Frontier Weekend

A while back, our entire group of thirty, plus Jim, Connie, and Monalisa (dibs) took a trip out into a rural area of the Eastern Cape. We stayed on two different Afrikaner farms for the weekend and they showed us a few days in the life of a rural Afrikaner farmer.

On top of the mountain

To begin, it's important to know the history of the Afrikaners. In 1652, the Dutch East India Company settled in Cape Town, which was meant to be a refreshment port for their passing ships. Over time, Cape Town became a permanent settlement which consisted of more imported slaves than Dutch colonists. Later on, the British arrived in Cape Town and began to impose laws upon everyone on the Cape after the Dutch East India Company went bankrupt. Enough time had passed where the oppressed Dutch had had enough of the British rule, and began a mass exodus to inland South Africa. This became known as the Great Trek of the 1830s which consisted of over 12,000 "Vooertrekkers." Those who wandered inland fought a tough terrain and climate, the British, and the native Xhosa. The fights between the Xhosa and the Vooertrekkers became known collectively as the Frontier Wars (or Xhosa Wars), where thousands died on each side.

Where Pat and I stayed

Today, the rural and inland areas of South Africa are home to the largest concentrations of Afrikaners, and many of them still farmers. Our group took off for the weekend to see the daily life of an Afrikaner farm family. Our trip started on Friday morning, and lasted until Sunday afternoon. The four hour drive inland took us by the coast, through the dry inland plains, and eventually into the hilly and mountainous terrain filled with beautiful  waterfalls and rivers. It was an area that was only accessible by poorly maintained dirt and gravel roads. In fact, many of the bridges and roads had been washed out in relatively recent storms that brought heavy rain. Because of the painfully slow government response to fix the bridges and roads (as the farmes described it), the locals banded together and made makeshift bridges and repaired the roads so that they were drivable again. This was where we would be staying.

Feeding the Eland

We arrived at the home of Marnus and his wife Winnie, two warm and wonderful people who welcomed us with tea, cake, and coffee. We sat and rested from the trip, until Marnus insisted we take a two kilometer trip down the road to a swimming hole. We threw our 'swimming costumes' on and piled into the back of his bucky (their equivalent of a pickup) and bounced up and down the road until we reached a dirt path that led us along a cliff on the river. When I was walking down the path, I felt something bite my leg, and I immediately slapped my leg to kill whatever it was, but it happened to be a cactus that was stuck in my leg, and then the entire piece was embedded in my hand, it was painful, but everyone else in the group found it pretty funny. Below us were several waterfalls  feeding a large swimming hole, followed by more waterfalls leading into the next. We cooled off and swam for an hour or so in the shade of the mountains that surrounded us. On the way back, we stopped at one of Marnus' enclosures which had several Elands (American buffalo-sized antelope) in it, and we had the chance to feed them. That was pretty sweet. After that, Marnus took us into the sheep pen where he had the guys chase down all of the lambs so we could neuter them and remove their long tails. That was pretty hilarious. We had dinner at Winnie and Marnus' house that night, and what I noticed was that every single person in the house was white, save the people working in the kitchen. The were all Xhosa, and were doing the menial work of cooking and cleaning the dishes, and the only times you would see them is when the door would swing open or closed that went to the kitchen. It was hard to see that many Africans still only work the menial jobs in South Africa, and it doesn't change from a rural to urban setting.  After dinner we sat around and listened to Norby play guitar, and after a few extra beers, everyone eventually started to sing along.

Driving to the base of the mountain.

Towards the end of the night, half of us, mainly the guys left to sleep at the farm which was next door ("next door" = a forty minute drive on dirt roads) to the one we began our trip on. Eight guys stayed in the guest house, and Pat and I stayed in the house. Both the house and guest house were incredible. Francois, the man's house we were staying at, was very wealthy and one could tell from the interior of his home. We woke up and walked around his garden after breakfast awaiting the other half to join us from the other farm. After breakfast we piled into several buckys to see the son of Francois, who had sheep to shear. We learned all about wool and shearing which was cool too. The next activity planned for us was a hike up the tallest mountain in the area. The drive took us through some beautiful land and provided some spectacular views of the land. When we got on top, we rested, took plenty of pictures, and looked out over the land as the light from the early afternoon sun laid out on the landscape below.

The trophy room.

We returned home to Francois's and had a competition shooting his .22, for many people in our group, it was their first time firing a gun. After the .22 competition, he gave us a tour of his trophy room that was filled with all the major African animals such as a Kudu, a Springbok, a Black Springbok, a giraffe, a zebra, several wildebeest, a wild boar, a an impala, an eland and a river otter (which tend to kill their farm animals) to name just a few. He was quite the hunter, and even gave us a tour of his walk-in gun safe. He had an arsenal of weaponry for killing anything from a rabbit to a water buffalo. While dinner was being prepared at Francois' house, we played tennis on his tennis court and swam in his pool. Some people sat around and talked. The night was spent here, and we drank beer in the trophy room and hung out until late. Many of the others went back to the other farm for the night, the other guys stayed up late with the wine and the beer, while Isaac Meyer and I wandered out into Francois's field where he kept his 1,300lb eland. It was pitch dark, and we couldn't find it, so we went back with the rest of the guys and finished off the beer.

After milking the cow

The next morning was breakfast at the Marnus' farm. We milked cows, where Dummer and several girls got pooped and peed on when milking. We all had a good laugh. The last thing we did was drive out to a secluded piece of Marnus' land on the other side of the mountain, and we hiked to a portion of river that was nestled in a slot canyon about 70 feet high on each side, where we swam and canoed to the waterfall on the far end. We cliff jumped, swam and relaxed after the warm hike and took pictures of all the guys doing stupid stuff jumping off the rocks.

Cliff jumping.

The men of Flat 11

After we dried off, we started the hike back where we said our final goodbyes (so we thought) to the farmers and their families, and we took off back home to start a new week of school.

Next Post: Spring Break: Cape Town Part I

Until next post!

Cheers,
Isaak