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the FranSchhoeK VaLLeY

[email protected] 2010 If It’s NOt IN here, It’s NOt out there!

At 4am on the chilly morning of Wednesday, 10th of February, I stood facing the towering statue of Nelson Mandela outside the Groot Drakenstein correctional facility with a pho-tographer from the Mail and Guardian. We were early for our ‘Mandela Moment’.

The press had been told to collect their passes at around 5:30am and the celebrations that would mark the 20th anniversary of his release from the then Victor Verster prison were only due to start at ‘about’ 9am.

as we waited silently beneath the iconic raised fist of South africa’s first democratically-elect-ed president, not even solitude could distract

from the weight of expectation that hung pal-pably in the air.

The general sense of goodwill and camaraderie was everywhere to be seen, from the small group of flag-waving local women who set up their own line of front-row seats shortly after 6am to watch the SaBc and etV’s live broadcasts to the political bigwigs who were more than prepared to pose for photographs or answer questions from anyone caring to ask. members of the correctional services choir were given an opportunity to stretch their vocal chords (and their legs, to some extent) and an impromptu collaboration with Jimmy Dludlu, who was to be interviewed for tV, caused quite a stir. to-

gether with a number of young South africans, Dlulu’s positive attitude and continued hope for the future of South africa was infectious. in a chat about the creative spirit that seems to influence many of the activities in the valley, from music to the making of wine, he expressed his desire to visit Franschhoek to perform some of his trademark Jazz.

at some stage a modest car pulled up close to the statue and the initial reaction of those close-by suggested that something big was about to happen. two or three people emerged from the vehicle and as the last alighted, the sound of snapping cameras and cries of ‘Julius’ gave context to the frenzy. appearing almost bashful and rather demure Julius malema took some time to chat to the crowd, apologise to the SaBc’s Vuyo mbuli for not returning his calls and pull his sleeve down over his Breitling watch.

most things developed quite slowly ahead of the arrival of the thousands of bussed-in sup-porters who would join the symbolic Freedom march, re-enacting mandela’s first steps of freedom in 1990, following 27 years in prison. The 91-year-old mandela was not present on the day but every speaker, whether in public address or when speaking individually to the press, made it clear that the he commands the utmost respect.

in speaking to the large crowd, cyril ram-aphosa, explained that “mandela was not freed by de Klerk. he was freed by your struggle.” his words echoed those of Franschhoek land-owner tokyo Sexwale, who when speaking to an international film crew, suggested that “mandela was not freed by one man, he was freed by the world.”

“Nelson Mandela is a reminder of what it means to be authentically human. His authentic leadership and bridging of di-visions are rare commodities of hope. There is a craving for such integrity among the global human family. We cel-ebrate an icon who reminds us of what it means to part of the human family.” - Robert V Taylor

20 Years of Freedom!By the editor

Tackling The Stormers The Month joins The Vodacom Stormers at Haut Espoir - PAGE 24

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Valley property-owner, Tokyo Sexwale reveives a collection of photographsdepicting the creation process of the now famous Mandela statue.

www.themonth.co.za march 2010

the month

2

from the editorFrom the eDitormarch 2010

IN THIS ISSue:Pg.3 News of the Franschhoek Fires

Pg.4 Feature Article: red espresso

Pg.5 Norwegean Wine School

Pg.6 Not Too Far From Here

Pg.8 Food & Wine Reviews

Pg.11 The Journeyman

Pg.12 under the Microscope

Pg.21 Valley Property Feature

Pg.22 Things to Do in The Valley

Pg.24 The Stormers in Franschhoek

Pg.26 The Hikes Page

Pg.29 The Dave Rundle Column

Pg.32 The Social Page

Editor: Brett Garner

083 260 0453 [email protected]: David Foster

084 827 3986 [email protected]: Lightworks Photography

021 876 4832 [email protected] Month Online: Craig McNaught

[email protected]

CONTRIBUTORS

Werner Smit [email protected] Naude [email protected] Flitters [email protected]

Michele Lupini [email protected] Seidel [email protected]

Dave Rundle [email protected] Hellig [email protected]

