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!

'This is My World' . . .

Today's outing is to the village of Nieu Bethesda, often dubbed 'the village left behind in time'.  Actually, the original settlers declared that 'this place shall be known as Bethesda' but in translation it was garbled into 'New/Nieu Bethesda'.  Were it not for the amazing and bizarre Owl House, it might not see many tourists.  That and the Kitching Fossil Center are what bring us here on a gorgeous sunny day.

First stop is The Owl House . . .

. . . with the title of this blog a header over the opening to the amazing garden of sculptures.

Helen Martins was born here in the late 1800's, the youngest of six children, trained as a teacher in Graaf-Reinert, married, divorced, and returned to Nieu Bethesda to care for her ailing parents some time in the 1940's.  Her mother died first, and her aging, ailing father was apparently quite difficult.  When he finally died, she painted his room black, bricked up the windows and labeled it 'the Lion's Den'. Then she set out to create a series of sculptures based on the Bible, the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayham and the poetry of William Blake - talk about a bizarre set of influences!  And once you walk out into the 'sculpture garden' it all becomes clear - or even more bizarre!

She had a working partner, a local black man, which was very controversial and gave the locals much cause for gossip.  For over 20 years, the two of them labored on her creations which reflected her peculiar and unique vision.

She was fascinated with light and created a number of sculptures using discarded bottles wired and cemented into imaginative forms . . .

A variation on the nativity???

And a self-portrait??

Her fascination with light led her to collect bottles - thousands of them - and crush them and then daub the shards onto wet paint on the interior walls of her house.

Every wall and ceiling and window sill and door jamb has this sparkly quality thanks to this crushed glass.  At the age of 78, going blind and becoming crippled - no longer able to see or pursue her creative visions - Helen ended her life.  The Owl House became a museum in 1992 and has been declared a provisional South African national monument.

Thought this was a fitting ending for our visit to the house. . .

And we're off to the Fossil Center (no, it's not an old age home!!).  And, no, that is not some prehistoric creature in the background . . .

James Kitching, a South African, was probably the greatest fossil collector of all time.  He found his first fossil at age six and decided right then that this was his life's calling.  Thanks to his discoveries, research, and energies, we have learned about the reptiles that inhabited this whole region of Africa.  We've learned how the one earth theory is supported by fossil finds here and in corresponding southern areas of South America and even in Antartica.  And today we've met replicas of a host of rather nasty looking reptiles that pre-dated the dinosaurs we know so well (T rex, stegosaurus, brontosaurus and the gang) by almost 200 million years!!

Our guide is Melanie, a budding paleontologist, who shows us how skeletons are painstakingly removed from their stone surroundings using a dental drill.

And then we go out into 'the field' and see some fossils in situ!  The field is about a block up the street and is a big rock shelf that still holds fossils from 250 million years ago!  A huge flood several years ago revealed a whole new crop, some of which we are looking at today.

These have been left in place as all the museums have more than enough of this particular skull and see no need to excavate any more!  No prob - leave this 250 million year old fossil right where it is!!  Melanie shows us several more fossils left in place,

We can't help but laugh at the fact that the local kids ride their horses here and the whole fossil field is littered with horse poop!

Nieu Bethesda's main street . . .

. . . and one of its decorations and a very sweet lady who agreed to pose with it.

Delightful day in a very quirky and delightful town.

Tim's BIG Birthday!

It's Halloween, October 31st, and most importantly, Tim's birthday!  This year is three-quarters of a century (wow, when put that way it seems like a very long time!).  No matter, he still looks like a pup and has the breath to easily extinguish the candles on his early morning birthday sweet.

To celebrate we're off to Mountain Zebra National Park.  I had no idea there were two varieties of zebras - the Burchell or plains and the Cape mountain, the latter close to extinction prior to the establishment of this park in 1937.  There's also another variety of mountain zebra - the Hartmann's - found only in Namibia.  Now there are over 750 mountain zebra in this park, and almost the instant we drive through the gate we're greeted by one!

The first thing we notice is the ears which have a reddish hairy lining (only shows slightly in this photo) and the fact that they have a very short mane.  But are they ever cute and friendly!!

