Vrystaat Adventures

If you are anything like me, and I know you’re not, you may have wondered why there was a place in South Africa called the Orange Free State. What had citrus ever done to this place? Was this the home of the “I Love My Scurvy” Club?

Now, in the new South Africa, this province is known only as the Free State (Vrystaat in Afrikaans), as the name of the House of Orange which once ruled the Netherlands is considered too much of a vestige of Apartheid. It was the Free State because for a time, it was a sovereign state from the Union of South Africa, controlled by the Afrikaaners as the British pushed forward in the Anglo-Boer Wars. Also, the borders of the Free State are partially defined by the Orange and the Vaal Rivers (hence, the area north of the Vaal is called the Transvaal).

The Free State has been referred to as the “Iowa of South Africa” by one anonymous ZA’n who would know. There is a lot of agriculture there, as we discovered, but also much natural beauty and other features that (apologies to IA), Iowa lacks.

We were invited to visit the eastern Free State, near the Drakensberg Mountains by Frans, Aldia, and Daniel, who we know through the Architecture School here and with whom Jossie and the girls trekked to the Vaal River.

Frans is retiring from teaching at Tuks, and will be moving to start a farm near his sister, Hanna in Bethlehem, Free State.

We drove up on Friday night, and managed to find Bethlehem with only modest periods of being lost on back roads in the dark. The girls slept and were tucked in snuggly as we stayed up chatting and sipping wine.

On Saturday we explored the farm, getting acquainted with the lambs drinking their morning milk, pigs eating whatever we threw to them, cattle, horses, ducks, dogs, cats and people.

After a hearty Free State Farmer’s breakfast, the caravan us Frans et al and the Zanzotmobile took off for an adventure. The girls napped as we headed toward the Drakensberg Mountains, and the Basuto Cultural Village. We could see the high Drakensberg and Lesotho to the south of us as we drove past the former Qwa Qwa Homeland (part of the 13% of land in ZA allotted to Blacks during apartheid).

At the Basuto Cultural Village we got to see how the Basuto People lived traditionally. We saw homes in the style of the pre-16^th century and forward, as different influences crept in.

The houses became a little more ornate in each cluster,

until the 20^th century houses, which were beautifully decorated inside and out with bright, colorful paint.

After the BCV, we drove on through Golden Gate National Park (not to be confused with the Golden Gate National Recreation Area or Golden Gate Park), which featured lots of beautiful landforms. And on to the small town of Clarens, to have some coffee and pancakes and catch the end of the Rugby Super-14 Final. The Free State is right between Gauteng and KZN, so the crowd was pretty divided between Blue Bulls fans and Sharks fans. It came down the wire, with the Blue Bulls winning on a kick after a try in the final seconds. I’ve been told that the Sharks outplayed the Bulls for the entire game except for that last try, which may just have been sour grapes, I don’t know. Folks here in PTA are pretty jazzed about it though.

We made it home in time to warm up some bobotie for dinner, and I personally called it an early night.

Sunday was a day for riding things. After chasing the lambs around and feeding them milk again, the girls got the chance to ride on one of the horses.

And V and I got to ride on the four-wheeler.

In the afternoon we went to see Frans, Aldia, and Daniel’s farm, a short way down the road from his sister’s. They plan on raising cattle their, and will need to build a house and really get the place set up. But they do have some lovely views.

After a “light” lunch of boereworsrolle (ZA hot dogs), it was time to head back to Gauteng.