Farm Life

            

      We arrived in Cape Town, overcame our culture shock and were transplanted right back into paradise. Brian and his father Errol picked us up from the Airport with open, welcoming arms. We spent the next couple days surfing, hiking, swimming with seals (trying not to think about great white sharks…), cooking mean meals, baking cookies and relaxing—coming down from the whole experience in Ramotswa.

            Errol offered to drive us to Villiersdorp: the farmlands where we would be spending the next week. We took a beautiful scenic route, catching views of magnificent craggy mountains that stretch down to meet the endless sea. The fog looms over the high peaks like a misty blanket. My, my South Africa has a fine coastline.

     We arrived in Villiersdorp around one o’clock. It is located about two hours outside of Cape Town in a lush valley in the middle of nowhere. We had no idea what to expect… when we reached our destination, we were amazed. In front of us lay a pristine farm: green pastures stretching on forever, endless vineyards, countless horses galloping and trotting over the grassy knolls, a quaint little farm house, a plentiful garden, herds of sheep, nine dogs running out to greet us—all to top it off, all of this is just the foreground… behind, rests a massive, gorgeous rocky mountain range. We were instantly in heaven. 

            We said goodbye to Brian and Errol (which always makes us sad… but we’ll be seeing them next week again—their home has become our ‘home base’ or ‘second home’… and they’ve become our South African family). We were briefed on the rules of the farm house:

1.     Eat anything (booze, we have to pay for… not a strict rule, they got us tipsy last night)

2.     Um, yeah, that’s pretty much the only rule…

So, we’ve got it pretty good. We spent the day today helping Willem with the wine making. We were part of what you might call a ‘human machine’. We worked with about ten other men… manual labor, stacking wine bottles. It went something like this: receive bottles, pass bottles, stack bottles, repeat. Receive, pass, stack. Receive, pass, stack. On and on.

We did this for a while, then took off to explore the property.

“Just watch out for the leopard,” they told us.

LEOPARD? !!

“Oh! And the poisonous snakes.”

!!

Regardless, we went exploring… We trekked through the bush on the look out for dangerous creatures. We didn’t find any… but we did find a glassy, turquoise pool of water. Then I remembered another word of advice we had received:

“Look out for leeches!”

They told us that there were two water holes, one with leeches, one without. This one looked so clear and inviting…. So we took our chances and went skinny-dipping. No leeches! Success.

 

So, that’s my story lately.

Side note: Sometimes I spend my days waiting for something to happen. A person might waste their entire life waiting for something to happen… just passing the time, hoping for a climax to emerge from the chaos. What I’ve come to realize is that there is no climax. There is no pinnacle, no culmination of past moments that come together to become something solid—something that makes sense. It will never make sense.  All we have is the current moment—we have to grab it and shape it into our own perceived reality. It’s like silly-puddy in our hands… We have the power to create our own future. It’s all about the ups and downs—it’s about the short and powerful highs that make life worth living. It’s about appreciating the negative experiences, growing from those occurrences, moving on and embracing the disorderly world that we live in.  

♥