The Journey Begins

18th July 2010

Sunday afternoon 16h00 – the first chance I’ve had to sit down and write about the past week.

Left rather later on Tuesday than planned, but I was determined not to get fussed about it… Car loaded with tools and bits and pieces that I may or may not get a chance to use…

The trip down was uneventful to the point of being almost boring. On the plus side though, it seemed as if I was the only motor-car on the N1. I was passed at great speed by a few big Beamers and Wa-Benzi’s near Bloemfontein, and rode for a few kilometres in the company of a little blue jumbo-Golf and a red Mazda sports car poddling along at a rather pedestrian pace, but otherwise had only huge truck-trains for company. The Pros standard of driving was excellent. Extremely courteous and cautious. The only near “incident” was when a farmer carrying an overload of hay bales to Stellenbosch nearly ran the blue golf off the road!

Stopped in Colesberg for the night, not because I was tired, but because I had no idea if I’d find either fuel or accommodation when fatigue did set in. The “Karoo Nessie Gastehuis” has five simple, neat rooms in the back yard, where “Every room is equipt with on suit bathroom and color TV.” My room had a double bed and two singles, so at R280 for the night, I suspect I was paying a premium for the empty beds. A reasonably hefty breakfast cost R40 extra, but was worth it to set me up for the day. I got chatty with Alta Coetzee, who has built the business up over the past ten years. She also runs some seaside cottages in Dwarskersbos on the West Coast and commutes between the two establishments every month. I pointed out the errors in her pamphlet and she was only too happy to have it edited. She feels there is a need for a pamphlet design / editing / distribution service for small accommodation establishments such as hers, so we’ll continue the discussion via e-mail. (I’ve just realised that I forgot to take a picture of the place!)

Stopped for coffee in Richmond, just down the road, really. Didn’t go into any of the second hand bookshops for which it has become famous – will save that for another trip. The Vetmuis Plaaskombuis is run by retired Nurse called Kobie – and I think the name of the shop is a tongue-in-cheek reference to herself. Actually, she is just “mollig” in a staffy terrier kind of way – her mind is too active for her to get really “vet”! I discovered that she nursed Gretchen Holtzapfel through some kind of serious illness years ago, and has just re-established contact with her via a chain of odd connections. (Gretchen was Annie Basson’s favourite Editor at the SABC in days of yore)

I was about to hit the road when Martie whizzed in for a quick cuppa and to add Kobie’s needs to her shopping list, since she was popping 300Km down the road to Port Elizabeth anyway. Martie retired from Standard Bank and moved to Richmond six months ago, but had spent years as a teacher, and it shows! Martie has a brisk, no nonsense manner with a mind that is going like the clappers most of her waking hours, I’d guess. In six months, she has already kicked Richmond’s desultory week-end “Boekefees” up a gear into a “Kultuurfees” lasting a whole week in October. Apparently everyone in the town has welcomed her revitalising energy – except a misogynist photographer called Edmund.

All this koek en koffie en klets took a chunk out of driving time. It started raining towards evening, when one of my windscreen wiper blades shredded itself in the maelstrom of truck spray too, making that little adrenaline charge even less fun in the dark. Stopping over at Touws River seemed like a good idea.

“Komkyk Accomodation” chalets attached to the BP truck-stop are as cheap and nasty as Karroo Nessie was pricey but comfortable. The Semble-It cupboard is not really a cupboard – it is the door to the bathroom / toilet / shower, which is bigger than the single-bed room and doesn’t have a single hook, rail or shelf. Nu? For R100 a night I vant Homes und Gartens?

A few kilometres outside Touws River I spotted the snow-capped mountains that are keeping us a-shivering. Just a light dusting on the peaks, but very pretty. No picture though, since there were now more cars on the road trying to scare the pants off the professional truck drivers on the Hex River Pass, so I had my hands full of steering wheel until I turned off at Worcester to take the almost deserted road to Hermanus. Until then I think I had been numbed by the process of driving and letting go of Gauteng. Driving down that good, winding country road among the “desperate green” fields and rolling hills I became excited for the first time. There was an occasional flurry of light Cape rain which washed the hills, the fields and the road. Although the air was cold, it smelled fresh, unlike the gunk we accept as air in Johannesburg. Saw a rainbow as I turned onto the N2 and headed for Caledon, where I bought some basic groceries. Ouch, how “ordinary folk” afford to eat I really don’t know.

After a light curry-lunch with Sandy, I trundled across town to set foot on Boggy Pond for the first time as Owner. The Boggy Pond in fact now has very little water in it and the coffer-dam up the hill which supplies it is bone dry – it has been a very dry season in the Cape.

