Maud's Men

God is dead.
Nietzsche is dead.
And I don't feel too good either.
Woody Allen

Socializing

The nice part of being back in the Netherlands is there's loads of socializing to do. Wednesday morning Kristien hopped over from Amsterdam with typical Dutch treats: perentaart en uierkruier. That's also nice, enjoying all the Dutch lekkerkies! This year Kristien & Maud have their 35 Years of Friendship' anniversary - we'll organize a celebration...


Thursday evening our neighbours Winny & Dancker and we stroll across the road to have dinner with Steef & Carien. This will come as a shock to our Botswana & RSA friends: in the Netherlands we don't have a car. Neither do Winny & Dancker. A car is a headache in the Randstad, and Leiden is right in the middle of that big urbanized region. On top of that having a car is expensive tax- and insurance wise. It's much easier to go everywhere by foot, bicycle, boat and train!
We missed the communal New Years eve do, but get that feeling still, cause Winny brought pre-dinner bubbles to accompany the Turkish pre-meal snacks. Don't know whether it's Dutch or (Western or Continental) European, but there're always snacks: sweets until about 17:00, salty stuff before dinner, and either sweet or salty in the evening. We sip our drinks, snack a bit, and talk a lot - super!


This is Holland, so instead of a braai for dinner we get fabulous grilled vegetables & cheese, boeuf Stroganoff (Maud has to get the recipe for Steef's special secret luscious sauce, which he perfected over a 30 years span), white & green asparagus, Kirsch-drenched grilled fruit with cream & mascarpone, and a cheese-platter with port. It's around 1:00 am when we stumble back home...

Potchefstroom, Capital Fun

This one is for our darling Kiwi bro in law: thanks for the vodka-marinated watermelon recipe!!! Poor Max didn’t quite grasp the concept, went straight for the bottle, and then started the Stuffed Animal Rights Committee. We ate Dutch (bacon) pancakes to create a foundation, diluted our dessert with plain watermelon chunks to keep things decent, and had a great time.


Maud’s first two Potch-days are dedicated to ‘girls only’ with Anel. For starters Anel booked us a pedicure. New feet, that makes us so ready for a trip to Parys, to have a look at all the art galleries and antique shops. And of course to sit under a tree and eat delicious Italian style cakes for lunch.
Then Maud moves to Louis for other ‘girls only’ stuff, like talking too much over a yummy fishy dinner, and talk even more while playing couch potatoes. Louis managed to start Maud’s re-integration in the Netherlands by letting her watch Youp 2002. She knows jokes about Bentleys and midget dogs that get physiotherapy are history but still, it brings back the atmosphere.


When Bram arrives from Tshwane the bigger groepswoeps starts; pancakes, vodka-melon, mellow Sunday lunch with Richardt & Steven – everything that makes life great.

Groepswoeps April 2007

Mellow being applicable to the eating & digesting. Steven & Richardt must have had an extremely busy Sunday morning, with an awful lot of shopping & cooking. When we arrive mouth-watering bouquets greet us, and the food certainly lives up to what the scents promise.


After such a heavy Sunday afternoon of eating and exchanging the latest while hanging on the couch, we just have to dedicate the evening to the perfection of couch potatoism. These are the basics: get dvd’s, loads of snacks & drinks, a couch or two and some seasoned potatoes. By now winter is near, so a couple of blankets also come in handy.
In between we manage to get some work done, and prepare for camping. Tuesday we’ll leave for Die Ooskaap – where it snowed a couple of days ago...

Tussen die Riviere

The map shows a couple of nature reserves on the border of Vrystaat en Ooskaap, close to our final destination(s), Smithfield, and maybe Jamestown. The first one we try is a bull’s eye: magnificent, and no other guests.
Once again we experience how incredible friendly and facilitating most people are when you travel around in South Africa. We ask directions to the campsites, and are told we should take a hunter’s shelter because the nights are cold. When we want to buy firewood, we’re told it’s not for sale and we’re not allowed to collect, but they’ll give us some. While we’re making our ‘four layers all around’ bed (the shelter has three whole and one half wall), a bakkie arrives with a huge pile of beautiful, rock-hard firewood.


