lairdandjonelle

Where was I?  The last was going to the winery, I think.  Now, what have we done since then?  Hard to remember after really good wine at lunch.  One day we drove what seemed forever, but was probably only a couple of hours, to see Monkeyland, Birds of Eden and Jukani big cats sanctuary.  All of the animals are rescued from zoos, breeding farms, people who had them as pets, whatever.  They, the facilities, have won many international awards for their work. The monkeys were in a many-hectare (no of course I don’t know how big a hectare is — Laird!?  He says 2 1/2 acres) fenced in area that was open to the sky.  They could have left, probably, if they had wanted, but since they are fed, they don’t.  We heard howler monkeys, but didn’t see any.  But we saw many, many ring-tailed lemurs; other lemurs; two gibbons that we were very fortunate to watch on the ground quite close to us, walking around, stopping to look for insects, etc. — one walked by us several times, so cool, even though he ignored us; and several other kinds of monkeys I don’t remember.  Great guide.  The birds were in a netted, also several hectare space with lots of water features and grottos and amazing plants — Sandy, you would have liked it a lot.  Beautiful, vibrant- , irridescent- and many=colored, what a joy they were: parrots; scarlet ibis; flamingo; crested cranes; ducks; several types of pheasant, including golden pheasant; Knysna louries, with their green-black feathered backs and the most astonishing flash of red underwing when they fly; maybe  golden breasted starling, but gloriously irridescent blue, green and gold; maybe a golden palm weaver, but not sure.  Their bird book doesn’t always jive with what we saw.  And we saw two blue duikers, which are tiny antelope-like animals.  At Jukani, the stories were mostly sad, big cats that were bred to be shot by big game hunters (use that term lightly, since they are guaranteed a kill); zoos mistreating animals or going out of business; cute little cuddly wild cat pets that grew up.  One beautiful white tiger was the result of multi-generational in-breeding and so, at only eight, he is about 80% blind — he’ll get to 100% fairly soon, they think.  He could live to be 25. Blind. There were wild dogs, a jakkal, a three=legged springbok, on and on.  And the most amazing sight, a thick line of black ants about a foot long and many ants deep — a big thick rope of ants crawling out of the tiniest hole, along the ground and up over a wire fence piece.  Moving by moving over those on the bottom. Our guide, also wonderful, told us they must have smelled blood from an earlier feeding. Yes, they bite — wouldn’t be pleasant to fall into one of their missions (or be one of them either)!

Sunday we had a braai at the flower farm — grilled snoek, yummy!  With Marita’s melktart, more yumminess and huzzahs.  Otherwise, I don’t know what we’ve been doing but we’re all having a lovely, lovely time.  I did go again to the miraculous Karina, the physiotherapist who has made me mostly pain free.  We took Mattie to her, too.  She has very bad osteoporosis and arthritis.  She said Karina made her feel better; hope that was true.  We’re both going again tomorrow.

Friday we go to Cape Town for a week and already have a list of things to do that will take double the time.  Today, I went to get my hair cut.  She did a great job, but she curled it while blow drying and then teased — my head was all fluffy!  Then a walk on the beach, another trip to the mall to get yet more things we didn’t bring with us or the apartments are not equipped with.  Today it was dish towels and toenail clippers.  Lunch at Cattle Barons — an American company that is franchised here.  Delicious wine!  Nederburg Barone if anyone can find it at their local wine shop.  Sandy and Daniel, y’all might be able to find it at Total Wine.

Happy Days, as Marita always toasts

Yesterday, we went to buy Norman two beehives for the flower farm, our farm-warming present for them. Very nice man who makes them, though he is quite the sportsman, big hunter and fisher with pictures and mounted horns to prove it. He also had really nice legs in shorts and workboots — a killer look for some men. Afterwards, we went off wandering around the countryside, though with purpose. We drove to the gates of Gondwana, a private game reserve, but found out we can only schedule a game drive on the internet — and then when Laird went on their website, found that you have to be staying there to do it. Too bad, but there are at least two more reserves within a very short distance to try. Or go back to Botlierskopp, which we really like. So no game drive. On to wine tasting. Went through Herbertsdale, a town of no people from the look around — there’s not even a sign outside the church that says what it is. Dutch reformed, we found out. White. We got to Jakkalsvlie, which I have heard variously as Yakopsplace, Yakofsflay and slight variations. Marita says “Oh, Afrikaans is so easy, it’s pronounced as you see it. Well, except Beginning Js have a Y sound, beginning Gs have a phlemmy H sound — oh, except when they sound like G, or, to my ear, like Qu or Qw. “Googie more” is good morning/day. It is pronounced to my ear as Quia mora. Or Whea mora. I thik more has an accent n the e. And Vs sound like Fs.

