Harrismith - Family Farm

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Dawn and Sam have a very large cattle and sheep farm ( 4500 acres) in the Free State Province (about 4 hrs. S.E. of Joburg). Beautiful countryside with mountains and valleys and 6 ft high green African grass
and Bluegum trees everywhere. Very remote area with the nearest town of Harrismith 40 miles away on rough dirt roads. They have 4 dogs, 1 timberwolf who thinks he's a dog , 6 cats , one of them is half African black footed wildcat, African Grey Parrot (named Fred), cattle, several horses, sheep, chickens, rabbits, 6 emus, geese. I may have left some others out .Ha Ha! Sam and Dawn also have several Zulu workers and their families who live on their farm in their own housing. They also have a full time Domestic (maid) named Maria. This system provides employment for the Zulu people in the rural areas. It was hard for me and Fred to get used to the "maid service".....I kept wanting to clear the table and do the dishes but Sam and Dawn kept reminding me that the Domestic would do it all including our laundry! We then realized this was something we could get used to. Ha Ha!

Some of the wild animals in the area include Blesbok, Steenbok, Baboons, African wild cat, Antwolf, Rock Hyrax, Bald Ibis, Hadedas, many birds and eagles.
We saw Bushman paintings on the property that are about 400 yrs old also.

An hour after leaving the farm to go up to the Kruger Park area ( a days' drive away) we got a flat tire on a very rocky part of the road. We were a little nervous at first because we were in the middle of nowhere (Jane loaned us her 4 wheel dr. vehicle for this part of the trip). The tire was beyond repair! Fred was in the middle of changing the tire when a truck came toward us and a lady with a gun got out to see why we were blocking the road. Turns out she was a friend of Sam and Dawns! She was the only person we saw on that road except a couple of Zulu men who were walking. The locals walk everywhere because cars and trucks cost twice as much as it does in America and they’ll never make enough money.

Thanks Dawn and Sam for your great hospitality and adding to our African trip experience!

Kruger Park coming up......no explanations necessary! Keep scrolling.

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Photos

Zulu house on Dawn &Sam's Farm

Comments

[MARGE]

MY KIND OF PLACE
I love their farm from what i can see--it looks like great horse back riding terrian.what kind of horses do they have??

[D MJ Binkley]

That's a lot of animals to care for.
Love the Zulu photo.