South Africa and Europe 2012: CRADOCK

At Queenstown, yesterday, we had to make a decision to go on to Cradock or Bedford. Have no idea what Bedford is like but Cradock is my favorite town yet. It was established in 1848 on the cross Africa trading route. It was a town of tradesman, blacksmith, wheel makers, harness makers, etc. and was quite prosperous. The town got passed up and almost dwindled away when the train and then the car came along. Since no one had any money most of the town still remains pretty much the way it was with streets of small cottages, through it is a active business center for the area again. Sandra, the owner of the Victorian Manor, owns 31 of these cottages and rents them out. Thus, we are in the Out of Africa Cottage. A two bedroom cottage with a large kitchen, even bigger bathroom and living room. It comes with breakfast at the manor in the morning. This is not the Holiday Inn Express breakfast. Fresh eggs, fried or scrambled, omelets, meats, cheese, yogurt, cheese bread, cereal's, and more. Fresh made juices and more. All of this for the princely sum of $75.

no this was not in the room to vicki's dismay

Day 19 We are 10 Km from the Zebra National Park, so I bet you can figure out what my day was about. It was only five hours of driving and I really liked this park the best of all we have been to. We have mainly been in contact with service people while we have been here and they have all been fantastic, except in the National Parks. Some of the Parks people were down right surly, but the people in this park were great. From the lonely gate guard, who is 12 Km from the office, to all the people at the office. We saw some new animals but missed capturing in pictures the best show of all. A herd, tribe, gaggle, whatever you call about 50 baboons running together down the mountain. It was a great sight.

Day 20 is cultural day. It started with us meeting Amos Nteta a local black resident. Amos was politically active before apartheid and served on some of the local black organizations and was the chief of the local township party. He even spent time in prison for his political views. He was active from 1974 until 1990 when Nelson Mandela was freed. He is a great person to hear tell the history of the country during apartheid. It is a long and very interesting story. He took us to the black residential part of town, known as the "township", to tell us the story. I cannot recall it all from memory, but until 1994, blacks were not even not allowed to own land. In fact, their land was taken from them in the past by the whites. The whites tried to drive them back to what the whites had decided was their tribal lands. The least desirable lands in the country. Sound familiar? There was a white policy of, if they could not legally prosecute someone, then they were just "disappeared". We visited the graves of some of the "disappeared". When I asked him how black and white relations are today, he replied that they are about 65%. On the white side, people still resent the fact the blacks are free and on the black side he said the younger ones do not understand or appreciate how they got what they have today. "Freedom does not mean you get your water free, your electricity free, a free car, it means you are now free to earn money to buy what you want." "It is through hard work and sacrifice that you get what you want and you are now free to do that" he said is what he tells the young generation. Amos said that without outside pressure, nothing would have ever changed in South Africa and "we could not be standing here talking like this today". He told us that when apartheid ended, they switch a white corrupt government for a even more black corrupt government. But, they were free. This is a several hour story reduced to a few sentences and does not do the story justice. He is a man with a level head and a vision of where his country is going. "Nothing ever goes as planed" he told us. There have lots of road blocks from in side the country and out. One problem is all the countries around South Africa are still having political problems and this affects South Africa. He was quite proud that South Africa had their "change" as he calls, the "revolution" the whites call it, without a war and massive blood shed. He is a proud man, with proud past, but he is a realist and knows that even almost 20 years later thinks are not grand.....but he is free and can now voice that opinion to two white people standing inside the "township".

Under apartheid, that never could have happened.

vicki and amos at his home

the box on the left is the pay box for electricity, just like a pay as you go cellphone you buy electricity and enter the number on the receipt for "x" number of KW.

A white South African I knew before apartheid once asked me "what gives America the right to come to my country and tell me I have to give it back to the natives while you keep your natives on reservation?" Apartheid was wrong, but I also agree that my friend had a valid point. It is that attitude of America that today still turns people and countries against the U.S. The good thing is the most people outside of the U.S. can separate politics from people and have always been friendly to me no matter the politics. I can not say that about my own country.

We moved on to funerals. Saturday is funeral day in South Africa and there were 3 or 4 on funeral's in the little black community in Cradock. Amos explained they are all westernized now. Each faith be it Methodist, Anglican, Baptist or whatever have their on church colors and services. He told us you do not want to got a Episcopal service. Where most are one hour long, the Episcopal service is three hours long and even the dead guy gets tired. Funerals are big business now. Everyone trying to out do their neighbor. That explains why we see so many "Funeral Schemes" (scheme=insurance) office in every city.

In the afternoon we went to a Methodist Fun Fair put on by the Bree St. Methodist Church at the local school. A potjiekos is basically a big black kettle and you through whatever you want in and call it a potjiekos. Again, when the people found out we were from America and wondering around lost, Richard Schulze took us by the hand and led us through the process of buying tickets and then picking our food. Vicki got a big kick out of Vyvyon when she said "why aren't you buying any pudding?". I said "I have no room in my suitcase". She then made a very pointed stare at my large belly and everyone burst out laughing including me. The meal done, we started our walk back to the Out of Africa Cottage. It was a very pleasant walk but we found out we have been doing way to much riding and not enough walking.

richard who took the money and showed us around

henry and vyvyon, the one who pointed to my stomach

us and the preacher man

Day 21 started with a group of Ural Russian sidecar riders getting ready for a five day ride through the Karoo. There was a lone women rider but several in the sidecars. The sidecar one's were the brave ones.

Our route for today was Neiu Bethesda, the sight of a wacky artist museum, Graaf-Riener, and Desolation Valley. Neiu Bethasda was the highlight and the others were barely mentions. To get to Neiu Bethesda we head out of town on R63 until we come to N10. Here we encounter our sidecar friends again. On N10 we quickly hang a left and drive for 49 Km on a dirt road through the mountains to arrive to a small dusty village. It is about 8 blocks square and most of those blocks are empty. It has a large church, police station/post office. The big attraction is the house of zzzzzzz Martin known as the Owl House. A lady who grew up here, married once for a very short time, and came back to take care of her aging parents. After her parents died she started creating art and filling her yard with it. The town people always considered her a witch like and a recluse and she passed away in 1974. I think she was just a good drinker from all the wine and beer bottles used in her art. The artist in this operation is the townsperson who created the marketing plan for the owl. Seventy five percent of the town is run off this one house. There are several restaurants and most of the house's are self-catering rentals, as they call short term rentals here. Many people consider the house magical and Vicki said she was seriously channeling our dear departed friend Jo-Ann, a person I could see moving right into the Owl House and being at home. The magical place for me is the small brew pub that is on the other side of the "river". Any flowing water seems to be a "river". This was really a stream. It is great home brew. I have once again failed in duties as I was more interested in the cold beer than taking pictures to share with you. Maybe I can steal some off the internet. In retrospect, the brew pub is where I should have spent the afternoon, but you never know what is over the hill so we pressed on to Graaf-Riener and the Desolation Valley.