Bergplaats

L to R: Dan, Auggie, Val, Eland, Ronél, Jannes, Blikkies, Juan, Fiela

Last weekend we had the privilege of visiting Dan's good friends Blikkies and Ronél, and their sons Jannes (pronounced Yan-es) and Juan (pronounced John). Nearly a year and a half ago Blikkies and Ronél moved away from their home in Paarl, which is just outside of Cape Town, to manage a game lodge and farm called Bergplaats which is in the Karoo. It's about 5 hours from Cape Town to the northeast and it's beautiful. Bergplaats is over 600 hectares of the most beautiful wilderness you can imagine. There are mountains on the farm (the word 'farm' doesn't do it an ounce of justice, by the way) and rolling hills that are home to all kinds of creatures: zebras, springboks, gemsboks, wildebeests, klipspringers, elands, and all kinds of other hoofed animals that Blikkies can tell you about--because he knows exactly how many of each species are on the farm at any given time. Bergplaats is a 'farm' because Blikkies and Ronél raise three different types of sheep. The sheep, ahem, are not raised for their wool… All I can say it that the results are delicious. ;)

The view outside Blikkies and Ronél's house

Their home

Amazing, right?!

Blikkies, Ronél, and their boys are like family to Dan--and now me! Dan lived with them for nearly a year back in 2003 and over the weekend Ronél told me that she sees Dan as one of her boys. Blikkies was then running outdoor camps for kids and Dan had the privilege of working alongside him. (Ronél is a teacher, for the record.) I'm fairly certain that Blikkies has changed all of our lives forever, because if he hadn't come to the US to work on his Master's degree, he would have never met Dan, and thus I would not be sitting here in Stellenbosch overlooking the Seminary Building as I write this blog post. It's quite amazing if you think about it.

Back to our visit! Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful! It was like being with family--so comforting, so relaxing, and most of all easy. The boys had a blast getting to know Blikkies, Ronél, Jannes, and Juan, and they loved their puppy Fiela. (Like the shoe, Fila.) Actually I love that dog, too. I think one of the things I enjoyed the most--besides awesome company--was that the front door to their home was always open and the boys could simply run in and out to play. Our flat in Stellenbosch is on the third floor, meaning that any trip outside is planned and takes preparation. At their home, however, the boys could run in and out--and they were completely safe. There is no one around for miles upon miles, a fenced in yard, and grass and dirt and fresh air and outside!!! I sometimes wonder if the boys are missing out on some big important part of their childhood because they can't just run out to play in the backyard at anytime, but my friend Sandrine reminded me today that even if they are lack that, they are gaining in a full range of other ways. And I suppose we get to go to Bergplaats when the need to play in the dirt is big, and that's not bad at all. 

Auggie and "Old Fashioned" playing in the dirt.

So the boys played in the yard and we regularly had to comb the grass to find the camouflaged little gray bakkie (pronounced 'bucky', aka pick-up truck) that went missing from time to time. Splendid! 

Ronél cooked us some amazing meals--lamb curry, pasta with mincemeat, pancakes for dinner, and true South African braai. A braai is a barbecue, but it's nothing like the cut and dry grills of the US. No, a braai is meat in a metal cage straight on the fire. And it's good. :) Dan got to help Blikkies, Jannes, and Juan fix an electric fence to keep the jackals from the sheep, and he got to put on an apron and do some dirty work in the butchery as well. Let me tell you, it was quite an experience.

Auggie loved picking up the farm cat, and Fiela, too!

"Hey there, Kitty!"

Haha, can't forget this.. At mealtimes Eland sat in between Blikkies and Dan. When he was done--and we were not yet done--he'd start saying, "Mama! All done!!" And I would tell him that he needs to wait. Then, "Dada! All done!!" And Dan would tell him that we weren't done yet. After trying us a few more times, he started to turn to Blikkies and say, "Blikkies! All done!!" It was hilarious, and he did it at every meal! Blikkies is teaching him how to say that in Afrikaans: "Ek es klaar!"

Eland, face to face with an eland.

Do I have to mention that there's something not entirely truthful about the picture of Eland with the eland? Nah..

Making springbok and fat-tailed sheep sausage. Deee-lish!

The Bergplaats butchery.

Auggie and Mama

The main lodge doesn't look too fancy from the outside but it is very, very nice on the inside.

Jannes's place

I'm not sure what the deal is, but most doors you encounter at people's homes are half-doors like this one.

Exploring the farm!

Fiela!

Eland made a friend, and she has the most gorgeous blue eyes you can imagine!

And, and, and....!!!! Blikkies and Ronél took us up to the Bergplaats mountain cabin, God's Window. It's situated up in the mountains and while it's called a 'cabin' it's much more than that. Despite it being quite a 4-wheel trek to get to, God's Window has hot, running water, a toilet, a shower, and a kitchen. Apparently folks who really want to get away will rent it, and they've even had a writer rent it for 3 weeks to get away from the world and simply focus on writing. The view from up there was stunning. You can literally see for 200km. It's impressive to say the least. Blikkies told me that one morning when he and Ronél stayed up there while they were making some improvements, while sitting on the porch, an enormous kudu buck sauntered past. I think in scuba diving terms that's like finding a frog fish. I told him that God must love him in the same way that God loves my mom because when we go on vacations she'll pray that we get to see something really cool and we'll end up seeing dolphins or something like that. I hope God loves me like that one day. Just kidding, just kidding!

The amazing view!

Eland sleeping in my lap on our way up to God's Window.

Auggie in the back of the game-viewer checking out the view.

Blikkies!

It takes Ronél about 20 minutes of driving to get to the lodge from her and Blikkies home in the morning, mostly because the roads are dirt and full of potholes. But hey, I think driving through the Karoo with an unbelievable view every morning for 20 minutes beats sitting in traffic in the city any day of the week.

Here's Juan opening a gate. Certain areas of the farm are gated off to keep various animals where they belong. Notice how tall the gate and fence are--some bucks can jump 8-ft fences.

God's Window

Blikkies, Dan, and Auggie in what Auggie now calls "The Safari Bakkie!"

200km of South Africa

Another thing that made spending the weekend with them feel like being with family was getting to watch American Idol on TV. I know it sounds silly, but we haven't watched anything but the rare rented DVD since we've moved here and for whatever reason, watching American Idol felt surprisingly normal. We're not big American Idol fans or anything, but it was that sitting around watching TV and laughing with each other thing. It just feels good.

I'm not sure when we'll head back, but I get the feeling (and hope!) that we're welcome, and I certainly hope we can come again soon. Blikkies and Ronél will be very busy from June through August with the big hunting season, but hopefully we'll head out again by springtime. We want to bring some plants and help Ronél get started on her garden. They just moved to a different part of the farm about a month ago and while she claims to not be much of a gardener, Ronél has great plans for the spaces around their house. And it will give the boys a good chance to get covered in dirt. 

Speaking of dirt, we got stuck in the mud on our way out, but thankfully we were only about 100m from the house so Jannes and Juan came and rescued us.

The Xerox car that we rock around town in, thanks to our friends Sandrine and Edgar. ;)