A gorgeous black wildebeest and (below) a jackal with the most bizarre black speckled jacket running the length of his back!

And our first sighting of a blesbok!

A mama zebra and what looks like an adolescent.  We speculate that the scruffy coat is this young adult molting into his/her adult striping.  

And a short distance from this first pair we spot a second pair:  a very, very pregnant mama and what was probably her adolescent offspring.  Couldn't help but empathize with this mama zebra!  Her face reflected the feeling of having reached term and just wanting to scream - 'enough already!!!'

And the last of the photos for today, the beautiful, elegant, graceful, and according to Tim - oh so tasty -springbok!

Every national park gives you a map and 'an animal sightings list' which we excitedly check off each time we see one on the list.  Today we checked several other animals (vervet monkey, chacma baboon, verraux's eagle, ground squirrel, and ostrich) but didn't get a photo of them.

And having seen a springbok, Tim has announced that it's time for his birthday dinner! We choose one of the highly-rated restaurants, Coldstream, a short drive into town, and are not disappointed.

No, that's not springbok, it's actually fish with a fabulous sauce.

Paul is about to tuck into what has to be the latest piece of steak this side of Amarillo with a side order of monkey gland sauce (which turned out to be surprisingly tasty!).

This was a fabulous choice of restaurants; we all had something different and were all very pleased.   And the birthday boy most of all!  Here's to the next 75 years!!

Graaf-Reinert: The Jewel of the Karoo

It's a long drive from Kimberley to our next stop, Graaf-Reinert, 'The Jewel of the Karoo' in the Eastern Cape.  For the most part, the roads in SA are quite good - well marked, pothole free, and fenced to prevent errant game from wandering onto the pavement.  The Karoo is a long swath of very dry, high desert terrain that spans a major portion of the center of the country.   Karoo is a Khoi-Khoi word that means 'Great Thirstland' - very fitting.

We drive for miles and miles and miles and see little but scrubby shrubbery, lots of rocks, and endless vistas. Their rainy season is immanent, and I can easily envision this landscape transformed into a carpet of green, much like the transformation in our Southwest.

I'm delighted to report that Graaf-Reinert is well worth the drive.  It is an utterly charming town!!  It is the fourth oldest in all of South Africa, and I immediately loved the architecture - French Quarter meets the Australian Outback.  It is obviously a big tourist destination as every street seems to have at least two guesthouses but not a hotel in sight.  We've arrived at the end of October which has been declared 'Breast Cancer Awareness' month; hence all the trees are banded in pink.

 Amazingly, there is a notable absence of razor wire, electrified fencing, and armed response warnings.  The only barbed wire we saw was atop a fence around a swimming pool, and someone told us that was to keep out the mischevious vervet monkeys. 

Our accommodation is a self-cater guesthouse, a short walk from the center of town, and the owner is friendly and helpful.  There is a lot to see here, and we will have no difficulty filling the four days of our stay.   But first we need to find a self-service laundry.  

After a couple of false starts (one person thinks we're looking for a casino when we describe putting money in a slot) we're successful and find the one self-service laundry in town.  Interesting conversation with the owner and her husband.  She says, rather sadly, that SA used to be a 'First World Country' but has slid into third world status of late.   When we ask her what happened, she shrugs and says -'the government'. 

Apparently, the current leader, a man named Zuma has been a great disappointment. The cost of basic things, like electricity, have skyrocketed.  Several years ago she was paying 6000 rand a month for power (about $450) and with the last increase, she now pays 32,000 rand (almost $2400).  She reports that nearly all government monies are going towards salaries and almost none toward maintenance and improvement of infrastructure.  She shrugs, smiles sadly and says 'South Africa is no place for sissies.'

We notice that the three plastic lawn chairs for people to sit and wait for their laundry and the plastic laundry bin on top of the counter to measure the amount of laundry a machine will hold are all bolted down.  Seriously bolted down.  Mmmmm . . .

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A pile of clean. dry clothes tucked away, we're off to the Valley of Desolation and a self-drive safari through Camdeboo National Park.

The Valley of Desolation is aptly named although it could just as easily have been dubbed the Vistas of Delight.  The views are utterly spectacular!  Graaf-Reinert is nestled in a bend of the Songas River which is only a trickle now.  

