@ the Farms

We departed Friday morning at 10am and crawled through terrible roads and construction stops to arrive at our destination at about 2pm.  Upon arriving at Winnie and Marnos’ farm we had a lunch of sandwiches and headed straight out for a farm tour.  We saw their kudu and eland antelope and fed the eland corn from our hands.  We saw horses, chickens, turkey, goats, springbok (antelope), Holsteins, and the dog, Charlie.   We asked Marnos how long we’d be at the milking house and he said, “Oh five minutes, half hour.”  This is a prime example of the use of African Time, haha.  At our tour of the milking house, we all had a chance to milk by hand and taste the home-squeezed goodness right in our mouths, courtesy of Marnos.  The milk was warm and rich-tasting deliciousness.  The mess all over my face was not ideal, but I just wiped it off with my shirt- farmwoman in the making =D haha.

After the tours, the other host family came over for a chicken braai.  We had a “salmon loaf” that was gelatinized into a mold and looked so beautiful and served with herb-buttered crackers, wine, beer, an orange nectar beverage that was fabulous, and South African version of Cheetos and Doritos to hold us over until the 9pm dinner.  One student was so hungry and tired from the day that she elected to hit the hay rather than wait for dinner, but she woke up refreshed with an 11-hour night of sleep under her belt.  After dinner I went with a group of students about 16 km (which took at least a half hour because the dirt, rocky roads are so terrible) to a bigger farm where I slept in the big house with one of my flatmates, Laura.  About seven guys slept in the guest house right across from the big house, and a co-ed group of about eight slept at the couple’s son, Dawie’s, four bedroom home about 3 km away which was a restored beautiful farm home that the grandmother lived in.  

We woke up for breakfast around 9.  Breakfast always begins with cereal of cornflakes, bran flakes, or crispy rice, followed by a bigger course.  We had egg, cheese, and tomato sandwiches very similar to grilled cheese on Saturday and Sunday morning.  After breakfast we hopped in the back of the bakkies (pictured below) and toured the shearing barn.  Although the farm supports ostrich, Angora goats, Merino sheep, and cattle, the farm’s primary income comes from mohair made from Angora goat wool.  Next we took about a 45 minute drive through the enormous plot of farm land up to the top of a mountain.  The bakkies proved a rough ride, but it was a beautiful view of the Winterberg Mountains, untouched due to their inaccessibility.  The first girl and guy each to reach the top won a bottle of wine.  I didn’t realize that Fracious was serious about that until he presented the wine bottles in a ceremonial manner to the winning lady and gentleman, otherwise I may have tried harder :/  

After the mountain, we had a picnic in the veld (field) of sandwiches, apples, and juice.  After our long morning, we were eager to get back to relax.  We dipped our feet in the pool, played with Dawie’s new puppy, Mika, played cards, enjoyed tea with desserts created by a former-caterer, yummmm, and went to the rifle range.  We shot a 22 and watched Dawie shoot an elephant rifle that was loud and huge!  Some of the guys wanted to try and the second one to try became a member of the “Half Moon Club” when the scope sliced his brow open and he was taken to the closest hospital, an hour away, for stitches.  I had a walk around the property near sundown to relax and read some of Long Walk to Freedom in preparation for a presentation this week.  Three hours later, when the hospital group returned, we had a steak braai, with au gratin potatoes, Hawaiian sweet bread, pasta salad, and 7-layer salad.  It was hardly discernible from a 4^th of July cookout.

After dinner we did a night game drive to try and spot some bucks, but the wind was incredible and all the bucks were bedded down.  So, we hit the hay after another long and enjoyable day.  We woke to another fabulous breakfast back at Winnie and Marnos’s place.  Then we drove about a half-hour to a hiking trail to swim to a “waterfall.”  Although there has been plenty of rain this year, last year was the worst drought since the early 80’s and the ground must just be soaking it up, because there wasn’t even a trickle at the “falls.”  We hiked in over 90 degrees through these ENORMOUS spider webs with black and yellow striped spiders whose bodies ranged from nickel-size to fifty-cent-piece-sized.  Then we immersed ourselves in murky water (thank God for my weirdo hike-swim-anything shoes!!!!) in which an alligator-looking animal which Marnos claimed, “It just looks like an alligator, it won’t bite” had just submersed itself in the brown water.  We swam through a gorge to an island, climbed over the island and swam another length and just took some pictures at the site of the would-be waterfall.  We swam back, changed out of our wet clothes in the bushes, tended to one of the girl’s cut foot from the jagged, rocky bottom and began the trek home.  

We had a great time.  Enjoy the pics below.

The eland, Tiny, that we fed.  Eland and the largest antelope in South Africa, and he is half of his full size.

kudu, horses, and Charlie Brown on Winnie and Marnos' farm

A kudu behind the house peeking at me.

A Holstein and two calves grazing.

Getting the motion down.

Getting some milk straight from the source.

Marnos is showing me the motion, haha.

The trophy room and bar at Aurelia and Francious' home.  Francious and his eldest son, Dawie, shot all of these animals and are good friends with the taxadermist now. A lot of the antelope, and even the zebra made into a rug were shot on their own land, but they also travel to Namibia, Botswana and Swaziland to hunt.

The gorgeous patio where we had breakfast, with vines draping over the whole structure.

The bird, with no name, and a side view of the patio.

Francious showing us the Merino sheep wool.

Ostrich

The view on the way to  Dawie's house from his parent's place.  Dawie's place was empty for 15 years after his grandmother passed, and he has just refinished all the floors and made a beautiful home for himself.

Francious hires men from Lisutu on 6-year contnracts to sheer all of his sheep by hand.

The wool

Dawie's house.  The tusks are impostors crafted by his taxidermist friend.  He has a four bedroom house with a wrap-around porch.  The ceilings are original.

The view from the porch.  The bakkies we took up the mountain.

Dawie's office

The office from another angle.  The ground eagle is really cool.

Heading up the mountain.

Almost to the top, ya right, it always looks closer than it is.

A view from the top.

Another angle

"Aaaaaaas youuuuuu wisssshhhh"

Wildflowers that I picked on the way down.

An old tractor on the farm- check it out Ken.

Mica, caught eating the zebra rug.

The huuuuuuuge garden at Francious and Aurelia's.

They have gorgeous roses

A picturesque bench