I am also available in the Johannesburg area. At the moment I am travelling across SA doing site visits with Contractors for future SDH radio and fibre optic expansions on our telecomms network. Spend all of last week from the Natal midlands to Durban and from there to Empangeni. Sorry Lex did not have time to see you this time around. This week we started at Sabie and worked our way to Komatipoort on the border. Last night in Witbank and tonight in Bethal. Tomorrow on towards Ermelo and then back home

Kobus get another phone that works when I call you:)

Just got your sms, did you mean your battery is not so good or the phone:)Will pop in.

Only battery problem. Phone is ok when plugged into external source. Man what a pain when you are on the road.

Sorry to have missed you Kobus, but they say work before play.
Maybe next time.

Gotcha Gerald. They will appreciate that. And thanks Kobus. At the moment, I'm not sure when they plan to visit.

ALAN!!! ARE YOU TRYING TO KILL MY DESIRE TO VISIT SA? I HATE Snakes. We had a lot of them on our property where I grew up but I never got used to them. I became a one man snake annihilation machine.

Alan,

Nice set of teeth on that snake.

Doug,

I hope you don't kill all snakes. We need all of them - like every thing they have their place. I have a couple black snakes in my back yard. They are harmless so they are good to have around.

I agree with Doug. It is only the brown house snake that I will leave alone. The rest must die!
There is a lot of differant snakes in our area from the tree variety to the green and black mambas. I do not see so many since I but up some concrete walling years ago. I have only seen black mambas a couple of times over the years will driving on rural roads. Never anything close to the house. They are very shy snakes but deadly when they are cornered.

Doug,
The snake is more scared of you than you of him. The most problematic type of snake is an adder (genus: Bites), they don't flee. Once caught one 91cm long, thick as my arm.

Most people get bitten when playing with snakes. Leave them alone and they will leave you alone. If they invade your living space, they are most probably looking for food: rats, mice & frogs.

Jan

Sorry Doug, not trying to scare you...Its not that bad, as Johan said for the most part you have to go looking for them. Down here in the Cape we are relativly safe, the worst ones being the Cape Cobra and Puff Adder which are mostly up in the mountains and for the most part shy(although as Jan said, the Puffy is one to watch out for as he will not get out of your way until you stand on him....:eek:) On the farm here the last Cobra we had was about 15 years ago. The real nasties are up north and in KwaZuluNatal.

At least we dont have Rattle snakes breezing into our workshops for a visit...

we have some good size poffies in our area between the fynbos .

Ons'n is meestals in die klubs in daai area van kaapstad,..., O jammer dit was 'n P, nie 'n M nie :D

daardie "agtermekaar" kêrels?

Alan what are you puffing:DJa Gerald sit sit so!:)

Nils: I kill ALL snakes.

Jan: If the snake is more afraid of me why isn't it the one that's running away and screaming like a 4 year old girl. :D

Tarantulas, rodents, and bats don't bother me but snakes are another story.

Hi Doug,
Probably because its paralysed by the noise!

Now rodents, that's another story. Once had a teacher and a mouse ran up her leg. She squeezed a gallon of water out of the poor mouse.

Jan

Just an update on my BlackBerry battery issue. JR's package was waiting for me when I arrived from my trip around the country on Friday. Thanks JR I am now back on the air. Just an interesting observation. If I have ordered the stuff directly the postage was quoted as $90.00. I see on the parcel from JR a price for postage of $3.02. Why would a company that sell equipment so cheaply charge so much for postage to extrnal Countries. JR popped it into a bubble envelope and it arrived without any customs issues

Kobus

J.R. is an individual and not a corporation. Some times business charge more for shipping and handling and they some time fall under regulations that individuals don't Batteries are considered harzadous material and a company has to follow guidelines for shipping such mateial.

They would most likely popped it into a bag and shipped it just like he did. Well at least I got my stuff and it did not cost me an arm and a leg.

Kobus, glad I could help. If I can help in the future just let me know.
I WAS getting a little concerned when it took so long to get there. If I had to do again I would send it with a tracking #, We were lucky:). But then I've always said "I would rather be lucky than good":p

Klein Karoo
 

We have just returned from a week in the Klein Karoo (Little Karoo). A semi desert area between two mountain ranges parallel to the southern coast. (Swartberg in the North, and Langeberg in the South) This area is well known for Ostritch farming, Port (the drinking kind) and many natural attractions.

