Another week slips by...

Only nine more left before we leave Cape Town for Singapore. Still so much to do here. Thank goodness we'll be back in December!

Last week we had the first "Dinner with the Stantons" evening with the students. Instead of cooking up a feast at home, we walked to our local restaurant, The Wijnhuis, for a very pleasant evening with Bonnie Chien, Shelly Amieva, Lucy Litvak and Adriana Campos. Bonnie is from Taiwan, Shelly and Adriana are both from Texas and their families come from Mexico, while Lucy is from Mill Valley a few miles from our home in West Marin!

Tim took four students to Riebeeck Kasteel on Saturday morning, to Goedgedacht Trust where they are doing research projects. There are a number of fine wineries in the area where Tim enjoyed sampling wine and olives. Not in quite the same jolly vein as last week's ramble in the Constantia Valley, since he was the driver, but very pleasant to explore a new area. The town of Riebeeck Kasteel has an eclectic mix of shops and restaurants and Tim stopped at the Bar Bar Black Sheep restaurant for some gazpacho. The menu there has pretty fine food for a teeny town. Click on the link if you want to listen to some Afrikaans "boere musiek" (farmers' music, also called "tikkie draai") and check out the menu.

Saturday evening our friend Pieter Jolly launched two new books, one called Rock Shelter, about cave houses in Lesotho, and the other on decorated Sotho houses. The event took place at the Iziko Cape Town museum, in the rock art gallery where we took the students last quarter for the first part of our field trip when Pieter was our rock art guide. The displays there are excellent - it was a perfect setting to show off the  beautiful photos in these books. After speeches and sales quite a few of us carried on partying at Pieter's house. I took my camera along - click the link to see photos of the fun evening.

Last night we got the closest to Bluegrass we've been in Cape Town at the Alma Cafe where Blacksmith performed to an enthusiastic following. Lots of singing along encouraged, and Tim seemed to know all the words!

Today we woke to cold and rain. Winter is here. This evening we'll be environmental activists at a meeting at our old favourite, the Vineyard Hotel. We'll be protesting the building of another nuclear power plant near Cape Town. It will be a different sort of Monday evening compared to our old wine tasting nights when our friend Chris filled our glasses with generous samples of fine wines.

Constantia Wines and Sunday hike

We’ve been in Cape Town four months now and not yet ventured out to taste the blush of the vines, apart from the visit to my grandparent’s old fruit farm turned into a wine estate in Stellenbosch. So, last weekend, on a lovely clear Saturday morning, we set off with our friend, Pieter Jolly, in his 56 year old Citroen to explore our local Constantia Valley, a half hour from home.

The day was too short to visit more than three of the eight farms in this region, but I think we chose well.

Constantia Uitsig (uitsig = view) is much more than a mere wine estate, with three restaurants, a cricket oval, a hotel made up of guest cottages and spa, and, finally, rows and rows of vines. Sadly the tasting room abuts the main road and feels decidedly “touristy” leading into one of the restaurants.

Because Constantia Uitsig charges for their tasting (R20 for 6 wines) we only ordered two, one for Pieter and one for Tim and me to share. We started with a bubbly, the only estate of the three we visited to offer a Methode Cap Classique (South Africa’s name for Methode Champenoise). It was a good way to start our morning, but, ouch, the cost of this and all their wines was as unattractive as the setting alongside the busy road. The wines were very nice but a touch beyond our means.

Without being inspired to take any photos here, we piled into the Citroen and moved on to the next farm called Klein Constantia (= Small Constantia), winding our way along the back roads. We felt like we were miles from suburbia as we skirted the border of the original Constantia Estate, now subdivided into Groote (=Big) Constantia, Klein Constantia and Buitenverwachting (see below).

We passed through the guarded gates and Pieter led the Citroen along the dusty farm lane to the tasting room, passing ancient buildings that triggered old history lessons of Jan van Riebeeck’s arrival in the Cape and the early attempts to make wine.

The tasting room was situated on the floor above the cellar with glass doors to view what was happening down there. There was a buzz of activity here, lots of tasters, all very friendly. We loved the wines, although they, too, were a little pricey. The hosts were extremely generous ending with a small tot of their famous Vin de Constance, a dessert wine made in the same tradition as that produced in the 18/19th century enjoyed by the likes of Napoleon.

