PRINCE ALBERT OLIVE FESTIVAL
PRINCE ALBERT SWARTBERG PASS HALF MARATHON 2011
OOM SCHALK LOURENS; LEOPARDS, LOVE POTIONS AND TALES FROM MARICO
GHOST WALK WITH AILSA TUDHOPE
NATURE WALK WITH SUE DEAN (RENU KAROO)
Friday 29th April.
We leave to Drop Ally off at her friend, Kerry whose family is moving this weekend from near to Buliders Warehouse to Parsons Hill close to Collegiate. We collect Dawn and Brenda and then start our trip to Prince Albert. Our first stop is Storms River and then Plett. Ena serves us tea and Muffins. We head off to Knysna where Brenda off loads her dog, Ginger, at her sisters home. Now we are headed for George and Oudtshoorn.
From Oudtshoorn we drive to De Rust and then Meiringspoort and finally (7 hours later) we arrive in Prince Albert.
In the Meiringspoort we stop to check out the Herrie Carving by CJ Langeveld which is a National Heritage site. And we make a brief stopover at the information center where the history of the poort is documented.
I check in at the Lazy Lizzard for the 21kay the next morning. We find a place to have supper and make a booking. Then we go to the Publicity office where I purchase the tickets to the Herman Charles Bosman show as well as the Ghost Walk.
We drive to the farm where we have booked for the night. It is Oudekloof run by Deon Gouws. We will stay in a farm house with multiple rooms and for the first night we have to share with another two couples. They are absolutely Livid that they are sharing with us. The whole booking was for Five people on their side and five on ours. The house has an en-suite toilet and only one bath room with one shower and bath. And a shared kitchen.
Back in the village someone points out that we have a flat tyre. I quickly find a repair place as it is approaching 5pm. They change the tyre and I tell them that I will collect the repaired tyre in the morning. I am surprised to see how worn the tyre is. It is almost completely smooth and I had not noticed it. The other rear tyre is not as smooth but will also need replacing soon.
We leave for town for our Ghost Walk. We meet up with Ailsa Tudhope who is our guide. She regales us with a number of stories from the time the village was first started by the DeBeer farmers to when it was given its name after the German Prince Albert in 1762. We are taken to the unusual grave yard which has piles of stones to mark each grave. It must have had wooden head pieces as they no longer exist.
Then we move on to Charlie the Stoep Ghost who looks after the home where the owner leaves furniture and books outside on the stoep and these items are never disturbed. Then move down to a variety of different homes where we are given both a history lesson as well as entertained with stories of ghosts from the Spook Eye to the lady in the loft and even stories the lead to a Churchill connection. Various people who have listened to Ailsa's stories have improved and validated them with factual books, writings and pictures from their own family history.
The village has a De Beer reunion from time to time and a famous Zach De Beer has also attended this reunion. Zach De Beer had a long political carreer in South Africa. He was a member of the United Party before moving on to the Progressive party with Helen Suzman. The Progressive party became the Progressive Federal Party and eventually the Democratic party and is now known as the Democratic Alliance. In fact these names have always signified the opposition party to the ruling party which was originally the Nationalist Party and is now the African National Congress. Zach De Beer was trained as a Medical Doctor and part of the De Beer family who were the first to settle in this area. Zach died in May 1999, just a few months after visiting Prince Albert for the family reunion.
Ailsa tells us of another famous connection to Prince Albert is the Nobel Literature prize winner J M Coetzee. I am not sure exactly how he is connected to Prince Albert but Coetzee won a nobel prize in 2003 and now lives in Australia.\\
Ailsa has been doing this for around 10 years having lived in the village for 13 years. She is a school teacher at the local school which has around 35 pupils. She joined us for a drink later at the restaurant we had booked for supper. We had a delicious supper for around R100pp including two bottles of local white wine. We were all pretty clapped when we arrived back at the farm house. I readied myself for the morning run and set my alarm. The beds were not particularly comfortable but we slept okay.
Saturday morning 30th April in Prince Albert. After dressing I left for the village. I parked close to the finish of the race and walked to the Lazy Lizzard where we would be collected by a cattle truck. I chatted to a couple of chaps; Tommy from Pretoria, Gavin (Walker) and Christopher from Tygerberg. Christopher is a retired teacher/principal (70+)who still assists with the teaching of maths and science.
