We’ve done plenty of miles over the last two days, going from Harrismith across to the eastern coast of South Africa at St Lucia in Kwa – Zulu Natal, and then right down into the Eastern Cape Province.

There was a big storm the night we were in St Lucia & it continued to rain throughout the next day as we drove down the coast, and we could have been in Australia around Coffs or Grafton with the similar tropical scenery. Another surprising site has been the amount of country that has been put under forestry that we’ve seen on our travels so far, and much of it Australian trees such as Blue & Red Gum. Its one thing to see it in some country that has abundance in food supplies with ample arable land, (if there is really such a thing) but it seems a little off putting in a nation with so many barely scratching out an existence with so little good land available. I don’t even think the landscape in China was as populated as it’s been on our drive today with villages almost linking up all the way & there is always people walking along the road. A lot looked to be well dressed today, & probably going to or from church being a Sunday, & often a long way from anywhere obviously resembling a conventional church. With the huge amount of housing & people we have driven past there has been very few regular shops to be seen outside of the bigger urban centres except for some tiny little buildings that I’m still not sure if they sell stuff now or whether they are relics of a more opulent recent history. The Coca Cola & Omo (can wash 5,000 socks!) ads stand out quite a bit in this environment, with several schools we have seen proudly displaying their Coke sponsorship. What is even more surprising is the amount of mobile phones around & the unlikely people you can see pull one out for an impromptu chat right out in the middle of nowhere. A guy where we stayed last night said that “Yeah, a lot of people in this country would rather buy a phone than a meal” & that does seem to be the case.

With the huge numbers of people & much of the housing obviously without electricity or water etc, there is still a pride to be seen in the way their belongings are looked after. Rubbish is a problem though in a lot of places & sometimes there will be miles of barbed wire fence covered in plastic bags & other throwaway items that really should have no place in this sort of society. Mind you, we have seen some quite industrious uses of plastic bags with all the wet weather along the way! Another big problem, going right to the core of my studies, is the absolutely horrendous soil erosion happening throughout much of our travels through rugged terrain today. It’s a typical example of “the tragedy of the commons” with what I guess is community shared land being continuously grazed by thinly scattered livestock creating bare slopes and a ‘gully scarred’ terrain that is falling apart under the strain. The real tragedy here though is that they already have a ‘herding’ system and plenty of labour so if the animals were put into much bigger mobs than the country would get the impact and rest that it needs for these people to have their land improving. 

We were intending to make it down north of Bedford to a contact we had, but I had trouble reaching them on the phone & then it was almost dark driving into Queenstown so decided to stay there rather than risk travelling after nightfall. Got ourselves a B&B quite easily & it was a nice place although the security around the perimeter of it, and many like it, is a little disturbing. Should be glad its all there for our safety I suppose, and although it is needed we have yet to feel threatened at all anywhere we have been. Even though there has been quite a few occasions where we have been the only people within eyesight of ‘European extraction’, so to speak…

Next morning we decided to be a little adventurous as we had some time up our sleeves & we took a back road all the way south to Bedford. This took us through plenty more village lands that were getting more isolated from each other due to the landscape drying out & the terrain became more & more rugged. We twisted and turned along a narrow gravel track (still trusting our GPS!!) right down through a valley with very steep rocky hills reaching up either side of us. Occasionally going past extremely optimistic farm cottages, & then surprisingly green little irrigated river flats with large mobs of nervous Baboons scampering away up the hillsides as we drove by them. Had a gun or two pointed at them I’d say!

Also saw plenty of ‘Rock Rabbits’ which are a favourite meal for the incredible ‘Black mamba’ snake that we had heard could attack vehicles, so we were keeping an eye out for them.

Our GPS finally let us down the last turn by telling us to ‘now turn left’ when all there was on the left was a dirty great big mountain & no track at all!! So we back tracked about a mile & asked a friendly gent that looked liked he could have lived around those parts for the best part of the last century if he could point us in the right direction, and much to our GPS’s disgust & despite its protests the old guy turned out to be much more accurate.

