We left after breakfast, heading out with some locals down a deep sand track south. The coast line very beautiful, the sand quite hard work for the landy. The tyre pressure reduced to one bar gave us a better foot print for travelling.
The tracks along the south coast are very unreliable and pita out to nothing or into the sea at various intervals, so unless you have good shocks, low pressure for your tyres and plenty of time and fuel I suggest an alternative route. The reward for taking the time is awesome some scenery and some scary driving.
After mid day we headed away from the coast and caught up with a local Afrikans farming family to compare notes. Hannes and Friedel Eksteen, treated us to some refreshments (water melon and juice) before giving us a farm tour with the rest of the family, Kay, Anina, Jane and his son Lochader.
Hannes farms 1000 ha with 400ha in wheat and 600 ha being grazed by his 500 Nguni indigenous cattle (started in Egypt) and 400 sheep (200 marino and 200 indigenous).
With one to five tonne per ha depending mainly on the rainfall, Hannes has to watch his inputs. Currently the wheat prices ex farm are £164.00 per tonne. One fungicide after flag leaf and two herbicides, pre-em, roundup(1L/ha) and trifluralin(2L/ga). The seed is direct drilled. A neat combination drill/sprayer.
Hannes employs 3 local people, and explains at the moment politics of Zimbabwe haven’t affected them yet. The population in the western cape is around 3 locals to 1 white, but closer to Kruger and the eastern Transvaal there are 100 locals to one white. The pressure for land reformation is a mounting reality. The local people wanting to go back to grazing the land, the whites are currently intensively farming. Land prices in the Western Cape are currently approx 2500 rand per ha (£722/acre).
Finally we got to Cape Town at eight thirty…..
There’s been some changes here. Long Streets restaurant Kennedy’s once a very up market restaurant is now part Irish Pub called the Dubliner, good fun but totally different.
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