Pilgrim's Rest to Cape Town (heading home from Kruger Park)

by Diana Studer

- gardening for biodiversity

in Cape Town, South Africa

Heading home from Kruger Park in September (It was the free entry to South Africans week - delighted to see crocodiles of wide eyed tiny kids and their hobbling grannies). Idle and Wild in Hazyview was a spacious delight. A lush green subtropical garden on a macadamia farm. Welcomed with a vase of pink azaleas from the garden. The only place to supply real fresh milk in the fridge (tea with non-dairy creamer or long life 'milk' tastes awful)

Idle and Wild guesthouse in Hazyview 

Pilgrim's Rest. Stitch in time remembering miners from Cornwall and Wales looking for their fortune in gold. We arrived early, before the coaches.

Pilgrim's Rest

Imagine cooking over a coal stove in blistering summers. The Celtic cross for a miner from Truro reminding me of my mother learning French at high school there.

Life and death at Pilgrim's Rest

Three marble angels in the cemetery. In the doctor's house one of those quaint Victorian photos posing a dead child, with the catchlight and lace details painted in by an artist. My father and his sister were skilled photographers and aunt Nerina did that adding colour to black and white photos, but with a delicate touch. I am haunted by that still child.

Child's grave at Pilgrim's Rest

At the Shangaan village in Hazyview. A bit theme park with skilled actors. Grain was stored above the kitchen, where there is always smoke from the fire to keep wildlife away from the food in the roof.

Shangaan village grain storage

Traditional healer or sangoma with her herbal remedies. Roots and bulbs, dried herbs powdered and stored in a gourd. Solanum used in careful doses.

Traditional healer or sangoma at Shangaan village

The young woman weaving her reed mat. She lays one reed one top, then flips alternate bobbins back and forth to lock in that reed. I have a wooden bobbin from Swiss lace makers, but plastic twine (with the same sliding knot) around a stone works just the same. That twine would originally have been sisal.

Weaving a reed mat at Shangaan village

Our last night before the return train journey was Arum Place in Melville. Happy sigh. We sat on the terrace, sipping tea, watching the sun set over Johannesburg's urban forest. And a pair of loeries canoodling in the nearest tree. We had to leave very early to load the car on the train, and much appreciated a breakfast of muesli with fresh fruit for me, and freshly baked croissants for my Swiss husband.

Arum Place guesthouse in Melville

The blockhouse from the Anglo-Boer War 1899-1902.

Longyuan Mulilo wind farm at De Aar providing electricity and employment to the Northern Cape.

The Karoo landscape much enjoyed as we clickety-clicked along.

Karoo blockhouse and wind farm from the train

My father was involved in planning the train route through the Hex River Valley - glorious iconic Cape scenery of mountains and vineyards (- Hex was named for Eliza who died of a broken heart).

Dawn in De Aar
Hex River Valley vineyards and mountains

The return journey was again delayed by a locomotive which needed to be replaced mid-journey. Dawn at De Aar. Sadly we arrived in Cape Town after dark and missed that famous view of Table Mountain.

1 Yellow BMW i3 to the Limpopo River in Kruger Park

2 Cape Town to the Limpopo River - the journey up
4 Elephants and friends
5 Clivia and Gerbera at home Walter Sisulu and Lowveld National Botanical Gardens

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Pictures by Diana and Jürg Studer

of Elephant's Eye on False Bay

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