Our friends Sue and Stuart put us in touch with Sue's sister who then put us in touch with her mother-in-law Sara. Sara was kind enough to invite us to have lunch with her in St Francis. It was a beautiful sunny day and we sat on the terrace and chatted.
Sara took us for a drive around the planned canal settlement. Our first impression was that all the houses were white and most were thatched. Sara told us that there were rules on what materials could be used on the houses and that they had to be painted white.
The original farm owner planned the canals and how the area would look. Later his son took over and in a more recent area he has allowed the houses to be painted in soft pastel colours as he was inpressed with the houses he saw in Portugal.
She explained that one of the problems with the original rule to have the houses thatched is that now it is difficult to find the raw materials growing and it is also difficult to find tradesmen who can do the thatching. Susequently the houses have slate or tiles.
We were shown the affects of the silting on the harbour where Sara's children learnt to sail and also went out to the port to see the harbour and the fishing boats. Later we took her 3 dogs for a walk. The great dane was pretty energetic even though he had problems with his joints. Sara was surprised how he was showing off to us and feared that he may not be able to get up the next day. We passed many porcupine holes on the walk. They hide in these during the day to keep cool and come out at night so we never got to see any. The coast was a popular place to get mussels and we saw shells on the sand.
Sara asked us to stay the night with her which was wonderful so we sat around chatting into the night. She told us of her plans to move to France to be near her son in Portugal and her daughter who lives in France. We saw the photos of the old barn and farm buildings that they were planning to renovate and convert into a house for her next to the daughter's house. It was an exciting project for her and her son would become a prune farmer, a less stressful job than the one he currently has.
It is typical that many South African families are spread all over the world and it is usual that the parents are in South Africa by themselves, so this was an opportunity for Sara to have all of her family in the northern hemisphere and much closer to her and when she became unable to look after herself they would not have to commute so far to care for her. We thought she was very brave and wish her well during this exciting adventure.
