Louis Trichard to Swaziland via Machadodorp

I was contemplating a quiet evening at Absolute Leisure on Friday 27^th May as I waited for the Bristow group arriving from Jo’burg and Louis Trichard.  I busied myself lighting the log fires as it was a cool evening, and at Absolute Leisure we like to give a warm welcome! Tegan was the first to arrive.  The drive from Wits where she lectures in Multi Media Digital Arts was easy, but she had heard that the others coming from Louis Trichard had had a flat tyre on our less than hospitable county roads.  Tegan invited me to join her for a glass of red wine and some perfectly ripened brie which had to be eaten that day, so I was more than happy to help out!  As we chatted Tegan told me that Leigh, her sister in law, has a habit of accumulating crowds....

The rest of the team arrived a little later, and in an instant a largely Woollies gourmet dinner was out on the table in Geluk and everyone, self included, was merrily tucking in and enjoying further bottles of wonderful red wine. And what fascinating, wonderful people I had the privilege of sharing the evening with.

Leigh set up Ridgeway College some years back www.ridgewaycollege.co.za , a quality private school in Louis Trichard. With her were Sandy and Rosy, two top bursary pupils from the school, as well as Leigh’s kids Kim and Aiden.  Then, there was, fresh from the UK, the new highly qualified Physics teacher for Ridgeway College, Geoff, from Wales, as well as Mike, the school’s scholarship fund raiser, retired English and cricket teacher, former church minister at the world famous Regina Mundi Church, Soweto during the 1980s, ANC activist, and ultimately a banned South African (because white people who spent a significant amount of time in the black townships in the 1980s were seen as a threat to the government of the time.

As we chatted we discovered considerable mutual ground.  Leigh had taught Thiofhi, our Emakhazeni Open Africa Route facilitator, when he was still at school in Louis Trichard.  I made mental note for Thiofhi’s next visit that he has formal cooking training and is known to be quite a whizz chef!

Mike knows the Brewer family from Katrinasrust Trout Farm on the Slaahoek Road (between Machadodorp and Badplaas), having also instilled some education into both Tim and Gavin when they were still wearing short pants!  Tim and Gavin now run the lovely scenic Schurweberg mountain retreat as a trout farm and weekend fly fisherman’s lodge with some of the best trout fishing in the region.  The business has been in the family for 3 generations, their grandfather having developed the trout farming some years back. gavinbrewer@telkomsa.net  +27132569058 or +27825747121.  

Of course the next question was why were these wonderful people spending the night in Machadodorp?  And in the answer lies another fascinating story.  Mike’s God son Jigs Thorne has set up an amazing establishment at Malkerns in Swaziland, called House on Fire - a n events venue and art gallery.  Annually this venue holds a music festival, the Bush Fire Festival, to which up to 4000 music lovers come  to hear a fusion of music from around the globe.  The festival not only helps develop and inspire local artists, but also raises money for upliftment causes and education in Swaziland.  Check out web sites www.bush-fire.com and www.house-on-fire.com .  I was tempted to join them for the weekend ...but alas did not have my passport with me! Tegan, you were right about Leigh’s habit of accumulating crowds!  Don’t forget to invite me next year Leigh...I’d love to come too!

Girl's Weekend

Four Cellists!

To celebrate the achievement of completion of her doctorate, Dr Terry , Peta Ann and Emakhazeni Highlands Lass set off for a girl’s weekend in the Mpumalanga Highlands...of course!  This all sound rather simple – not so!  Peta Ann’s work schedule as professional cellist with the JPO (Johannesburg Philharmonic Orchestra ), Terry’s lecture and marking commitments in the Social Work Dept at UJ (the University of Johannesburg), and my too-ing and fro-ing between Gauteng and Mpumalanga took a lot of co-ordinating.  Finally, following the wonderful concert by the JPO on Thurs 19^th May, after the post concert drinks with the orchestra, and  photo of 4 cellists (with varying degrees of competency from top professionals Dmitry Kouzov and Peta Ann, to ‘fit for Alex McCall Smith’s Really Terrible Orchestra’ Terry & I), we rattled off at around 11pm in Terry’s Landrover Defender.  Arrival at Absolute Leisure, Machadodorp at 2am was celebrated with a bottle of sparkling wine, and once we had run out of our many words for the day, we retired to bed around 3.

