On the road again....drove all day arriving at Bethlehem...not THE little town of Bethlehem...a large town in Orange Free State, SA. Quickly we found our Airbnb & then went to find a good place to eat our Valentine dinner. We did too! Had grilled shrimp & a luscious chocolate volcano cake with ice cream.
Avoiding most the pot holes on our way, we passed miles of corn & soybeans that Farmer Roger said had great color & very consistent. He was very impressed... especially because it was Dekalb seed. Herds of cows & flocks of sheep and goats grazed in the lush grass fields. There were acres of banana & other covered fruit trees. No doubt SA can grow food! Though obviously productive farms, we saw many deserted & destroyed farmsteads. We'd heard about this from one of our hostess who had herself deserted her farm after one of her farm hands had been killed by a robber. She had slept with her shotgun for years & finally gave up.
We also passed 4 power plants with humongous cooling towers spewing out steam. We followed an low & straight elevator for about 10 miles that ended going up into a silo near one of the plants. Probably carried coal there. Yet for some reason...SA regularly have their power shut off. Usually they get a notice of when..but not always. We experienced an unannounced one last night.
The Airbnb we're in over looks an old quarry with a great view. Linda, our hostess, is a direct descendent of the first man from Netherlands to settle in this area. She said their records showed very few black people were in the area. She had strong opinions about what was happening in SA & didn't hesitate to tell us...without us even asking:
"Right now SA is 7% white. In 10 years it will be 1% because whites are leaving...it's a total brain drain. Blacks just keep breeding & breeding & breeding! It must be the only thing that brings them pleasure. They are dumb & I recently read that their IQ is about 70. They can't learn. They don't want to work or become educated. All they know how to do is open their hands & ask. We give & give & give and they just destroy and ask for more. Millions of illegals from all over Africa are coming in looking for a hand out too. Trump is smart to keep immigrants out and to think only of improving his own country & it's economy. SA's black leaders are horrible. Africa is a big hole you can dump $$ into but will never get better! The Dei Groot Trek group from the Netherlands settled here before blacks & so it is their home!"
As you can tell, she didn't sugarcoat her feelings. Imagine what more she'd told us if we'd asked?!
Linda did give us some good suggestions the next morning for our day in this area. We drove through Golden Gate Highland Nat'l Park where we spotted a wild dog, zebras, emu or ostrich?, and antelope all while admiring the phenomenal views. Picture the grand cliffs of Utah with a velvet covering and surrounded by rich corn & soybean fields...monument Valley surrounded by fields!
We strolled through the town of Clarens, an artsy & quaint little town and had a delicious steak & quiche dinner. Back at our Airbnb we called the kids via Messenger...until the power shut down. Love that we can visit them from anywhere in the world!! I'm writing this by solar light & Rog has crashed. I better too cause we'll be off early tomorrow headed for the independent Kingdom of Lesotho.
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