After a while and a cup of tea we loaded ourselves into the truck. It was fairly cold at 7am but once the vehicle started moving the wind factor made it really chilly. I was surprised to see a familiar face: Alf Zhemke and his lady friend. I took shelter behind them but still had to keep moving to try to generate some warmth. Finally we arrived at the start. It is around 10kays out of town towards De Rust. Here it was warm and sunny. We walked up to the start where we had a short pep talk and then started the run. There were probably a few more than 50 runners and walkers doing the 21 kay and a similar number doing the 10kay.
The first few kays was a gentle uphill and I was breathing heavily. I battle to start off on any run but particularly when it is up hill. I am puffing and panting early on in this race. Finally after around two kays we headed downhill towards the Swartberg Pass turn off. This true Karoo veld. It is short scrub with stones and sand. No grass to be seen. Left into the gravel road of the pass.
Now I remembered the time when we had driven here in the Combi with Trevor Jennings' group on our way to Die Hell and then to the Orange River Canoe Trail. As you enter this pass it looks like you are driving straight into the mountains. I had met up with Ferdie. He lives in Oudtshoorn with his family. However working as a Trainer in the Army he is presently based in the Central African Republic where they have recently had elections. The SA army was part of the training and security and he will return soon for another stint there.
We jogged up the pass until I could no longer keep up. He pressed on and I fell behind around 50 meters. Runners were now heding downhill towards us. Some of them "flying" down on this gravel and uneven road surface. We pass a few land marks: Eerste Water and Tweede Water river crossings; Malva Draai. Later on, talking to Kobus, I tried to decide if this referred to Malva which is the Afrikaans name for a particular Flower or if it referred to Malvalekker (Marshmellow) where Softies would turn around and head back the way they had come. We enjoy the tall rock face on either side of the pass. This provides a magnificent backdrop for a run but is of course difficult to enjoy as you force yourself to jog up and up watching your footing all the time.
We had to press on and upwards. It is tough going up this hill. Switchbacks, uneven surface and steep inclines makes continuous jogging difficult. I am glad that we did not drive this way. The road is narrow and rough. It is beautiful but not for a low slung car like mine. I walked a couple of times. We passed the last watering station on the way up. The two men were playing old Eric Clapton Guitar music. Sounded stunning in the Kloof with music echoing on the sandstone cliff sides.
The morning sun was now hitting the rocks and cliffs. We were deep into the pass and mountains and loving being there. It is always a huge priveledge to be able to do stuff like this. Enjoying the ability to run and being in the deep caverns of natures most wonderfull pass. Last weekend the announcer was telling us that the Two Oceans half marathon was: "the most beautiful half marathon in the world" well either he is not a runner or he has been programmed to say that. The Two Oceans is a Suburban run. While the Constantia road is okay it hardly compares to Meiringspoort or the Swarbergpass runs.
One of the chaps that I met tells me about the Danger Point run in Gans Baai on 31st December each year. This sounds like something that we could do as we plan to be at Wildcliff at the end of this year. He tells me that the route takes the runners along the ocean side for most of the course and provides a wonderful journey on the last day of the year. Finally we reach the top where a policeman is the marshall at the turning point. We have run around 4 or 5 kays of uphill. Descending I now catch up with Ferdie and a number of other runners. Ferdie takes a picture of me in the pass.
We meet up with Kobus; Bernard; Pieter and form a little group. Kobus points out the rock formation of a "Cross" with the words Jesus Saves painted below. Bernard announces that I am third in my age category (60+). So when Pieter van Heerden starts running ahead I determine to keep up with him. Pieter is from Pretoria. He was also at the Two Oceans half last weekend and is making his way home. He is a veteran Comrades runner with 25 under his belt and still going strong.
He and I run hard down the last sections of the pass gravel road. We turn to the left when Marshalls indicate and then are on a dirt track where you have to continually watch your footing. It is not even a Jeep Track. On our right is the Water Sloot that takes water from the Springs in the Mountains to the village below. There are Aquaducts or water troughs all along the sides of the streets where villagers have a pre-allocated date and time that they are allowed to block the sloot and flood their gardens. The support along the road is more than adequate. Coke every three kays with Sachet of water as much as you need.