A late start on Friday took us to Kaapsehoop Horse Trails for a beautiful stroll along the scenic escarpment, overlooking rolling valleys www.horsetrails.co.za .  No, we weren’t saddled up on the wild horses of Kaapsehoop – heaven forbid!!!! – I was terrified as it was, having not sat on a horse since I was a child.  Kaapsehoop is famous for its wild horses, which graze peacefully around the hamlet, eating up the local residents’ flower gardens and grass.  The horses are believed to have been left by the gold rush folk who arrived in their masses in Kaapsehoop in the 1800s when it was rumoured that there was “gold in them there hills”.  The other theory is that they were left by the British soldiers from the South African Wars of 1900, when they returned to Britain after defeating Oom Kruger and sending him off into exile in Switzerland.   Whichever, it’s a beautiful sight to behold these free spirits wandering around the village in small family groups.  But back to our horses – which were very big, and also thankfully very placid – it was a wonderful two hours of relaxed stroll, with the more experienced riders having a good gallop back to the stables.  Interestingly Peta Ann had family ties with the area, her family having had ownership of one of the gold mines, but alas, things did not pan out (groan!) quite as well as the Oppenheimers!

  Part of our weekend’s journey was to share each others’ personal stories.                                                                                                       Following graduating as a Social Worker, Terry lived in a commune in the 1980s and practised social work in Soweto. She was under surveillance by the Security Police, being a suspected ANC terrorist in the days when the ANC was a banned organisation, and it was illegal to enter Soweto as a ‘white’ person without a permit. 

  One night at 0300hr her commune was raided and she was taken into custody, and interned in solitary confinement for 60days.  How did she survive the ordeal?  She said she just did not know how long she had been in there as one day drifted into the next.  She was interrogated daily, and just had no contact with the outside world.  Her Mother, who was dying of cancer at the time,  persistently phoned the authorities to try to find the whereabouts of her daughter, and this, Terry believes, was the reason they finally released her and dropped charges.  This experience resolved her to help even more with the struggle!

Peta Ann is from a highly achieving musical family, and spent her childhood and teens immersed in music, learning cello and ballet.  Her choice to become a professional cellist took her to the US to study further, before returning to South Africa.  Her Mum was an accomplished pianist who played and composed music as well as teaching.  Peta Ann remembers how her Mum was forever travelling  in and out of Soweto and other townships in the 1980s to play for black choirs.  Peta Ann herself is part of the JPO Cadet project, and teaches a number of young cellists from disadvantaged backgrounds, helping them to reach the high standards required for a professional career in music.

And as for Highlands Lass, my goal is to be a social healer within South Africa; to build trust between our rainbow of peoples and to help massage away the knots caused by South Africa's history.  In the rural Mpumalanga Highlands communities there is much low self esteem, poor education, hopelessness, fear of the unknown, fear for the future and anger, which all contribute to mistrust and division of people.  And what better vehicle to use than tourism! Tourism offers employment and business opportunity to people of all backgrounds. Traditional and township people can offer their cultures and ways of life, crafters can sell their wares. Dance, drama and music groups can perform.  And with further education we can have tour guides for culture, history, environment and ecology, as well as hotel and lodge owners and managers from the very communities that currently see no future for themselves.       

