roads – Page 2 – Brave New World of Blogging

Day zero – Farm 215

We had a comfortable 5 hour day today, stopping in beautiful Hermanus for a delicious lunch. The weather was a glorious mid 20’s with blue skies and the views along the bay spectacular. It was a little difficult to capture the beauty as we travelled along, so use your imagination as you gaze at the photographs.
We arrived here safe and sound and in fact I felt so strong I went for a two and a half hour walk in this stunning reserve! No sign of stiffness or discomfort at all.

Did I mention that my very kind cousins drove me here?🚗

I have not yet seen a horse, let alone mounted one 😂🐎

I walked for almost 3 hours, silently absorbing the world, there were no birds, no people, no insects; no sounds except the breeze, my breathing and my feet on the path.

Life suspended between being present in the now and in another place – heaven? Not sure what the other place is/was except that it was marked by a sense of total isolation. Lovely in it’s silent vistas.

As the light began to change I knew I had to turn back.

A solitary sunbird flashed by and there was life again

The call of baboons across the valley, invisible but very present got my adrenalin going and my feet moving briskly towards the luxury of my temporary home, Farm 215.

Such a perfect day, I could turn back now; avoid the pain in the you know what, that is inevitable if I ride tomorrow; and still feel like I had seen heaven for a moment

27 March 2017

A Sunday in the Cape

The last time I drove through the Cape on my own was more than twenty years ago. I did it often; always however, with an agenda, a business meeting at a winery, or a dairy, at a set time. Which meant, of course, there was little time to dawdle, to savour the views, to sit and ponder the beauty.

This Time, I had Time: as much as I liked, so I pottered.

Meandering back from visiting friends in Veldrif aiming for Cape Town and taking whichever road tickled my fancy:

14915279_1356265257725909_5171705077634678976_n — St Helena Bay: The Colours

14606432_1356265341059234_430477749548299791_n — The last of the flowers ..

14915285_1356265301059238_6822746997992771435_n — ..in patches everywhere, still

14906857_1356265541059214_4174809967334789713_n — Ready for winter

14906857_1356265424392559_3555781366574547052_n — St Helena Bay – and still this doesn’t do it justice

14907077_1355947407757694_1384657042028447510_n — Paternoster. Carmen my hostess and chef at Ouma’s Kitchen

14915144_1355947541091014_5511137640033138528_n — lekker vis

14900349_1355948197757615_2011025230122542302_n — And my view – iPhone doesn’t do it justice

14632954_1355960801089688_7086670443443431023_n — and no complaints about the bill either 🙂

14925788_1356265684392533_5036993099423257092_n — Paternoster: Too much sun, not enough water

14600919_1356265544392547_2766570888497504441_n — Paternoster – watching me watching them

14639749_1356265691059199_8038664844428365674_n — Saldana – seems somehow to fit into the landscape

14639770_1356062667746168_8197354384548314621_n — Langebaan –

14601053_1356064007746034_3750556411323599398_n — my turn next visit

https://youtu.be/RO2AN0RbdXw&rel=0

14581367_1356064021079366_1356393935410134670_n

14666234_1356064104412691_8299845811771489175_n — always 🙂 🙂 🙂

14915587_1356265727725862_1514279025368375141_n — Always ahead of me

14581462_1356265747725860_987196325853947264_n — driving back on R27 : The mountain, a magnet for the eye

14590428_1356265794392522_6549117787847133541_n

Why Steytlerville?

24/10/2016

Steytlerville / Country Practice / Time Warp

Why Steytlerville ? Why Here? (As opposed to somewhere else)

A dear friend of mine has given up a lucrative, busy medical practice in The City of Gold (Johannesburg ) to throw his lot in with 130 Europeans in this little town at the end of a road in The Karoo ( for my ausie friends – read desert 😳)
And so I came to see why.

I get it – as I sit on a bench on the main road which is wide enough to turn an ox wagon in. Eating a vetkoek ( too difficult to explain to my ausie friends😜) and drinking rooibos tea. And strangely with Hillsong – cornerstone playing in the background .

There is an occasional car that goes back and forth – because back and forth is all one can do since no roads lead anywhere 😜 except to the local township or a private farm.

Two (yes 2) funeral parlours. One of which promises excellent service ( but doesn’t make clear whether in this world or the next) – the other makes no promises in either 😃

Three general handelaars which sell everything from wool ( but no knitting needles) to generators and koeksusters.

Which brings me to language –

Neither English nor Afrikaans are spoken here – but that delicious mix of them both which seems to unite the groups (in an unconscious way) and makes me long to be back living here.

Everyone greets me – not that that means hundreds of greetings, interpret rather tens of greetings. And I am definitely now ”n tannie’ – for my Ozzie friends – a greeting reserved for your elders – a mark of age, respect and implied wisdom!!!!!

Not quite the celestial reverence accorded my ‘Dr Dave’ as we strolled through town yesterday evening though -,”aand Doktor’ was the call from every stoep, evening walker, child playing , teenager loitering – no one can remember when there was a resident doctor in Steytlerville !!!!!!! and without ever having met him or consulted him- he is applauded by then for just being here.

We had a roast leg of lamb for dinner yesterday – the gift of a patient and Dave invited local farmers to join us. Between vast quantities of whiskey and beer we talked in our mutual blend of languages, late into the night before the reality of a pre dawn start forced us all to bed.
A constant struggle to overcome weather and labour issues makes a farmers life here a tough one.

Time moves differently here – could it be :

the light, a bright blue that sparkles , or the stars – millions of them breathtakingly shimmering,

the one long road that leads nowhere,

the river that once washed the bridge
away, not once but three times and hasn’t had a drop of water flow through it for some thirty years

the people who have chosen to move slowly, stopping to talk, taking time to listen, talking to their chickens, thriftily watering precious vegetables, sharing more generously than one is used to in the city?

Or am I romanticising a town on struggle street – time will tell as Dr Dave settles into Steytlerville ……