Potch or Tlokwe...

We were so looking forward to are stay with Steven & Richardt – and after our break-down adventure it’s extra super great to finally arrive.

They live in Potchefstroom – or Tlokwe; these name changes in South Africa are confusing...

“In 2006 the local municipality decided on a name change for the city, the municipality and a number of important street names, favouring ‘Tlokwe’ as the new name. The municipality changed its name to ‘Tlokwe City Council’, but the city’s name remains Potchefstroom.”

“Since the first democratic election in South Africa in 1994, a number of changes have been made to geographical names in the country. It can get a bit confusing, as mapmakers struggle to keep up, and roadsigns aren’t immediately changed. In many instances, the ‘new’ names were existing ones used by parts of the population; others are new municipal entities.

Richardt, Henk, Maud’s leg, underneath one of Richardt’s works of art. It’s so great to be back here! And to catch up, get new music (just love the best indie of 2011, and the ‘final’ 80’s playlist), roam around Potch, visit their new favourite bars - busy schedule:-) We can follow the new art projects online of course, but it’s way better to talk about it live.

about Richardt

As always the food is delicious! Steven is an excellent cook, and as a bonus for Maud he always comes up with yummy vegetarian dishes.

One of Steven’s works of art. We finally saw his book about the destruction of history. He documents historical buildings that are being demolished, and the modern structures they have to make way for.

about Steven

Thanks to S&R we make great headway with our ‘Lekker Alleen’, new working title ‘Vinger Alleen’, project; a cascade of brilliant ideas keeps flowing. Beer, Bunnies – guess that’s plenty for the perfect L/V Alleen B-day experience.

Back to history: Potchefstroom, the oldest town in the North West, was established in 1838 by a group of Voortrekkers led by Andries Hendrik Potgieter. The name was derived from POT (gieter), the Voortrekker leader, CHEF (the leader, referring to Potgieter), and STROOM (the Mooi River). Until 1960 it was the capital of the old South African Republic, of which the first president, Marthinus Wessel Pretorious, was sworn in at Potchefstroom. Potch has played an important role in South Africa’s constitutional, cultural and religious development.

about Potchefstroom 

more about Potch 

Tlokwe - Potch 

Stuck!

 About 80 k’s before our last destination, Steven & Richardt in Potchefstroom, we see our right rear wheel overtaking us. Luckily the Hilux has enough speed, and Bram keeps a clear enough head, to drive, rather drag, the car almost to the side of the road.

We all get out, shaky & white, wondering what happened. That wheel is driving on direction Potch, Henk-i starts running after it. As far as we laypersons can see, the rear axel seems broken, and dragging the body over the road might have done a lot of damage. Later on we learn the side shaft broke, and the dragging ruined the breaks.

We decide to phone Richardt & Steven, to tell them we are delayed, and ask them to find us a Potchefstroom rescue service to bring the Hilux and us to our destination. Meanwhile it’s getting close to sundown, and a thunderstorm is getting closer and closer. And we are in South Africa, where people are unlikely to stop to offer help. And Maud really doesn’t wanna be stuck in the middle of nowhere in the dark.

Luckily there is a farmhouse quite nearby; she can walk over with our valuables if help doesn’t come before dark. In our experience SA farmers are really great if you are a tourist asking for help. What do you now – first the voorman drives by, stops, asks what happened, if we are okay, if help is coming. Once again it’s good we speak Afrikaans. Half an hour later the farmer drives by, stops, asks the same questions, keeps us company for a while, and gives us his cell number, in case the rescue doesn’t work out and we need him. By now a sandstorm is coming up.

Everyone who ever has a breakdown in the Potchefstroom area: try to get Niko from the Potch tow service to rescue you! We got him by chance; he was the only tow-guy who wasn’t on X-mess leave yet. So when Steven was trying every number in the Potch phonebook to find someone to rescue us, he got us Niko. Niko didn’t only do a perfectly smooth job rescuing our Hilux; he also first drove to Richardt & Steven so we could offload all our stuff, then took car & Bram to a garage, then brought Bram back to our temporary home again. And he allowed Maud to sit in the Hilux on top of the truck while driving to Potch – even though the accident was a real setback, she had an interesting new experience.

