African Flower Chain: Link 20

 Our trip was in it's last few days and we still wanted to see and do lots of things! On this specific day we stopped at many beautiful places and I left a few flowers along the way. This is a part of the country I use to visit often as a child but had not seen for many years. It was good to see it was still as beautiful and breathtaking as ever and that the viewpoints, places of attraction and sights were in good condition and well maintained.  

One thing that was different was the traders selling their goods everywhere. It seemed like most of these people come from the surrounding countries to sell their craft and handmade products.

We saw this man in the parking area at the Mac Mac  Falls. He was selling his wooden carvings. Some of them was really good, but this trip was for looking and experiencing, not buying...

..that was until I saw the hand printed table cloths with the nice African prints on them. Had to have one!

Flower 20 is at the lookout point above Mac Mac Falls. The Fall is 65m high and is named after the many Scottish miners who panned for gold in the river during the 1870's gold rush in the area.

African Flower Chain: Link 19

A while ago I told you about my mother who had to move house after my father passed away.  Before we started this trip I helped my mother pack their old house for the move to her new home. She decided to move to White River to live close to her sisters in the area where she grew up. 

(can you see me reflected in the window? ha-ha!)

Now it was time to visit her in her new home. We spent a wet and rainy weekend with her and the rest of the family. My uncle and aunt owns a fresh produce business with a roadside shop, or padstal, as it is known in Afrikaans.

I left my next flower on the gate of their Rooiploeg Kontrei Winkel. If you are in the area, go in and say Hi to my Mom for me. 

:-)

Flower Feedback: Great Brak River

Remember Val Marsh from Augrabies? I received another lovely email from her this week, this time from her home town, Great Brak River. She found my flower on the bridge and sent me a picture or her lovely daughter.

Hallo again,

Yippee, we found the flower on the wooden bridge at Die Eiland, Great Brak

River. That makes it two...the first was at Augrabies.

The pic is of my daughter Carly Marsh, who has just returned from Thailand

where she did a Dive Master Course. She'll be returning to the island of Koh

Tau at the end of the month to continue her diving.

My husband and I spent a great few weeks on Koh Tau in 1995. We were backpacking through South  East Asia back then. Oh, the glorious days before responsibilities...

So how great is it to mention Groot Brak (as we refer to it) and Koh Tau in one post? Two of my most favourite places in the world...

African Flower Chain: Link 18

After a very long stretch of driving through Natal (the only province where we did not sleepover), we had a shorter trip into the Lowveld of Mpumalanga. From Badplaas we headed for the mountains bordering Swaziland. We passed through some rural areas and then left civilization behind completely.

This must have been one of my favourite drives.  The views were spectacular and the scenery absolutely gorgeous.  The fact that we were the only people around made it even more fantastic.

We crossed the Komati River before it started it's decent into Swaziland and Mozambique.

The only traffic we came across on this beautiful road.

Once we started our decent into the Lowveld the vegetation changed from bushveld into Pine and Bluegum plantations.  The Lowveld is one of the major forestry areas of South Africa. We passed quite a few logging sites and even more trucks loaded with logs on their way to the saw mills.

The mountains we just crossed are considered to be the oldest in the world and scientists date it back 3.5 billion years. It contains some of the oldest exposed rock on the planet.

At the bottom of  the mountain pass we came to the beautiful town of Barberton. It originated in 1881 when gold was discovered in the area.

With the gold rush came lots of trade and transport riders.  One of these were James Percy Fitzpatrick, who along with his faithful and fearless dog, Jock, had many adventures travelling across the Bushveld.

A statue of Jock can now be seen in front of the Town Hall in Barberton,

where you will also find my next flower.

African Flower Chain: Link 17

From the Eastern Free State we followed the Van Reenen Pass down the escarpment into Natal. We passed the Sterkfontein Dam with it's hydro-electrical power station. 

I've been in Natal many times before but always on the coast or in the Drakensberg.  This time we passed through the highveld and the Battlefields of the north-eastern parts of the province.

Growing up in the 'old' South-Africa, my husband and I know the history of the Battlefields reasonably well. This is where Boer and Brit fought it out and also where the Voortrekkers had many battles with the Zulu's. 

Our children however, having been schooled internationally, missed all these history lessons. A stop at Bloedrivier, a memorial commemorating one of the major battles in Boer history, was therefore a must.  

I really recommend a trip to this site. It is very well maintained and very informative.  A new museum is being added to the site to commemorate the Zulu history. 