Anyway, we got to Yakkelsflay (Jakkal’s marsh) and tasted several wines, most of which were delicious. I even found a white wine I liked! So I bought a little over a case (their cases are short, only 6 bottles); got a muscadel for Noekie who likes sweet wine, the bottle we had with our lunch of cheeses, ostrich carpaccio (do I have a letters missing? I must, it’s too short), ostrich pate, olives and figs. Looking out over a gorgeous valley, how perfect. Well, it could have been slightly better since it was quite cool with lots of wind. Still windy this morning and cold. Laird is gone with Norman to take Noekie to airport (she just got home last night from Pretoria, today off to Durban, poor woman!) in George, then to buy the remainder of the stuff for the beehives. Marita are going to drink coffee and read the paper.

How many ways to say, “another great day”?  This one was just a little cloudy, but still lovely and blue enough as we drove back down around Albertinia to explore whatever Stilbaai had to offer.  Laird and I had gone to Boggomsbaai, Vleisbaai (what a rip-off that was, just a damn gated community!) and Goritsmond [handing off to Laird, Marita is going to cut my hair](or “Goritzmond” on a few road signs — confusing). Goritsmond was kind of cute, but the sidewalks had been rolled up at noon. We saw one open window and five workmen. The 2-pump gas station was open and the country store. So we were not particularly excited by the visits. However, we then discovered “Rein’s Private Nature Reserve”. You can look this up on the net. 2,600 hectares (6,600 acres) with 20 houses built and 20 more approved. The German owner wants to find a lessee with enough working capital to develop a marketing plan and make a success of the place. The nature reserve has a herd of 100 eland and 20 mountain zebra, along with a lot a bird varieties. Any takers? Leaving Rein’s, we managed to put a hole in the muffler of the old Corolla we’re driving. It now sounds like the motorcycles that race up and down outside our flat at all hours. Literally. Last night, I was awakened at 3:41 am by a motorcycle. But then, we stumbled into Albertinia and found the Albertinia Hotel. This is a 116 year old establishment, with a restaurant. For 189 rand, you can get an 11-course meal. J & L were wimps and elected a small sample of dishes. J had roast chicken. L had greek salad and pork schnitzel. But the ambiance was wonderful. There was a fire in the fireplace and the wall decorations were old photos and event posters. Finding this place erased the disappointments of the day — even though we now have to figure out how to repair the muffler.

That was Thursday.

Friday, we stayed in Mossel Baai, visited the tourism bureau for brochures of things to do in the area. We had lunch at the Cafe Barnett. Jonelle got a dozen small wild oysters and I got a dragon roll sushi — least you think we’re roughing it in SA. We then toured the Dias Museum. The maritime museum houses the 1988 reproduction caravel built in Portugal from the original notes. (Plans, apparently, had been lost). The caravel originally took 6 months and a crew of 30 to make the voyage around the horn to Mossel Baai. The reproduction took 3 months with a crew of 17. A major difference, apparently, was the reproduction housed a diesel engine under the poop deck. No one indicated whether the engine was used, or was just for emergencies. We’ll return to the museum later to visit the shell museum with the largest collection of shells in South Africa (or so the tourist brochure says).

Friday, late, Noekie and Marita returned from a trip to Bloemfontein.

Saturday was pretty quiet. I solved my camera problem — having forgotten to bring along the charger for the Canon. I bought a new Canon bridge camera, with a charger, battery and SD card that are interchangeable with the underwater camera. The new camera has a 18x  optical zoom and 20.2 megapixels. This is more than twice the stats of the underwater Canon. Price was only $60 more than buying a replacement battery and charger for the underwater camera.

Today is Sunday. Jonelle is back at the keyboard.