 And a more distant view of these incredible plains and Debbie and Paul.

A drive through Camdeboo rewards us with a number of animal sightings, some within view of the township on the outskirts of GR.  Each National Park map comes with an animal guide showing the species that have been sighted there.  It proves very helpful as we eagerly check off the following:

Vervet Monkey in a stand of what I've called crown of thorns - a hideously nasty shrub.

Female kudu with a couple of birds getting a free ride and probably keeping this mama free of buggies.

We spotted this pair of tortoises and either Tim or Paul said the smaller one was the male, in hot pursuit of the female!  Can't help but wonder about the mechanics if he's successful . . . 

A very large lizard.

And a Burchell's zebra with the township in the background.  Yes, those small, colorful dwellings are individual homes.   Not sure about the larger, beige building on the far hillside.

And the ever-present ostrich!

A few more views of the park before we close . . . 

Tomorrow is Tim's birthday (yippee!!) and we're off to Mountain Zebra National Park to celebrate.

Animals We've Seen and One Tim Has Declared Delicious

Everybody comes to (South) Africa to 'see the animals' and we're no exception.  However, the four of us still haven't settled on 'The Big Five'.  What do you think?  How about lion, elephant, water buffalo, hippo and maybe the leopard or the rhino.  Personally I think the giraffe deserves a place and maybe even the zebra (did you know there is a plains zebra and a mountain zebra that almost became extinct?).  I saw a tee shirt today printed with the Ugly Big Five and could identify a jackal and some sort of javelina-looking animal among them.

We're nowhere close to any of the major game parks but we have seen a remarkable number of animals right by the side of the road.  My last post ended with a close up of a glorious male ostrich.  Here's the rest of his crew (I have no idea what a family group of ostriches are called - herd, band, pride, pack?)

Raising ostriches for their feathers used to be really big business in an area of the Eastern Cape and, of course, there's always ostrich steak (no, that isn't the one Tim declared delicious).

The wildebeest doesn't make the top five but we saw a lot of them too.

Some came with birds . . . 

And the one animal we saw in abundance, the springbok, a graceful, elegant creature with a gorgeous coat.

Every time we returned to our accommodation, (Mein Heim 'my home' in German), we were greeted by one of the five resident peacocks (think he was the alpha male).  This display was frequently accompanied by high-pitched squawking and a lot of strutting.

We were both absolutely delighted to find that Mein Heim is also an equestrian center so we had the joy of wandering around the stables and pastures, getting to know the 25 or so horses stabled there.

Notice the barbed wire adorning the uprights!

We wandered freely around the stables, getting to know the horses.

This is dressage land and all these horses are warm bloods or thoroughbreds, not an Appaloosa, Mustang or quarter horse in sight.  And these guys are big!!  Everybody we see getting ready to ride uses a mounting box.

This has been a lovely stay and a great time doing some sightseeing and a couple of days not doing much of anything except eating, reading, and hanging out.

The weather has been almost perfect, a bit warm but we're used to that.  After eight days, we've sort of become accustomed to the electrified fencing, dire warnings about personal safety and appreciated the warmth and hospitality of everyone we've met.  

Still curious about the animal Tim declared 'delicious'??  He was sorely tempted to try something local and exotic on one of our grocery runs when he saw this enormous case of meat.  One of them was labeled the 'cave man special'.

And this just had us laughing out loud - 4KG (almost 10 lbs) of chic feet.  Chicken feet??? 

Before I tell you what it was, I have to assure you I have his consent.  In fact he suggested it when I started to write this post ('animals we've seen and one Tim has eaten' was another title he liked).

Drum roll please:  it was springbok.  That elegant, graceful, beautiful, gazelle-like creature is raised for meat, and, yes, it is absolutely delicious.

And since we're on a food roll right now, I have to include this sign on a coffee shop right outside the parking garage where we were grocery shopping:

As Yogi would say, 'Wherever you go, there you are.'

We're off to Graaf-Reinert, the 'Jewel of the Karoo' and the fourth oldest town in SA. 

(Oh I did check it out.  The Big Five are:  elephant, lion, cape buffalo, rhino, leopard.  And a family group of ostriches is called a pride - who knew??)