From Ooskaap to Vrystaat

After visiting tannie Elsa and oom Nica we drive on to their son Nick and Zandre in Smithfield. Smithfield was founded in 1848 when the then Cape Colony governor, Sir Harry Smith (1847-1852), required a settlement north of the Oranje Rivier. Smithfield is the third oldest village in the Vrystaat.

Since it's almost X-mess, Nick & Zandre asked Bram & Henk-i to fittingly decorate the windows of their shop.

about Smithfield

more Smithfield

Nick & Zandre have a brandnew supermarket in Smithfield, another one in die lokasie, a butchery, a take-away food operation, and a bottle store coming up. Running your own supermarkets and other shops means working effin’ hard; round the clock, 7 days a week, 52 weeks a year. So if you want to hang out with them, it’s best to join the shop-running. Maud had a fun (for her) day getting stock with Nick from the wholesale in Bloemfontein and a couple of other places.

‘Lekker Alleen’ (working title) team brekfes meeting... So what if we want cake for brekfes, so what if we wanna spice up our morning coffees, so what if we feel the need to shoot something after a good night’s sleep? The ‘Lekker Alleen’ person enjoys doing whatever (s)he likes whenever (s)he feels like doing it.

We sure had a lot of fun working on our concept for having fun being on your own (websites, tele shows, magazines and more coming up:-).

Artist Henk-i is the big attraction of the day!
We all tried to speak English but it’s hard! Even Dutch is okay; Zandre is fluent cause he lived in Amsterdam about 1.5 year, and Nick picked up quite a bit thanks to his Dutch friends. But still - on top of the fact that Maud loves to speak Afrikaans and has little chance to do so, it is such a habit to use mainly Afrikaans when we are staying with Nick & Zandre. Besides, almost everyone around here speaks Afrikaans, and Sesotho, and / or Xhosa. Note: no English in this list.And note: Dutch people tend to be really ignorant when it comes to assessing Afrikaans. It’s not baby Dutch; it’s a beautiful full-grown language. And it’s the mother tongue for many and all sorts of people.

Afrikaans is native to many people

Now that they can’t go to the Joburg gyms anymore, Zandre & Nick have build themselves a gym at home. They neither have time to use it nor need it – as Maud experienced while restocking being a shop owner is real heavy work. But Bram & Henk-i sure can use a workout – daily is more effective guys! Maud's credo: it's better to be comfortable then to keep up appearances.

Another part of the job is deliveries. At the end of the day there is a sizeable bakkieload to deliver in the lokasie, and for his next workout Bram joins Zandre and Boesman to bring people their stuff. It happens to be a real stormy evening, so balancing their loads on the slippery, muddy tracks in the township is not an easy job. 

about lokasies

township entrepreneurs

Nick (back row left), Boesman (back row middle), Zandre (back row right) and the rest of the Saamkom Supermarket, Slaghuis and Wegneemetes team.

Beware, Malthezers!

Next stop: Nick and Zandre in Smithtown. On our way up there we visit Nick’s parents auntie Elsa and oom Nico in Jamestown. It was so good to see them; it has been years since we were in the neighbourhood. That’s the downside of Southern Africa – all this space, it’s super great, but it also means your friends are way too far to see them regularly.

Catching up with tannie Elsa, and the Malthezers of course. Poor Henk-i; here it’s either Afrikaans or Xhosa so the conversation went a bit past him. When we arrived oom Nico was still in the mountains, looking after his sheep. Next time we’ll have to stay for a couple of days so we can drive up there also!

On the road

On the road again, to Graaff-Reinet, in the heart of the Groot Karoo (Place of Thirst).  This is the fourth oldest settlement in South Africa (after Cape Town, Stellenbosch, and Swellendam). It’s named after Jacob van de Graaf and his wife Cornelia Reynet. “De Wiljdgelegen Colonie van Graaff-Reinet” (the far off colony of Graaff-Reinet) was established in 1786. It still has many great Cape Dutch architecture buildings.

about Graaff-Reinet 

about Cape Dutch architecture

more about Cape Dutch architecture

For this post we picked ‘on the road’ pictures only; no images of Graaff-Reinet or our camp at Urquhart Park on the outskirts of town. There was a lot of ‘on the road’ this holiday – about 5000 kilometres:-)

Old well, old farm, even older mountains.