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This month’s edition of The month is jam-packed with what i feel is some of the best reading available in any paper anywhere. i was asked recently how we come up with the things we write or write about and the answer is, quite simply, that we’re blessed to have a paper that focuses on the people and events of one of the most concentrated areas of creative energy in the world. The Franschhoek Valley is home to creative people like authors (of books, maga-zine articles, short stories and news analysis), editors, tV-show producers, artists (whose me-diums include food, wine, music, drama, gar-dens, paint, etc.), business leaders, successful entrepreneurs and academics. add to that the splendour of the surroundings and the enjoy-ment that the creative people give us as they share their creations and producing every copy of The month is as satisfying to produce as it is to read. That’s the angle that i think many of our advertisers value and it is why The month has continued to go from strength-to-strength each month. read the Publisher’s Last writes on page 31 for a little more insight into the business of being a paper and the marketing value this particular one brings to the valley.

on the next page we’ve offered a short write-up about the fires that swept through the South-ern end of the valley in mid-February. while

the destruction wrought by the fires cannot be ignored, my first-hand experience was one of tremendous support from the whole valley for those who were affected. in a sense the fire did more good for us than bad, which reflects the

value of life in a close-knit community.

we interviewed monique ethelston (page 4), the marketing manager of red espresso, and discovered that living in the Franschhoek Val-ley makes perfect sense when dealing with the demands of managing the growing reputation and demand for the rooibos tea-drink. Simi-larly robert Jørgensen, the winefarm owner who bombards his maturing wines with music, made it clear that giving up life in the valley – which he’d toyed with doing – was just not an option. on page 27 he explains how his pas-sion for the Valley has added a new string to his bow and birthed the only norwegean wine school, which is surprising given that the nor-wegeans are known to be fond of wine.

we also had the distinct pleasure of joining the Vodacom Stormers at a wine-blending af-ternoon held at haut espoir and organised by David wibberley of borde{aux}room. Save for the fact that the event was gatecrashed by local contributor, Jim waite, it was an afternoon of fun that left me chanting “Province” as i did at school – with the same looks of disdain and confusion. in those days because i was growing up in the Lowveld; and today, because i should be shouting ‘Stormers!’ See the pics on page 24, while Jim puts his foot in it on page 7.

on page 6 ‘not too Far From here’ visits the fabulous Banghoek Basin – which is literally a stone’s throw from Franschhoek proper but as experiences go, is world’s apart. our regular

restaurant and wine or winery reviews on are to be found on page 8; we have some good ad-vice from local specialists Dr Shelly hellig and psychologist andrea Seidel on page 25 and one of our last hiking pages submitted by (now leg-endary) ed Flitters of cape hiking on page 26. we’re re-introducing the recipe of The month (page 9) and will soon feature a wine of The month column to accompany it.

as always, there’s a decent property pull-out lead by an interesting piece on the new team heading Fine and country. i’m careful not

to make any jokes here, as while he’s a nice enough guy, tony neves is quite a bit bigger than me! we wish them every success in an ever-strengthening Franschhoek property mar-ket.

There’s more good advice, this time of a finance/investment nature on pages 21, 28 and 29. if you have any money to spend, consider tick-ets to the Franschhoek oesfees on the 27th of march at Solms-Delta wine estate (read about it on page 10) or the famous Franschhoek Lit-erary Festival in may.

Finally, our lead article this month was stripped of some of the pathos i felt, standing beneath the statue of nelson mandela on the cold morning of the 10th, to make it a little more event-driven than emotional. But i must con-fess that i did feel very emotional on the day. i was humbled that we’ve been privileged to live through one of the most important political and social revolutions of all time. The reality of the revolution was evident in the closeness of the very mixed group of people at the 20th an-niversary celebration of the release of mandela from prison. But i was also extremely frustrat-ed that so few of the valley’s inhabitants were there to share in the celebration. That we have an opportunity to celebrate the anniversary of such a momentous event each year, right on our doorstep is surely worth a festival the likes of which only the people of the Franschhoek Valley can throw! roll on February 2011.

enjoy the read,

Brett

Letter to the Editor

at the beginning of this year i visited Fran-schhoek for the second time and was looking forward to refreshing the pleasant memories experienced during my visit a few years previ-ously. The charm of the village was just as i remembered it but this time around i noticed a few changes; a brand new mall and the relo-cation of the supermarket to a new building further down the main street.

i also made a discovery that is worth mention-ing - The Franschhoek travellers’ Lodge. after staying for some days out of town in tranquil surroundings broken only by the shriek of peacocks and the dawn callings of roosters, i booked into The Lodge for a week. This old building with its rather imposing exterior is managed by very helpful and friendly staff, and tucked away in a quiet side street, is only a minute from the centre of the village. For a very reasonable fee i was offered a comfy bed in a large simply furnished room that provided all that was conducive to a satisfactory stopover.