In the morning the car windows are covered with silvery ice flowers. Until the sun is really out, the fire to cook water and our three layers Lesotho mountain clothing are most welcome! We sip our coffee while enjoying the magnificent view: the veld, the koppies, bokkies, ice-covered grasses, and the magic mists from the two rivers, the Caledon and Oranjerivier.


This place is so nice we decide to really explore it, instead of moving on to one of the other parks. We don’t find the buffalos and the one black rhino, but we do see a lot of Eland, Gemsbok and other antelopes, and we share the jagterskamp with a warthog family. Being spoiled with game in Botswana anyway, our main goals are the stunning views of die veld and autumn in the mountains. We love autumn colours in this climate, with cosy freezing nights and hot sunny days!

10 Years

We commemorate our 10th anniversary in Lady Grey. Maud has visited this wondrous mountain village in April 2006 with Nick & Gerhard, and decided she must show Bram one day.


Actually we’re cashing our rain check; it is ten years and a day, because we typically screwed up our party on The Day itself. We book a night in the nicely renovated old hotel, where every room is different, and the party mood is back.


Lady Grey is surrounded by mountains, like a fortress. When we drive to the top of Joubert Pass to look over the village and into Lesotho, we get really close to the snow – Nick already told us we were camping only 70 k’s away from the real winter.


Connected to the hotel is the local bar & restaurant – one look around and you can’t believe it is run by the same people... For the Dutchies: think ‘skihut’ and you have the picture. Like all the other guests we have our meal at the bar while chatting with each other and the locals, and amazing ourselves about the ambience.

Smithfield

From Lady Grey we drive to Smithfield, a small village along one of the main North-South roads. Main, but it still is a two lanes only road through a stunning landscape. Smithfield became a goal on its own because Nick and Zandre moved there recently, to take over the general store & takeaways of Nick’s uncle. With the house come two sweet boerboels, Meisiekind and Seunkie (girl child and son). Maud's not so secret wish is to add a boerboel or two to our menagerie...


It is one of the two first stores of the village with an old house attached, so renovations are in full progress. Meanwhile business continues, 7 days a week! It's one of the typically old-fashioned general stores you'll find along the road while travelling through rural South Africa. I can't catch the atmosphere in words, like I can't capture the enchantment of South Africa outside the big cities and tourist regions in words.
It is such a pity most tourists only see Kruger Park, Cape Town, the Garden Route, the wine estates, and maybe Joburg & Tshwane. That way they skip the incredible beauty and the astounding friendliness of this fascinating country and people. And they never notice Afrikaans is not just the language of a handful of white farmers. We've travelled through over half of South Africa by now, and in most regions Afrikaans or slow Dutch is far more useful than English. Afrikaans is the native language of almost 90 percent of the 'so called coloureds' for instance. Many people speak Afrikaans and one or more African language(s), but hardly any English.


Sunday afternoon Nick and Zandre free themselves for a braai with Nick's family. There is delicious skaap and chicken sausaties, salads, braai bread, and for dessert tannie Elsa's melktert and pudding. And of course Klippies & Coke. Whoever comes for dinner with us in Leiden this Dutch summer will get 'boerekos'!
Note Nick's blonde niece; she is competing in the World Championship Youth Karate! Al in one we have a fabulous mellow Sunday afternoon, the perfect preparation for the last part of this RSA-expedition.

Clarens

We'll spend our last African night for now in Potch, and we don't want to drive up there in one go, so we study the map again. Clarens, close to the Golden Gate to the Drakensbergen and Lesotho, looks promising.


Driving up, up, up into the mountains we decide we have to come back to this region for a hiking holiday. The highland is wondrous, and there are loads of hiking trails. As usual with our vague vacation plans we didn't book - maybe not smart during this RSA public holiday. We find fabulous accommodation thanks to a helpful cleaning lady - people always help us out, so we can't be bothered with bookings.


