Read on!
Once a year over the first weekend in February, (apart from those manic few weeks over Christmas), Jacobsbaai becomes a frenzied village, so we do the right thing and leave!
It always amazes me how, once people have moved here exclaiming loud and long about how quiet and peaceful it is, they decide that it all must be changed and that Jacobsbaai 'must be put on the map'. So a few years ago, a few people (hoteliers and estate agents mainly...) put their heads together and 'Oppiwa' (meaning 'on the wagon') was born! This festival consists of some obscure singers and the odd poet or two, each sitting on a wagon being pulled by a tractor, singing or reading or quoting or whatever, while a bunch of visitors and villagers, who have paid handsomely for the privilege, sit in awe on said wagon, drinking their wine and getting covered in dust from the road, especially if the wind blows! While they are being trundled around the village they stop off at various demarcated homes for coffee, a braai, a loo stop, tea and biscuits etc, and then on the Saturday evening they all end up at one of the Guest Houses for dinner and more wine.
On Sunday they all go home.
So, in order to avoid all this unpleasantness, we head off on the Thursday and stay away until it is safe to return.
This year we decided to go to our very favourite place.....Fynbos Farm! So on Wednesday we rolled Hyacinth out, Rob washed the dust off her, we packed her up and on Thursday we loaded the last few things, plus Alfie and his ball, and headed off!
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| Looks homely doesn't it? Notice Alfie's bed....ignored! (Pic thanks to Rob) |
We had planned to stay for a week, so when we got there, we tucked Hyacinth under the trees, put the tent up, organised the furniture and prepared ourselves for a lovely, lazy week. But that was not to be.
As we were driving there, we noticed that the air was hazy with smoke and it was obvious that there were a number of large fires on the surrounding mountains. Even though the fires were not that close, the wind was howling and it was HOT!
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| Smoke over the mountains of The Wittebrug Nature Reserve. |
When we arrived it was 37 deg, Friday was 38 and Saturday was also 38. Alfie was beside himself, he didn't want to walk, he didn't want to play with his ball and he lay and panted looking most unhappy. I was equally uncomfortable as I really feel the heat, and even cold showers didn't help for long!
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| Alfie! With the Ceres Mountain Fynbos Nature Reserve in the background. (Pic thanks to Rob) |
So we made the sad decision to come home on Sunday as this week is going to hit the 40's!
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| Sunday sunrise through the smoke. |
The fires had died down during Saturday as the wind had dropped, but Saturday night they flared up again. We stood in the dark and watched the flames creeping round the side of the mountain and by Sunday morning the smoke was thick and the mountains had disappeared completely! We took some beautiful photos of the sun through the smoke, such beauty but such devastation.
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| Layla, ready for her evening chat! (Pic thanks to Rob) |
But, we shall return to Fynbos and Layla and the other dogs and the peacocks and chickens.
And when we got home..........peace had returned to the village!
6 comments:
You going to have to wait for Winter and pray for some Snow on the Cederberg Mountain range by the sound of it to get Alfie running about!
So sorry you had to cut short your break nut quite understand why. Those fires are just too devastating, it's the wildlife I feel so desperately sorry for. At least you missed the oppiwa!!!!
We plan to go back when/if there is snow.....will take Alfie's welly boots and scarf!
Yes, and I get really angry when I hear that most of these fires are started deliberately. You can imagine just what I would like to do to the starter..........
I wonder whether Oppiwa might have the same origin as carnaval, which takes place here in Holland in the same weekend, a bit more than 6 weeks before Eastern. Originally that is a catholic feast, just before the fasting period. There is also a group of privileged people, officially taking over the town during 4 days.
Another similarity is that we also try to escape town during these days.
And you had your fires, but we had very strong winds. Many festivities were canceled because of the bad weather...
It wasn't even windy here, so they all enjoyed perfect weather, mores the pity!! We keep hoping it will rain!
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