Following the horse ride and a fine pub lunch in Kaapsehoop, I took my friends to visit the site of the Mozambican train disaster of 1949 in Waterval Boven, our region’s only piece of Struggle Heritage.  Ploughing through the long grass, we arrived at the commemoration plaque – sadly there is still a lot of work to be done to bring this epic story to our tourism visitors.  But it will be done.  Just last year through the Dept of Heritage, I met one of the train disaster survivors, a dignified Mozambican pastor in his 80s.  In 1949 he was travelling home in the fated train after working 18 months as a labourer in the South African gold mines.  He remembers waking in the river after the train had fallen a good 100meters from the track over the escarpment down into the valley below.  He was taken to the Witbank hospital where he stayed for 6 months while his broken leg and back healed.  On being discharged from hospital, he was given the same blood encrusted, dirty clothes he had been cut out of, to return home to his family.  He was lucky.  63 of his fellow passengers are buried in the ‘black’ graveyard in Emgwenya township, Waterval Boven.

For our evening’s entertainment I had chosen the Wee Jazz Pub ( +27 72 915 7378 / +27 13 255 0726) in Siyathuthuka township, Belfast.  Now it’s not routine for 3 middle-aged ‘white’ women to got jolling (partying) in the ‘black’ township, especially in the Emakhazeni Highlands of Mpumalanga  but that is precisely why we went. We met Winny and some of her friends outside the Wee Jazz and chatted for a while in the street. Sadly for us, Winny, the business owner of Wee Jazz, had been up for the last 60 hours counting votes at our Municipal elections as part of the Independant Electoral Commission, being a thoroughly upright citizen.  She was not up to an evening of revelry so the Pub was closed.  Conventionally we returned to Belfast and tried out the newly opened Moulin Rouge Restaurant (+27 82 099 3849 / +27 84 430 5169) in Belfast.  Their De Luxe Pizza ‘Moulin Rouge’ I would highly recommend, and the ambiance was good.

Saturday morning saw us in the front garden of Absolute Leisure praising God through a 6 meditative symbolic movement sequences as taught by Terry:

1 Letting go of anger ( mimicking a bird flapping its wings)

2 Opening our hearts to new relationships (extending our hands outward from our hearts)

3 Painting a rainbow in the sky (just that)

4 Offering the Earth up for global peace (lifting a large imaginary ball up to the sky)

5 Playing with the world (bouncing a large imaginary ball between hands and feet)

6 Flying like Geese (or like an aeroplane while circling the garden)

So this was yet another confirmation to Machadodorp village of my off-the-wallish-ness.  Being different takes courage and conviction, but its worth it for the greater good.

I had yet another tourist attraction to take my friends to in Machadodorp in the limited time we still had.  The Machado Butchery, where Marina makes the best biltong (spiced and dried raw meat) in the whole of South Africa! People come from far and wide and take kilos of Marina’s biltong with them wherever they go.  Her phone number is +27 13 256 0323.  I have watched Marina’s kids grow up from babies in this wonderful shop.  Marina does her best to get me speaking Afrikaans, having heard that I was on my 3^rd attempt to learn a couple of years ago, but alas, it seems like I’m a hopeless case!  Saturday saw us return to Johannesburg revitalised and refreshed, and ready to get back to........things.

Inkhosi KJ Malaza's Ummemo - Cultural Festival 1st May - Part 2

Chefs at work

Dr Sambo

Chief KJ Malaza

Here are further pictures from the Ummemo, featuring Dr Sambo (seated), Chief Malaza and the chefs at work.



 Following our tour, the festivities started. The Chief addressed the people, and then the dancing started with the Indunas, then the Induna's wives, both groups performing with great dignity, followed by the young dancers showing their strength and energy.  It was a wonderful display of tradition, colour, dignity and energy....a tourism product waiting to be shown to the world.  Yet another gem of culture in our region presently unavailable to most.  This calls for a meeting with the Traditional Council!  Time to Facebook you, Zodwa!

Lovely girls!

Cool guys!

We noticed that the turn out to the Ummema was extremely well supported, and concluded that the tribal communication system seems to have better results than the more modern municipal system - and they don’t use internet either! Interesting!