South Africa is so – big and beautiful! All these seemingly endless roads through stunning landscapes, thousands and thousands of k’s, marvelous views - super!

What's cooking Bram?

After our great kuier vir Monica we are on our way to two camping nights, starting with Die Bosvarkie in the outskirts of Calitzdorp. A peculiar mixture of campsite, pub with loud accompanying music, and farmland with springbokkies, sheep, and more.

Calitzdorp by the way claims to be the port wine capital of South Africa, but we have to skip that cause we already have to get quite a bit of desert wine past the border.

Like a huge ostrich herd. While we were awake part of the night because a farmer decided to plough or so just behind our tents, the ostriches seem well rested and ready to go. We did have some fun during breakfast by inventing wild stories about why someone would plough in the dark...

What’s in the pot? No ostrich steak, that’s for sure, but one of Bram’s secret 'beer and ...' mixtures.

Guess the ostriches are just to big for the poor cats; they have to make do with spill overs from the camper’s braai.

Ostriches are famous for eating everything. Actually they just have to make up for their lacking teeth. They swallow pebbles that act as gastroliths (stomach stones) to grind food in the gizzard (a specialized stomach constructed of thick, muscular walls that is used for grinding up food). An adult Ostrich carries about 1 kilogram of stones in its stomach!

A flock of African Sacred Ibis (more about these birds). Sacred because in ancient Egypt they were revered and often mummified as a symbol of the god Thoth.

On our way again. There is a tiny little problem with the starter engine – sometimes it works, sometimes it needs to be smashed with a hammer to start starting, sometimes – anyway, it’s safer to always park the car facing downhill. As well we are in a hilly region...

Monica @ McGregor

The gorgeous fynbos bouquet Jon made to give to Monica. We haven’t seen Monica for about 4 years; the last time must have been in Potchefstroom, Aardklop 2007 (about kunstefees Aardklop), when Monica and Bram went to do a most serious Whiskey Course. And when we had a delicious huge braai at Monica’s then house in Potch.

Bram & Maud in Potch, Aardklop 2007

Monica, good food, a joke or two - we are having a great time! Note the beautiful artichoke flower – Maud is dying to get those in her garden too.

Okay, here’s the joke: Man kneeling by bed, Wife says, what are you praying for? Husband says: Guidance. Wife says, Pray for stiffness, I'll guide the thing myself!

Maya – finally asleep. She is a very sweet and very active dog!

Maybe she is tired from walking ‘all the way’ to the two Dutch McGregor ladies who have a huge wood-fired oven and bake delicious bread. It’s way bigger then the pizza & bread oven we want to make, but we can sure scale down their ‘how to heat it up’ tips.

Hester se brood

Mina all set and ready to have FUN.

She also walked with, rather dragged, Maud all over McGregor. Which isn’t that big a job cause it’s a great small village. There is one famous criminal. He’ll break in and enter, eat and drink whatever he can find, and fall asleep. When you find him upon coming home you can call the police to come fetch him, so he can have some time in prison until his next break-in.

Yummy!!!

Monica’s garden is fabulous. She has lots of veggies and herbs, among which these artichokes with their stunning flowers. We of course took plenty seeds, hoping they want to thrive in Botswana desert soil also.

And this is what the village looks like.

Monica bought a box of perskes from a bakkie – now what to do with those? It will be a traditional Afrikaans recipe for preserving perskes. This is high on my ‘having fun’ list: big, well equipped kitchen, good ingredients, couple of people, cooking! We still have two jars packed with perskes in our fridge, waiting for an appropriate occasion to be eaten...
Meanwhile we get to taste the Lebanese mezze Monica makes to sell on the market. That’s something we definitely will try back home: make mezze!

Hengk and laptop, Mina and knuffel...

Mojo the cat is a bit confused. He decided it’s his job to keep the guests all comfortable and warm by sleeping in their bed – so what is Sara suddenly doing here? To make things worse Maya and Mina decided to join for a nap also. At least the canines stayed out of the bed at night...

Altogether we had a great stay, thank you so much Monica!!

'McGregor an al sy dinge' by Monica
about McGregor

Brave Beach Boy

The raw version; Atlantic Ocean is effin' cold, so it's 'dive in, run out'.

