welcome to donkerbosch outspan ranch, home of the locally famous basil mills. entering the ranch, you pass by artifacts spanning the past two hundred years of history; including a run-down mini cooper, farm machinery, naval artillery guns, a horse carriage, canons, and a settler wagon from the 1800s. the entire farm is on a sloping hillside, and as i descended, i felt further and further from real life.
this settler cabin was my home for five days. inside it were two beds, a closet, lights, one outlet, a toilet, shower, and sink for a kitchen. i never would have thought all of it could have fit, but it did. the water wasn't reliable, so i didn't even try the shower. it was it took some time getting use to how short the wagon was and ducking while entering, but i had a friendly reminder to do so.
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if you mention basil's name to almost anyone within the area of grahamstown, they are bound to know who he is; he is legend. he frequently does work with and for xhosa kings and works with local xhosa women for traditional beading. he does travels internationally for battle re-enactments and military special forces training. he is the local expert on poisonous snake and dangerous animal capturing and rehabilitation. and he works for the national english literature museum. meet basil, his wife, and one of their oxen, torro. in my photo with torro, i am laughing because i know torro's attitude would be impossible to capture in a still image.
their farm is filled with all sorts of animals, from farming and rescuing. as we were being introduced to them, he would just turn and walk away from us pointing "here is my sons chickens, two of my fish eagles, two owls... and my crocodile is over there". his two white geese of the farm have a severe attitude, and regularly attempt to bite cars (rescued). we had frequent encounters of horses emerging from the darkness around our caravan and put their heads over our shoulders to check out what we were eating (farming and rescued). the oxen were much quieter than i thought they would be, and so were their chickens and roosters (all farming).
oh- i nearly forgot, he has a five-meter, three-year-old baby boa constrictor. he takes him for walks when it is warm out by holding his tail (shame it was cold when we were there).
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we were in grahamstown to visit alan weyer, an amazing guide to the history and frontier wars of grahamstown in the 1800s. there was over a hundred years of war 'with brief periods of peace' between xhosa clans, boer settlers, and the british. all groups listed fought against the other groups and within themselves at least once. rachel, roddy, and i were able to go on alan's tour with the previous minister of tourism for australia, and we enjoyed the day on a hillside looking over the town. to hear a recording we did with him on the Battle of Grahamstown, visit his Great Guides Profile. This plug for the Great Guides website is likely to become much more common, as we are finally really posting content to our site!
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on a the sunday night of our stay, the family and i headed to a taizé service in the town's cathedral. it was a very different style of service from most christian services, mostly made of chants and repeated readings of songs all by candlelight. it made for a mellow evening, and gave us an introduction to the kieskamma art project, which turned into our next stop. we had no intention of visiting them, or even knew that the keiskamma art project even existed, but after seeing their alter piece on display in the cathedral, it was a must. below is a sample of their work.
cheers to the unexpected and letting your gut lead.
hope all is well.
tbk
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