In the shadow of glants
go! Platteland|Winter 2022
Eucalyptuses the colossi of our landscapeare spread out over a large part of South Africa and offer respite to man and beast and bee. Still, it's become the done thing to simply get rid of these "aliens". Please think twice about doing so, pleads Dave Pepler.
- Dave Pepler.
In the shadow of glants

Ours is a country with few large trees. Here and O there, you'll find patches of montane forest, the one in Knysna being the most famous, and then you have the Lowveld with its fat baobabs and slim thorn trees - silhouettes that define the landscape. But between Knysna and the Lowveld, there are many wide-open spaces: the Karoo, the edge of the Kalahari, the red grass veld of the central Free State, the dry West Coast. In terms of trees, our country is rather bare.

Still, when I think back to my childhood in Robertson in the Boland, it's the bloekoms I remember. Yes, there were jacarandas, cypresses, Norfolk Island pines and sweet pines in my hometown, but the giants, the towers of the tree landscape, were the eucalyptuses.

There was a monumental eucalyptus at the railway station where Japie Tenbob, our traffic cop, always hid with his stopwatch, and at the Voortrekker Hall, there were the pale trunks of the row of trees by the Hoops River. At Silwerstrand there was a sparse plantation of eucalyptus where my dog Toby and I spent weekends daydreaming on the banks of the Breede River. My Oupa Boy and I used to go for walks in the veld, and he'd speak of the "bloggoms". The road to the Langeberg went past the churchyard through a eucalyptus plantation - and it was there, as a small child, that I learnt to kick bobbejaansnuif, a type of dyeball fungus that would release its spores in khaki-colored clouds. I can still hear my grandfather's voice and smell the eucalyptus oil in the warm air as if it were yesterday.

この蚘事は go! Platteland の Winter 2022 版に掲茉されおいたす。

7 日間の Magzter GOLD 無料トラむアルを開始しお、䜕千もの厳遞されたプレミアム ストヌリヌ、9,000 以䞊の雑誌や新聞にアクセスしおください。

この蚘事は go! Platteland の Winter 2022 版に掲茉されおいたす。

7 日間の Magzter GOLD 無料トラむアルを開始しお、䜕千もの厳遞されたプレミアム ストヌリヌ、9,000 以䞊の雑誌や新聞にアクセスしおください。

GO! PLATTELANDのその他の蚘事すべお衚瀺
There are few secrets in Verlorenvallei
go! Platteland

There are few secrets in Verlorenvallei

All platteland towns have that one famous (or infamous) character who knows everyone's business. Meet Livia Hoogenboezem, the keeper of every piece of gossip in Verlorenvallei...

time-read
5 分  |
Winter 2024
Make magic with winter's abundance
go! Platteland

Make magic with winter's abundance

This winter menu is our invitation to look beyond the bewildered herb garden, move out of your comfort zone and bake a loaf of bread, appreciate the beauty of a head of cabbage, and invite the rain gods to the table to feast with you on venison pie, pudding and cake.

time-read
5 分  |
Winter 2024
It takes a family
go! Platteland

It takes a family

Christian Fry and his fiancé, Pippa de Lange, arrived at Dombeya with just a day to spare before the Covid-19 hard lockdown commenced in 2020. Their purpose was to save the Fry family farm from being sold. They've settled into life in their Elands River Valley haven now but continue to dream big and work hard.

time-read
10 分  |
Winter 2024
For the love of birds...
go! Platteland

For the love of birds...

They may be called birdwatchers but they are in fact using their ears. As Johan van Zyl discovered on his maiden outing as an \"avian tourist\" with BirdLife South Africa to find the 450 bird species that live in the Garden Route and Little Karoo.

time-read
5 分  |
Winter 2024
To the babbling brooks of Sabie
go! Platteland

To the babbling brooks of Sabie

Roughly every five years, Jaco and Jens Reverchon get itchy feet. They hopped around Cape Town, moved up north to the Greater Kruger and then, recently, put down roots next to the Sabie River where they live a peaceful life with their animals.

time-read
10 分  |
Winter 2024
Creativity & community in Dinokeng
go! Platteland

Creativity & community in Dinokeng

The driving force behind the successful Makers Village in Irene has now implemented the same concept in Cullinan, creating an incubator and exhibition space for entrepreneurs and artists. Platteland dropped in at this budding creative hub to find out what it's all about and came away impressed.

time-read
4 分  |
Winter 2024
Willie Strauss Never an idle moment
go! Platteland

Willie Strauss Never an idle moment

A variety concert... that is how to approach your life and career when you want to survive as an artist living in the platteland. So says singer, lyricist and radio food expert Willie Strauss, who entices visitors to Die Sinkstoor in Cullinan with traditional offal and his mother's Bushmanland boerekos.

time-read
8 分  |
Winter 2024
To die for
go! Platteland

To die for

How do you avoid the tourist avalanche if you live in an Afromontane forest where holidaymakers descend in December? You drive to lonely outposts in the mountains of the Cape, says photographer Obie Oberholzer, and you make pictures rather than take them.

time-read
6 分  |
Winter 2024
1 Fiat 500 2ha 4 boys...19000 miles!
go! Platteland

1 Fiat 500 2ha 4 boys...19000 miles!

When the go-cart that an engineer father had built for his four sons couldn't handle the tufty terrain on their 2-hectare plot in Montana, Pretoria, they hunted down a Fiat 500 in a salvage yard. They only wanted its suspension system, but Mom intervened, the car was saved, and those little daredevils clocked up an impressive 19000 miles - all without leaving the plot.

time-read
8 分  |
Winter 2024
SUTHERLAND Cold town, warm hearts
go! Platteland

SUTHERLAND Cold town, warm hearts

Life in Sutherland in the Northern Cape isn't always easy, but even those who leave tend to return. Come with us to find out why.

time-read
8 分  |
Winter 2024