Africa 2: Boxing Day

Gosh this Christmas week has turned out to be all we had wished for. The 4 families have got on well. Everyone has pulled their weight with the cooking and cleaning up (if the only the bare minimum has been done). We are living in 4 cottages and eating meals in the largest one which is in front of the pool. Plenty of space to allow for privacy when one wants it. We sort our own breakfasts out and join up for lunch and supper (sorry, 'tea' for the kiwi readers!).

Tuesday, after my first blog, we all headed off to the dam a few kms away for sundowners.

As we 18 arrive in 2 vehicles and on mountain bikes there was a couple there sitting quietly with binoculars!!! We apologised from the off-set for the noise as we settled down to GnT’s, chips n’ dips. I felt sooo sorry for them but they were fine saying they were staying very close by and could come down any time. Vaughan and I made our way through the bush to the other side of the dam to get a better view of the sunset but I did not have my camera. On the way back Michael happily relinquished his bike and I had my first taste of mountain biking, be it just on farm tracks. However, I had 3 large GnT’s on board and it was mainly downhill and much of the track was soft sand. I yelled most of the way and still do not know how I did not fall off. I guess the booze helped to dull my senses/relax me so I did not care. I don’t know. Whatever, it was exhilarating and great fun. I should thank Michael for doing the uphill slog bit for me.

On Wednesday Eric, Alice and I went into Vaalwater to top up supplies! It is a real African small town. A few small shops, one supermarket and Africans everywhere. There was a strike going on outside the Spar with lots on singing and chanting with posters accusing the owners of being racist and not paying a decent salary. It is so sad to see the extent of the poverty, but where on earth does a government start to address things? The road from Vaalwater is lined on both sides with game farms like the one we are staying on so you sometimes see game. Eric saw 2 giraffe as I was driving back on this occasion but I missed them.

Thursday, Christmas Eve, was lazy. I went with Ali and Mel to visit her friends Denise and Alan. Alan is the son of the owners of this place and they live here on the farm. Their home is amazing. Denise is a fine arts artist and I comment on her beautiful paintings throughout the house, not knowing she had painted many of them!! The stoep (patio) is huge, probably 40’ by 15’ deep and looks out onto the longest pool I have ever seen in a private home. The garden is surrounded by snake proof bush fencing. It is another world!! They told us stories of living in the bush, including watching a troop of baboon attacking a python who was crushing, and then ate, a full sized female. The python was so badly injured it probably did not survive.

Eric, Alice and I went for a game drive in the early evening. We found it difficult to follow the maps and ended up at a road end with a sign to a lookout. For some reason I thought it was just a few yards into the bush so we poured a GnT each and headed off. We walked, and climbed, for 15 minutes thinking “It can’t be much further” as we rounded each bend. We reached the top about 1 minute before the sunset and boy was it worth the climb.


I was then immediately nervous, not sure how much light we had left and very keen not to be caught in the bush with no torch! We hurried back, well tried to but Eric was struggling on the downhill climb because of his leg, and eventually got to the Kombie with just a few minutes of dusk left.

Christmas day was perfect. I ran in the morning, so I would feel less guilty eating later! The day was soo relaxed with far too much food. We managed to get 2 huge tables together to seat all 18 of us.

CLAIRE, ALICE, ERIC, HARRIETTE AND YVONNE

Dinner consisted of a starter c/o Eric. A whole, camembert stuffed with gorgonzola and soft goat’s cheese, topped with walnuts and a cranberry sauce.


Absolutely divine - everyone wanted the recipe. Turkey, braaied fillet steaks and a gammon with salads and roasted vegetable made up the main course. Lynne was just going to do Christmas cake and coffee but we insisted on desserts (of course) and did a mango tiramisu (orange juice and sherry to soak the biscuits instead of Tia Maria, and topped/layered with fresh mangos) and Harriette did a pavlova. We even managed to find kiwi fruits for that.
STEFFIE, LYNNE, WILLIAM AND HARRIETTE IN THE KITCHEN. YVONNE, MEL, VAUGHN, ABBY AND ALI AT THE TABLE.

We did nothing else all day except laze around and when it got too hot, swam. This is Mark and I.

This is Willam, Mark, Eric and Mel in the kitchen.


This morning, Boxing Day, I went for a run, swim, press-ups and then sunbathed (at 7am!) before breakfast. This has been my routine here. The run was very special this morning as I disturbed a small herd of impala. They ran ahead of me down the farm track for about 5 minutes, stopping every so often to see if I was following, and darting in and out of the bush before finally disappearing. Amazing!! After breakfast we 4 Tanners took the Kombie and went on a game viewing drive. We are staying on a game farm of about 4,000 hectares (10,000 acres in old money). There are no large cats (apart from a few leopard), rhino or elephant here, hence you can walk and cycle in the bush. There are more kudu than I have ever seen and we saw this feller

with about 12 others when we went out on Christmas eve evening. They are my favourite antelope. We see a lot of kudu, impala (by far the most common antelope) and wart hogs from our accommodation. When we wake up in the morning I creep round the place looking out all the windows as they are often very close to the cottage, until the sounds of tea making and breakfast start up!
On our drive today we saw the above, plus wildebeest with lots of babies, zebra, baboons, eland, hartebeest, bontebok and the animal we had been most hoping to see, giraffe; a mommy and baby:

Eric and I got out the Kombie and took a few paces closer to the giraffes to get a better picture but mommy spotted us and took up a very protective stance, and my battery died on the camera! I then walked down the farm track and watched a few small herds on the plain around the trees until Eric drove up to meet me. By the time we got back to the cottages I was cooking and feeling quite nauseous but then it was in the high 30’s. Straight into the pool, then lots of chatting with the others, in the shade of course, before lunch. The afternoon was spent lazing around until 5pm when William, Vaughn, Justine and I went out for a cycle. Well this was not what I expected. I thought it would be a cycle along some farm tracks, negotiating a few bumps and hills. Boy was I in for a surprise. We went mountain biking!!! It was so scary, and exhilarating. We didn’t see much in the way of animals but boy did we get round the bush. First we cycled over these 2 rickety bridges that I had been nervous walking over the previous day, then Vaughn and William decided to climb a foot path over the hill, on bikes. I reminded them that I was a novice and said that Justine and I would go a different route!! They were such gentleman they would have none of it and we took an alternate route. Back on cycle tracks this time. It was really hard work and I felt that I was holding the others back but they encouraged and advised me on the way round. The cycle paths are graded 1-3 for difficulty and on the 3’s most of us climbed/walked with our bikes for short distances. There had been a huge rain storm a few hours before we left and Justine said the bush was much prettier after the rain, the light in the damp bush was fantastic, when I was not so scared that my eyes were actually open!! It was fantastic. I loved it but boy was it hard and tiring. Sooo different to road biking. When I later commented on slowing them down lWilliam said he enjoys getting new people into the sport and does not mind the slow rides with the novices. So kind.
So who are we here with, apart from the 5 Dukes? Lynne’s brother Mark and his gorgeous girls, Justine and Claire, who are uni age, Lynne’s Mom, Yvonne and friends of the Dukes; William and Ali with their 2 children Jamie and Abby and Ali’s Mom Mel. When I lived in SA in the 80’s Lynne’s family were like a second family to me and it is great to be spending time with them again. Mark in the film/sound making industry and I am trying to persuade him that he should come and do some work in NZ for awhile.
So far, and only on the second week of this holiday, I have written 3000 words. This is going to be a novelette not a blog entry. Well done if you are still with me.