to Knysna

Animal count: sheep, sprinbok, cattle, monkeys, red heartbok, goats, ostriches, 1 dog

The part of the Karoo we had been in was a Boer stronghold during the wars (the Boer War it was called in my history class (or the "boring war" if you were ten years old and didn't have an engaging teacher, especially when you inadvertently found out there were two of them to compare and contrast) - here they are referred to as Anglo-Boer Wars) and there were photos and captions on the walls of coffee counters and gas stations and other buildings we came into contact with as we passed through.


water at a premium, so catching every drop essential

clever directing of a precious resource

town planning - everyone gets water

We had an hour or so stop in Graaff-Reinet, which was right smack dab in the middle of the Boer-Anglo forays, but which is now a lovely old town, with the now familiar green and white dutch-inspired architecture.  With trees, tiled rooves and courtyards, it had a bit of the look of South America for some reason.  I suppose it was the combination of a European culture on a raw, wild land that gets mighty hot sometimes and mighty wet other times.  When we wer there it was mighty fine.

The Dutch East India Company founded this place in the late 18th century, and named it after the governor of the entire cape colony (Cornelis Jacobvan de Graaff) and his wife (nee Cornelia Reynet)  Now let's just pause for a moment and think about that. Not the fact that husband and wife have practically the same first name.  But that a new town in a new country is given a name that combines both male and female surnames.  Most of the time (99.999%) you only see the man's name attached to places, in the New World especially.  Men of old seem to love attaching their names to places, or the names of where they were born.  But never the names of those women who either traipsed along with them to endure the conditions in tight clothing and no occupation, or were left at home, dealing with babies, and bill paying.  Not to get screeching feminist here, but I find this acknowledgement of the part these people played together charming.

I




t's worth more than an hour's wander, if only to enjoy the various crafts made from mohair, for which this area is famous.  But I must admit, what I was more interested in was finding a hot drink and moving lower in altitude and sitting on the sunny side of the truck.

It was another long drive (no longer a great surprise to us) but our energy picked up as the fields grew greener, the trees grew taller, the mountains grew closer, and we started down to the coast. Around one more steep curve and there is a coastline ahead. 


there's green in them that hills!

I'm not sure what this means, but it looks scary!

sea and sand once again!