The Husons

Wednesday 28^th January

Clear blue skies but quite a strong wind – so Table Mountain and Robben Island are off the agenda.

Visited Kirstenbosch National Botanical Gardens which are part of South Africa’s UNESCO World Heritage site – the first garden to achieve this status. The site is huge (528 hectares with 22,000 indigenous plants) and slopes up towards Table Mountain, so we took the tour in a golf buggy (appropriately) to see as much as possible in a short time. Stunning although not as colourful as in spring we understand. Also a panoramic view of Cape Town and beyond,

A light bite before we go on the family trail.

We are greeted at Jean’s (a cousin twice removed?) by her lifesize bronze sculpture of an African elephant! Her son Anton showed us round her galleries, the garden and exhibition area at the bottom of her garden. She specialises in celebrating the fuller female form in quirky ways (a la Beryl Cook) – absolutely amazing – she really pushes the limits and says she looks for the centre of gravity in a pose and then offsets it to give it the feeling of movement . She is very creative and skilled, with a dedicated team who work together to produce the final bronze castings. She has done commissions such as a 3 metre statue of Nelson Mandela which is at the entrance to the prison he spent the last two years before release, and an Angolan peace sculpture which is 9 metres high. A resin copy of Nelson is in her exhibition area. She researches her subjects thoroughly, so obviously met Nelson and lived with elephants for a while before doing the sculpture that first greeted us.

Anton does her marketing and promotional work and has just set up a gallery of her work in London near Tate Modern – Sussex Street. He also runs an activity company organising adrenalin adventures. He and his brother trained as priests, but Anton has since changed direction, while Dieter still practises in America.

We covered quite a lot of family history – I’ve been able to fill a few gaps – and exchanged family news. But most exciting – Jean is going to contact more relatives and try to arrange a get-together when we return to Cape Town for the weekend of 14/15^th.

We got on really easily and also met her husband Mike who is in charge of the foundry, which was the first in South Africa.

Relaxing for a while before we prepare to meet up with Dave Fenton (retired GP from Southwell) who has a place out here. We’re going to Buitenverwachting Vineyard restaurant which is supposed to be ‘fine dining’.

Tuesday 27^th January

Woke up to rain! John is known for inducing rain wherever he goes! Tunisia, Trinidad, Durban….

Planned our day with Gerry whose encyclopaedic knowledge was useful and his suggestions helpful.

Destination Cape Point – the most southernly tip of the continent. Via Kalk Bay – a seaside town of antique shops, galleries, good quality hippie/ethnic boutiques. Didn’t stop at Fish Hoek but unfortunately a blip in navigation skills took us round a very unprepossessing ‘Wimpy’ estate before finding the scenic hairpin bend route across the peninsula and down into the Table Mountain National Park where you are frequently reminded that baboons are dangerous – quite disappointed though, not to see any.

Stunning views at Cape Point – rocky outcrops and crashing surf. I walked up – John took the funicular. Busy but not annoyingly so.

On the way back, an article in a magazine I’d picked up at the B & B suggested a detour to Bordjiesrif for coastal landscape and a sea-fed lagoon guaranteed to be deserted… and amazingly it was. Bonus sight was a family of ostrichs, a flock of terns and something resembling a sandpiper.

Further along the road a troop of baboons were occupying the road unperturbed by the locals who’ve seen it all before and just want to drive through and by us tourists who want to take snaps. Alpha male very evident…

In all the excitement we’d forgotten to have no. 2 of 21 gourmet lunches that John had been looking forward to! so popped into Simon’s Town Golf Club. The snack pack of biltong was no substitute, so we made do with a drink entertained by an interesting guy who we suspected might have owned the club.

Then to Boulders Beach for the Penguin colony. Hundreds of South African Jackass penguins just starting their breeding season, so we witnessed the start of the next generation of these cute birds who make an amazingly loud braying noise as part of their courtship.

Bonus sight was a ‘dassie’ – a guinea pig sized animal which is the closest living relative of the elephant.