Laird forgot to say we fixed dinner for Noekie, Johan and Mattie last night, so Marita and I did plenty, while Laird read or played with his new camera.  I made Morrocan lamb and chickpea stew and Marita made everything else: bread, roasted veggies fresh from the flower farm, rice and dessert.  Actually, Laird did do something — he had to go to the OK mini-mark three times.  It’s only a short way away from our apartment, luckily.  The people in there must think he’s strange, though.  Dinner was excellent  and we all had laughs and wine, which is the summation of what I think about when I think South Africa.

So as I was saying before I got Marita to cut my hair, we went to Stiilbaai today, a lovely little town, bigger than Dana Baai, we think, on the river as it feeds into the ocean.  Gorgeous beach, but not much in the way of sea shells.  Or not that we saw.  When we drove around, there was another beach, very rocky, but many families out, cooking on the braais, jumping around on the rocks, happy on a nice day.  There were fisherpeople at the harbor, but we didn’t notice how happy they were.

We took Marita to the Albertinia hotel and we all had yummy bobotie and she and I had wine.  Very good wine when we thought it was a pinotage/merlot blend; surprisingly delicious when we learned it was a shiraz!  The do a wonderfully heavy pour there, but then all you can do is go to sleep, which we (well, at least I) did promptly upon arrival back home.  Now it is almost time for bed again and my hair looks swell.  See, small pleasures, big grins.

We drove to Cape Town on Sunday, another beautiful day in South Africa. Our hotel was in Tyger Valley (wherever that is) with an outstanding view of Table Mountain and the lights of the city. After driving all day, we were all quite eager for gins and tonic with the view! Wine with dinner, oh yes.

We LOVE South African wines — if only they exported more of them to the US; if anyone has looked lately, you see that there is very little choice, at least in New Mexico. Noekie has decided I should become a wine importer, but I think I’ll leave that to someone else and will just keep hoping they will do it soon. Does anyone need a new career? Such good wine, always — I think there is no bad wine bottled in SA.

While poor Noekie had to work, the three of us took the hotel shuttle to the waterfront. Our shuttle driver was quite lovely and, of course, we were chuffed (as Marita says) to hear his political views that matched ours so well. The Western Cape, of which Dana Bay and Cape Town are a part, is DA country, not ANC. The only province that is, and also the only province that is really working. Cape Town looks very, very prosperous — hard to see any of the economic woes facing much of the country. We had a great time, I was on the lookout for ras al-harout and harissa for a chicken dish I wanted to cook for everyone. I found something approximating ras al-harout, but found only one harissa that didn’t look quite as lethal as licking the hinges of hell, but then I forgot to go back and buy it. With hot spices everywhere in Cape cuisine, no one had ever heard of harissa #1. Will go back when we have our week vacation in CT in June.

In Francehoek (I’m pretty sure that’s misspelled, there should be an s somewhere, but I can’t figure out where and nobody is here at the moment to ask — I even looked on the 9 bottles of wine we have and not a one with address from that misspelled place! THAT’S FRANSCHHOEK, NO E, THE S IN ITS PROPER PLACE AND 2 Hs. After all that looking at wine bottles the paper Laird picked up there was right across the table from me. Duh.), we looked for the Bacon Bar, a place we loved two years ago, but, alas, out of business. Sorry, Sandy, I was going to buy you something piggy. It’s where I got your wire pig. We had lunch there, pretty lackluster I thought. I ordered shrimp and avocado salad, never dreaming I’d have to pull the heads off and shell the shrimp and the avocado came like guacamole, except without the interest. Mashed up avocado on greens with too much dressing is not my idea of good. Nor were the shrimp, which had been cooked so much I couldn’t get all the shell off and kept having to spit out pieces. Not lekker! as we say in Africaans.

Coming back, Noekie had to pick up some talapia fingerlings for the flower farm — they want to do aquaculture as part of the farm. Laird and Marita sat with the cooler of baby fish, 106 of them, between them on the way home and they worried that the little portable pump wasn’t pumping in enough oxygen, so Laird would blow into the hose every 10 minutes or so to make sure they were oxygenated. I wondered how anyone knows how much oxygen 106 talapia fingerlings need and whether they were gooing to get an oxygen high from two oxygen sources. Once when we stopped to buy wine, very cheaply, Noekie was moving the car to find shade and the ice chest turned over to a wet result — but at least she didn’t have to pick up fish and fling them back in. After all that, we got home about 7ish last night and this morning Norman called to say there had been only one fish casualty. Hooray, Laird and his fishy CPR!

