NAMAQUALAND

I am leaving on the 8^th of September destination Kleinsee on the north west coast of South Africa to visit my daughter Susan. Kleinsee is just south of Port Nolloth and Alexander Bay with Namibia just north of these towns. Jack and I will stay at Kuruman on the first night and Pofadder on the next heading towards Springbok deep in Namaqualand. We had good rains this winter in this area so the flowers should be wonderful. Each year they appear, softer colours down south nearer Cape Town and more vibrant colours as one heads north. The floral kingdom of South Africa attracts tourists from all over the world.

My route takes me from Johannesburg via Vryburg, Olifanshoek (elephant corner), Upington to Kuruman. Kuruman is interesting in that it was here that Robert Moffat the missionary translated the Bible into Tswana, a local language and printed it on his own printing press. His daughter Mary married David Livingstone and they left Kuruman to find Ngamiland in Botswana.

They settled at Kolobeng, synonymous with the names of two men, David and Kgosi Sechele. One was a zealous missionary come there to convert the heathen in the name of Christianity and the other the chief of the Bakwena tribe. Their paths were fated to diverge, Livingstone’s to lead him across the face of Darkest Africa and immortality in the annals of history, Sechele’s to l embrace a strange religion and begin to lead his people into the changing world which the coming of the white man brought to Africa.

The homestead at Kolobeng

Livingstone and his wife Mary and their children arrived in 1847. He built a house there erroneously believing that the Kolobeng River would be a constant source of water. He erected the first school and irrigation system as well as a rudimentary church which was the first Christian church to stand in Botswana.

He began to convert Sechele who finally succumbed to the faith but on pain of forgoing such ancient ceremonies as the rainmaking ritual and forsaking all of his wives except one. For this he narrowly escaped being murdered by his own people.

Here it was that Livingstone lost his daughter Elizabeth and his hope of ever bringing lost souls to the church. He sent Mary and their other children back to England and headed north for Africa and his dream of abolishing the slave trade. Elizabeth is buried at the foot of a tree on the banks of the river together with the artist Thomas Dolman but the house and the church were almost destroyed by a Boer commando although the Bakwena have to take the blame for this. When I was last there the remains of the buildings could still be seen and the lowing of the cattle and the tinkle of goat bells tell nothing of the drama that unfolded in this small corner of Africa.

Next we will pass through Upington that was started in 1873 as a mission station by the Rev. Schroder and named after Sir Thomas Upington, then Secretary General and later Prime Minister of the Cape. A Hottentot chieftain lived here in 1870 who wanted his people to learn to read and write. He petitioned the government in the Cape to send a missionary to teach them. The Rev. Schroder arrived destined to leave his stamp on the town and the area.

 The town sits on the banks of the Orange River now called the Gariep, a San name. The river rises in Lesotho where it is called the Senqu and travels 193 ks to its mouth between the towns of Oranjemund in Namibia and Alexander Bay on the West Coast of South Africa, forming the border between the two countries.

The Camel Statue in Upington

Rev. Schroder realized the potential of the river for irrigation and together with Japie Lutz laid building foundations and hand dug irrigation channels some of which are still to be seen today. Later A.D. Lewis was the brains behind the canal system that supports the agriculture of the region where grapes for wine and raisins are grown among other crops.

Susan and I brought the kids here and we visited the Tier mountain lookout. The early settlers thought leopards were tigers, hence the name Tiger Mountain. The view gives a panoramic picture of the river and its islands.

In the early days the police were mounted on camels to patrol this very dry area and in Upington there is a statue to commemorate their efforts. Another statue is a tribute to the donkeys that used to turn the water wheels and example of which can be found at Keimos just a little further on.

After Keimos you will find Kakamas and here you can turn off to the Augrabies Falls. Mr. G.  Thompson trekked across this barren land in 1827. His party was near starving having had no food for four days, tightening their famine girdles and considering shooting one of the horses. The Hottentot guides were against this fearing death I this thirstland if they were to do so. The brackish water from a gourd that a little girl offered them made them ill. A hunting party of Hottentots set out and came back with a dead zebra. Within an hour the Hottentots had devoured 8 lbs of meat each! There was singing and dancing while the meat roasted on the fire.

That night Mr. Thompson’s party slept on a high bank of the river as they had been warned that the evening before they had slept in the lions path. They were disturbed all night by howling hyenas. Carrying on they could hear the roar of the falls becoming louder and louder.

The San people named the falls Ankoerebis meaning place of great noise. The falls are 183 ft or 56 metres high and in the floods of 1988 7800 cubic metres per second poured over the lip.  These days the Augrabies National Park surrounds the falls.

