SPIRIT OF PLACE: April 2018

My good friend Danie Nortje threw a curved ball at me a few days ago and I have been tripping over my thoughts ever since. I had sent him a short paragraph and a few pictures of the property we have decided to buy in Bathurst, Eastern Cape, and hinted that I would appreciate a bit of feedback. Well, feedback I got - in spades! First a very brief email saying simply, "Wow - have I got some ideas for you," followed by one of those intense phone conversations littered with enthusiasm that one can only have with Danie, the gist of which was, "This is going to be your 'Year in Provence', yada, yada, yada ........ be sure to keep a daily record of everything and everyone, and you can be sure that it will pay dividends."

Dankie Danie, ek sal definitief so maak ............ and as always, thank you both (you and Karien), for your enthusiasm .............. I am sure that we will be having a great many more conversations over the coming months about this very subject.

And so: Where to begin?

The title of this blog is "Spirit of Place", and what better consideration to give to this adventure that Pat and I have decided to set out upon ........ and to the place that we have chosen to tackle it in.......namely Bathurst .............. more specifically, No.6 York Road.
Situated directly across the road from the Wesleyan Chapel built by Samuel Bradshaw in 1832 where the Settlers withstood the attacks of the Xhosa during the Sixth Frontier War of 1834-35, I had hardly taken more than a few steps onto the property with the wonderfully obliging and always cheerful IPC Estate Agent, Jacqui De Lange when I knew that I was in love.

Pat and I are in our fiftieth year of marriage, and fast approaching that 'Golden' Anniversary ........... time indeed we decided, to 'pick up sticks' and do something exciting with what is left of what had become a rather mundane old lifestyle these last 12 or so years. You see, we both agree wholeheartedly that it is essential to step out of one's comfort zone in some form or another each and every day of one's life to ensure that the journey remains interesting..............after all, how many times have we been told that its not about the destination - its about the journey. We all know too darn well what the destination is, so we might as well make the limited journey that we have left as interesting and exciting as possible.

For the past 11 years we have made a point of taking off at least once - if not twice - a year in our trusty Ford Ranger on a wide variety of "Journey's of Discovery"...............discovery not only of the wonders that Africa south of the Zambezi has to offer in all its "off-road" glory, but also of ourselves. With roughly 220,000 kilometers of southern Africa's highways and byways under our belts we feel confident that we have seen more of this part of the world than most people, and after selling our house in February decided to do one more road trip in search of our future.

We had identified a few places along the R62 that we thought might be suitable along with a couple in the Eastern Cape, but needed to spend some time in each talking to the people and getting a feel for each of them before deciding. There were of course certain pre-requisites that had to be met as we need to supplement our income in whatever way we possibly can: cost, potential for work, position and suitability for self-sustainability being the primary considerations. Nowhere that we had identified came even close to offering all of these requisites .............. until we got to Bathurst.

We had visited this village on about four previous occasions, and on our last trip through there about 2 years ago we took the time to both walk and drive through the little back streets ............. quietly considering that it had something special.

On this trip our first stop was at the Bathurst Police Station on the way into the village from Port Alfred, where my oldest and dearest friend, Peter Davidson had kindly made his West Beach house available to us to stay in for a few nights. At the desk were Sergeant Hector and Detective Sikoko (I hope I have the spellings correct). My question was simple: "What is the crime like in Bathurst". The Detective looked over at the Sergeant and said, "Tell the truth". Sergeant Hector then proceeded to tell me that during 2017 there had been a lot of break-ins until the perpetrator had been caught and locked away - he then showed me the daily incident book where everything is written up and which showed that in recent months there had been little more than perhaps one petty theft break-in per month and virtually no other incidents worth mentioning. A good start.

Over a period of three days we introduced ourselves to many of the artists and traders in the village, and without exception had our queries and concerns addressed in an honest and helpful way .............. lovely people all. We also spent some time with a few of the Estate Agents who showed us around the various pieces of ground that were for sale and helped us identify those that would best suit our intentions. The last, but not least, of these was Jacqui De Lange of IPC who showed us three pieces of ground that suited most of our requirements ............. it was now up to us to decide, and we returned to Cape Town to mull over what was suddenly becoming a very big decision. While back home I called Jacqui to ask if she perhaps had a house for us to rent while we built - she pointed me to a Property 24 entry, a house which was for sale but which was to rent in the interim. It didn't look too bad, and the price was very good. We decided that I should go back to Bathurst and take a look at the house, and either make an offer on it - or settle on one of the properties. As it turned out the house wasn't suitable for our purposes so I had to decide on one of the properties.

Then Jacqui mentioned that a house she had on her books previously had come back onto the market and that she thought I should take a look at it. As mentioned, I had hardly taken more than a few steps onto the property when I knew that I was in love. The house was a mess, but imbued with character just waiting to be exploited. I would love to believe that it is Victorian, but suspect rather that it is either Edwardian ......... or just post Edwardian......further investigation will, I am sure, yield more detail in time.

But it was the garden - the giant trees - the ambience of the surroundings, that grabbed me.
After finishing up with Jacqui I went straight back, and as I walked down the drive was welcomed by a Hoopoe who hopped over to one of the trees where I immediately spotted a Diderik Cuckoo .......... a first time sighting for me, and in the very same tree a Cardinal Woodpecker. Sold!
I then went up to the south side verandah and sat for a long while looking out over the farmlands. Sold!

The house was going for considerably more than we could afford once allowances were made for what I figured I would need to spend to refurbish it ............. but considering that this was something that I had been doing almost exclusively for the last 12 years or so I knew that it would cost someone not in the business at least double what it would cost me to refurb .......... and this gave me hope, because the condition of the house would not quickly attract the selling price. I started low (ridiculously so). No. So I went up R100k. No. So I went up another R100k - final offer - it was accepted. Sold!

And so here we are, with me taking off during the first week in May to start the refurb.

Please join us on this journey ............. it will certainly provide plenty of laughs, tears and gnashing of teeth. This is definitely going to be our "Year in Provence", and we would love for you to share it with us. Just fill in your email address at top right and the updates will automatically come through to you.