SA Country Life

Time Holds on Longer Here

My quest to pictorially associate South African towns that have Dutch names with their older, bigger and wealthier brother and sister cities in the Netherlands continues with relentless enthusiasm. If you pack up and go, you’ll get.

The back of my Isuzu’s canopy has been painted Springbok green and all I have to add now is the # StrongerTogether bit. Lynn, my wife of almost 50 years, adds that it’s a bit like a happy marriage. I roll my eyes and lift them up to the Tsitsikamma Mountains. Where does my help come from?

I am standing in my front yard in Nature’s Valley looking almost directly north to the South African ‘Haarlem’ in the Langkloof, just over the mountains. Crows are not endemic to the area, so I ask one of the Hadidas pecking around on the lawn to fly there to measure the distance. Ha-ha-ha, the prehistoric creature answers, or rather didah-dah’s me.

In a direct line across the mountains it’s only 25 kilometres. If you are not a bird, driving west along the N2 and then over the Prince Alfred Pass to Avontuur and then east along the Langkloof on the R62, it would tick the distance up to around 200 kilometres. Being so in tune with Lynn, I

You’re reading a preview, subscribe to read more.

More from SA Country Life

SA Country Life1 min readCooking, Food & Wine
Cellar Talk
Long-standing force behind the famous Graham Beck bubblies, cellar master Pieter Ferreira, affectionately known as ‘Mr Bubbles’, is making limited quantities of two Méthode Cap Classique sparkling wines under his own name. The Pieter Ferreira MCC win
SA Country Life3 min read
Author Interview
“They were both smokers, Adcock and Heine [Neil Adcock and Peter Heine, South Africa’s fast-bowling partnership in the 50s]. I remember them playing for Transvaal, stubbing out their fags on the rope before going in to bowl. I don’t know how they did
SA Country Life2 min read
Fine Wine
There’s something special about Franschhoek, something that inspires superlatives, and nurtures talent. Grande Provence Wine Estate has established itself as a must-go destination in the valley, with great wines, fascinating art on display, a stylish

Related Books & Audiobooks