I had a lovely time seeing my longstanding friend of 30 years. We are more like sisters than friends.

She lives in an area called Hartebees Port Dam, it is directly between Johannesburg and Pretoria. 15 miles from Pretoria almost exactly.

It was a long time ago I was last in this area, and the changes blew me away. Here are some of the images from my trip. There were lots of photos I had to delete as they were blurred.

While I was there we had a thunderstorm a REAL ONE . there was massive fork lightening on both sides of the range of mountains that encircle the area. The rain came down in sheets and formed rivers all over the garden, although it was green when I got there from previous rain the red earth was dry and hard. I remember their winters so well and the landscape was various shades of brown all over, being a summer rainfall area, it looked as if everything had died in and the dust could be stifling sometimes, so I am glad I arrived once it had turned green. It didnt last that long but gave everything a good soaking. So the next day the air was very fresh. The heat in that area is a very dry heat.

The area live in is a huge hollow created millions of years ago by a meteorite hitting the earth which sent out ripples forming the Magalisberg Mountain range. It is called the "cradle of humankind" because of fossils skeletons found there, the oldest one being dubbed " Mrs Ples" .

Here is a link, if anyone is interested in this subject. I enjoyed hearing about how the mountains were formed but archeology is not my favourite subject!

Cradle of Humankind



Part of the the crocodile river!

I couldn't believe how green everything was as I remembered so vividly how dry things could get.

Part of the Magalisberg Mountain range taken from the garden. In the evening and at night you can hear the Baboons barking and Jackals calling from up the mountain. It is quite an eerie sound if you are not used to it.

A view of the house

Elsie the Jack Russell.

The Drive way. I loved the concept of the little purple flowers in the middle

They are growing these for retail

Feeding the Guinea Fowl in the evenings

Elize calls them her chickens

A close up of the Mountain, we took a walk one evening along the base of this Mountain. It was lovely to be in real bush again, and equally special because it was about to rain and the thunder was rolling. The smell of the rain was so strong and when it rained the smell of the earth was equally strong.

I was very jumpy too because of snakes, as they had told me the evening before how the man who lives at the back and is a dog breeder and has lost a few dogs to snake bites .

They have three horses who get very excited about the rain they run and frollick about when it is about to rain. I thought it was because they were afraid of the thunder but apparently not. I suppose it is the heat that makes the rain welcome for them.

Another view of the garden

anyhow enough of the garden I got lost in it sometimes the only reason I dont want one like it is the thought of all the work

The bird life was very different to CT this is what we think is a Bennets woodpecker. They have two varieties that have nested there in that box. I think the other is a golden tailed woodpecker.

Not a very good picture but he kept flying off!

Part of Hartebeesport dam wall.

Part of the road over the dam

An old trading post

An old wagon or trap ?

This architechture reminds me of the buildings in Pilgrims Rest in the eastern part of the country which was gold rush country back in the gold rush days! The town was full of these kind of buildings all with corrugated iron roofing.

This was an arts and craft centre we stopped at they make terrecotta, fibre glass and wooden carved animals. There was also some real stuffed animals, yugh.