Susan and I continued towards Pofadder, taking a side trip to Pella. Pella is a mission station started by two French missionaries, J.M. Simon and Leo Wolf, who built the most beautiful Catholic Cathedral here. They knew nothing of building and consulted their encyclopedie des Arts et Metiers that contained details of how to construct a building.

Within two years they finished it. It took more than 200 loads of sand, 400 wagon loads of stones, 200 000 bricks that they made themselves 350 bags of slaked lime and hundreds of wagonloads of willow wood. Today this Cathedral still stands as a tribute to the men of the order of St. Francis de la Sales. A local mining house has taken on the responsibility of maintaining the Cathedral.

The Cathedral in Pella

The nuns greeted us and gave us a tour of the remarkable building, taking us to the graves of the two men. We finally left with a packet of the juicy grapes that they sell. Date palms surround the mission.

On impulse we decided to go to Onseepkans. This little settlement on the Orange River serves as a border post between Namibia and South Africa with traffic moving between Keetmanshoop in Namibia and Pofadder in South Africa.

We were travelling in a low slung sedan and the gravel road was rough. Taking a side track to see if we could get near the river we ended up in a cul de sac, the sand too thick to reverse. Ahead lay a huge boulder and there was nothing for it but to drive onto this boulder in order to turn around! Full marks to the Opel although the undercarriage took some hammering but Susan’s driving skills got us on the way again. Of course the kids thought it all great fun and we stopped for a gin and tonic for the driver while I imbibed a vodka for my nerves!

So on to Pofadder and my proposed journey. I will stay overnight at Pofadder on my way to see Susan. This is the start of Namaqualand proper that is divided into three sub regions, the Namib desert, the Nama Karoo and the Succulent Karoo. Pofadder was named after either Klaas Pofadder, a raider of cattle and horses who was head of a band of desperados or the adder that lives in these hot dry places. Australopithecus was the first human to live here as long as three million years ago. They eventually had the ability to manufacture tools and that improved their diet from plant life to protein by killing rhino, hippo, giant wildebeest as well as smaller prey.

Jan van Riebeek arrived in the Cape in 1652 and was tantalized by tales of the legendary city Monomatapa. He sent several forays north along the coast searching for it. None were successful but Simon van der Stel found the copper mountain or Carolusberg and later successfully extracted copper ore. He explored Hondeklip Bay as a possible port to take the ore to the Cape and built the Wildeperdehoek Pass to get there with convicts. The bay is named after thee large stone that resembles a dog, hence the name Dog Stone Bay.

One year I had heard of an artist who had learnt to paint in goal. On his release he took up residence in Hondeklip Bay where he sold his art. I then drove an Isuzu KB28 4 x 4 and set off over the Wildeperdehoek (Wild horse) pass. It was Camel trophy stuff and I never saw another vehicle or sign of human activity except for the ruins of the building that housed van der Stel’s convicts.

I arrived in Hondeklip Bay to find the artist whose name I have forgotten was standing on the side of a road selling his paintings when I pulled up. He asked me which way I had come and I told him.  He looked at my arthritic hands. “Mam, nobody has been through that pass for yonks and you can’t change a tyre with those hands! “Oh, I am fine! I always carry water, food and of course Tassies!” (A rough red student wine). He shook his head. “Mam, you’ve got balls!”

The Nama people arrived here about 2000 years ago from what is now Botswana. They introduced a new means of power being domestic goats and cattle. The local people still move their livestock in seasonal patterns just as their forerunners did. The Namaqualanders have their feet in the earth and their humour is earthly. There was once a very bad drought and one of the old women of the congregation in a church stood and prayed : “Lord, this story of yours of millimetres and millmetres of rain must stop here. If you send us rain again send us metres and metres!” Her old husband plucked her onto her seat and said “By God, my old wife, who told you that our donkeys could swim? How will we get home?”

Namaqualanders are fond of nicknames and one Pocket Nagel who had never been further than Springbok was invited to spend a holiday in Hermanus on the East Coast near Cape Town about 800ks away. When he arrived at the first traffic light in Worcester he stopped, turned his car around and drove back to Kleinsee. He could not take the traffic!

On to Pofadder, named after either the snake or Klaas Pofadder a rebel who commanded armed bandits and stole horses and cattle. From thereon we should begin to see the flowers. The area is very dry and the road goes on and on. At a filling station you turn into the town itself, very neat and very small. Conservationists and biologists come here to study the tiny xerophytes and animal life. Pofadder is near the Ritchie Falls, the second largest after Augrabies but only accessible after either a two day hike or rafting downriver on the Gariep from Onseepkans.

I will leave you here and tell you more when I return. Of treasure and prospectors and early miners, of shipwrecks and many a tale told by the old ones.