As we drove up the “Chestnut Grove” driveway (this is where we were meant to get to yesterday) we thought that this would have to be one of the more secluded farms in the country & wondered where they could actually fit livestock in among all the scrub, rocks and hills. Never the less we eventually turned into the beautiful garden of Nick & Michelle Basson’s place & only had time for some quick lunch & a chat before we hit the road again following them to the other side of Bedford. Our destination being an RCS run two day workshop at the farm of Angus & Nadine Dixie who kicked off proceedings with a presentation of their business and a farm tour in the afternoon.

I don’t think I could have ended up at a better location, or in a better group situation to get an insight into, and feel for, the South African farming perspective and hear their honest opinions & concerns about their uncertain future. With this weeks resignation of the SA president & half the cabinet, just adding to the drama. Who ever do eventually become the supposed leaders of this country would do well to encourage farmers such as these people to remain on the land & keep farming. They display a great passion & determination for what they do and it would be a terrible tragedy for the nation to lose them. Unfortunately the lesson should have been learned by looking just north at the situation in Zimbabwe & the debacle that it has become to realise the importance of sustaining a viable and prosperous agricultural base. There is a very grave fear hear though that the lesson may well have not been learned & that there is an intention to replace many ‘white farmers’ in the next few years. However, although many present showed feelings of resentment, fear, despair & distrust, others were actively dealing with the prospect of losing their home & making plans for their business to become more resilient and less reliant on the farm alone. Or planning on the possibility of selling to an investor, & leasing back to protect capital, and many such scenarios were thrown up during discussion at the end of the two days. I’ve a feeling that those who become prepared will be those that capitalize on the opportunities that will no doubt be thrown up in the next few years, whatever happens. Angus Dixie gave a great talk to start with, and then we had a farm tour to look at the achievements & challenges they have with grazing and livestock management in their 18 to 22 inch rainfall environment. Many of these issues are very similar world wide & with Terry McCosker present it was good to hear his view on what he thought was happening & what needed to happen to continue the succession process forward. An extremely nice farm of about 2,000 Hectares with terrific ground cover and easy to see why Angus would be keen to stay. A bit of an issue with ‘Thorn Tree’ encroachment, a typical woody weed, although with horrendously long and sharp thorns all over them.

The next morning & part of the afternoon we had a Low Stress Stockhandling workshop with Tony Mott who recently sold a large cattle operation up at Richmond in north Queensland. At one stage Tony, Mandy & their family ran 6-8,000 cattle in an intensive grazing business with single mobs of 1,500 to 3,000 in cells. That takes a hell of a lot of good stockhandling ability to get results, and his experience and skill were very evident throughout the day here. Although it was hard for him to condense what is normally a two day school into just over half a day, and I think the 45 people present all got quite a bit out of it.

      We had two great nights there with the hospitality of Angus & Nadine, then had     another tour (just Pec & I with Angus) the last morning and then hit the road again to the north of Bedford back to Michelle & Nick Basson’s place  to have a night with them.

      After originally driving in here the other day and wondering what the hell anyone would live here for, we were about to be in for a big surprise indeed. Nick & Michelle are both dynamo’s with more enterprises happening here than you could poke a stick at. First up, Nick gave us lunch and insisted on us having a rest and setting up computers for us to check emails etc before we were given a whirlwind tour of what turns out to be a really spectacular place, with magical mountain views, plenty of grassland & a hive of activity. They run cattle and sheep here, have an off farm mining investment, an on farm timber mill, 3 Hectares of Blueberries, Michelle has a flourishing interior decorating business and they are in the process of having builders completely renovate an extensive & spectacular old house on the farm.

      We also went for a drive in the evening up to the top of ‘one’ of their mountains & took in magnificent scenery, before having dinner & spending half the night with lively discussion on all sorts of topics….. and then this morning they have gone out of their way to help plan out the rest of our trip.

      The hospitality over here has been as good as any I’ve experienced anywhere in the world & I’d love to bring my family over here one day, although after seeing the amount of staff, Cathy may not want to go home again...

      Once again there is plenty of ‘help’ in the labour department here & for all the South African farming challenges, and there is plenty, they do have a massive advantage over us with the availability of cheap and plentiful labour, and I can see how they would get very used to having it.