Jon's Home

Goodbye Yzerfontein, Hello Jon’s Home (close to Napier). Another beautiful and interesting road trip. We pass ample vineyards again, and stop for a seafood lunch in Franschhoek, one of the more famous (and thus extremely touristy) ‘wine villages'.

“After the revocation of the Edict of Nantes in France in 1685, when Protestantism was outlawed, hundreds of so-called Huguenots fled their homeland, 277 of them arriving by ship at the Cape of Good Hope. Many of them were given land by the Dutch government in a valley called Oliphantshoek (Elephant's Corner) - so named because of the vast herds of elephants that roamed the area. Soon after they settled here, it become known as Franschhoek (French Corner).”

Just another nice ‘on the road’ picture.

Caledon, ‘the capital of the Overberg’ – one of the many typical South African villages we drive through. 

Finally: Jon’s, Bas’ and Niels’ home in South Africa, close to Napier. We’ve heard so much about it, we’ve seen so many pictures, so it’s great to finally experience it for real. It’s super – a real nice old house, with only a couple of other houses close by, surrounded by nature.

We happen to arrive on the same day Jon and her son Niels are coming from Botswana. With a car packed to the limits; they are moving from Gaborone back to their own house because of Niels’ schooling. Actually we arrive half an hour before them – and are almost shot by neighbour Judy, who takes her responsibilities as the security crew very serious.

Nice art all over the house!

Jon and Maud went shopping, and found witlof – imagine, WITLOF in the R of SA. So we have a yummy witlof salad, with equally yummy midget roasted potatoes, and Ostrich sausaties. 

We are real close to Kaap Algulhas, and both the Atlantic and Indian Ocean. And, so, real close to fresh seafood. In short, a ‘must do’ day trip; have lunch at the best fish & chips place in the world, buy some fish to bring back home, and see the famous cape.

Windy and cold, no swimming – Henk had imagined something totally different when thinking of an African mid-summer...

"Cape Agulhas (Cape of Needles) is a rocky headland in the Western Cape. It is the geographic southern tip of Africa, and the official dividing point between the Atlantic and Indian Oceans. (The actual division between the ocean currents is a different matter. The point where the Agulhas current meets the Benguela current fluctuates seasonally between Cape Agulhas and Cape Point, located on the Cape Peninsula, about 2.3 kilometers east and a little north of Kaap de Goede Hoop.) Historically, the cape has been known to sailors as a major hazard on the traditional clipper route."

Rocky indeed!

On our way back we drive through Elim. Elim “was established in 1824 by German missionaries as a Moravian mission station. The missionaries picked a location where there was water available on terrain that was suitable for planting vines so that wine for communion could be produced. As well as preaching the Gospel, the missionaries taught the villagers a variety of trades and skills. The village is picturesque and has changed little over the years. It is filled with whitewashed cottages, fruit trees and fynbos. All the roads in the village lead to the thatch roofed church. The community, still mainly Moravian, consists of farmers, farm workers and artisans. Elim is known for the export of fynbos. It is also an emerging area in the production of wine.”

The fynbosveld in bloom is stunning! We just have to stop to pick flowers, a lot of flowers.

Fynbos (‘fine bush, referring to the thin leaves) "is the natural shrubland or heathland vegetation you find in a small belt of the Western Cape, mainly in winter rainfall coastal and mountainous areas with a Mediterranean climate."

One of Jon’s many talents is making flower arrangements. She made us a marvelous one to give to our next host Monica.

Male boomslang loitering above Jon’s door, spotted by Maud. The boomslang (Dispholidus typus) is a large

venomous colubrid snake. Shredded skin of a boomslang is one of the ingredients to make the Polyjuice Potion in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.

Okay, another picture, just because it was so exiting. Jon’s neighbour Judy doesn’t only serve as the security crew; she’s also the snake lady. She came with a ‘snake bag’ and two ‘snake sticks’. It is like magic! The snake is sitting just underneath the roof over the veranda, close to the door. We all have to stand back and be very quiet. Then Judy walks up to the boomslang with her tools, and entices the snake to go into the bag. We then take bag & snake into the bush well away from the houses and free it. 

One of the many, many birds we see: witkeeljantie. This poor guy has to fight that intruder in the reflection of Jon's kitchen window every day - much to our delight.

We had a marvellous time with Jon and Niels – baie, baie dankie julle!

Next stop: Monica @ McGregor.