Trip to South Africa - Part Three

Day Nine

~ We visited a farm that is part of a Two-a-Day Group. Judging by their name choice, I’m guessing they want to promote the healthy habit of eating two fruits daily. I loved the setting of this farm. It was like an oasis in a desert, with lots of green space (because of constant watering) and a beautiful little river flowing through the property. The owners are welcoming people; besides managing the orchard, they run a small campground and mini resort area (with stone cottages by the river), and rent out a hospitality center as a venue for events such as weddings and parties.

Beautiful corner in the welcome center

~ We rode out to the orchards in bin trailer trains again. Yep, we did a back home no-no for the second time on this trip!😦It wasn’t the most comfy of rides. The day was very hot, so we sweated in the blazing sunshine and jounced along the rutted laneways while sitting on a narrow bin edge that didn’t have any give. Fording small streams and crossing the river on a low water bridge with the tractor and wagons was a cool diversion. On the last ride, I discovered that I could stand on a little metal platform between the bins, instead of climbing into a bin over the side. If I’d have known about that earlier, I could have saved myself some un-lady-like moments.

~ I got orcharded out already before lunch. At one point, I followed the example of some other tour members and sat down on the grass in the shade of a tree row while the speaker gave his talk. This far into our tour, root stocks and vigors and spray concentration rates have ceased to interest me, if they ever have, truth be told.

V-style tree training system

~ Lunch, a welcome event, was held at the shaded hospitality center. We got to experience eating an authentic Cape Town dish, lamb braai, that had been roasted on a spit over hot coals, and was served with a special sauce. We also had a very large lettuce and garden vegetable salad, a barley salad with a creamy, mustardy dressing, garlic bread, and couscous with roasted vegetables. All were superb dishes. Dessert was koeksisters, deep-fried doughnut nuggets that are dipped in a syrup with spices right after they are taken out of the hot oil. They are typically served cold. Some pretty sweet immersion, right there.

~ Ken and I had some time to walk around the oasis grounds between the last orchard tour and the bus-loading before heading back to the hotel. I took pictures of flowers and things that interested me. I tried getting a shot of some birds that were entering and exiting a large communal-looking nest in a thorny tree, but I couldn’t get a decent one. I would have at least liked to know what kind of bird I was watching. Where are my birder friends Merle & Edith when I need them? 😊

Weaver bird nest

Unknown fruit

~ We had a free evening back at the hotel in Stellenbosch. We like those. We went on a short walk, had excellent burgers for supper at one of the many eating places on “our street”, played Boggle, and did our phone challenges for the day. We solved the Connections puzzle quite decently, for once.

Day Ten

~ The day arrived sunny and hot, like usual. We were on the bus about an hour and twenty minutes before arriving at the farm where we had the final orchard study of our tour. This farm raises mostly what is known as stone fruit: peaches, plums, and nectarines.

~ I knew we were going to a fruit farm, so it surprised me when we drove in the lane and the first thing we saw was a herd of Holstein cows in a field! We later learned that there are five brothers in the family that owns this farm. Several of them run the dairy side of things and the others do the orchard operations.

~ The nectarine trees we saw were lovely, laden with their deep-colored fruit. It seemed like that block was close to harvest. The most intriguing kind of peaches were the flat variety. Sometimes they are called doughnut peaches, for good reason. Ken gave me a bite of the flat peach he picked, and the “stolen fruit” was indeed sweet. Not to mention juicy and warm, as if it had been heated in an oven. Sun-baked, in this case, though.

~ Our group had lunch at Nuy On the Hill, a gorgeous spot on a rise overlooking valley crops in almost all directions. When we got inside the restaurant, one of our guides told me that the coordinator she was conversing with at the moment has the same name I do. The coordinator was as pleased as I was to discover another Danette. I knew exactly what she meant when she said there are not many of us in the world. 😊

~ After we were all served our delicious hamburger and fries lunch, we enjoyed a fruit-tasting session that had been prepared for us by a company specializing in developing new fruit varieties. We filed by tables with displays that had several varieties each of cherries, peaches, plums, apricots, and nectarines. There were knives available for slicing off samples of the fruit; we were welcome to try any of the kinds we wanted. What a fun and tasty session!

~ In the evening, for our farewell party, our group went to a large venue that was made over from an old farm equipment storage building. I thought the renovations resulted in a blend of rustic and elegant, if that is possible. Our meal certainly was elegant! Its main feature was filet mignon, with melt-in-your-mouth taste and tenderness.

~ During the time of mingling over appetizers that we had outdoors before the dinner proper, I enjoyed chatting with Lisa. She and her husband Harald are fruit farmers from Norway, and she was telling me about some of their country’s customs. The couple’s wedding followed the old farm tradition with its festivities lasting parts of three days, the wedding party and family going out in a boat on the fjord at one point, fiddle-playing, gun-firing, the bride and groom dressing in traditional garb (called a bunad) and the bride wearing a crown, and villagers that were not invited to the wedding coming at 11pm on the middle day to join in the dancing and partying for one full hour. To me, the customs of people and places different from my own are so very fascinating!