although there are lot of wonderful things to be said about Franschhoek i have singled out the service for particular mention. whether i was shopping in one of the many boutiques, buying groceries at the supermarket or asking for information, the service was always courte-ous and competent. Because food and wine are high on my list of priorities when on holiday,

i was eager to dine out, and did so regularly. and it was not long before i began to feel that eating out in Franschhoek has something spe-cial about it. at first i wondered if the feeling was merely because i had been able to escape from a cold and gloomy european winter and slip into the warm and exhilarating air of the valley. or was it perhaps the simple fact that i could enjoy my meal outside every evening if i wished to? Yes, i certainly noticed the wind but the pleasure of dining outside was seldom lessened by its blowing, and as the interiors of all the restaurants i visited were certainly not lacking in atmosphere, dining inside would have been pleasurable too. it was not long be-fore i realised that it was the skilled service i was offered that heightened my pleasure in eat-ing out. Good service is worth its weight in gold and though not to be had everywhere, was very much in evidence in Franschhoek. i expe-rienced staff who were welcoming and eager to make my eating experience a pleasurable one, and from start to finish, they gave competent advice on the choice of dishes, were knowl-edgeable about wine and waited on me quietly and efficiently.

i have no hesitation in saying that the good food and wine to be had in Franschhoek is certainly enhanced by proficient and friendly service, and i can’t wait for my next visit!

Glynis Gertschswitzerland

DeAR ReADeR...

The beautiful Banghoek Valley

Past, President and future?

www.themonth.co.za 3

the month march 2010

march 2010

On Sunday evening, the 7th of February, after a weekend away, I received a call from Pre-toria asking about the fires in Franschhoek. Assuming it was a prank call by some de-mented relative, I dismissed the caller and hung up. When the follow-up call didn’t ma-terialise I wondered if, just perhaps, there was merit to the question. A Tweet asking for clarity remained unanswered. The Net was silent and I assumed that everything was under control. How wrong can one person be?

i bumped into local landscaper, Sue norman, at lunchtime on monday to find her buying a number of loaves of bread. as her son is at ‘var-sity, the quantity of food seemed a little strange.

when i quizzed her she said “i’m off to make sarmies for Lodine and the Lions ladies, for the fire-fighters.” when the Lions start to supply food to the fire-fighters, you know things are getting serious. By monday night the fires that had been raging in Jonkershoek had reached the hottentots holland nature reserve and had descended the mountain into the Fran-schhoek Valley. But the village was ready. Fire-protection crews from Franschhoek, Stellen-bosch, Paarl and Somerset west were joined by others from cape town and a large number of local farmers, armed with water containers hitched to their tractors, in a stand of defiance against 30m high flames that spanned hun-dreds of meters at times.

“everyone pulled together to help each other out,” said nick Davies, in a statement to the press. By rights nick’s Franschhoek Pass win-ery should have been raised, save for the di-rect efforts of his neighbours and indirectly the teams who fought the fires in other parts of the valley. The heat, strong winds and the presence of dry vegetation meant that what started as a single blaze, presumably started by workers in Jonkershoek, soon became multiple fires that each needed considerable attention.

nick can see the humour in it though. “The famous George meyer (whose eyebrows are larger than he is) rushed headlong into the fire to help us,” he says, “only to emerge with a somewhat smoother profile!” on the night the noise of exploding pine trees on his wine farm sounded a lot like the popping of cham-pagne corks. Doug Gurr, of Pam Golding es-tates Franschhoek, had reason to celebrate when, in the heat of the action, a bakkie pulled up carrying the Pam Golding-sponsored try again soccer team. without question or in-struction the young men went straight to work to help their friend and mentor.

Guesthouses in the village made rooms available to accommo-date displaced land owners, staff and guests and despite the thick smoke and oppressive heat kept cool heads and of-fered the proverbial light at the

end of the tunnel to those in need. John Dendy Young, who has recently been at the receiving-end of a double hip replacement, captured the spirit of the community in a typically selfless act of service. a resident in the village, John was aware that some of the visitors booked in at La Petite Ferme’s guest suites up on the hill, were dining in the village unaware that the fire was threatening their accommodation and pos-sessions. without hesitation he collected them from the restaurant, drove them to the guest suites, helped them collect their things and then arranged alternative accommodation for them. a witness to the event suggests that John took on Schwarzenegger-like proportions as he stepped fearlessly in and out of the flames.

to John, and everyone who helped, thank you and thanks to ian Puttkammer for the photos.