Another plus – there was no charge for the tasting at Klein Constantia – bonus! They produce a cheaper KC label, not on the tasting list, but available from our local distributor.

Klein Constantia gets a big thumbs up.

Buitenverwachting (= Beyond Expectation) is almost next door to Klein Constantia and also part of the original Constantia Estate. Another lovely farm road led us past beautiful old buildings to their tasting room where, again, there was no charge. The mood was friendly and we made our way through half a dozen whites and reds, served by a young woman who works at weekends with her husband.

We weren’t able to see the cellar from the tasting room like we were at Klein Constantia, but there were casual tables, chairs and couches that created a comfortable atmosphere.

Outside, a gorgeous long lawn spread out towards the manor house where, from a side building, the cellar master’s wife served delicious picnics. By this stage we’d consumed enough wine samples to need to feast ourselves back to sobriety!

Some photos of our day and also of our lovely hike on Sunday in Kalk Bay with Nan and Daniel.

Cecilia Ravine Hike

The weather here has turned distinctly wintry so waking on Thursday to a windless, clear and sunny morning was a delightful gift. A hike was called for, but by the time I was finished the morning chores it was after 11:30 – time for mad dogs and Englishmen.

I decided to go back to one of my old favourite hikes, the Cecilia Waterfall loop that starts at the parking lot in Cecilia Forest and follows a stream sheltered by thick forest, up, and up. Ten years ago I was able to do this circuit in an hour, but today I felt very unfit as I trudged up the steps. After 15-20 minutes the path leaves the forest canopy and traverses up the slope, in the open. It was very hot and I simply had to stop to listen to some bird calls and mop my brow and catch my breath - what was I doing hiking in the midday sun?

The thought of the waterfall ahead of me boosted my spirits and roused me to the task of gaining the final elevation before dropping down a bit to the cool sanctuary in a small canyon along the dry and dusty path. I stuck my head under the water rushing down the moss and fern covered rock face, gasping at the icy contact, withdrawing almost instantly, letting the cool residue drip down my neck. Bliss!

After the waterfall the trail makes its last long haul up to the highest point on this circuit, and then drops down a myriad steps into another gully of trees. A last small rise and then down more steps to the contour path.

I looked at my watch. If I jogged this next section I might be able to make my one hour target. I got back to the parking lot with a very red face, but not from embarrassment – I’d done the hike in 55 minutes! Thank you legs, heart and body!

I’ve posted some family pictures from the last few weeks – take a look if you’d like to see Nan, Daniel, Ayanda, Nathaniel, Gareth and Naz.

Tears, movies, a book, and Spring Quarter Orientation

Tim and I saw The Last Station over the weekend. Marvelous performances by Helen Mirren, Christopher Plummer and others. But a very sad ending and I left the theatre clutching a soggy lump of tissues.

On Monday evening we watched District 9 on video - terrific movie and so South African. When it came out last year the reviews were mostly good, but I'm not mad about science fiction and had little interest in watching creatures that look like a cross between a cockroach and a prawn acting out on a big screen. But I was swept away by the possibilities in this story and the analogies with political situations in this, and other, countries.

While watching the movie we munched on a bar of 85% chocolate which gave us both a sleepless night. Unable to nod off, I got up around 4:30am. I was nearly finished the book Marley and Me - being awake now was a perfect opportunity for me to get to the end.

I'm not sure if we are more susceptible to tears in the early dawn hours, or this was just a teary week for me, or the author, John Grogan, tells his story extremely well. I spent more than an hour sobbing through the ending pages and, for the whole morning, wasn't really able to think about anything other than the loss of one of my Jack Russell terriers, Popcorn, many years ago.

Monday was Orientation day for the new group of students. Over lunch the faculty and lecturers teaching this quarter outlined their courses followed by dessert and questions. Of course I was there to take photos!

Here's one of Tim explaining his course to students.

March ends and a new quarter begins

The first Stanford academic quarter is over and almost all the lovely students we met have gone home. All except four who have stayed to travel and take more courses here with the new students in the second quarter.

The African Genocide class I took has also ended. Our last seminar, where we revisited the definition of genocide, was held at Rhodes Memorial on a sunny wind-free day sitting around a table overlooking the city, far removed from possible genocidal atrocities. The five students taking the class ended the session with a spontaneous intense discussion re the complicated issues that the topic of genocide raises. A philosophically mind blowing experience that I was so lucky to be part of!

