The one constant in my life is change.
About a month ago I was in Tanzania, then I returned to Cape Town,
attended AfrikaBurn and now I am working on a farm. That said, the
phrase 'never a dull day' doesn't hold true in my case, as I had
quite a few in Cape Town. However, it was a necessary and beneficial
little break which allowed me to get some important things done. The
farm I am staying at is called Ikhwezi Lokusa Permaculture Farm,
where I expect to spend the next month and a half and a place I am
really happy to be at. Read on and you will learn all about it.
After the burn, I was tired and in need
of a little downtime. Being able to return to Rassie and Susan's
place was just the thing I needed. While I had the time and
opportunity, I gave all my things a good clean. After 4 months on
the road trust me, they needed it!
Having some time to relax in a house, I
was able to do simple things you don't always get to do on the road,
things like shopping at a western style grocery store. Sometimes,
it's the simple things in life.
I needed the downtime, but coming off
everything I've done recently I was bored.
You can tell how exciting my life must have been if I'm posting a
picture of myself watching TV, but the fact is when you travel for
long periods you just won't have excitement on a daily basis.
Honestly, that is probably a good thing.
I did
have a bike I could use, and rode around a little bit, but mostly it
was to run errands. I probably should have used it to just explore,
but oh well...
In
particular, I used the bike to visit one of my least favorite places,
the shopping mall. I had to return to the Canal Walk mall to buy a
few items, as well as get prices for some gear. I still have this
idea about doing a bike trip out here and checked out Cape Union
Mart, I guess you could say it's the South African REI. Essentially,
I needed to see prices for things like a sleeping bag, pad, tent,
stove, etc and decide what to buy out here and what to have shipped
from home from the gear I already own. Conclusion: gear is expensive
in SA.
The
next day Paul and David, key members of the AfrikaBurn group I was
with were back in town and invited me to come out with them for the
afternoon/evening (thanks for the ride guys, sorry it's not a better photo!). We visited the beach
to watch the sun go down, then heading to a small party.
The
dinner party was at the parents house of Quinton from the burn group,
and it was a lovely evening with some delicious food. I began
chatting with someone at the party and she mentioned she had a friend
who was starting a small permaculture farm here in South Africa that
could use a volunteer. This turned out to be an amazing connection,
because finding somewhere to volunteer was exactly what I was hoping
to do after the Burn and here it was right in front of me! I took
down the name of the farm, and sent them a message via facebook the
next morning.
Another
beautiful day in Cape Town.
This
is something I see nearly everywhere in Cape Town, ads for abortion
services. They all say about the same thing, 'safe', 'pain free',
'same day' etc and all have prices around 300-400 rand, or about $40.
Makes you think about the conditions in the country that lead to
this being so wide spread and what it might be like without these
services.
The
next day a package I'd been waiting for arrived, my netbook from
home. This is the computer I'd taken through Asia for 6 months, and
I've traveled with ever since. For the Africa trip however, I bought
a full size laptop since I'd have a 4x4 to carry it and size/weight
didn't matter so much. With that trip ending, it was time to swap
the big one for my netbook, but it ended up getting broken in
transit. I'm trying to deal with insurance right now, as well as
finding a new netbook to buy and it hasn't been easy. South Africa
has a Gumtree, a craigslist type of thing, but I swear the people are
even bigger flakes than craigslist... haha.
The
next day I had a visit by Jandre, one of the members of the farm I
was hoping to join. We chatted about what they were doing up there,
I told him a bit about myself and we agreed I would probably be a
good fit for the farm. This was great news, because I'd been trying
to find somewhere to volunteer through WorkAway, a website for
connecting travelers with places to volunteer and didn't get a single
reply from the 5 places I messaged...
I'd
already been in the place on Woodbridge for nine days when it's
rightful, owners Rassie and Susan came back to Cape Town. They were
happy to have me stick around a while longer (which I certainly did)
and joked it was like having Chris around again. To be fair, it also
felt like I was living with my parents, and I mean that in the best
way possible! They took wonderful care of me and I am very grateful
for it.
Staying
on the water naturally I had to walk along the beach once in a while
to enjoy the fresh air, the sunset and views of Table Mountain. On
this particular walk, I came across a big piece of kelp that was
completely covered in little shellfish with their..... honestly I
don't know what is going on. I've never seen something like it
before. Feeding? Mating? Tanning? Whatever it was, it looked
pretty interesting with the suns final rays illuminating it.
That
Sunday was the one year birthday party for Maresna (Chris' sister)
and JC's baby. I'm starting to feel like part of the family at this
point!