Then back to freshen up, and off to Wasabi in Constantia for sushi and steak and langoustines.

Sunday 25^th/Monday 26^th

A very pleasant drive kindly ‘chauffered’ by Will and Di to Heathrow. After a smooth flight with British Airways on a 747–400 – 6005 miles, 11 hours 40 minutes and 4 hours’ sleep away – we’re here and it’s hot.

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We sat next to Barbara and David Gay who live in Gloucester and have 3 daughters one of whom is married to a S. African – so B & D have visited 4 times, but daughter and son-in-law now live in London so the visit is purely to chill out for a week away from their busy jobs in banking and IT. Now here’s the coincidence….

Another daughter Laura, is married to Tim Palperry and lives in West Bridgford. Tim’s father is a friend of Tim and Hilary Pearson who used to live two doors away from us on Cottams Close. They say you’re only a few steps away from being related – well nearly.

 

Expected our rental car to be a VW Polo but somehow ended up with a huge Toyota Corolla. Plenty of space for luggage then… having packed so economically carefully!!

 

Now here’s a riddle – how come we have a picture of Avis breakdown truck with a replacement car, but we still end up using the Corolla!?

The road was jam packed all the way from the airport to Cape Town, so a lot of ‘riding the clutch’ as we crawled along. Then suddenly the car stopped and wouldn’t restart. Panic. A bunch of workers jammed into the back of an open van leapt out and with huge smiles and cheering, pushed us to the hard shoulder where we scratched our heads, read the manual and tried repeatedly to start the car.

No joy – so phoned Avis who came out within 20 minutes with a replacement car. In the meantime a couple of Traffic Services (sort of minor cops I guess, but they still had guns) had stopped and checked us out – all very friendly and sympathetic.

Cheery Avis guy arrived and checked the driver was pushing the clutch down to start the car – it was necessary to disable some security device. Then the guy twigged that the driver was sitting quite a long way back in his seat (whoops, gave the identity of the driver away!) and queried if he was able to push the clutch fully to the floor. Bit banter about short legs and the mystery of the unstartable car was solved. Boy we were embarrassed.

 

Arrived in Constantia at lovely B & B owned by Gerry and Denise. Houseboy said the room wasn’t quite ready for us, so Gerry welcomed us and we went for a snack at Melissa’s in the village.

A very welcome shower refreshed us and then we were off to Hout Bay and Campbell Peak Drive. The latter was still closed (a friend of John’s army friend Ian, Tim (none of the above Tims!) had told us it was closed in Nov and apparently the work permit to do the work to retaining the falling rocks has still not been issued – the wheels of gov’t run slowly here) so then to Mariner’s Wharf for a seafood snack overlooking the beach.

Roger the waitron ( such a sensible unisex word!) was interesting on language – something like 11 official ones in S.Africa.

Back to B & B for aperitifs on our private patio before Peddlars on the bend for 3 course wine/gourmet meal– prawns/calamari, venison, crepes suzette.…

To put our trip into perspective.

My maternal grandmother’s 3 sisters emigrated to South Africa  in the late 1800’s (Cape Town and Jo’burg) but my grandfather wouldn’t go and didn’t ‘allow’ my grandmother to visit her sisters.

My mother, an only child aged 13,  spent a year with her aunts and cousins and held very fond, vivid memories of her time there.

When my grandma died, my grandpa went out and I have the letters he wrote at the time.- from those I suspect there is some kind of family ‘drama’ of which I am unaware.

Our trip is a kind of  ‘pilgrimage’ to where there is a tribe of relatives, only one of whom I’ve actually met – Jean Doyle of Doyle Art (see her website under ‘links’ – and who I will be meeting on our visit.

As my mother, father and I were only children, there are no aunts, cousins etc over here,  and although I doubt we’ll be meeting any more relatives, this trip will feel memorable in that we’ll be visiting areas that my mother did and of which I have some photos.