We stayed at Calitzdorp Spa, a natural hot spring resort (water at the eye is around 52 deg C). Trips were done to the Cango Caves, Cango Wildlife Ranch, Highgate Ostritch Farm and the CP Nel Museum.

Attachment 5218 Attachment 5219
Along the way, we passed through the Tradouw Pass, one of the many built by Andrew Bain and his son Thomas Bain in the 1800's (By hand - no machinery in those days, only explosives and prison labour) A distant family ancestor on my Mom's side.

Attachment 5220 Attachment 5221
Route 62 is the main route through the Klein Karoo and extends as far as Port Elizabeth. Ronnies Sex Shop is a roadside tavern serving ice cold beer and light meals (a blessing in the hot Karoo, especially in the summer). The "sex" part of the name was added by some of Ronnies friends as a joke, he left it there and it has just helped to make the place even more famous. Almost every tourist bus stops there for refreshments - he's doing a roaring trade and really is in the middle of nowhere.

Attachment 5222
Huisrivier pass, another pass along the way, this one is unique in that it is sort of upside down, instead of going over the top of a mountain, this one decends down to the river at the bottom and then back up the next mountain.

Attachment 5223 Attachment 5224
The (very) cold pool and Hot spring pool (temp about 38 deg C).

Attachment 5225 Attachment 5226
Morning visitors in the resort.

Attachment 5227
View of the resort at sunrise from the mountain.

Attachment 5228 Attachment 5229
Flowstone and dripstone formations inside Cango Caves.

Attachment 5230 Attachment 5231
Steffi and Liam doing stress test on Ostritch Eggs (good for 120Kg on their side and 210Kg on their ends) Steffi trying an Ostritch for comfort.

Attachment 5232
Ostritch racing.

Attachment 5233
Highly endangered Cape Vulture.

Attachment 5234
Nile Crocodile.

Attachment 5235
Maribu Stork.

Attachment 5236
Lion enjoying meal of donkey meat.

Attachment 5237
Bengall Tiger (Not endemic to Africa, but part of a worldwide gene pool project).

Attachment 5238
Cheetah (Great progess is being made in gene pool diversification with captive breeding).

Attachment 5239
Me with Steffi and her newest best friend.

Attachment 5240
Kakebeenwa (Jaw Bone Wagon - after the shape of the sides) Used by our ancestors to trek (move) into the interior in the 1700's to escape British domination. Usually drawn by a team of 10 to 14 oxen.

Attachment 5241
Sunset in Africa.

Nice holiday Alan!

(The readers must realise that this is the middle of our winter, and our 3 week school holiday is about to end)

Mooi fotos Alan.
Eich! Nou verlang ek na die Kaap.

Alan,

Thanks for sharing your vacation with us.

Did you visit Rose of the Karoo for a meal? If not, you had better go back! :) Other places I like in that area are Ebenharts (fine craftmanship), and of course the 3 wine cellars making better port wines than the Portuguese - so they want us to change the name!

Didn't make it into The Rose (next time) but did look into Ebenharts and of course we visited the cellars, almost had to leave some of our clothes behind to make place for the boxes of Port, Jeripigo and Muskadel. :D Mmmmm Lekker!

I am currently reading Diamonds, Gold and War by Martin Meredith and enjoying it immensely. Learning a lot about our country's history that wasn't taught very well at school. Can recommend it to anyone that wants to understand the politics of this region.

Thanks for the info Gerald...ordered.. I have a good collection of history books but it is always refreshing to read another from a unknown writer. (to me anyway)

South Africa is a really beautiful place. Thanks for taking the time to post pictures for us. One day I'm going to visit. I might be in a wheelchair by then but I'll get there one day.

I visited all the links. Did you try Ostrich steaks at the ranch? If so, were they good?

Yes, very good, more tastey than beef with a hint of gameyness (meat is darker than beef) The price for the steak at the Ostrich ranch is less than half of what the restuarants in the town of Oudtshoorn itself charge?

The Cango wildlife ranch also does crocodile steaks - wanted to try them but ran out of time.

Doug - I sent you a mail to your personal address, did you not get it?

I just sent you a PM. My email address may need updating in my profile.

The Book I'm Reading
 

About 20 years ago, I bought a book on SA and the Boer War. I meant to read it but things just kept getting in the way. It was copywritten in 1900. This morning I picked it up and plowed through the first 96 pages. So far it has mainly been a discussion of the various European explorers, how the first Dutchmen started off building a place for East India ships to temporarily stop, some discussion of the Hugenot settlers, trekking Boers, discriptions of the Bantus and Hotentots and Chaka's bloody exploits.

