South Africa 2017: May 17

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Today we will travel from Cape Town to Johannesburg, and thence to a resort named Dunfeld. Unfortunately I am quite sick today. The cold/flu has its hooks firmly into me. But we soldier on.

JP drives us to the airport and we say our good-byes. JP has been our almost constant companion for a week and has done his best to make our visit to Cape Town memorable in every way.

Plane flight from Cape Town to Joberg on Kulula Air. Moment of panic when "now departing for Lanseria" is announced in the plane. But that is only the name of the destination airport. The plane is an older 737 and knee space is problematic for me. It's also apparently a super-economy flight, and you don't even get water unless you pay for it. I am glad that the flight is only an hour and a half.

Karen's random seat mate is a big, burly, bearded young man named Stephan. He reminds me a bit of Wesley. He's very friendly and Karen enjoys talking to him. He is a rugby player and his aspiration is to make it to the big leagues. When we part later at the airport, he shakes my hand and almost crushes it in his huge paw.

We are met at Airport by Bakkies (sounds like Bacchus). We grab a bite to eat at an airport restaurant while Baccies collects his other charges.

Long drive to Dunfeld Estate, near the town of Dullstroom in the region of Mpumalanga. We are heading almost directly east from Joberg. The countryside here is markedly different from the Western Cape. While not lush, the landscape is more verdant and the vegetation more varied. The soil is very red, like PEI. There is no drought here.

Bakkies keeps up a constant commentary throughout the entire 3 1/2 hour trip. His knowledge of the area is extraordinary.

The roads are bad here, lots of potholes and bumps. I am not feeling well, and the constant rocking is not making my stomach happy. I put myself in a zen trance to survive. "Turn off your mind, relax and float downstream"

We make a pit stop at a gas station. And there's a rhinoceros and her cub out in the field! Not a rhino in the wild, and a long way away, to be sure, but it's a real rhino. We are in Africa.

After 3 1/2 hours, we finally arrive at Dunfeld Estate. The last section on the road in is particularly bad. The final part of the drive is through a forest of massive trees, rather spooky in the twilight. We are greeted warmly by the staff and offered port. Our cabins encircle a central pond, but we can't see much in the darkness.

After settling in, we return to the main lodge and head out back, where a bonfire is blazing and a braai (BBQ) is ready to go. It is surprisingly cool and we are glad to have our warm jackets. We are in late fall in SA, and while the daytime highs may be in the 20s, the temperature plummets to single digits at night.

The food goes on the grill and we stand around and meet our fellow guests, assisted by copious libations of local wine. There's a large contingent of women from the GTO, so Canadians actually predominate. Then we are called upon to take our seats in front of the fire and enjoy a gum-boot dance, a tradition developed by black miners. About eight men in hard hats, reflective vests and rubber boots present a long, intricate song based on call and response, complemented by lots of clapping, stamping, and drumming on various parts of the body. Towards the end, guests are invited to join in the dance. Of course, since I am already enthusiastically clapping and singing along, I am the first victim. I end up doing a kind of dance-off with one of the guys: he invents a dance move, I repeat it but add something new. Eventually pretty well all the guests have had a turn. Great fun.

We retreat inside to enjoy the braai. Sausages, chicken, lamb chops, served with pap, a traditional African dish of corn meal, over which you pour a tomato and onion sauce named sous (pap en sous). They appear to like their meat well done here, or maybe they think they are catering to tourists, but it is very tasty nonetheless, particularly the sausages. We finish with a traditional SA dessert of apricot sponge cake with a sweet sauce called malva pudding.

Internet access is supposed to be available in the reception area, but it isn't working. OMG we're offline in the wilderness!

We're very glad to get to bed, as this was a long day of travelling. My knees and tailbone are sore and my cough is getting worse. Our room was cold when we arrived, but when we return after supper, there's a fire glowing in the fireplace and electric blankets are already warm. Nice!

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Comments

[Marie]

Sorry you're sick David
Has everyone had a turn at being ill? That really is unfortunate! I do hope you're feeling better although you haven't posted in a few days. I'll say it is because of wifi Meanwhile, I am still enjoying travelling with you. Take care. Big, big hugs!