Graskop, the land of the pancake!

  Graskop, South Africa
Wednesday, December 28, 2005

Hello,
We left the sleepy little town of Hazyview and drove a short distance to another small town called Graskop. You must pronounce it with a thick Dutch or German like accent. That's how they say it. It is a touristy place with in short distance of many scenic sights.

The main attraction is the Blyde Canyon. It is like a small version of the Grand Canyon, but it is actually the 3rd largest canyon in the world. It has beautiful sights all along the canyon, but there are a few key viewing points. One of them is called God's window.

We tried to see it the first day we were there, but as the locals say "the curtains were closed" We had quite a few misty/foggy days in this area. When we first tried to drive past we joked that the curtains were shut, shutters were closed, lights were out, and god was not home, lol! We couldn't see anything. We were lucky enough to get a clear view the next day. It is a large sqaure like opening that you look through to see beautiful moutains and landscape. Sometimes it will be clear enough to see the mountains in the distance, but fog will be sitting in the bottom of the canyon creating a heaven like appearance.



Another amazing view was a place called the Three Rondavels. They are strange looking formations of rock. Here are two pictures of the area.





We stayed at 2 places in Graskop. The first one was a fantastic B&B called Peacock's Tavern. It is set up in the mountains near Berlin Falls. The grounds are like a quaint English garden. You can sit and relax while listening to the fountains and watch the resident peacocks and their babies walk through the property. The building is beautifully decorated in a venetian style. Anyone who goes here will love the owner. He is quite the character, and will keep you entertained throughout your stay. There is also another very loveable maintenance man named Charlie. He used to be in a band called Danny Rivers and the Savages. We got a picture of one of his albums. The food was excellent as well. I would love to come back to this place someday and stay for a while.





The next 3 nights were spent at Valleyview Backpackers in Graskop. Another great place. Very friendly owner and staff. Chuck the caretaker is an up and coming musician who has a great voice. The sound of the band is great too. It is traditional music from his country of Malawi. I totally fell in love with his little daughter Sasha. She is 18 months and looks adorable with her hair all done up in corn rows. She was very shy, but had just started to warm up to us near the end of our stay. Valleyview is neat and clean. A great kitchen area with everything you need to preapare your meals. Or you can request meals for a small charge from them.

We met some great people there. One family was from Coquitlam. As well we met 4 young African men. We sat and talked with them for hours one night. It was so interesting to hear them tell us about the history of South Africa. We learnt more that night than we will ever learn in any book. Everyone in the room got a little teary eyed as they spoke of their experiences of the day Nelson Mandela was released from prison. They were about 16 at the time. I can't desrcribe the passion they protrayed and the look in their eyes as they talked about the day.

They said it was like pure eurphoria throughout South Africa. It was the day that changed the rest of their lives. It was surreal to hear of their lifes prior to the lift of the apartheid. It is hard to believe that black people here lived so differently only a short 12 years ago. You couldn't go into cities or places that you wanted without permission. You were only allowed to be 3 different choices for a profession. They were limited to a police man, a nurse or a school teacher. Of course every aspect of daily life was segregated. They were beaten in school. This still goes on in many of the rural township schools.

These young boys are so full of hope for their futures now though. They have all gone to university, and are very well educated. They told us there are 15 of them who are very close friends. Out of the 15, 12 of them are self employed with some kind of business. The government here has many opportunites and programs to help youth start their own business. They were a great bunch of guys, we are really glad we got a chance to talk with them. Other random information we learnt from them was,

A lot of african people still use a witch doctor or Sugoma is the proper name, as their main medical doctor. They have great faith in them and still have strong belief in curses as well. There are hundreds of thousands of orphans just in South Africa alone from parents dying from aids, as well as other countries in africa. These boys say they attend funerals due to the disease on a regular basis

The vice president of South Africa was just recently kicked out of office because of corruption he was involved in. Along with crime, getting rid of the corruption in the government is a top agenda. There is still a lot of bribary that goes on through all levels of the public offices in South Africa, anything from police, to government office workers. In some african countries young elementary school children have a class on corruption as one of their school subjects. The hope is to bring up the next generation with a new way of thinking.