RABBITS ON THE ROOF AND KOEK KOEKS IN THE KITCHEN

My friend Eleanor and I were off to Reitz to have a few days of art tuition with my first art teacher Denis Hilton Lees. Denis first taught me down on the West Coast some years ago and after a stint of five years in Taiwan teaching English, settled here in this farming town in the Free State of South Africa.

Along the road I tried to tell Eleanor about Denis and his family but in the end it was better to wait for her to find out herself. We arrived at around twelve to Denis striding to open the gate with a wide grin on his face. He ushered us through clucking Koek Koek hens to the kitchen where I introduced Eleanor to Laura and young Jessica and Benjamin amidst a few hens drawn in by the excitement!

Koek Koeks were bred in 1960 at the Potschefstroom Agricultural College by Chris Marais as dual purpose birds for laying and meat. They are easy to sex having distinctive marks.

The breed is in great demand and Laura breeds them, a clutch of eggs beneath the hen in the bathroom were due to hatch at any moment.

With wine and coffee for Eleanor, we repaired to the studio, an old double garage open to the elements with the valley and the town far below. A chicken run with rabbits hopping around was next door with beehives in the rear. Denis’s paintings and paraphernalia adorns the walls, music plays and we were into art talk immediately.

I had made my famous chicken liver terrine and brought bread and cheese and after a while we moved outside in the good weather to have a light meal next to the garden nursery that Laura has developed.

After lunch it was straight to work. Eleanor had brought a photograph copy of Table Mountain as seen from Blouberg Strand across Table Bay that she was keen to paint on a fairly large canvas. In next to no time Denis had persuaded her against copying it, to give it her own twist and Eleanor’s journey had begun.

I am busy trying to put onto canvas what it is like to be a writer and had done a canvas with him last time depicting the flight of ideas. Now I wished to express the loneliness of the writer. I described my idea and Denis just muttered “Crazy lady!”

Later we went off to Absolute B & B with a warm welcome from Johan and Marinda whom I knew, returning later for more art and the evening meal. I had cooked Babotie, a Cape Malay dish of mincemeat and mild curry and other spices with rice.

The Malay people were brought to the Cape as slaves to work on the new farms of the Dutch required to grow food for their ships plying to and fro from the Dutch East Indies. These people brought with them the spices of the east and their cuisine.

A bredie is a casserole of lamb pieces braised with onion and garlic and spices such as cinnamon and bay leaves layered with typically tomatoes or green beans but I chose to do it with butternut squash.

The following morning we were greeted by the news of little Koek Koeks having hatched except for one that was battling valiantly to peck its way out despite being the wrong way round. The hen had neglected to turn the egg. Laura helped by cracking the shell but left the sac as if she tore that, the chick would die. The little thing battled on and was finally out, very weak but with careful nursing recovered. Jessica has a name for each of the hens and the rooster.

Back to work with Benjamin’s drums beating out a rhythm accompanying us. The paintings progressed until a great noise on the roof distracted us. The rabbits had climbed up and were running up and down! Then Denis put on some music, electing a piano symphony and the whole flock of Koek Koeks rushed in to stand listening to the music!

This reminded me of a time when I was in Zimbabwe at the Victoria Falls. There was a new shopping centre near the falls and a restaurant with a stage where a band was playing live music. A small breeding herd of elephant were drawn to the music and stood feeding whilst they listened!

Driving down to the famous bridge the traffic came to a standstill while an enormous bull elephant made his way down the road ignoring the pesky motors and the bustle of cross border people until he found his path leading off the tar down to the forest! Lord of all he surveyed!

Our time flew by with the paintings emerging and Denis being Denis, a marvelous natural teacher and raconteur, until Eleanor asked him to help her with a painting she had in mind that featured a jar. So we had a lesson of how to draw an accurate elipse! Now I had only ever passed South African Standard Eight with arithmetic, never mind maths! Eleanor remarked that Denis taught us in half an hour what would have taken a week in University – she should know as she is a career headmistress! Wonder upon wonders this blonde head managed to understand the concept at least!

Eleanor has retired and is savouring her new found freedom by embarking on new interests and volunteering for new projects. She is at present revamping the library of a nearby school and has discovered a treasure of old books some of which have early South African history. I can’t wait to accompany her and get my nose into them!

Finally the day came before we were due to depart and photos were duly taken – see below with all Denis’s details for those in SA who would be interested.

Denis Hilton Lees www.denishiltonlees.com email artontap@gmail.com

A WEST COAST CHARACTER

Paternoster is a small fishing village on the West Coast of South Africa. At least it was a small fishing village when this story started. Today it is trendy with the quaint West Coast cottages turned into restaurants or holiday cottages.

The name came from a wreck a long time ago. The crew could be heard singing the Lord’s Prayer as they waited for the ship to sink with no possibility of being saved.