Another
big task for me while in Cape Town was to ship a bunch of things
home. I'd tried to sell my scuba gear, but had very little luck. As
a result, I shipped what I still had home, as well as all my GoPro
camera gear, clothing I wasn't going to use, various other little
items I didn't want to carry with me anymore. Due to having no need
for the stuff any time soon, I sent it home via boat. It will take
about two months and cost me about $80 to ship 30 pounds of stuff,
not bad really. Having taken care of this I felt pretty good. It
was one of the big things I needed to do in order to reduce my gear
down to one bag for the remainder of my trip and was literally a
weight off my shoulders!
The
reason Rassie and Susan bought this home on Woodbridge in the first
place was so they could come and visit their grand kid. As a result,
there were frequent play dates.
Waiting
for the bus. The MyCiti bus in Cape Town is recent, it was put in
for the World Cup, and was a real help to me for getting into the
city center and to Table View where I had to do some shopping.
Yes,
it is another beautiful day in Cape Town, and a wonderful view of
Table Mountain behind where I was lucky enough to be staying.
The
sun going down the same evening.
This
is the flower market downtown.
Street
art in the Woodstock neighborhood. I was here to try and buy a used
netbook through Gumtree, but when I got to the persons house he told
me he sold it to someone else already.... ugh. Because I was leaving
Cape Town shortly, this was my last chance to save money by finding
one used, so I was a little upset.
And
the sun going down on Table Mountain.
The
following day I had to do two things I didn't especially like, go to
the mall again, and buy a phone. I've never traveled with a phone
before, and I was really resistant to buying one. Eventually
however, I realized that it is something I have complete control over
and can use it as a tool rather than let it be a distraction. I got
the cheapest phone I could, $10, and some prepaid airtime. Not once
did I wish I had one in Asia, but here in Africa and especially in
Cape Town I often wished I had one just to make it easier to contact
a few people, meet up with groups and so on. That said, now that I'm
on the farm I turned it off and put it away.
Anyways, at the mall I
ran into Rachel and Slee, part of my group at AfrikaBurn. We had a
nice little chat and I realized/remembered they lived in Cape Town,
and rather than always being so bored as I had for much of the last
two weeks, I could have met up with them. Oh well....
Sunday
afternoon was my last day in Cape Town and my adopted family and I
went out for lunch. JC, Rassie, Susan and Maresna, you have all been
wonderful to me, thank you all so much!
Rassie
and Susan took me to the bus station where we said our goodbyes and I
hopped on the bus for what was an 18 hour ride. I was lucky that I
got on the bus early and that it was a double decker, because I got
one of the front seats and during daylight hours I got some great
views! The ride was long, but I managed to wind up with an
interesting person to chat most of the way and the ride was generally
quiet and comfortable.
A
small South African town along the way.
Shortly
after noon, I arrived in the city of East London and was happy to get
off the bus. I was picked up by Jandre who I'd met in Cape Town
earlier and we ran a few errands in town before heading out to the
farm.
The
name of the farm is Ikhwezi Lokusa Permaculture Farm, which means
bright star of the morning. It was began about 30 years ago, then
maintenance stopped and it became overgrown. A little over a year
ago a group bought the property to own in trust, and restore and
rebuild the farm following the ideas of permaculture and sustainable
living. At the moment, there are six permanent residents of the
farm: Luke, Alex, Jandre, Xolile, Yoliswa and Ntsika, as well as two
volunteers, Sky and myself.
The
farm and property are very much a work in progress, but there is a
lot going on around here. This is the large common area, which
houses the kitchen, bathroom, reception, bar and common area. There
I also a hot tub being built here, and from the deck there is a
wonderful view of the area and the water below.
Everywhere
you go you are likely to be surrounded by animals. There are three
dogs, a cat, geese, chickens and pigs.
Jandre
showing some of the garden.
The
pigs.
Here
is the outdoor fire area and the view below. Not a bad place to be
huh?
This
is the rondavel where volunteers, Sky and myself stay.
Retuning
to the common area, this is the deck. The property here has a number
of nut trees, and here you can see Luke digging in one of the bins
with two year old Ntsika, Sky standing up and the dogs and cat
watching the action.
Near
the entrance to the property is a small dam which provides water for
the farm. The wind pump brings the water up hill to large tanks,
which then gravity feed down to the buildings.
I got
to work right away, here Jandre and I are repairing the road into the
property.
A look
at the kitchen area. From left to right you can see Alex, Luke and
Jandre. I haven't been here long, but I can say so far the food is
excellent!
So,
that is where I am at these days. As I said earlier, I expect to
stay here for about a month and a half, which is the remainder of my
South African visa. I really feel I've connected with a great group
of people at this farm, and staying here will give me an opportunity
to learn some new things, help out, meet new people, be more
physically active than I've been in a while and save some money as
well. I don't know what I will do after the farm stay, but with a
group like this I am sure I'll come up with plenty of ideas and make
plenty of new connections! Thanks for reading everyone, check back
in a bit to learn more about the farm and the kind of things I'm
doing out here!