My son, Gareth, arrived with his girlfriend, Naz, from London on March 6th. It's been wonderful having them down the road, staying in a nearby guest house, popping in almost every day - a great treat for me.

The Farewell Dinner for the students took place last week at Moyo restaurant at Spier wine farm, about 35 kilometers from here. We all piled into the bus driven by Sipho Mpepho who has done nearly all the shuttling for the students. Of course I took photos and hope you enjoy them!

Here we are with our painty faces at the Farewell Dinner!

It's been a while ......

My first attempt to update my blog since the Field Trip a month ago - what is happening in Cape Town to keep me so busy?

Tim went away right after the Field Trip, back to the US to a meeting in Georgia, followed by a visit to his wonderful parents in Florida, then to Stanford for some work and to see his children and grandsons, and finally a night at home in Inverness; all the while waiting on tenterhooks for his passport to be processed by the South African embassy in Los Angeles, making him legal for work in Cape Town at last.

While Tim was away my sister, Gillian, came to visit from Johannesburg and we had a marvelous party weekend in the winelands celebrating two good friends' seventieth birthdays. Gill and I visited the farm in Stellenbosch where my father was born and where we, as children, went for regular Sunday visits while my grandmother was alive. This farm, Glenelly, has recently been bought by Madame De Lencquesaing, owner of a vineyard in France. Madame has converted my dad's old family fruit farm into a plush, modern wine estate and we were taken on a tour of the house, the vineyards, the tasting rooms and the cellars. We felt some sadness at the loss of our childhood haunts, but enjoyed walking around the beautifully manicured home.



And then the dreaded gastric flu attacked and left me feeling helpless and hopeless for close on a week. But it gave me an opportunity to read Stieg Larsson's The Girl who Played with Fire, the follow-up to The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo - a thrilling escape and just what I needed. I followed that with my first ever TC Boyle book, The Tortilla Curtain, which I loved even though the story is a tough one to digest. His writing is wonderful. And the last little book I devoured is called Wild Honey by Bookey Peek. Treat yourself to this read - such an inspiring story set against the depressing background of Zimbabwe's decline.

I got better, Tim got back, and we geared up for the Stanford Reception on Friday March 12th - what a good party! My camera was once again in action - click on the link to see the photos.

The Long Awaited Field Trip

Disaster struck last weekend - the weather gods must have been in a bad mood because they posted forecasts for temperatures in the Cederberg (where we were headed for the weekend) in the mid to high 40's Celsius, or over 110F. We had to cancel our plans much to the dismay of all eager to get away from city life for a bit.

Tim hurriedly consulted with staff and our rock art guide, Pieter Jolly, and came up with an alternative outing, keeping the emphasis on art of the San people (which is why we were going to the Cederberg!)

1:30 pm Friday we gathered around the bus with Pieter and set off for the Ixiko South African Museum in Cape Town where we spent an hour or so poring over the excellent rock art displays.

Back into the bus, always expertly handled by our driver, Sipho Mpepho, who has been driving Stanford students since the first pilot program in 2006. Down the peninsula we drove, to Noordhoek where Tim had arranged accommodation for all but four of us at Monkey Valley resort, while the four boys chose to stay in the lodge at the nearby Noordhoek Farm Village. These boys like sticking together.

After checking in and tea/scones, Grant held a class followed by some free time to explore the beach before dinner. Monkey Valley is set in a well established and secluded grove of Milkwood trees, one of my favorite coastal shrubs. They were in flower and the smell, for some, was a little unpleasant!

Our wooden cottages, with evocative names like Hornbill, Leopard, Falcon, Albatross and Dormouse, all seemed to be in perfect harmony with nature. What a treat after the disappointment of the cancelled Cederberg outing. Dinner was nothing to write home about but Pieter followed on with an outstanding slide show of some of his photos of beautifully executed rock art.

Saturday morning we hiked a short way to Peers' Cave which contains traces of human habitation dating back as much as two hundred thousand years. Unfortunately, modern graffiti blasphemes the walls today, but on the plus side, some cave paintings can be seen high up, above the defaced area. It's nice to know something from the Middle Stone Age remains in this much used cave. And it felt good to think that humans were living in this huge overhang so long ago, hunting small antelope in the fynbos, searching out edible plants, collecting shellfish and catching fish from the two water masses, False Bay to the east, the Atlantic ocean to the west.