Clarens is a real tourist trap, but the mountainous surroundings are breathtaking. When we say 'tourist trap', we mean RSA-tourists, which makes it fascinating for us foreigners anyway. We spend a luxurious night in B&B 'Ongeag' (Whatever), having the whole villa for us because it's supposed to be closed this night. Although luxuries like satellite tele (5 round the click movie channels), a washing machine and a tumble dryer (never seen that piece of equipment in this part of the world before) keep us awake most of the night, we're up early. That gives us time to drive through Golden Gate nature reserve - magnificent surroundings for a future longer camping & hiking stay!

Goodbye, Farewell, C U Soon

To ensure a splendid last night we spend our final 24 hours in our RSA-home, at Louis'. That gives us a homey environment to prepare for take-off, and a merry evening with Louis, Anel, Richardt and Steven. As one thing leads to another, this party leads to us being on Facebook...

Terminal 5

When constructing Heathrow Terminal 5, the builders obviously had the dictionary's meaning 'a section or point that forms the end of something' in mind. We don't know who is more frustrated: people in transit who suddenly realise changing planes at T5 means missing several connections, or people who want to be in England, but not particularly on a runway at T5.
After having ample time to admire the new buildings sitting in a plane stuck on the runway, we are allowed in, but not out again for the time being. Getting booked on an alternate plane to Amsterdam is hampered by the fact that most BA-personal is dedicated to 'go to hell' (thanks, but we are already there) and Heathrow staff is as lost as we are. The signage is useless, and if you ask staff for directions, they'll friendly tell you they don't have a clue also.
Welcome to Europe. In the midst of a power cut, meaning the airfield is pitch dark, computers don't work, etcetera, OR Tambo in Johannesburg is still able to have all planes smoothly checked in and leaving, doing a lot of computer work by hand. The most advanced terminal in the world has planes circling in the air and standing on runways for hours for a number of 'reasons'. 'The firm guiding us over the airport is not available.' 'We found an air marshal, he's getting into his car now.' (From where, Paris, we passengers guess.) 'That small yellow jetty is in our way.' 'It's confirmed that the jetty can't move.' (Any idiot could have pushed it out of the way, we think.)


After a couple of lost hours we finally leave Heath Row, without Maud getting arrested for aggressive behaviour towards useless British No Air personal - that's two miracles in a row. The third wonder is Bram's uncle Haroen is still waiting at Schiphol, to bring us to a delicious Colombian very late lunch and at his house, and than to our Leiden home.

Leiden

Our first days are much more busy than planned. The tenants left the house dirty and messy, so settling in brings a lot of work. The good part is our neighbours Winny & Dancker took care of the survival package: food, toilet paper, beer and flowers. On top of that, it's really spring, and the rental agency kept the deposit, so the tenants will pay for their mess - life isn't all that bad.


In between cleaning & reorganizing we go to the Press Freedom conference in Maastricht - a 3.5 hours journey by train (one way) down south. We're still a bit disoriented - it takes Maud 2 hours to realize the weird autumn colours are normal because it is spring... The conference is interesting, but the best part is seeing everybody, and having drinks and dinner together.

Tlo & Tau

The highlight of our Leiden homecomings is the comeback of Tlo & Tau. Last year cheerful little Tlo was angry for a day or two, and gloomy big Tau lived underneath a bed for a week. This year they settle in immediately, so we're back to sharing our bed with the two hairy beauties.

Voortrekkers

To celebrate die naweek, we go to the Voortrekker Monument after we bought Maud’s bus ticket to Potchefstroom at the railway station. Die voortrekkers are the maburu (white Afrikaners) who travelled inland (1834-1853) because they didn’t combine that well with the English settlers (yeah, this is the much abbreviated, simplistic version).


Botswana legend tells the maburu turned around near Molopolole, where the huge agaves grow. Their scouts encountered the agaves during sunset, thought they were gigantic black warriors, and decided the ox wagons came almost too far.


Die Voortrekker Monument was build during the Second World War, to commemorate the maburu who migrated inland. Both Bram and Maud have never been there, so it’s time we take a look. It’s huge. The museum is quite interesting, especially the beautiful elephant gun & the embroidery (Maud), and the big tapestry with an ox wagon in flames & the huge Statenbijbels (Bram). The whole building has the atmosphere of a mausoleum. According to Bram it is very protestant, and it reminds Maud of Nazi-architecture.


