Plaas toe

our Pretoria-branch will post a picture later
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We leave Jamestown via the main road, also the only tar road. Just out of the village we turn left on the dirt road, and drive up in the mountains. The views are magnificent. Thanks to the good rains the land is green and flowering and the cattle is fat. When the sun burns away the early morning mist and cold, the trees are brilliant with the first autumn colors. Bram and Maud enjoy the treat of sitting in the back of the bakkie – where you normally put the sheep.
The road becomes smaller and bumpier. Suddenly we are there: a little house for the workers, sheds for tools and sheep, and an overflowing dam. It's shaving time: two men with gigantic scissors free the sheep from their heavy coats. It's loitering time also: wander around, cross the dam, and try to give each other a cold mountain-water bath.
To see all the farmland, the sheep and the cows, we drive further up in the mountains. South-African farms are huge for Europeans: abfab beautiful rough valley after valley, with shepherds, some cattle, and patches of farmland where the winter-food grows.
We decide to walk back along the spring that ends in the dam, hunt for frogs and the leaves that you can make bangles from, and try to avoid the snakes. Maud of course managed to fall and get muddy. Luckily the boys looked the same after their water-fight down by the dam.
Back home there's a good farmer's meal, and some muddy clothes to wash before we can sit down to watch our daily soap.