My flower is on the wooden bridge at the entrance to the memorial.

Flower Feedback: Malgas 2

What's even more fun than receiving a message from a flower which I thought has gone missing, is receiving two messages from that very same flower in the same week! This message comes from James Butler all the way from England.

I saw your flower on the Malgas Pontoon on Friday 7^th September. I apologise for the delay in sending this to you – but we had no ability to transfer photos to an email until we got home.

My names is James Butler and I am from England.  My wife and I were on our way from Knysna to De Hoop when we saw your flower, and I loved the idea!  Only now I am home and can read your blog do I realise I could also have seen one at l’Agulhas and Hermanus!  But then the beauty of your chain is in discovering them when unawares, not in looking for them, I think!

Your blog, through the flowers, shows the way people from all over the world are crossing paths all the time – we are all disparate, yet connected (in this case by your great idea).

South Africa is a beautiful country with huge potential.  And the Malgas Pontoon has to be the most serene mode of transport I have ever enjoyed!

I look forward to seeing who else finds your flowers.

Thank you James! 

Flower Feedback: Malgas 1

Just when I think one of my flowers has either been removed or no-one has noticed it, I receive a message from that very photo!

Hendrik and Emily Vermaak of Somerset-West has sent me this lovely photo and message from the pontoon at Malgas:

Picture taken on the Malgas pond, of my wife Emily - we've been together for 48 years, married for 42. Retired for 8 years. Returning from a re-union function at Witsand (14th September - 16th September 2012)

Re-union was of retired South African Airways Pilots and Flight Engineers.

Thank you, Lovely People!

African Flower Chain: Link 16

From Bloemfontein we headed east towards the Lesotho border. At Ladybrand we turned north and followed the road hugging the mountains.

The eastern Free State has always been one of my favourite places.  The colours of the veld, the soil and the sky can not be recreated anywhere else.  The sandstone mountains and the cherry blossoms only adds to the magic.

We reached the small town of Clarens in the late afternoon.  I have spent many weekends in Clarens as a student and thought I knew what to expect.  I was wrong. The town has grown quite a lot since I was a student (many moons ago). Fortunately it has not lost any of it's charm.

I chose an orange flower for Clarens. To match the colours of the mountains.  

It is attached to a lamp post in the Windmill Centre, in front of the Blou Donki Art Gallery.

Flower Feedback: Witsand

I am so happy to receive feedback from flowers which I have planted more than a month ago!  This one comes from Lizanie Wall and is written in Afrikaans:

Wat ‘n wow!

Die 31 ste Augustus het my ouers vir die eerste keer vandat ek getrou het vir my in die Noord Kaap kom kuier.

So het ek vir hulle ‘n hele trippie beplan.

Die trippie het ons onder andere na Witsand geneem.

Natuurlik het ons “ge” sandboard, ent tot laat die aand groot vuur gemaak.

Die pragtige natuurreservaat le baie naby aan my hart!

Ek was al so 3 keer van te vore daar, so dit was so ‘n lekker verrassing om so ‘n mooi blommetjie te kry!

Ek is self baie lief vir hekel, en die wol en naalde travel orals saam!

Thanks Lizanie. I see it was a bit less cold than when we were there.  

Flower Feedback: Franschoek 1 & 2

I thought no one is going to notice my flower at the Huguenot Museum in Franschoek. It is in a rather inconspicuous place behind the statue on the colonade.  But today I received not one but two messages from that very place!  I am so happy to see the flower is still there and that people react to it.

The first email is from Tracy Louw:

This morning I took my daughter to her school outing at the Huguenot museum in Franschhoek.  While the class was listening to a lecture about the monument, my 2 year old son took a walk behind the monument and went to sit on a bench to eat his lunch.  When I walked closer to take a photo of him, I was delighted and intrigued to see the pretty crocheted flower on the bench!  Thank you for making me smile today.  From one creative person to another.

The second message came from Jessica Dix

Hi,

my name is Jessica and I'm from Dresden, Germany. This August I went to South Africa, together with my family. We stayed 3 weeks and one time we drove to the Huguenot Memorial Museum in Franschhoek. I found the flower together with my cousin (the boy next to me) and immediately decided to take a pic and send it to you. We had an amazing time in SA and I'm really looking forward to come back again. :)

All the best 

 One local visitor and one foreign visitor.

How cool is all of this?!