The monument is surrounded by gardens. Long ago someone made a beautiful lay out, and planted succulents with lots of love and knowledge. The original plan is still visible through the additions of an absolute bulb-fanatic, and we get great ideas for draught-resistant gardening in Botswana.
Back home we briefly see Judith, who has a few hours in between coming from Windhoek and going to Oman. It’s nice to at least greet her, and tell her in person we enjoy staying in her Tshwane pied a terre!

Snorcity

Arrived alive in Tshwane / Pretoria, one of those places we would never visit if we didn’t have to. It’s like Annette said in her post ‘Impressions’: South Africa is beautiful, but very scary. There are places where you can enjoy the beauty without being scared, like die Ooskaap around Jamestown, Potchefstroom, die Groot and Klein Karoo, but Tshwane is creepy.
Those who think it’s only dangerous for white people get real, these tsotsis come in all colours, and they would kill their own mom for only the thought she might be hiding a 5 rand coin in her bra. The only people out on the street are those who don’t own a car, or have a vicious dog to walk them.
The upside is Bram enjoys lecturing at Pretoria, we’ll meet some friends, and we don’t have a zillion parallel deadlines to meet. Maud’s concentration on the pile of rhino-work isn’t quite there yet, but the only other thing to do here is mall-crawling, which she hates, so sheer boredom might bring focus.

Princess’ Party

The day before we leave, Miss Ellen Kefilwe Bowie invites us to her 5th Birthday Party. When we arrive, the yard is already packed with kids, exploring the brightly coloured Princess’ jumping castle and the trampoline. There’s a snacks & drinks table in the same colours, that looks very promising, guarded by two brave moms, and Ellen invited enough adults to keep her parents busy, cause you don’t want them disturbing your party all the time.


Upon arrival we bump into our neighbour Mr. Claeys Junior, who brought his mom and aunt to entertain the parents. Edu is supposed to be shy, but after some juice and cheese puffs he decides to throw off his disguise. When the hot dogs are served, we decide it’s time to leave and resume packing, before everyone points to Bram as the one who taught Zachary to chase that cute little girl in yellow around the yard.

What Breed?

The most important thing on our ‘last minute’-list is a trip to the posh veterinary clinic. It’s earlyish for the puppies’ second round of shots & de-worming, but it’s better than nothing.
Saturday morning the expotition starts: 5 puppies & Maud in the back, all excited about this big adventure. We’ve never been to the clinic on a Saturday before, and will avoid that from now on: it’s packed. The parking lot is filled with posh cars, feverishly guarded by ntsa tshaba; we’ve never seen so many expensive full bred watchdogs together.


It’s a smart idea: leave the patients in the car, while Bram gets in line in the office. Soon our puppies are the main attraction in the parking lot. Within seconds a lady walks up, says ‘ah, how sweet’, and asks ‘what breed is it’. When Maud tells her they’re full bred Tswana, she tells about her sweetest dog in the world, a Tswana that just walked in one day, looking for food and medical care. Another lady wants to know if they’re all Rhodesian Ridgebacks, an Indian guy with a beautiful German Shepherd almost kills himself with laughter when Maud tells him hers are full bred Tswana’s, and so on.
Finally it’s our turn, and the vet decides it’s easier to treat our bunch inside the car. Nelson and Aisha scream their head of, but Desmond, Nadia and Moira are very brave, and we leave with a fully certified Tswana pack.