This section of the run is between the 14 kay to the 18kay markers. The markers are painted stones on the side of the road and easy to miss. At this stage the ground is soft sand and uneven. We have to dodge thorn bushes. We reach the tar road again. Pieter's wife has been waiting for him on the road. We move on and now with three kays to go we are both tired but detirmined to work hard together.
AS YOU RUN INTO PRINCE ALBERT YOU SEE THE ROCK FACE
At the outskirts of the village there is a slight up on the road. No! Pieter points out, the water is running with us and simply cannot run up hill. It must be downhill. MMMM? Into the main street and other runners are showing off as they have changed and having tea on the side of the road. Each of htese final few kays seem like they are "long" kays. We run as hard as we can in the final kay with the FINISH banner in sight. We finish in around 2;15. I am quite happy that we have run together and pushed each other to the finish. It has been tough but fun.
I try to find a suppler of tyres who can help us but there is no one in Oudtshoorn and so I collect the old repaired tyre and put this in the boot. I drive back to the farm where I collect Barbara, Dawn and Brenda. We go back to the village where the prize giving is taking place. Unfortunately there is no third prize in the Grandmasters categorie and I am not even sure that Bernard was right when he told me that I was in third spot.
We do a bit of wandering around the village find some curio shops and second hand goods shops where Brenda buys a variety of books. One is a book on Bridge and another is Places in SA which you most probably have never seen. In this book is a picture of Kelvin Grove the farm which belongs to the Giddy Family of Barkley East. We used to visit Neville and Ronnie when they lived there. Jessie Gush also lives in the district.
We find a Breakfast shop and enjoy a full English Breakfast of Eggs on Toast and Bacon with lots of coffee. Delicious especially for me as all I have had to eat this morning is two sample olives. We sit and relax here for some time. Barbara goes off to try to find a dinner venue but eventually we decide that the place we had supper last evening is the best option. I purchase tickets for the Nature Walk in the morning.
After some debate and Olive tasting we purchase Wine, Olives and Olive Chutney. The Olives we buy from the daughter of Jan Olyf Bothma of the Swart River Olive farm. Next time we are here we will have to take the tractor tour of the farm which the daughter tells us about. Dawn buys some sweet Dessert wine. It is all a lot of fun as we taste and talk about everything we buy. The afternoon is spent back at the farm. We try to do a bit of exploring and while we see some Bontebok and lots of Springbok the Mercedes is not designed for these roads and has no clearance.
We relax at the farm house Barbara reads while lying in the hammock. Dawn and Brenda sit on the couch and we have afternoon coffee. Soon the sun is setting and shadows growing longer. Brenda brings out a bottle of NUY that she had in the fridge. Barbara, Dawn and Brenda enjoy sundowners as the sun sets and the cool of the evening make us bring out the jerseys and jackets.
Deon Gouws is the owner of this farm and he has his two daughters and their friends from University staying on the farm for the weekend. Deon spends some time chatting about the history of the farm and the dam at the end of the property. The farm originally stretched from the top of the Swartberg Pass but is now only a small fruit farm as the property was cut up and sold by his family. Also staying on the farm is Martin who lives in a cottage and drives a combi into town for a bit of social company.
We drive back into town for the Herman Charles Bosman show: Leopards, love potions and other Marico tales". Oom Scalk Louwrens tells us of the Spotted Leopard who lay under the trees with him as he searched for lost cattle and of the love potion that is extracted from the red berries found in the kloofs of the Marico mountain valley. He explains how the local farmers interact and how each one tells their own version of the most unlikely or improbable situation. The stories are told by Eric Nobbs who grooms himself to look like an Oom Schlak and who acknowledges Patrick Mynhard as an original Oom Schalk.
The show is held in a small theatre (in De Beer Street) which was the original Dorp Huis of the Gouws family. We come across a number of local people and even the man who set up the Eric Clapton refreshment station up in the pass this morning. The show is entertaining and the stories provide laughter as well as an insight to the Afrikaner farmer of the early years of the Transvaal.
