Birthdays

Here we go ....
MEMORIES .... of .... FAVOURITE BIRTHDAYS?
and friends....
 
There was a very special weekend that was planned a couple of years back, to celebrate the birthday of a dear friend. He was turning 50.. something and it happened that this was the time of the sighting of Halley's comet.......early 1986 , his wife, my dear friend Joy, had decided that we could only see the stars and the comet from the mountains in the Karoo.
Also this is a particularly beautiful area of South Africa. Very barren, short scrubby bushes, that for some reason best known to God, is an ideal sheep area. Hence the famous "Karoo lamb" that it is known for. Also Ostriches....
One's first impression of this arid landscape is its endlessness. It stretches from one end of the horizon to the other and there is an atmosphere of ancient mystery brooding over it like some intangible spirit ceaselessly mourning the primeval past.
Halley's Comet

Ostriches		 Karoo, means "land of thirst" (one needs a great supply of beer when travelling through here). It is the central, very high-lying plateau of central Africa, which projects down over much of the interior of the Cape Province. The area is drought-stricken and bare of surface water. The scientists, however, use the name" Karoo" to describe a vast system of sediments laid down between 150 and 250 million years.

Jackals		 There is lots of dolomite in the caves and mountains, and the most famous of these caves is know as the "Cango caves, " which is unbelievable!......Like a fairy land. On the plains vast herds of springbok, jackals and the bat-eared fox abound, and the bird life, especially the European stork, which comes here for the summer to feed on the locusts, has to been seen to be written about!
The Karoo too is a haven for geologists, and ectors of semi-precious stones; I have so many "tiger eyes" and pink quartz stones, that I could pave a road to America!

Well, it was in this direction that we set out, piled into "kombi's" and having been put in charge of the "kitchen" once again, (they pick on me to test me). We set forth. There happens to be, in the life of a magpie, an incurable "yen" to collect, and bearing this in mind, I was forbidden, not only to stop for stones, but NOT to stop at all!.......unless fuel was needed. Of course I totally disregarded this admonishment, and managed to fill the vehicle I was driving, (Lord Ha Ha, after much forethought, went as a passenger with the birthday boy) with four cases of ancient Red wine, which I found at various bottle stores in the country, many of the incredible wire ornaments that are made by the black children and sold along the roadside, pounds of "biltong"...............(jerky) which I do not eat......I conveyed my crew and children safely to our destination.

Stork



 

Zebra

 Our first stop for the night was the old town of Cradock. There we were directed to our hotel, which turned out to be a series of old "slave" houses, restored and furnished, down both sides of the street.

We were, each family, given a house to ourselves, and asked to be in the main house by 7 pm that evening. Obeying this "command" we were treated to pre-dinner "Port" and a violin and piano duet, that was out of this world! We are a motley crew of old farts at best, and our pre-dinner drinkies, as per usual, turned into rather a party! With yours truly, singing the descant for "Amazing Grace," (a particularly non-Jewish "air" at best)..........................it happens to be a favourite of mine. Nonetheless, the our "hostess" managed to get us over to the other main house across the street, about two hours later than we should have, and there we feasted on the hospitality of the Karoo farmers, with great gusto......the only incident that I can remember is the police coming in, in the early hours of the morning, toask
us very politely if we would keep the noise down, as there had been some complaints, and to check up to see if we were selling forbidden substances. After having a friendly "snort" with us, they left.
To tell you a little about the houses, is to say it was like sleeping in the most exquisite museums in the world! Each house, redecorated and restored, right down to the ornaments on the mantle-shelves..........(my dear I was TEMPTED I tell you!!) Out of this world!!!! I wanted to pinch...or buy everything, naturally, nothing was for sale.

Saturday, saw us waving goodbye to all and making our way to the "Mountain Zebra Game Park"..........which is famous for its "Equus zebra zebra", which is one of the rarest mammals in the world! It is the smallest of the zebras, standing a little more than one metre high...(3 feet) It is brilliantly striped-one of the reasons that it has been so hunted. The park itself, is also famous for a home that is still there that belonged to Olive Schreiner, who wrote "The story of an African farm" and other such famous books...many years ago. Also for the wonderful rock paintings found in the caves...from the bushmen.

There we were put into delightful tin roofed cottages and after a tour of the park, we decided that beside the really "African" braai-vlies (B.B.Q) of whole roasted sheep, and other such unmentionables, the searching for the comet should be celebrated with a wine tasting............(they having discovered my portable cellar!)

One cannot say if it was the special night, the celebration of the birthday or just the atmosphere of being with old, much loved friends...maybe it was the air? Needeless to say, there surfaced a lot of hidden layers to some of my friends. Joy, who is the most "proper" English lady, had to be searched for, and was found swimming naked in the icy river........Pitt (the birthday boy) and Tony, our very proper civil engineer.........were only found the next day sleeping in the bush. Lord Ha Ha, as usual, managed to oversee to the mundane responsibilities, like, putting me to bed, seeing to the children, (who were much younger then) and generally, trying to retain some sort of order out of the mayhem, we were creating............he does it with such "polish?".....so unruffled....a real gem of a man...

He punished all of us the next day, by making us walk up to the top of a smallish mountain. This agonising hike, fortunately was made easier by Pitt's little "hip flask" and also that the walk ended in all of us swimming in the "buff' in the most spectacular volcanic pool that I have ever seen!

We left, as always, filled with regret that we had so short- a- stay, and also that as time passes; I find myself, as you might have noticed, delving often, into my bag of memories. Life can be so fragile, and one never knows if, not only we will all survive, but if our country will be able to hold onto this unspoilt beauty?

Oh well......shalom!

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