FertilehealthyAiming for success, not perfection…

Well, not actual postcards, but some photographs at least.

December and January are the main holiday months in South Africa.  The coastal towns and cities are usually full to bursting, as are all inland river and dam resorts (we don’t really have lakes around here).  Where there is water, there are people having a good time.

I may have mentioned before that I don’t like crowds…  So, when we heard that a cousin of Craig’s father has a farm in the Karoo, a large arid part of the country, we asked if we (along with Craig’s parents) could go there for a week.   We hadn’t been away since our trip to the USA in June 2007, so we were very excited about this trip.

I don’t use the phrase “in the middle of nowhere” lightly.  The farm gate may only have been 3.5 miles from the village of Williston*, but it happens to be the worst gravel road I’ve ever been on.  Traveling at about 12-15 miles per hour, in second gear, it still managed to knock the car out of gear twice!

From the farm entrance to the house was a further 3.5 miles, but the road was slightly better.  There were five gates to be opened and closed…

I am the Gate Keeper of my own destiny... and I will have my glory days in the hot sun. -Nacho Libre (NOW I get it!)

As we drove deeper and deeper into the emptiness, we started to feel a bit apprehensive about our accommodations.  But we needn’t have worried.  Eventually an oasis appeared…

We settled in quickly and comfortably and spent the next seven days reading, sleeping, chatting, sleeping, walking, sleeping, eating, sleeping…  I have never slept so much in my life!  It must be the clean Karoo air, the heat and the fact that we were at a much higher altitude than what we were used to.  I took along seven books to read, but with all the sleeping, I only got around to two and I want to recommend one of them – Route 66AD.  It was a fun read!

I doubt there are any vegetarians in the Karoo, let alone vegans.  There would be precious little for them to eat.  This is sheep country – they thrive on these little shrubs (called bossies).  Despite two forays into the little hamlet of Williston (through all the gates and over the dreadful road), we failed to procure anything fresh.  We had brought some greens, fruit and salad goodies with us, but lost most of it on the second day when the refrigerator’s gas ran out.   Mainly we had fruit or a smoothie for breakfast, sandwiches for lunch and barbequed lamb with whatever we could throw together for supper. Dark chocolate for dessert.  The cooler box for the wine never let us down…  there is nothing nicer than sipping a glass of ice cold sauvignon blanc under the stars in the Karoo.**

Craig went running every morning.  I would walk along the same route and we’d walk back together.  It was lovely spending so much quality time with my darling husband.

The farm is a working farm.  They have a few hundred head of sheep, and some alpacas, geese, ducks, chickens and turkeys.  There is a laborer who lives in a cottage on the farm with his family and he looks after the place and the animals.   The farm manager manages another nearby farm too, so he’s not there permanently.

The alpacas were hilarious!  They would wait near the gate in the morning and follow us at a safe distance – in our tracks – while we walked and ran.

The farm is also home to a wide array of wildlife – a herd of springbok, a few blesbok, some smaller buck like steenbok and duiker, rabbits and hares (including the critically endangered Riverine Rabbit), serval, jackal, badgers, mongoose, porcupine and probably a variety of snakes.  These animals don’t exactly stand still so that you can get close to them, so apart from the antelope, which we spotted from a distance, we had to identify the tracks and bones of the others.  Eve, my mother-in-law, was in bird-watcher’s heaven.  I was really surprised at the variety of bird life we saw, among them various raptors.

But it was the smallest creatures who we had the most contact with…  During the day the flies and during the night the mosquitoes!  Fortunately the house has screens on the windows and doors, so the flies were not that much of a problem.  The mosquitoes didn’t seem to be in any way deterred by the screens, so we used to cover ourselves in a natural bug roll-on every night.  I did get a few bites though, which is not the end of the world, as this is not a malaria zone.

I can’t believe that I did not get a picture of my favorite animal on the farm – Sheba, the sheep dog.  She is the cleverest, gentlest, cutest, most hard-working and most joyous dog I’ve ever come across.  I just adored her.  I loved to watch her work – you could see that she really enjoyed herself and took pride in her job.  I left a piece of my heart with Sheba.  Sigh.

We spent a lot of time outdoors, moving with the shade around the house.  I had permanent hat hair, because I got sunburned on the first day when the leafy cover of the trees was not think enough, so I kept my hat on all the time.

John at the front of the house

The back of the house was the spot to be in the mornings.

Surprisingly enough, there is lots of water in the Karoo.  It’s just very deep down in the earth.  Around this farm yard there are four boreholes with windmills and reservoirs.  This one was all rigged out, with a ladder and padding, for swimming.  Not quite the Costa del Sol, but welcome relief from the Karoo heat!

Note the interesting stone "kraal" in the background. The owner's son got married there last year.

It was my mother-in-law’s birthday on the 31st (hence her name – Eve) and we sat under the glow of the full moon till late – a lovely way to end our quiet, relaxing holiday.

There were no fireworks to ring in the New Year…  Just the glittering array of stars.  The next morning we drove the 350 miles back home – to our cats and a brand new year.

But I think we’ll be back!  I have to see my girl, Sheba, again…

* Williston is 75 miles from Calvinia, the nearest decent town.  I would live in Calvinia in a heartbeat!  Williston not so much…  I think my exact words were “You’d have to shoot me first“.

**  People come from all over the world to view the stars in the Karoo.  There is a world famous observatory at Sutherland, about 140 miles from Williston and this area is being considered for the construction of SKA (Square Kilometer Array), the most powerful radio telescope ever.  So yes, when I say we saw stars, I mean we saw LOTS of them.