Hmm… seeing the “Manor House” again was scary and depressing when faced with the now more immediate prospect of turning it into a home. The three parts of the structure are each falling away from the other in different directions, having been built at different times with different degrees of concern for durability. Local layabouts have stripped the remaining ceiling board out and saved me the trouble of revealing an ancient Cape Riet plafon, somewhat tattered though. I may have to replace the reeds with blue gum saplings for the same effect. I annotated my plan print out with more accurate measurements before setting out to walk the bounds – if I could find them. On Thursday morning I went to “town” with Sandy, who dropped me off at “Wimpie’s” hardware store, which is just a little cheaper than the Co-Op. Bought a spade, panga and a fork – more about that fork later!

Was really depressed by the mountain of work ahead of me, but forced myself to go back to the land and start somewhere. I decided that the new road up the side was a priority – erosion has made the existing road almost impassable and it needs some urgent anti soil erosion measures.

I started with a measly little sapling – and discovered that my brand new fork was even less up to the job than I was! If a tine went under a blue gum root it bent backwards very easily, so the fork pretty soon looked like a deservedly forgotten Eduardo Villa sculpture. The thought occurred to me that COSATU would never approve of this fork – it enables one wekka to dig in two places at once!

Anyway, after clearing several square meters of man-high saplings, I set about the biggest obstacle – a cluster of sawn-off blue gum stumps, the biggest of which is three inches (75mm) in diameter. After much huffing and puffing I removed them all.

The area was falling into shadow as the sun sneaked toward the horizon, so I limped off “home” to the Bunkhouse at Steve & Sandy’s place.. and a much needed solar heated shower.

I spent only a few nights here, sharing the space with bits of solar heater that Steve is in the process of assembling. Comfortable enough, if a little “agricultural” in style! I love the contrast between the tin roof and the Mr. Price energy-saving “Chandelier”.

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On Saturday morning I made myself a sandwich lunch, a flask of coffee, packed a bottle of water, and headed back to finish weeding the driveway. Almost every sapling I yanked out by hand revealed a sawn-off stump which had to be dug out, but I pushed on, stripping layers of clothing as the day heated up. Work was interrupted quite often to chat with curious locals on their way from Beutelskloof, the next settlement, to either the Spaza shop in HOPland (RDP housing project) or the bottle store on the main road. (The Bottelstoor IS the business centre!) All were very pleasant, if not quite “Hail Fellow, Well Met”. Their main concern seemed to be that they would still have access through the property, rather than having to walk the long way around on the dusty main road. Also met some of our various neighbours, mainly of the Smal family, it seems. Looking forward to meeting Juffrou Smal, the doyenne of the family, who is the hereditary landowner below Boggy Pond. Everyone speaks very highly of her as a Grand Lady, who taught at the local Primary school most of her life. Apparently she is still involved in Adult education and teaches a few classes a week in the Gemeenskapsaal.

Once the major stumps had been cleared, I treated myself to lunch, coffee, and only my second pipe of the day. After lunch, I moved up the track to level the middelmannetjie and remove the bigger saplings. I finished just as the sun lowered, so I went to fetch the car and drove down the path up to the fence. Of course, this where I discovered that either I hadn’t packed my big red Boeretang, or that I had packed it in a box I couldn’t reach, so the ceremonial opening of the way had to be performed by using a large shifting-spanner to unwind the four strands of barbed-wire. I got such a kick out of having achieved something tangible that I turned the car around and drove onto the property again the new way, all the way to the house, turned around and drove out again!

I longed for a long, hot soaking bath, but the solar shower did no harm either! Joined Steve & Sandy for Steve’s first attempt at a fish-braai on Saturday night. He set himself a very high standard!

On Sunday morning Sandy moved me up the hill to the Wendy-house on steroids, more of a plank-cabin than a log cabin. Unlined – and therefore un-insulated as yet, it is actually quite snug and functional, if rather short on hanging cupboards, so I’m afraid my Tuxedo will emerge a little wrinkly from its suitcase if I get invited to a Ball…

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While I’m very thankful for the accommodation, going to the loo in a Wendy-hut next door at two AM in Cape winter drizzle is not much fun. Steve’s place is designed to cater for bristle-chested mountain bikers, but Boggy Pond’s visitor’s will probably be more sensitive souls, so I shall have to spare them such privations!

I’m hoping to make contact with a local expert on restoring these old places on Monday to get a prognosis for the recovery of Boggy Mansion.

Also need to go on the hunt for a passing front-end loader – apparently the local custom is to thumb one down and negotiate a price for clearing troublesome Aliens! Before I can do that though, I need to remove all the internal fences below the house. Local wisdom is that once it is evident that the property is occupied, theft and vandalism largely cease, so here’s hoping!

I will need to take the remains of my electricity meter to Eskom and find out what a new connection will cost. (Found the Card Meter in the blue gum wood!) Well, time for a last cup of coffee, then to bed… much to do tomorrow!

Digby