www.countrylife.co.za Camembert, Leek and Blueberry Parcel
Perfect Burger with Duck with Beetroot and Fennel Apple and Fennel Slaw Risotto with a Crispy Egg
www.countrylife.co.za November 2018 Cluver & Jack Cider-cured Trout with Prawn Bisque and Spinach
Vegetables (optional) and egg yolk. Place spinach on the side and sit the duck on top. • 1 large bunch spinach Scatter carrots around the plate, drizzle sauce and garnish with • 4 baby carrot crispy sweet potato and parsnip. • 1 sweet potato, julienned Wine suggestion: Bouchard Finlayson Galpin Peak Pinot Noir • 1 parsnip, julienned Cluver & Jack Cider-cured Trout with METHOD For the risotto, fry the onion in half the butter until Prawn Bisque and Spinach soft, then add the fennel and fry for a further 45 seconds. Add the Serves 4 rice and stir until all the grains are coated in butter. Add the wine and when it has been absorbed, add the beetroot juice and ladles of • 1 trout, about 2kg • 1 bay leaf warm stock. Stir continuously until all the liquid has been absorbed. • zest of 1 orange • 1 tarragon sprig Mix in the cheese and remaining. • 100g sugar • ½ onion, finely diced To make the horseradish cream, mix all the ingredients together • 100g salt • 1 medium-size tomato, diced and set aside. For the crispy egg yolk, whisk one egg. Carefully dip • 200ml Cluver & Jack cider • 1 tbsp Calvados or apple brandy each egg yolk into flour, then egg wash, then the breadcrumbs. Fry (or any dry cider) • 2 tbsp Cluver & Jack Cider in oil until golden brown. • splash of oil (or any dry cider) Place all ingredients for the orange soy sauce into asaucepan Prawn Bisque Sauce • 300ml fish stock and reduce to a syrupy consistency. Blanch the spinach and carrots • 500g prawns with shells • 200ml cream and refresh in ice-cold water. Fry the sweet potato and parsnip till (about 16-20) • 1 tbsp lemon juice golden brown and season with salt. • 2 tbsp salted butter • 200g red and green spinach Score and season the duck breasts and place in a medium hot frying pan, skin side down. Keep tipping the fat out of the pan until METHOD Fillet, skin and portion the fish. Remove all the pin bones the skin is golden brown and crispy. Place duck breast in preheated and then portion depending on size of the fish (usually half a fillet equals oven at 180ÁC for 7 minutes. Take the breast out and let rest in one portion). Place in a glass or Corningware dish. Mix the zest, a warm place for 5 minutes before carving on the bias. sugar and salt and liberally sprinkle over the trout. Drizzle the cider To assemble dish, plate risotto and top with horseradish cream over the fish and leave in fridge for 1 hour. Remove the trout, wash
November 2018 104 www.countrylife.co.za Moer Koffie Stout Mousse
off the cure and pat dry with paper towel. Wrap the fillets in cling Condensed Milk Mousse wrap and place in the fridge until ready to cook. • 200ml cream To make the bisque, peel the prawns and put the meat to one • 1 sheet gelatin side. Melt 1 tbsp of butter in a pan, add the shells and heads, and fry • 1 tin condensed milk until deep pink and fragrant. Add the onion and cook for a further 30 seconds. Add the tomato, Calvados, cider, herbs and fish stock, METHOD Melt the chocolate in a bain-marie. In a bowl, whisk and simmer for 10 minutes. Place in a blender or food processor the egg yolks and sugar together until pale and fluffy. Place stout and blend until smooth. Pass through a sieve and back into in saucepan and reduce by a third. Add the cream to the reduced a saucepan. Add cream and lemon juice. Just before serving, stout and bring back to temperature. Slowly whisk a small reheat and whisk in a large knob of butter. amount of the reduced stout into the egg and sugar mixture to Heat a splash of oil in a frying pan and cook the fish for about temper the eggs. Then pour in remaining egg mixture. Place back 4-5 minutes, then carefully turn. Turn the heat off and allow fish to on low heat. Add melted chocolate and mix well. Cook until the sit for 1 minute. Sauté deshelled prawns in the same pan. Blanch the custard coats the back of a spoon. Pour into small glasses until spinach in salted water, then flash fry in butter for a further minute. ¾ full and allow custard to cool completely. To plate, place your prawn bisque in the bottom of a bowl, then In the meantime make the condensed milk mousse. Whip the the red and green spinach, with the trout on top and the prawns around. cream to soft peaks. Melt the gelatin in 2 tbsp boiling water, and Wine suggestion: Cluver & Jack dry cider whisk until dissolved. Fold condensed milk into the whipped cream, add gelatin and give it a good whisk. Fill glasses and place in the fridge to set. O Moer Koffie Stout Mousse Serves 8-10
Moer Koffie Mousse Scan here • 500ml Moer Koffie Stout from • 12 egg yolks to watch Jonathan Struisbaai, or Castle Stout • 300g sugar make his Moer Koffie • 400g dark chocolate chips • 1Ɛ cream Stout Mousse
www.countrylife.co.za 105 November 2018
Parting Shot
On his roadtrips OBIE OBERHOLZER has a thing for Àat cans and collects and frames them. He calls it art, but would you?
am going to tell you what you already know. Yes, just like that. colour, cyan. (Cyan is not a commonly used colour and is, in terms of Art, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder. Irritating in it’s light, an equal mix of green and blue). Whether the image is art, I would repetitiveness, but essential for the finer things in life Á you not dream to say. I just photograph what I like. know, like art and fine art. So if art is a universal concept, then One of my other interests while travelling Southern Africa’s roads is fine art is perhaps the more polished version, more imaginative, to collect flat cans. In fact, I am a seasoned, flat can-can dancer and have Iintellectual and aesthetically pleasing. scoured the areas in front of bottle stores, bars, trading stores, abandoned How often have you stood in front of a piece of so-called art and villages, and even cemeteries for interesting flat cans. In my living asked someone who’s not really listening, “But, is it really art?” Only room I have a large framed ‘artwork’ of my best collection of flat cans the library of visual sensations stored in your brain over the years can collected over 40 years, which I wouldn’t sell for anything. Well, maybe, be the judge of that. Only you can be the director of your symphony of under prolonged torture, for a lot of something. aesthetics. So we are right back to the eyes looking at the light reflecting This particular flat can was photographed right in front of the Hotazel off objects, be they sculptures, installations, paintings or photographs. Bottle Store in the John Taolo Gaetsewe District Municipality of the The red in this image, because of its surface or molecular structure, Northern Cape in 1991. O has the ability to reflect red wavelengths of light and absorb its opposite www.obieoberholzer.net
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