Women's Day Adventure

The 9th of August is Women’s Day in South Africa. This day commemorates the march by the Federation of South African Women – a multi-racial group of 20,000 women -- held at the Union Buildings in Pretoria on 9th August in 1956. The women were demonstrating against the so-called pass laws, which required people of color to carry “passes” or identity documents that proved they were allowed to enter “white areas”. Despite the protests of those women, the pass laws weren’t repealed until 1986.

So, that Thursday was a public holiday, and Jean gave Friday off to those of us who would be attending IFLA over the weekend in Durban two weeks later. When Lisa Glenn called to see if I was up for an adventure, I was ready. We decided to concentrate on an area close to home – the Magaliesburg – and after a little bit of Web searching (really, HOW did we ever travel without the Web?!), we decided on a hike at Vergenoeg Nature Reserve (http://www.hartbeespoort.co.za/vergenoeg/index.htm) which is about an hour from my house near Hartbeespoort Dam, and then circle back to spend the night at Aloe Ridge Hotel (http://www.aloeridgehotel.com/), which is only 30 minutes north of where I live. Dinner would be at The Observatory (at Aloe Ridge), home of the largest privately owned telescope in South Africa.

Lisa came to my house early that morning and we set off. Vergenoeg is owned by Jan and Elsa Pretorius. We learned that Jan worked for the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) before retiring. When we arrived, we paid Jan, met our guide dogs, Sheba and Wolfie, and started the path up the mountain. The path up is about 3 kilometers. The dogs weren’t the best guides in the world; they were easily distracted by flying birds, each other, and whatever other things are attractive to dogs. Still, it was kind of fun having them along.

As you look at the photos, remember that it is winter here, so almost everything is either brown or gray. Even the air! Winter in Gauteng is very dry, and veld fires are common. There is an almost constant haze in the air. But I bet this place is beautiful in the summer!

We lost our way a couple of times, but not too far. Close to the top of the mountain was an overlook where we could have stopped to watch the Cape vultures gliding on the thermals, but a large-ish group of people came from behind, and our unspoken wish was to get away from them, so we forged ahead to the 4K trail down.

This was great exercise for me, because I’ve spent much of the winter weekends in bed – the only place I can stay warm! And it was good for Lisa as she prepares for the December hike across the country that she and fellow Rotary Scholars will undertake to raise money for various charities.

We came down about 11h30 and drove to the Hartbeespoort Dam. It was interesting, although stinky. They’ve had a problem with an overabundance of water hyacinths, which apparently rot and make the water stink. Ewww! After lunch in a nearby pub, we did a little bit of shopping at the craft market, then drove back towards town and Aloe Ridge.

We checked into the hotel, showered and rested up a little before dinner at The Observatory. Dinner was very good, but the fun thing about the evening is that small groups of people are escorted outside to the telescopes several times during the course of the meal. The astronomer (who we later learned is the owner of the telescope and property) would find something interesting to look at, bring folks out and tell them a bit about what they were about to see, and then you look at the object with the smaller telescope and then the big one. The big one is so big that you have to climb a ladder to get up to the eye.

We overheard a couple who turned out to be American and chatted with them for a bit. They had apparently met Alex (the owner) earlier in the day, and when the evening was over, he offered to drive all of us to the hotel door (not really very far away, but it was chilly). But Alex had something else in mind, and he drove us up the hill to his private residence. It was very lit up, and in the well-fenced front yard, he showed us his pride and joy – an American wolf that he imported. He also had a few bobcats roaming around. They were beautiful animals, but it was kind of disturbing to see them cooped up in such a relatively small area. Weird, actually. I hope he lets them out during the day.

The next day after breakfast, we took a walk down to the small waterfall, and then a longer walk following a dirt road around the perimeter of the property. That road stays on the far side of the fence. The place is actually a small game reserve. We saw some wildlife on our side of the fence, though, including several female and one magnificent male kudu, more interesting birds, and the baby hippo (the adults were on the other side of the fence). We also enjoyed closely observing the almost tame vervet monkeys and zebra family near the entrance of the hotel. Then we headed back to town so Lisa could make her 15.00 class, which had not been cancelled.

All in all, we had a very nice adventure.