~ Some of us left the party earlier than others. We joined the fuddy-duddy group (Carla’s term, not mine) on the first bus going back to the hotel. We enjoyed interacting with Carla and Corey, fruit farmers from Lancaster, PA, throughout the week. When we exchanged goodbyes with them, they invited us to stay with them the next time we travel to Lancaster. Although it likely won’t happen, I would love to be able to keep up our connection with them in that way. 

Days Eleven and Twelve

~ We are beginning our lasts here in South Africa. This morning we had one more breakfast in the Stellenbosch Hotel Kitchen, where there was always a colorful display of fruit, yogurt, meats and cheeses on the breakfast buffet. We took one more walk in town together, mostly along “our path” beside the boulder-lined stream, taking in the wonderful view of the mountain in the background. (Does anyone else adopt certain places and habits as their own after spending a week or two in a strange place, or is that just us?)

The courtyard of our hotel was so lovely.

Sculpture of a gold miner (titled "Digging for Happiness") 
that we passed on our last walk in Stellenbosch 

~ Ken and I had lunch with Niel, a friendly South African who is also in the fruit farming business. He works for Delecta Fruit, one of Martin’s apple suppliers. Ken and Niel talked apples and business while I mostly listened, but I was impressed with the way Niel made me feel included in the meeting. When he found out I’m named after my dad, Dan, he said his name is Daniel, too, but he has Niel as his nickname instead of Dan.

~ I was amazed at how many people Niel knows. A few times while we were sitting at our outdoor patio table, he called out greetings to people that passed by, even though it had been five years since he was back to visit in Stellenbosch. When I commented on this, he explained that he had gone to the university there years ago, so he still has friends in the area from that time. Besides, he said, people in the Western Cape fruit farming business are very connected.

~ Our long trip home went very well, over all. The two lengthy flights were uneventful as far as turbulence goes, and the eight-hour layover in Frankfurt, Germany went rather quickly, especially when I was able to snooze awhile on a somewhat-reclining chair. 

 

~ I’m sure not everyone could say their trip was uneventful, though. I felt concern for the person experiencing some sort of medical emergency during the flight from Frankfurt to Toronto. Twice, a stewardess made an announcement over the intercom regarding the situation, once to call for anyone with medical training to offer assistance, and the second time to ask for someone with Albanian language skills to help with translating. Knowing I couldn’t help out with either of these requests, I took the announcements as a call to pray for all involved.

~ We had some interesting conversations with other travellers this time. While we were waiting to board in Cape Town, I gave up my seat to Jose, a spritely 78-year-old grandma, for a time. She took that as an invitation to engage in conversation, which she swung into with gusto. She was on her way to visit her daughter who has three lovely, lively children who were sure to make their grandma exhawsted. After asking about the significance of my veiling, Jose made a note of the name Mennonite for future study into a group she’d never heard of before.

~ We also visited with a young man sitting beside Ken on the plane. He was from Poland, but is currently studying in Innsbruck, Austria to become an electrical engineer. He was on his way to visit a fellow-student in Victoria, BC, and this was his first time in Canada. He was very observant and excited as we approached Toronto and could see the city and landmarks such as the CN Tower. Another young lady struck up a conversation with us as we were waiting to deplane in Toronto. She lives in Waterloo, and was surprised to learn that we’re part of Martin’s Family Fruit Farm. She has visited the farm a time or two with her family. Traveling sometimes reminds me that it’s a small world we live in.

~ Traveling also reminds me that wherever we go, people are people. I observed this in the airports, when I saw people rush to stand in line to have their boarding pass stamped so they can walk briskly down the boarding ramp so they can wait in line to actually enter the plane so they can press into the aisle, bumping elbows on their way to stall behind numerous people nonchalantly stowing their baggage in the overhead bins.

~ Also at the airport, I learned that some women like to wear their perfume very strong. I learned that moms everywhere are susceptible to a natural response when spoon-feeding their babies: opening and closing their own mouth when they put a bite in the child’s mouth. I also observed that grown men in sophisticated suits are capable of reverting back to boyhood habits. The guy at the Lufthansa ticket agent desk is a case in point. He was picking his nose, I kid you not, in between handling our passports and tagging our check-in luggage. Oh well, he probably doesn’t have a cold right now.

~ Watching people cling to one another and cry over their goodbyes and linger in the airport corridor to look back and wave wildly multiple times makes me think that people’s relationships are still alive and well. To get these glimpses of love thriving among this world’s broken mess of humanity somehow gives me hope.

And this brings us to the end of our trip. It’s been fun sharing these updates with you. Thanks for coming along for the ride!

I like this piece of art commissioned for our trip. 
Fittingly, IFTA, (International Fruit Tree Association) 
and SA (South Africa) '24 are integrated in the zebras' stripes 
and the spots on the leopard are all tiny fruits.