We again has supper at the restaurant attached to the Swartberg hotel. However, while the service the previous evening had been excellent, this evening we wait over an hour for our dinner. And Brenda and I, unknowingly are handed each others dinner. But in the end we are all well fed including the family of cats back at the farm who benefit from uneaten left overs.
The cooks acknowledge that they are overwhelmed and apologise. Driving back and forth to the village in the dusk we have seen Springbok each time and it is a pleasant experience to drive slowly along the farm road while watching out for the sillowetted animals and seeing them bouncing across the road.
Nature Walk with Sue & Richard Dean of RenuKaroo Veld Restoration cc / Natuur-Uitstappie saam met Sue en Richard Dean van RenuKaroo - Booking limited to 15 people. R50 per person. Meet at Tourism Office for a walk at Wolwekraal. Learn how plants have adapted to their arid environment, the way that they defend against and are exploited by animals, their uses by people and livestock. Discover patterns in the vegetation, find cryptic and strange plants, learn the origins of curious and highly descriptive common names and together discover a fascinating and often overlooked world in the dull brown veld
We sign up for this walk on Sunday morning before leaving for home. We meet Sue Dean who is a retired (UCT) botanist. They own a small piece of veld on the outskirts of Prince Albert and have had this recognised by Cape Nature as a reserve. It is an incredibly interesting two hours of Sue explaining about both the rocks and sand and the variety of plant life that exist in this harsh environment.
Once you are able to see with open eyes it is amazing how much is going on at your feet. From tiny little succulent Veigies to grasses and Arcacia trees. Sue explained how the water shortage in the village is drying up the streams and affecting the life. She spoke knowledgeably about the Fraking that has been proposed by the Oil Company Shell.
The village had 3500 inhabitants and has now 10 000 and this puts a huge pressure on the water supply that comes from the Swartberg mountains through the sloot that we ran past the previous day. On this walk are Albert and Marita; Peter and Edna (also ran) and a couple of other people making up the 10 visitors. Sue and her husband have started a Nursery and a consulting business after officially retiring from UCT. They have lived and done experiments on this property for many years.
Sue showed us a little section where it appears that there is erosion. Then she took us to a nearby piece where it seems that the Koisan or similar people must have camped many years ago. There is evidence in the form of Stone Knives, Pottery, Ostrich Shells etc which show that there was an extended period of camping.
Sue explained about the Arcacia Tree which has this Missletoe as a parasite on the tree and how the birds eat the seeds of the parasite and then regurgitate the left over seed which forms a sticky goo and the seeds germinate on the branches where new parasites begin. The strange thing that we saw was how another spieces of Missletoe was not able to latch onto the Arcacia but lives on the first Missletoe.
Even the fencing separating the farms has a story of how the SA government of 1912 decided to divide farms and that the original strands of wire are the base of the fence and the fence posts are trees which have lasted 100 years and show no signs that they will not last another 100 years.
Sue showed us where the Fluit Rot (WHisting Rat) lives in burrows. One needs to be careful as Cobra's also live around this area as they feed on the rats. The rats eat the vegitation and leave a litte at the entrance to the burrow for a second helping later. They will stay withing a short distance of the various burrows and if they should spot danger (Goshawk) they will whistle to signal that it is time to scurry back into the burrow.
SUE DEAN EXPLAINS ABOUT THE NATURE WALK
Even the termites have a story as they are not Ants as many of us think but are rather part of the cockroach family. The amazing thing is that termites tidy up their homes and brush their droppings out of the nest to form a loose sandy looking pile outside of the nest.
At around 10am we left Prince Albert and returned home the same way we had come. Meirings poort, Ousdthoorn, George and Knysna. In Knysna we were invited for lunch by Leslie (Brenda's Sister) and Julian. They fed us a delicious chicken, Salad, Potatoe lunch which was just what we needed at that time of the day. We had left without having any breakfast and the last time that we had spent a day of driving and had missed the midday meal Brenda had not been a Happy Chappy. After a stunning meal we drove the last leg home where we dropped off Dawn and Brenda and collected Ally from her friend Kerry.
It had been a stunning weekend and one to put on the calendar for future years.
Peter & Barbara Giddy
Dawn Kumm
Brenda Hayward
April 2011
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