Back for more meeting time with Grant, a fascinating session on South African humour with tea with delicious muffins. Lunch followed after which we lounged around the pool and deck until it was time to head off to Hermanus, the second leg of our improvised field trip.

Hermanus is a popular coastal village with sea, surf, beaches, mountain, lagoon and glorious walks. The bus took the students straight to Grotto Beach. Saturday was the hot day: 35 C at the coast and 45+ inland. Grotto beach, with stretches of white sand as far as the eye can sea, was the perfect antidote to 2+ hours in the bus on a very warm day. Lots of frolicking before returning to the village and checking into the Hermanus Backpackers.

Meanwhile, Tim, Pieter and I had driven to Hermanus in our own car. Grant and his family did the same and we congregated at the B&B we'd booked into, The Potting Shed. Pieter had been allocated the Loft room - oops, on the hottest day of the year? No, that wasn't going to work. Fortunately the owners were pretty flexible and gave us keys to an apartment they manage which was ok for the night. Not quite Monkey Valley, but it was cool and we were close to the sound of the crashing surf.

That evening we gathered for supper at the Hermanus backpackers. Chicken or Vegetable Potjie was the order and heaped platefuls were dished up to the hungry horde. The last activity on Saturday took place in a large front room at the backpackers that we cordoned off from other guests. It was a game of Double Jeopardy. Questions/Answers were setup by Grant and some of his students, and the whole game masterminded by Anna with a computer and LCD projector. Students got together in three groups and in this complicated game of "What question goes with this statement?" hands went up, voices too, answers delivered, and all the time Claire kept score. Lots of laughs!

During the night we couldn't believe it rained. And continued to do so on Sunday morning which put a damper, literally, on plans to hike in the mountains, although some of us managed a nice coastal walk in between showers. Others walked around the town, and Tim took a group to the town of Stanford to check out a community project there.

We all met for lunch at Bientang's cave. This was the final touch to a very pleasant weekend. Bientang was the last "Strandloper" ("Beach Walker" Khoi person) who lived in this cave, harvesting seafood. The rock shelter is enormous and the cave where Bientang is thought to have lived is tucked into a low crevice, behind the restaurant bar area. Whoever thought students were disappearing behind the bar for 'refreshments' was wrong - they were seeking solace in the ancient cave.

Tim left for the US on Tuesday afternoon - lucky him to be back home for a bit. Enjoy him, all who see him!

And now, what you've been waiting for, photo's of the field trip!

Oh, and one last titbit (we're in South Africa and that's how it's spelt here!) - we learned that on Saturday it was 45.5 C and Sunday 43 C in the Cederberg - big relief we changed the plans!

!Khwa ttu and Pieter Dirk Uys

The students got their first introduction to South African culture on Saturday when Sipho Mpepho, our wonderfully reliable bus driver, took us to the San Education and Culture Centre, !Khwa ttu, 70 kilometers up the coast, near Yzerfontein. We arrived in time for a lesson in the San Language, attempting all the click sounds with great enthusiasm!

!Khwa ttu has a most informative photo gallery where I could have spent much more time, but the tractor-trailer was waiting for us. We boarded and were taken to the start of a short walk. First we learned how to track animals from their hoof prints. Then we were shown how to trap animals. We learned a bit about plants that were useful to the San and ended our walk at the San village where we sat in a circle in the boma listening to San stories, some translated from different San languages.

On our way back to the craft shop we passed a sizeable herd of Eland, an animal important to the San people. Some zebra and springbok too.

Heading for 5:30 pm, it was time to move on to Darling, a small town where South Africa's famous satirist, Pieter Dirk Uys performs in the theatre he created out of an abandoned and disused railway station called "Evita se Perron" (Evita's platform) at Darling's old station.

At 7 pm on Saturday evening Pieter performed Elections and Erections beginning with a Hillary Clinton skit that got us off to a good start. He knew there would be US students in his audience and he interacted with them during the show. It was great fun to be in the cosy theatre, sitting at tables with drinks while the show went on right next to us. A buffet style dinner was served afterwards.

And then Sipho brought us all safely home again. We are so lucky to have him as our regular driver.

Here are the photos! Enjoy!

