“The Farm” by Leoni & Robert, Germany

South Africa showed us it's sunny side when Mike picked us up at the Johannesburg airport early on April 1^st 1999.

Us that means Leonie and me, Robert. It was our first large vacation since our honey moon two years earlier and we had been looking forward to our visit to South Africa for quite a while.

Now we were driving to "The Farm", Mike's place about one and a half hours drive east of Johannesburg. Mike is a good friend of ours from Switzerland, and since he was raving about South Africa all the time, we finally decided to go there and see for ourselves.

To settle down from the hustles of work he recommended to lay back at "The Farm" first, before travelling on to Cape Town.

"The Farm" is a gorgeous place on a gently sloped hill overlooking the Megalies River Valley. The grim sentry at the entrance to The Farm looks to cute to be of any harm, but magically chased away our thoughts of everyday life as soon as we passed him.

Benjamin, who is the good spirit of The Farm since several years prepared a warm welcome for us and we settled down in on of the two rondavels that were just completed some months earlier.

Well, settling down would not really describe the situation correctly. We dropped our luggage, changed into swimming gear and jumped into the pool.

The following days were relaxing but filled with great impressions of the picturesque landscape and especially interesting and nice people from the area.

Every evening we had a delicious barbecue with everything you can imagine that tastes good.

Mike and Leonie were preparing the sauces, the meat, the crabs or the fish, Benjamin was taking care of the grill and I just had to uncork the red wine.

Guests were joining us and we were talking and discussing life till late at night.

Actually it is hard to describe the beauty of the country side of this part of South Africa, but we were enjoying every bit we saw, even the small things like a cute chameleon that visited us one afternoon.

One day we got up before sunrise and took part in Bill Harrop's Balloon Safari.

We met close to Skeerpoort Balloon Field near Hartebeespoort Dam. A hot cup of tee warmed us in the morning chill just before we climbed on board.

The roar of the combustion was enormous but gently the hot air balloon lifted up off the ground and we quickly climbed to about 1000 feet. Once up in the air the peacefulness and silence was disturbed only occasionally by the firing to keep the altitude.

We were rewarded with a magnificent panorama of the Megalies mountains and the experience to float between heaven and earth.

Before we left to Cape Town, we had to fulfill a tradition and each of us had to plant a tree in the garden of The Farm.

Benjamin promised to take good care of them and we are looking forward to come back and see what became of the tree the beautiful country around it and all the nice people we have met.

Would you like to contact Robert? You can. Email to:  digmar1@tic.ch