The Induna's wives

The Indunas

Inkhosi KJ Malaza's Ummemo - Cultural Festival 1st May - Part 1

Bright and early on the cool Sunday morning of 1st May, Silvia and I dressed in our best trad African glad rags and set off to Chief KJ Malaza's annual Ummemo at the Chief's Kraal in Tjakafontein, close to Badplaas. We felt honoured to be attending such a grand affair as tourism representatives, having been invited by dear, beautiful Zodwa Nkosi, member of the Tribal Council, wife to one of our Indunas, Arts and Culture champion and facebook friend!

Things were still being prepared, so we checked out the market stall ladies, and then had an explanation of the Ummemo from the MC for the day Dr JZM Sambo, honoured in public speaking and a leader in Mpumalanga in choral development both in the schools and with the Police Music Competition each September.


Dr Sambo explained that the Ummemo is a "harvest thanks giving" for the community. He told us that the custom amongst the Nguni peoples is that they may not eat from the fields until after the Ummemo has taken place. The Ummemo also serves as a celebration of culture, allowing the young people to learn their culture from the older people, building identity, unity and pride amongst the community. Traditional dress is worn, and young and old perform traditional dance in front of the chief and invited VIPs, and for the crowds of villagers who attend.

I found it fascinating to be experiencing the real tribal governance of South Africa in action. As well as the Provincial and local Municipalities, tribal councils exist and are sponsored by national government.

Zodwa took us on a tour of the Chief's kraal to show us all the activities which had already taken place that morning. At 0500hr, sunrise, a cow had been slaughtered by the Chief and his Indunas (the senior men of the community) in a circular kraal, surrounded by tall sticks, which is the spiritual and royal place where the Chief and Indunas meet three times a year to discuss the affairs of the community. Then we met with the dance groups who were keen to pose for the camera in their beautiful dance clothes. People around were all busy, men and women alike, preparing the slaughtered cow for the VIP lunch later in the day, fires boiling up big cast iron pots, traditional drinks of umqombothi (traditional beer) and mahewu (sour maize juice) being made.

Our New Emakhazeni Tourism Office

Here is Silvia at work at our new Emakhazeni Tourism Office. As we await a prominent office with plenty of tourist feet passing through, we keep our work going through an admin office. Now our office is tucked away in Siyathuthuka, Belfast. No more commuting to work; our office is operating from Silvia’s rather compact family home in Entokozweni Section, Siyathuthuka. Skype calls to Silvia are punctuated with cocks crowing and chickens clucking as they pass through the Mahlangu garden! Well this is one way to take the concept of tourism to township folk! Tourism is for all! I no longer want to hear young black people telling me that tourism is for “the rich white people.” We are looking for all the craft makers and dance and drama groups we can find, to add to our list of tourism attractions in our beautiful Emakhazeni Highlands of Mpumalanga. We are already known for our fly fishing, hiking trails, horse riding, beautiful country scenery, internationally renowned rock climbing, as well as ancient stone circles and SA War history. Now we are adding Ishumi Lasemzansi T shirt (and more) brand,( sold from a well known Internet Cafe/barber shop in Siyathuthuka), Winnie’s Wee Jazz Bar and Restaurant, Chicken Dust, Ikhono Lethu Beadwork of Wonderfontein and the Shisa Nyamas to our list of attractions. Through the work we are doing with Open Africa, we will soon get all our attractions on the map. See www.openafrica.org Contact Silvia on silvia@emakhazenitourism.com and check out our web site www.emakhazenitourism.com ....and Facebook page too.

Easter - Gautengers escape to the country!

