Kamberg
This weekend marked the first official weekend getaway (mini-break holiday, anyone?) of 2011. Of course, LA and Paris don’t count—they’re far too minor cities and destinations to bother adding to my running list. No, this list is reserved for special places like Kamberg, South Africa.
Kamberg really is a special place tucked into the rolling hills about 4 hours from Joburg. From the porch of our friend Keith’s getaway house we looked out onto the world’s most quaint working farm. Dairy cows roamed the green hills by the river, tractors chugged up and down the dirt road. In the distance the horizon was obscured by mountains. It’s a beautiful spot.
A few of us spent the weekend doing a whole lotta nada. We tubed down the river, took naps, and ate well. The tradition at Keith’s place has become to make a potjie (pronounced: poy-kee). Last year torrential rains turned this process into an Extreme Potjie! (documented in part here) but the sun shone brightly this year and dinner was a social round-the-fire and star-gazing affair. In all honesty, much more to my liking.
A great highlight of the weekend was our sail around the Midmar Dam. Joburg does not offer many opportunities for water sports, so I find myself especially enthusiastic about any jaunt on rivers, lakes, or seas. Look carefully though, a South African sailboat ride is not identical to a ride around an equivalent American lake. Can you spot the difference?
See that contraption attached to the railing behind Keith? That would be a braai (a South African BBQ). I have already come to expect that any South African house, campsite, and even a great many 4x4 vehicles include braais as standard built in equipment. But a sailboat?! Never in my wildest dreams! Now that we’ve cut our sailing chops on the dam, we can set our sights on a jaunt up the Durban coast someday. I can see it now: we’ll spend our days swimming in the Indian Ocean and fishing overboard, in the evenings we’ll grill our catch on the back railing. Never mind that I don’t know how to fish, nor how to prepare a fresh fish. It’ll give me something to read up on before the next adventure.