I was wondering if the book had a pro-Boer or pro-British slant to it. So far, I can't detect any slant. However, here is an interesting quote in which the author describes a Boer Trekker: "The character of the Boer was thus formed, through the irritating interference of the Netherlands Company's officials, driving him to seek a place of perfect freedom, as that of a man accustomed to live alone and impatient of control; half wild in his strength and independence of spirit, his loss of fitness for political and social combination, and of willingness to submit to rule and restraint in the interests of true progress and civilization. His religion was the stern Calvinism of the Dutch Reformed Church. The Bible was his only book, and in that book his favorite pages were those of the Old Testament, dear, in its harsh morality and severe justice, to the English Puritans, who put to death their fallen sovereign...they were in many cases somewhat sullen and unsympathetic; seldom inhuman or depraved; generally shrewd, prudent, persevering, good-humored and hospitable."

I guess there are some aspects of that description that some men might not consider particularly complimentary but I'd be proud to be decribed in that fashion. If you substituted "American Cowboy" for "Boer" this could easily be a description of the men that settled the western US.

Remembering that these "settlers" had no Army, Cavalry or Government support, they entered a strange hostile land armed only with their wits, a few muskets, their Bible and the steely determination to succeed and determine their own future. This attitude is still very much alive today with all South Africans.

If that book was copyrited in 1900, the second Boer War was still on the go, only ending in 1902

Yeah Alan, I kept reading into the afternoon and I'm now into the stories about the early settlers getting massacred in Unkunkinglove in the 1830s and how they responded. Those were some tough people. Their bravery is even more impressive with you think about the fact that this small group of men and women had only muskets to use against a force that was often 20 times or more larger. I realize the Zulus only had short spears but I bet they could cover 100 meters before you could reload your musket. In that situation, your Bible and your faith become more important than your physical weapons. (I just read about the technique the Boers used. They would fire a volley, retreat on horseback, reload, fire another volley, etc. Brilliant!)

1902 wasn't that long ago and I'm sure some people still have strong feelings about what went on. Heck, the Civil War in the US ended long before that but it is still a serious subject with some people.

The older books tend to romanticise the settlers in opposition to the "savage" natives whose land they were invading. I always felt that there is a side of the story that's missing after reading the older books, and that's why I am enjoying Diamonds, Gold and War so much - all sides seem to be fairly represented.

My wife was just reading an article in Travel and Leisure magazine. The August 2009 issue has the 14th annual readers' top hotel picks. The Bushmans Kloof in Cedar Mountains, South Africa was #1. Numbers 3, 6, 15, 24, 25, 27, 29 (two hotels in SA were tied for 29th), 34, 58, 60, and 77 were all in SA. The Twelve Apostles (#12) and Cape Grace (#58) are in Cape Town.

Then I'll pick up a copy of Diamonds, Gold, and War. Hopefully, I'll get around to reading it more quickly than I did my current book.

Who was the author of the book you are reading Doug?

I agree with you that there are a lot of similarities between the 'Boer' and the American 'Cowboy' I use to read all of Louis Lamour's books when I was younger.:cool:

This is what a English noble man wrote in 1902 about the Boers:

“Take a community of Dutchmen of the type of those who defended
themselves for fifty years against all the power of Spain at a time
when Spain was the greatest power in the world. Intermix with them
a strain of those inflexible French Huguenots who gave up home and
fortune and left their country for ever at the time of the
revocation of the Edict of Nantes.
The product must obviously be one of the most rugged, virile, unconquerable races ever seen upon earth.
Take this formidable people and train them for seven
generations in constant warfare against savage men and ferocious
beasts, in circumstances under which no weakling could survive,
place them so that they acquire exceptional skill with weapons and
in horsemanship, give them a country which is eminently suited to
the tactics of the huntsman, the marksman, and the rider. Then,
finally, put a finer temper upon their military qualities by a dour
fatalistic Old Testament religion and an ardent and consuming
patriotism. Combine all these qualities and all these impulses in
one individual, and you have the modern Boer. The most formidable
antagonist who ever crossed the path of Imperial Britain. Our
military history has largely consisted in our conflicts with
France, but Napoleon and all his veterans have never treated us so
roughly as these hard-bitten farmers with their ancient theology
and their inconveniently modern rifles.”
[The Great Boer War, Arthur Conan Doyle, printed Londen 1902]

Johan,

The author was Henry Houghton Beck.

That's some pretty high praise!! It feels especially good when it comes from a foe.