Saturday, November 12, 2016

Peach Pits, Springbok, and Fish Balls

This is a gem of a town and a very popular tourist destination for both South Africans and international travelers as well.  All the guide books as well as Trip Advisor recommend a visit to the in-town museums so we're off.  The Tourist Information center appears to be locked even at midday.  Mmmm . . . pressing the buzzer next to the door prompts a helpful tourist already inside to open the door.  We manage to find a rather taciturn attendant who is less than helpful.  We later learn that the door is now kept locked after a knife-wielding intruder came in and demanded loot, but left without incident after nicking their tea kettle!

There are several ticket options (at a hefty 20 ZAR each - about $1.50) per museum so we opt for three - the Old Library Museum right here at the TI center, the Urquhart House, and The Old Residency.  The Old Library Museum display is small but impressive mostly for its collection of Khoe-San rock paintings.  We are stunned by their complexity and artistry, including one that appears to depict a kangaroo watching a group of hunters stalk something that looked like a mastodon!  Unfortunately, no reproductions of these were for sale (we never did find any sort of Museum Gift Shop).

We are also impressed by a small room devoted to the evils of fracking!  In a series of about ten displays, fracking is exposed for the environmental disaster that it is and the terrible seductiveness of its short-term gains juxtaposed against the long-term adverse consequences.  Another rather interesting room is devoted to a local hero, Robert Sobukwe, founder of the Pan Africanist Congress (PAC) a breakaway organization from the ANC and someone we'd never heard of.  A contemporary of Mandela, Sobukwe and he shared many of the same anti-apartheid values, but differed in their views of cooperating with whites.  Sobukwe was far more radical and launched the anti-pass movement which ended in a massacre and saw him sent to the infamous Robben Island Prison for nine years. Sobukwe is a native of Graaf-Reinert and a revered local hero.

Next stop is the Urquhart House, home of Graaf-Reinert's beloved businessman, Herbert Urquhart, M.B.E., and its longest serving mayor (21 years - 1915-1936)).  I had to come here to see the kitchen floor!


It's made entirely of peach pits - yes, peach pits!


The delightful docent couldn't explain why peach pits but she did tell us that prior to the PP floor, the kitchen floor was resurfaced once a week with (get ready) cow dung!  Apparently, it was slathered on, left to dry (hopefully) and became a usable surface for the next seven days.  My project manager brain couldn't help but wonder how the transition worked - did they wait until they had a bazillion pits before launching the effort or did they do it one little bit at a time while using cow dung for the rest . . . the spaces are filled with an aloe vera paste mixture made from the cacti liberally planted in the back yard (to me it still looked quite dungish).

The rest of the kitchen was a wonderful window into the culinary arts of the era.  I can almost imagine the cook or housewife getting very excited over the arrival of the 19th century equivalent of the 5-gallon Kitchenaid!


Some even came with explicit cooking instructions!


This gem was perhaps my favorite - a cork compressor!


And this is the delightful Anceska, docent of the Urquhart House.  She was so very friendly and the source of the teapot theft at knife point story.


Last of our three-museum stops is The Old Residency which was very anticlimactic after the Urquhart House.  Its claim to fame is its extensive collection of photographs of Graaf-Reinert so I didn't take any.

After a strenuous day of museum-cruising, it's time for another meal, this time at The Meerkat Cafe.  What a delight!   This happy diner is just about to tuck into filet of springbok.


My choice - fish balls!!  And, no, I didn't ask what fish these were originally attached to, but they were absolutely delicious.


As were leaving a group of school children arrived, settled in quickly and began playing chess.  We were delighted to see a number of black children and teachers in the mix.


And this extraordinary sculpture sat in the corner of the dining patio, carved out of one piece of wood - spectacular!

This seemed a fitting photo with which to close our visit to Graaf-Reinert - the town's centerpiece.


Tomorrow we're off to Addo Elephant Park!

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