Noekie and Marita are off again today, traveling to Bloemfontein — about an 8-hour trip, which I am so thankful I don’t have to do. They’ll be back on Friday. Laird is just coming back from his walk, so I have to give back his computer.

What a swell day we’ve had! This morning early, we had to take Allister and Lucinda (workers) to the flower farm we thought we’d drive to Oordshoorn for an adventure — not that we expected so much adventure in a town. But when we got to the flower farm, Laird asked Norman where Botlerskop, a game reserve we had been to 2 years ago. Turns out it was quite near the flower farm. Have I told you all abut the flower farm? Noekie bought it this year, after looking at it for several years, wanting, wanting, wanting. So Norman, her son, and Junita his wife, are living there now and loving farming. So much more fun for them than the hardware store or construction work. They grow roses, just planted something like 5000 bulbs, have other flowers, like bouquet fillers. House is an old school house.
Anyway, back to Botlierskop — we went there instead and had a wonderful game drive with Silas, our guide. Saw Gnus, rhinos, eland, springbok, bonterbok, lions, zebra, impala (two black ones, but Marita hates that they are being bred; she thinks they are freaks), nyala, water buck and I’m sure, more. Ahhh, the fenbos, with protea trees and lovely, lovely flowers everywher. We had a lovely lunch, with an even lovelier SA wine. Oh, the wine here!
When we got back, and found that it is only about 25 minutes from Dana Baai!, we went to see a couple of houses. I fell TOTALLY IN LOVE with one — the “mansion” the estate agent called it. 4 bedrooms, all en suite, 2 of which were ginormous and looked out on the ocean, with private balconies. Also a 3-sided sunroom on that floor. Off the living room, on 1st floor, there are 2 office rooms. Going upstairs, there is another sitting area on the first landing. Huge kitchen, with yet another sitting area and a little bar, with bar stools and mirrored back and shelves of liquor bottles — enough room for my liquor cabinet! Big skullery, too, because they don’t wash their dishes in the kitchen here. Plus a big enough pantry. Large laundry room. God, I love that house! I want it! R3,350,000. Short term rentals could be maybe R5,000 or so a day over holidays and in season — makes it sound doable, huh? And at a little over 15 cents to the dollar, actually almost affordable! And whoever wants can come for vacation, guys. Oh, and it has an unfinished little apartment — the maid could live there, for sure. Then we saw two pretty old houses that needed to be depersonalized BIG TIME. We couldn’t actually tell anything because there was so much furniture and stuff! I can hear y’all snickering and see you rolling your eyes at me saying that someplace has too much stuff, but these did! At least our house is big enough to kind of mitigate the amount of my stuff. Stop laughing, Chris! The yards were lovely though — Sandy, you would swoon at all the succulants! The aloes, blooming away, the protea, the hibiscus and all the things I haven’t a clue about.
HAPPY DAY, as our friend Marita always toasts — jm

Hello to anyone who keeps checking this site — we’ve been in South Africa now for a couple of weeks now and our wifi refuses to connect my computer. Asking Laird to give up his is like pulling teeth since he’s working, still working, ever still working on the oil and gas report. But I have a few moments, maybe to report. We are in Dan Baai, suburb of Mossel Baai, staying in a wonderful apartment — sure beats Prague, let me say. I’ll try to see about posting pictures. Speaking of which, I bought a lovely picture of the Indian ocean, with Kraals. More to buy and then have our lovely friend at the folk art cooperative, Hein, ship for us. It’s coming on winter here, so it’s cloudy a lot, but warm and still love looking at the ocean. We, Laird, Marita and I, went to Port Elizabeth last week with our other best friend Noekie. Not such a lovely place, though the beaches outside of town are gorgeous, but the town itself sorta sucks. Laird was thrilled he was asked to do a short presentation at the opening of the conference and by all accounts he was his usual star. Sunday we’re going to Cape Town for more training work by Noekie. We LOVE Cape Town, so expect to have a great time. Then Laird, Marita and Noekie are going to Bloemfontein for more work. Poor Noekie works so hard! I’m staying here — too much car driving for me.

Will try to post pictures, but not much text to add. But pics are so much better! Happy days to you all (as Marita toasts whenever we drink — which is often!)