Saturday 13th November

The 8 hour drive was very pleasant in our little rental with our delicious padkos. Graaff Reinet was great too. We  met Tank Coetzee who lent us a car and we stayed the night with Charles and Ira Maasdorp (distant relatives), who were all wonderful. Charles and Ira took us to the Valley of Desolation where Charles produced a little picnic basket and glasses of wine. Then we had a walk around Winterhoek which is the farm where my mother grew up. That was amazing - it's now been bought up by the Camdeboo National Park so we saw Koedoe and springbok and stuff. The next day there was a huge table set for breakfast before we drove to Oudtshoorn and then on to Beaufort West.

Charles and Ira at Winterhoek

Charles and Rob at Valley of Desolation

And here we are still a week later with Alec and Kjersti (my nephew and his Norwegian girlfriend). We are living in the old farm house on Richard's farm (about 150 years) where my grandparents lived almost all their lives. It is on the verge of falling down but the roof has now been re-thatched and Alec has managed to install solar powered electricity (with some help from Rob). And now we are just cleaning and doing various fixing jobs which all require a lot of antihistamines for me. But it is lovely here - bit of a problem for Kjersti who has a strong aversion to mice and I think snakes since she came face to face with a cobra the other day while out for a little walk. It stood up in the road in front of her which was pretty scary.

I am sitting here all by myself at the moment as Rob has gone to Charles Koster's farm (neighbour) to watch the rugby, and Alec and Kjersti have gone to Sutherland to fetch 2 horses they are borrowing for a few months. So it is very quiet and peaceful here and nearly time for a little glass of wine while I prepare something delicious for dinner for the workers.

South Africa

Well we have had 5 great days here in Joburg (well I have, Rob was sick for a day or so). We have just been staying with Margaret and Campbell and Andrew, spending time with family. And tonight we are going out for dinner with Jan and Franco Barocas (old uni friends). The big task was to organise to get to Graaff Reinet where someone has kindly offered to lend us a car. So tomorrow we drive down in a rental car, stay the night with Charles and Ira Maasdorp and then drive through to Oudtshoorn on Friday to drop off the rental and then onto the farm in Beaufort West. I think at that point our standard of living is going to change dramatically. Alec and Kjersti are there already doing a major clean up after the re-thatching of the roof. But apparently there is still no power and quite a lot of very old dust.

For those who have been emailing to stay in touch - we will go into town periodically so will be able to collect messages and will try to reply. But the only immediate form of communication we have is the land line.

So no photos today but will try to take some while at the farm.