So I am writing this at 6am in the morning, on the "stoep" (veranda) of our apartment looking out over the valley to high mountains beyond. This is a wonderful place and rightly called the Retreat as it is 20 kilomettres away from the nearest town (Calitzdorp) up a good gravel road. There is limited electricity (so few outside distractions) and it is only when new people arrive that you can get any important news (like how we are the winning the Test Match!). We have spent our first couple of days walking in the foothills of the mountains, swimming in the small house pool, the lake at the dam (some two hundred yards away) or the rock pools up our valley., and generally chilling out.
There is cloud this morning but that will probably burn away and we will have our usual scorching midday temperatures.
Our routine (E writes) has been to get up and have a walk and a swim before taking a large breakfast at about 10am.Ostrich egg, scrambled or omelette features, amongst much else. Later in the day after reading and chilling we may take another walk/swim. The evening meal is 3 or 4 courses starting at about 8pm and lasting till 11. Guests meet for drinks in the flowery garden before the meal, everyone is introduced and we are seated with care by our hosts along a long table under the cast iron veranda for a most delicious meal. We have met some lovely people of various nationalities and have sampled venison, lamb and fillet beef, as well as smoked ostrich, ostrich pate, a smoked fish delicacy etc. The delicious vegetables and whole experience make it all a huge treat!
The main house was built in 1910 by an ostrich magnate with everything but the stone imported from Britain apparently. It still has a wonderful Edwardian feel, though well modernised of course by the present owners who have been here about 10 years. Last January a fire circled the valley around them, threatening their existence in a terrifying way. Heat damage is visible on the plastic water butts and of course the vegetation. However, the burnt tree stumps of wild olive and thorn and the many flowering plants are throwing out strong new growth.
We are staying in a new building above the old house with garden and hillside right up to our room.
This photo shows one direction.
Everything seems to be in full flower including thorn trees with yellow pompoms. The walks, indicated by painted stones, go over rough stony hillside but as you walk and see tiny bright flowers and swaying grasses you realise you are in a rockery or rock garden, but nature's own. So many of our prized garden plants must originate from the Cape area, which extends to this valley. Is this why, I wonder, it is known as the Garden Route? The valleys have wonderful lush green trees and fields, weeping willows along water courses and lots of large exotic flowers growing wild eg arum lilies just below the little dam.
We have hit on a cloudy spell of weather so as well as some hours of the hottest sunshine it has mostly been dull and even slightly drizzly. But that adds to the beauty and comfort for us, already a little tired of the constant heat and bright sunshine of De Aar and the Karoo.
Little excitements have included seeing a black eagle being mobbed by crows, a very large tortoise living wild as well as a troop of baboons playing on the hillside above the rock pools. With binoculars we coud easily see babies carried on the backs of mothers, large males standing a bit aloof and youngtsers romping around on the rocks. On a day out yesterday we had drinks at a game reserve where we saw elephants walking the other side of a small lake, different buck through the fence of a game reserve and masses of ostriches of all sizes as they are reared round here in huge numbers. The holiday crowds meant we couldn't get into the world-famous Cango Caves but a good film showed us some of the wonders of the huge system of caverns beneath this ancient Swartberg mountain range.
A museum in Outdtshoorn about the ostrich boom of Victorian times was interesting. We tried to get Avis to sort out the a/c system on our VW but so far they don't have another car in the area to give us. (It's now sorted at a VW garage so our journey home will be more comfortable.) One of the guests here has got the owners' computer wifi back working so I hope I can send this blog while here. We had difficulty at home, hence this appearing at the same time as our Christmas one.
Uploading one photo took embarrassingly long in the hotel office so I abandoned the idea of sending this blog till we are home and now I can include a note about our last day and journey homewhich was quite dramatic.
We decided to drive over the Swartberg Pass on an unmade road as the first part of our jpourney home and were rewarded with teh cloud clearing and giving us fantastic views on both sides. The guide book claims it is one of the best drives to be done in S Africa and we wouldn't argue on our limited knowledge. The road was good and wide enough to pass cars in the opposite direction at least on the southern side. Coaches and large vehicles are fobidden and in fact few cars try it, just enough so you don't feel too alone! The scale of the scenery is extraordinary. The northern side is much more barren and the swirling rock folds even more dramatic.
After lunch in the small town of Prince Albert we left the mountains to drive back through the Karoo but to our surprise the clouds had left the Little Karoo where we had been and had come here. Soon we were faced with driving rain and hail, blinding our view so we had to pull over at times. In one of the towns where drought had been so severe that huge notices were posted about careful water use the road was swimming in a foot or two of muddy water. We drove out of the dark strom eventually and arrived home well in time for the New Year's Eve 10.30pm service but it caight us up and has hardly stopped pouring with rain for 16 hours, flooding streets in De Aar.
We were so lucky not to hit that storm on the Swartberg Pass, as either it would have been closed, or if we were on it it could have been very hairy getting off the mountain.Our break has done us a lot of good and we face the new year with new vigour.
We came back to find several more cards for us in the PO box and want to thank you you for all your messages by whatever means. They mean a great deal to us. We wish you all a very happy and fulfilling new year and we send our love.