Andries, Lorette and Irma arrived Thursday evening to a blazing log fire in the Bakoni fire place taking the autumn chill from Machado House's elegant Victorian rooms. They stopped over on their way to the Kruger Park. As ever, the relaxing olde worlde charm of Machadodorp village waylayed them, and resulted in them setting off a good couple of hours later than planned on Friday morning. Andries and his wife have just moved from Johannesburg’s Wit University to Pretoria , Andries working as Associate Professor in Pretoria University’s Department of Sociology. They discussed the interesting cultural differences between the students of each University. The attractions they loved in Machadodorp include Milly’s trout pies, the distant chuffing of trains and the church clock’s bells drifting through the village night air. A soft mist surrounded us as we chatted in the morning.

Later on Friday morning we welcomed Aesha and Mahmood Nathoo just in time to get to Mosque. The Machadodorp Mosque is also in Taute Street, so they didn’t have far to go. The wind had built up a little and this reminded Aesha of Port Elizabeth where they both grew up. Geluk unit was their base for exploring the beautiful Emakhazeni Highlands of Mpumalanga. They took a tour to Badplaas through the beautiful Skurweberg pass, and enjoyed the fresh garden herbs in the Absolute Leisure gardens. Mahmood is a vegetable gardener of note in between his work in finance, so we exchanged a few vege growing tips!

Around lunch time the Grobler family arrived – Daniel and Muriel plus 3 year old Gené & 1 year old Louis. Gené just loved her room in Bakoni. After the long drive from Midrand the kids were brimming over with energy, and garden gates had to be closed rapidly to keep them from disappearing off down the street. Muriel was keen to browse the local junk and antique shops, so I recommended Flippy Taljard’s and the Highveld Emporium, as well as the Windmill Bargain Centre in Belfast. I also recommended they ask Flippy and Alta for a peek into their teddy bear room. Flippy, ever the eccentric Machadodorp artist, has covered the entire walls and ceiling of their bedroom with soft toys which he won from vending machines some years back. This room is a child’s dream come true!

Early afternoon saw the arrival of the Du Toit family from Jo’burg, Karen and Craig and their three boys. The boys, also full of energy and excitement, were straight up into the loft bedroom of Duckworth’s Dargle negotiating as to who would get to sleep there. Then, safely down the ladder again, the toy cupboard became the centre of attention. Pogo sticks and croquet set were tested in the garden while Mum and Dad unloaded the car. Dad Craig admitted to being a 1000 bounce pogo champ from when he was a kid, so their 5 day stay will see him and the kids honing their pogo skills along with some fishing and family bonding time. Happy holidays Du Toit Family! Please send some family pics for the blog.

The Back Road

On my way to Machadodorp and with a meeting in Middelburg, I made an economical route change decision and exitted the N4 highway at Emalahleni (Witbank) thus avoiding the Forty Rand toll fee at the Middelburg toll gate. A warm feeling stirred in my Scottish bones as I contemplated the Forty Rand I was saving. Along the way a few inconspicuous signs indicated that the road to Middelburg was closed, but this being South Africa I paid no attention and continued. Others were doing the same so no point in believing road signs. At around 15km of the 30km journey, where the road crosses the river, I saw ahead of me some mayor road works. I had heard that one of our friends at Middelburg Tourism Office was unable to get to work because during December’s heavy rains the bridge between Witbank and Middelburg had been washed away, and here I was at that very washed away bridge!

No sweat! As ever, an enterprising local farmer had made a plan, and a detour across a big grassy field (I missed a turn and found myself in a homestead surrounded by chickens) took me to a queue waiting to cross the river on a makeshift bridge. A farm worker stood at the front of the queue with a dented old bucket, and was handing each driver a 500ml bottle of orange juice, dropping the payments into the bucket. “Twenty Rand for a bottle of juice” he said as I arrived at the front. “I’m going to Middelburg, and I don’t need juice,” I said, a little indignant. “That’s Twenty Rand... ” he said, “...and you get a free orange juice.” I paid, got my free juice and laughed the rest of the way to my meeting. This is a must for foreign visitors and family outings! A real life “Boer maak ‘n plan” experience. And he’s half the price of the Middelburg tollgate!

Silvia & I had the juice with our Wacky Wednesday lunch!