ATA

Preparing for temporarily leaving Botswana leaves us little time to blog, so no post about our last evening meal with LJ & Dineo, and Jeff & Pelo, for which LJ made his famous dumplings, no post about our stay at the Serowe office, and so on.
Although we can’t leave out the miracle: hand-raised Black rhino Noddy managed to produce offspring, born on Bram’s birthday or the day before, the first baby black rhino in Botswana for many years! Noddy doesn’t even understand he’s a rhino, he recently moved from the restaurant & swimming pool to the campsites, so it’s sensational he knocked Dorothy up after all. There’re two baby whites also, but they breed like rats anyway.
Sunday April 6 we leave for Pretoria, and April 30 we fly to the Netherlands. Our South African cell numbers are:
Maud: +27765604009
Bram: +27768358656
We’ll try to update our blog during our stay in Pretoria, Potchefstroom and the Eastern Cape, but we’re dependent on internet access via universities, and their security is very restrictive when it comes to surfing the worldwide web...

Easter Monday

We won’t exaggerate this ‘surviving holy days without braais’ thing, so Easter Monday we drive to Andre & Tears for – a braai. This is again a special one, because Tears has to go through adding another year to her age. Not that it shows on her – once she starts selling her secret, she’ll be filthy rich.


Tears decided on a small celebration, only the kids, the neighbours and us. While the grandson works up an appetite by exploring the swimming pool, Andre takes care of the braai and we’re free to sit around the table chatting & drinking. It’s good that makes you hungry also, because there’s a mountain of yummy food: loads of braaimeat, chicken tjap tjoy, fish, bean salad – delicious!

Easter Sunday

Two braais in a row might be overdoing it, so for Easter Sunday we decide on the Dutch pancake thing. The event starts with Maud teaching Bashi how to make this Dutch delicacy. He’s a quick student; his first pancake already looks excellent. Here’s a good (grand)son for you: he’s learning because he wants to treat his mom and grandma by baking them pancakes on the lands. Meanwhile Maud tries to be a decent wife by making the good old bacon variation.
Bashi says we should start a pancake restaurant, it’ll be a sure hit. It would be good to have a Dutch mess again, now that Morwa has to survive without Hille’s patat friet (French fries). But we’re very busy with the diversification of our business plan as it is, so we won’t branch out that far (yet).
Being heavily influenced by the Americans, we can’t do pancakes without ice cream anymore. Jeff’s banishments to the bush prove to be excellent for ice cream diversification. While suffering in a remote mining camp, he dreams up beautiful recipes for our homemade icy produce. We’re still hunting for ingredients to visualize his Black Forest dream, but the white chocolate & coconut, and the peach & cream turn out quite palatable.
The puppies by the way behave excellent during their first party, we’re ever so proud.

Easter Count Down

Saturday before Easter we celebrate two important events. Early in the morning we discover we still have three puppies sleeping on the porch, so they survived their first night in their new yard without getting disoriented. Their mother isn’t that happy about this new sleeping arrangement. She recently moved in with us to avoid her offspring, only to be followed by the three bitches.


In the afternoon we walk over to Jeff & Pelo for, as you can guess, a braai. The Master of the House has been in the bush too long, so the homecoming must be commemorated properly. On top of that LJ finally returned after 8 months in the American bush. Imagine having to drive 60 miles to get cell phone reception and supplies... We’re glad the old man survived the US of A!


Celebrated it is, with excellent beef, nice salads, Bram’s Viking-vodka and good company. The most eligible bachelor of Morwa, mister Edo Zachary, takes care of the entertainment by being a charming Terrible Two. When he finally falls asleep on top of Brrrram and Maud, we make do with telling jokes around the fire. Carbon footprint or not, most evenings are so cold now you really need the heat of burning wood.

Impressions

Thanks to Annette, who wrote down her impressions for our blog, we can start our new series: ‘How is it to be a first time visitor in Botswana’. It’s very special to get Annette’s first impressions, because we can never ever have those again ourselves; we can only relive the feeling through a guest. Although some things stay the same, like how Annette and we feel in and travelling from South Africa.


My first impression of crossing the border from South Africa to Botswana was a kind of relief! The difference between the two countries was striking. From feeling a latent fear in SA – the fear kind of disappeared the moment we crossed the border to Botswana. And that feeling of safety and confidence remained all through the weeks we were in Botswana.