The Paternoster Hotel was known far and wide for its grilled crayfish and enticing bar. One could sit on the stoep and watch the locals as they held out large red crayfish for sale and joked with their customers as only the coloured folk can do; all have a keen sense of humour.

On the other side of the headland is St. Helena Bay. Here is a fairly large harbour and along the coastline fishing factories that spew forth a vile smell when the wind is in the wrong direction.

Vasco de Gama the Portuguese sailor, landed here on 7^th November, 1497. He described the bay as calm and tranquil. He was the first European to meet the local Khoi people. There is a monument to his landing. The bay was named Bahai de Santa Helena after Saint Helena, a devout Christian and mother of Constantine.

Because of its position the local fisher folk called it “Die Agterrbaai.” (The bay at the back). One day I was exploring the area and came across a caravan parked near the shore. A burly man was bent over a fire cooking fish. I approached him and we chatted. His name was Pieter Pieterse and he was Afrikaans. His companion was an English woman, Jenny, but he called her “Die Engelsman.” (The Englishman)

Pieter Pieterse had his own television show where he showed his viewers how to cook the abundance of seafood that the West coast offered. I called on him many times and we would exchange tales of our travels. Pieter had traveled up and down this coast and ventured deeper into Africa as had I.

My daughter and I were planning a trip up to the Caprivi Strip in Namibia that runs along the top of Botswana to the confluence of the Zambezi and the Chobe river and where the borders of four countries meet. When I told Pieter he made me promise to stay at his camp on the Kwando River up there. Then he gave me his little seafood recipe book and inscribed it in Afrikaans “Aan Molly wie ook weet van die ver plekke. Mooi Loop.” Translated it means “To Molly who knows about the far places. Go Well.”

We duly traveled well through Botswana up the Western delta, crossed the border into Namibia, camping at Popa Falls. Popa Falls is right at the corner where one turns either left to Rundu or right to Katimo Mulilo. The falls are really a series of rapids where the river runs down the Western delta. This river rises in Angola and when it rains there the river comes down and floods the Okavango Delta. The flood spreads out like the fingers of a hand forming channels and islands. Then comes the dry season and the water recedes waiting for the next flood.

The Caprivi Strip runs directly from West to East depending upon which was you are traveling and has an interesting history. Before Nambia became a German protectorate the area was known as Itenge and for a long time was ruled by the Lozi kings, later becoming part of British Bechuanaland Protectorate. (Botswana)

At the Berlin Conference (1890) Count Leo von Caprivi, was the German negotiator. There it was agreed between Germany and Britain that the strip would be added to German South West Africa allowing Germany access to German East Africa and in return Germany would relinquish her interest in Zanzibar and the North Sea Island Heligoland that Britain had. The treaty was known as the Heligoland. So it was done; however Germany had forgotten that the Victoria Falls stood in the way and so the access to German West Africa (Tanzania) was blocked.

The following morning we set off east until we came to a track running alongside the Kwando River. The going was bad with thick sand and along the riverside the vegetation high. However we finally found the entrance to Pieter’s camp. What a delight! A reed and wood structure right on the high bank of the river. Bird feeders hung everywhere. The children (we traveled with Susan’s four children aged between four and ten) were delighted with it and spent their time feeding the bulbuls and birdwatching.

After two days we headed east again until we came to Katimo Mulilo, the capital of the Zambezi region, Namibia’s far eastern extension. The name comes from the SiLozi language and means douse the fire. In the early days the Lozi people would paddle their canoes down or across the river carrying the coals of their fire. They often moved their villages when the river flooded. The embers were for re-lighting a fire when they arrived at their destination.

The South African army was stationed at Katimo Mulilo as from 1940 to 1981 the government administrated Nambia after the end of the Second World War. This was a period when they were fighting the ANC and Swapo the revolutionary forces of Nambia and South Africa.

Whilst there, for some unknown reason the Commander of that unit decided to build a toilet in a large baobab tree! My grandson Shaun was determined to have his photo taken in the toilet as his father had been stationed there and had told him about it.

From there we took the Ngoma gate road crossing into Botswana and the long road south back to Robertson where Susan lived on a thoroughbred stud farm with her husband who was the stud manager. Here I picked up my car and made my way back to the West Coast. A few days later I had a glass of Robertson wine with my friend Pieter and told him all about our travels, a far cry from his camp on the Kwando River some 2000 kilometres north east of where we sat.

Sadly my friend died a few years later in tragic circumstances leaving his “Engelsman” alone. I still treasure his recipe book and many a time have consulted it, especially when snoek were running. This long game fish is much like a barracuda. It is very good on the braai (barbecue) basted with apricot jam!