We also met another couple, Catja is from Switzerland, and Chris is from England. They are both well seasoned travellers. Catia has been travelling for 11 years now. She goes back to Switzerland for 6 months at a time to make money and then travel again. Chris does the same in England. They have been in Africa for over 9 months now and have only made it from Kenya to the middle of South Africa in all that time. They will continue to travel here for another 5 months. They are tenting it, so they are able to keep their costs down.

If you come to Graskop, you must have some pancakes. There are so many places serving them, but apparently Harrie's Pancakes is one of the best. We were not dissapointed. They do the pancakes here thicker than a crepe, but thinner than a regular pancake. They are cooked to perfection and served folded in half with your choice of dozens of fillings. I had banana and cream, Jack had liquor soaked black cherries and cream. So good!!!! They also have tons of meal type pancakes with veggies, meats or cheeses in them as well.

We experienced an awesome thunder and lightening storm when we arrived in Graskop. One of many summer stroms we are getting used to in South Africa. We are getting very used to losing the power too. We went to the local market, they have a chain here called Spar. There is quick spar, a regular Spar, and Super Spar. The latter having the most selection in it. We had to sit outside under the awning for about 10 minutes with many other trapped people. We could not even run a short 20 feet to our car, it was the hardest rain we have ever seen. I would imagine it was very much like a prairie storm back home. Then the hail started, we were afraid it was going to dent the car. Another day in Graskop after a rain fall we came back to our car to find it completely covered in snails. Our ownly explanation is the weird phenomenia that we have heard about raining frogs sometimes, maybe it did it with snails instead??

One morning at the Valleyview the power all went out. Nothing unusual for us, but then the caretaker said he needed to go pay for more power in town, they have cut him off. We thought he was joking. Another person said go get some coupons. We were very confused. A lot of places here have a box in the house next to the fuse box. They have to go into town and prepay for an electricity coupon. You bring it back home and punch a code on the coupon into the keyboard on the box. Then it gives you power again for the specified amount you paid. If you let it run out, they don't mess around with the shut off, it is instant! The goverment implemented the system to force people to conserve electricity. Also because when they billed at the end of the month before, a lot of people could not afford to pay the bill. This way they can buy power as they have money.


We also took a tour of a silk worm farm. It was really neat. They show you all the stages of the life cycle of the silk worm. The eggs hatch and the worms are really tiny and grey looking, about 1/2 of a centimetre or less in length, and like a thick thread in girth. They are very time consuming to look after and grow. They are extremely sensitive and can die very easily. Even a bad smell in the air will kill them.



They eat mulberry leaves. By the time they get to their last stage they are eating tons of leaves. Therefore you have to have a huge farm of mulberry trees. At the end stage they are big and fat, about 3 inches in length and the girth of a ladies ring finger.

They do weird stuff like vomit, which we witnessed, quite gross! They are left alone at the end to start secreting out their silk into a cocoon. The cocoon is carefully cut open so the pupae is not harmed. Then males and females are placed together to mate. The female lays eggs and starts the process all over again.

Then a lot more work comes after the silk cocoons are collected. Washing, spinning, weaving, or strecthing gets done depending on what the silk is going to be made into. At this particular farm everything is done by hand, and the most primative of spinning wheels, etc are used. They do not have the expensive high end equipment to make the really fine silk here so it is imported from Thailand. After seeing all of this done from start to finished garmet, we totally understand the high price of silk items now.

We also went to what is called a cultural village. It is actually a fake village replicating how native people in Africa lived. This one was for a tribe called the Shangani. In the future we will try to get to actual functioning villages of the local people. Depending on the tribe it can be difficult to get to see any of the culture or special ceremonies they have. A lot of their rituals are kept very private and can not be seen by the public.

This particular tribe is ruled by one chief. He can have as many wives as he wants. The first wife picks the 2nd wife, 2nd picks the 3rd and so on. There is no jealousy amongst the wives. Some villages will have their own Sugoma (witch doctor) or a sugoma may travel around and serve several villages. There are several mud huts which they live and sleep in. Each wife has her own hut. The boys and girls are seperated for sleeping into their own huts. Boys marry at the age of 25, and the girls at 21. The spouses are usually picked by the parents. Cattle are given as a dowry for the girls. A man can remarry if his wife dies, but a woman can not remarry if she loses her spouse.

Thats about it for this entry. See you at the next town Nelspruit.