People
First of all – everybody was very kind and helpful – that was my overall impression!
Then…most Botswana-people seem to have plenty of time. Coming from a more or less stressful everyday life in Denmark, the people seem to have much more time…for a foreigner….to do “nothing”. Knowing that there is a big difference in culture, many things seemed to be very ineffective – but on the other hand – everything succeeded in the end. Suppose I could learn a thing or two in slowing down?


Village Life
The massive invasion of corncrickets was one of my first impressions of village life in Morwa – not that I liked them, but I got used to having them all over without getting hysterical! And Maud killing hundreds of them every day by crushing them with shoes, brooms or even (thinking of) shooting them will always be a very good and satisfying memory.
But also: The calmness in the village, the light, the view over the small hills from your house, the sunset, the baboons nearby, the goats, cows and donkeys walking around in the village and the close neighbour ship you have to the people in Morwa… everything has become a very good and special memory. And of course spending some very good time with you!

Serowe
Serowe was one of the highlights of the tour (down memory lane) – and although it was not my memory from 30 years ago – I sort of felt and enjoyed the memories that you have shared!
Seeing all the old places where Bram and Peter were 30 years ago – meeting the nice people from Printers Office – doing the restaurant trip with the employees of Printers – that was great fun! Meeting Skobie at the Museum of Serowe – a very charismatic person – and an unforgettable meeting.
So…the fact that I, as a new visitor in Serowe, had the opportunity to visit so many local people, was very special and a very nice experience.


Campsites
Huge campsites comparing to what we are used to in Europe. And believe it or not – I have actually tried a lot of campsites in Europe – although many years ago! But none of them can be compared with the Botswana-campsites. I have never had that much space, never had such a good fireplace, never had so few neighbour tents, never had that much beautiful ‘noise’ during the night and never had such nice evenings with good food together with good friends.
And even the toilets were excellent – what more can you ask for?


Driving thousands of kilometres
Very hot – very, very hot for a Viking, but also kind of refreshing, sitting in the car with open windows and the wind blowing through the car. So, in fact – even from a Viking point-of-view it was no problem – in fact it was a true adventure to drive all through the country.
Meeting about 200 storks on the roadside was a swelling experience. Here in Denmark we are lucky to see one or two storks in 10 years – so seeing many hundreds in Botswana and knowing that the storks actually are on their way to Europe (and maybe Denmark) , that is just so good to know. I have told everybody here that they are on their way!
Seeing huge elephant dung on the road and, a minute after, seeing the big elephants on the roadside… a memory that remains in my mind for ever.

And finally – one more thing about the people – in fact mostly about women in Botswana: Very beautiful women – and how do they get that beautiful huge arses??


And now the last statement:
South Africa was beautiful concerning landscape, but very fearful, and I was not proud of being a white person in that country – I can understand that the black people have problems assimilating!
And about Botswana – I truly lost my heart to Botswana – no doubt in my mind!
And that is due to you, to Peter and to the people I met in Botswana.

Love from Annette

Sweatshop

As we’re still posting our trip with Peter & Annette, you might wonder ‘did nothing happen after that’? Actually we’re sweating our asses of, and not only because of the last of the summer sun. April 6 we drive to Pretoria, and April 30 we fly to the lowlands, so there’s little time left to wrap things up in Botswana. Wrapping up is not that interesting for our readers, we think; it concerns cleaning, packing, saying ‘see you, so long’, finishing a lot of assignments, and, most importantly, organizing some form of care for the puppies.


I could try to impress you all with my recently acquired knowledge of production versus ecological carrying capacity, animal unit (if 1 AU = 1 LU, domestic large Livestock Unit, one domestic cow or ox of 455 kg, than 1 springbok = x AU, 1 Eland = y AU, and etcetera), restaurant menus, garage equipment, the cost of solar energy compared to grid energy, generating income in poor communities, and much more. No lack of variety in our work, but more details will probably bore you even more.


We’ll try to spare you our zillion puppy stories & pictures, but we will post a ‘see you’ braai or two, and our next stay in our Serowe office. By far the most interesting and rewarding job we have now is our work for the Khama Rhino Sanctuary. It has it all: beautiful office, nice colleagues, interesting work, and the satisfying feeling you’re doing something worthwhile.