Around The World With Sara

SOUTH AFRICAN ADVENTURES

PLETTENBERG BAY

The first stop on my way up to Johannesburg is Plettenberg Bay to see Saskia Hopff and meet her family. Saskia and I met in 2008 at the White Lion Preservation Trust where we took an Animal Communication Workshop along with 5 others. This took place the first week of the month I spent as a volunteer. We hit it off and have stayed in touch all these years through emails and the magic (?) of Facebook.

I arrived at Bitou River Ranch Lodge, my “home” for the next three nights, in the late afternoon.

View From My Patio

The lodge is spectacular and right on a slow moving part of the Bitou River. My room is spacious with small touches such as a sprig of rosemary on the pile of towels on the foot of my bed and is beautifully decorated in soothing colors. There is covered patio overlooking the river. Sue, the owner, could not have been more welcoming.

The ceiling in the room slopes upwards from front to back and has open whitewashed beams. The the top of the wall in the back contains three windows. My first night was clear with bright stars and an almost full moon. I was awakened sometime in the night by the full moon light bathing me from the window above. Magical.

On The Main Patio

The next morning Saskia came to the lodge which is right down the road from her home and we fell into conversation as though we had seen each other only last week! Later that day we met up with her husband Chris, daughter Zarah (who is 2 and calls herself ZaZa) and son Ollie (10) to go have lunch with Chris’ parents, niece and nephew. Lunch was delicious and the conversation interesting and lively.

Back at Saskia and Chris’ home on lush acreage I got to meet the 6 dogs and various numbers of cats. Saskia has finished her animal communication courses and is a professional communicator as well as a shop owner, fragrance and creams maker and jewelry maker. She also rescues chickens when the egg farmers are selling them. These chickens have never been free, can hardly walk, no nothing about scratching around for food, etc.

She has 10 new additions to her growing family of chickens. The difference between the ones she has had for a while and the new ones is startling. The new ones are virtually featherless, combs down over their eyes, but have been there long enough they are walking. The others are plump, combs standing straight up and are running around and scratching like normal chickens. It won’t take long until the new 10 will be in the same shape. And they are still laying eggs albeit not in enough quantity for the egg farmer.

Saskia makes a wonderful vegetarian stew that she and I share while we chat late into the evening.

The next day we meet Chris and Ollie at 3 for an afternoon boat ride up the river to the town of Plettenberg Bay nestled up on a hillside overlooking the river and the ocean. When approaching the town from the river it looks like San Francisco used to when it was called Bagdad By The Bay before all the tall buildings and the Embarcadero were built. In Plett no buildings can be higher than 2 stories!!!

The views along the river and into the bay are stunning. We see two Fish Eagles that greet us and then fly away probably back to the nest close to where the family lives.

Back to Saskia and Chris’ where Chris makes a delicious dinner of pork belly and cracklins and fabulous sides. Saskia makes a flourless, sugarless chocolate cake that is unbelievably rich and delicious. Again she and I chat the night away. We may have been strong acquaintances when I arrived, but we are now friends we both agree.

The next morning I am scheduled to leave for Graff-Reinett on my way to Blomfentein, but before I do I stop by to pick up Saskia and we go into town to see Chris’ restaurant called The Table and Saskia’s shop called The Shop. The two are right next door to each other.

The restaurant is an open architecture with a warm friendly atmosphere right down to a special room for just kids with a blackboard, various toys and child size tables and chairs. The restaurant boasts a wood burning pizza oven where gourmet pizzas are made. The rest of the menu is varied with something for everyone. I would be hard put to decide what to eat - it all sounds delicious!

The shop is full of wonderful things. What Saskia doesn’t make she buys from artisans in the area and her taste is exquisite. I did buy a face cream (which I adore), fragrance pencils in hand made wood tubes that are sharpened with a pencil sharpener as the perfume is used, a hand printed silk scarf where the artist uses flowers and leaves to imprint the silk. This results in soft muted colors of mauve, grey and peach. Then a little

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box made out of the bottom of a plastic bottle painted and embossed with a design and cut in such a way the top snaps down in sections. Last but not least is a jersey “top” that can even be a scarf or head covering. The sweetest ending was when Saskia said Ollie wanted to buy me something from the shop as a present. I chose an eye pillow with lavender to use when meditating.

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