Coming up next is the weekend field trip to the Cederberg. Watch this space!

Disas in Myburgh's Ravine and Wednesday dinner

Myburgh's Ravine is not described in many hiking books because it is a dangerous route in the Cape's wet winters. But in the summer, when most of the Cape Peninsula looks extremely parched, perennial water drips down the craggy cliffs to nourish the moss and ferns and other plants, and you'll find many folks clambering up the rocks to see the Disa Uniflora thriving in this small, damp ravine.


On Friday, while Tim was hard at work,I persuaded my long ago hiking friend, Peter Rex, to lead me up the ravine. You would never guess Peter's age the way he scrambles up cliffsides and over boulders as sure footed as a rock rabbit. At 78 he puts me to shame. Peter and I met twenty years ago when we were neighbours for a short while. In those days, if there was ever a difficult hike I wanted to try, I'd ask for Peter's expert guidance. It was very pleasant to be able to pick up on our old friendship again. Photo below shows the steep ravine walls on the left, Peter in the middle and some Disas on the right.You'll have to double click on the photo to see it in a decent size - I can't manage to work out how to get a collage to look as big as a single photo.


One more photo from last week - the four students who came to supper on Wednesday evening with Claire Gibson, their R/A, and Mary Simons, UCT lecturer in Political History of South Africa for the previous program's students. Mary wasn't feeling well and left before this photo was taken.



So there you have, from the left, Andrew Linford, Claire Gibson, Tom McAndrew, Tim, Craig Dabney and Jonathan Rich. It was Jon's birthday so we celebrated with some candles and a big carrot cake!

Into February.

Ten days since my last post and time rattles on. Last week my African Genocide class studied the San extermination in South Africa while this week we looked at the Aborigines in Tasmania and Australia with thoughts of how the genocides in these two continents compare.

We've now studied the Germans extermination of the Herero people, the Dutch trekboers encroachment into San territory and their commandos that slaughtered the San; the San's attempt at resistance, and their eventual extermination after the British took over the Cape. The Brits also decimated the Tasmanian aborigines and were pretty successful at breaking down the Australian indigenous peoples' way of life and more.

Next week we're off to the Canary islands to examine the Spanish invasion of the closest of the seven Canary islands to the coast of Africa, and the earliest genocide of the modern era.

We are such a cruel race.

On to more cheerful stuff. Billy and Breda went back to Ireland on Monday so Tim and I hosted a great evening of fine food last Friday with Chris Wiehe our guest of honour. Since our arrival in December, Chris has been generously serving us wines in his role as the Vineyard hotel's sommelier at his Monday evening winetastings. We were quick to introduce Breda and Billy to these merry evenings, and have enjoyed Pieter Jolly's company there too. So the Vineyard support group got together with Claire, Stanford's student Resident Assistant who brought her boyfriend Joe (who runs the Stanford Sierra camp when he is not on holiday visiting Claire).

Friday's food: bruschetta to start from Claire and Joe. Geelbek (I hate calling it Cape Salmon, its "English" name) brilliantly braaied by Tim and checked for doneness by Chris, sauce of tomatoes,chillies, chorizo and prawns by Breda, veggies by Sherry. We wined and dined sumptuously with Billy throwing in the odd joke, and Pieter adding his stories. To end this wonderful evening, Breda had made a magnificent Summer Pudding - lick your lips delicious!



On Saturday morning it was drizzling so Tim and I decided to wait til Sunday to hike - who wants to get wet? But it poured with rain on Sunday, and this time we really should have stayed at home, but we'd arranged to meet a friend so we pushed ourselves up to the contour path in the drenching rain. We were sopping when we got home, but it felt pretty good!

Saturday night we hit the movies with Nan and Daniel. Up in the Air - we enjoyed it, but felt a bit sad at the end. So much more to life than collecting frequent flier miles!

Sunday I picked up Ayanda and Nathaniel and met Nan and Daniel at Muizenberg. We played Putt-Putt. Great fun, and not without a few temper tantrums as Ayanda adapted to failure at a few very naughty holes that kept jumping out of the path of her well aimed ball.

Tonight I am slaving at the stove again for another of our student dinners. There are only four guys in the group of twenty four students and all four signed up for "Dinner with the Stantons" on the same night, and that's tonight. I'm cooking a huge curry for large appetites.

All for now....