Phew, What a Scorcher!By the staff reporter



4

The Franschhoek Valley has become a mag-net for young couples searching for a bet-ter work/life balance and quality private schooling. The latest example of this trend is Monique and Pete Ethelston – the driving force behind ‘red espresso’, the Rooibos tea that behaves like coffee.

Since its launch in late 2005, the internation-ally-patented product has taken the world by storm, garnering numerous accolades includ-ing the prestigious new product award at the Speciality coffee association in the US – and it’s not even coffee.

The ethelstons moved to Franschhoek in De-cember. The thatched family home they rent in Delta crest with their two small children, maya (3) and trinity (20 months), couldn’t be more different to the mouille Point apartment they left behind.

“we moved here for lifestyle and balance and we’re very fond of Bridge house,” says mo-nique. They had been exposed to the school through their good friend, carl Pretorius, the founder of red espresso, who has three boys at the school.

an olive farmer in Paarl, Pretorius used to drink about six espressos a day. one day he felt like another shot but without the negative ef-fects of caffeine so on impulse he stuck some rooibos tea leaves into his espresso machine

instead. That’s how the world’s first tea espresso came into being, though it took much experi-mentation to perfect.

today carl and his friends and business part-ners, the ethelstons, promote a range red es-presso based drinks, including red latte, red

cappuccino, fresh red (an iced tea), and red symphony.

monique’s job as marketing director is to in-troduce red espresso to people who are looking for a healthy alternative to coffee but are not willing to sacrifice on the sophistication and style of the coffee experience.

her husband, Pete, is the managing director. Both formerly worked for Unilever.

“one of the reasons why coffee drinkers haven’t moved over to herbal teas is because of the rit-ual involved and individuality you can express with coffee,” says monique, “The treat of going to your coffee bar and ordering your sophisti-cated, ritual drink with your friends – that’s what coffee’s got.”

So the challenge was to make rooibos sexy and sophisticated. it also needed to involve some kind of ritual in the preparation, as with cof-fee. This was partly achieved with the stylish packaging, and partly by ensuring that the ba-ristas serving the product are trained to add a

swirl of honey and cinnamon to the red cap-puccino or red latte – so that people feel like they are giving themselves a special treat when they order it.

monique’s work on the brand resulted in her being declared a marketing rising Star in the 2008 Sunday times marketing excellence awards. cosmopolitan magazine named her a mover and Shaker in the same year. red es-

presso has won too many domestic and inter-national awards to list. among them, Food review magazine’s 2006 Product innovation of the Year award and a top 10 Product at the world tea expo in the USa in 2008.

The beauty of the drink is that not only is it caffeine-free but it is also extremely healthy. a shot of red espresso contains five times more antioxidants than green tea and ten times more than a cup of traditional rooibos tea.

The product exploded onto the Sa market in late 2005, selling about one million drinks in its first year. That has increased to about three million now in Sa alone. red espresso is also a big success in Portugal where it is marketed as red Q. within weeks of being launched there it became the second biggest seller in the Delta Q capsule range – a variety of coffee capsules pre-pared for home espresso machines by the big-gest coffee roaster in the country, Delta cafes. red espresso is also exported to canada, the UK, USa, Denmark, Switzerland, South Ko-rea, Germany and several african countries. Key areas of expansion include asia, australia and parts of europe.

The americans put spirals of cream and hun-dreds-and-thousands on their red lattes, the ca-nadians serve it with apple cider and pumpkin spice, but the mediterranean countries drink it straight up. Local chefs are also experimenting with red espresso in food because of its strong flavour relative to ordinary rooibos tea.

in Franschhoek, red espresso can be ordered at essence coffee shop. it’s more visible in Paarl,

where it has its origins and where the com-pany’s factory is located. monique’s mission is to make it available more widely through the valley.

it is also stocked by Pick n Pay, woolworths, mugg & Bean, Primi Piatti, col’cacchio, Gio-vanni’s Deli world, and Seattle coffee Shops as well as various retail outlets.

For Pete, the business is about taking a South african stalwart and revolutionising it into something new and innovative and then taking it to the world. “as a small team of family and friends, we’re also passionate about creating a business and product that’s healthy and has, at its core, family values and integrity,” he says.

Pete commutes from Franschhoek to cape town two to three times a week while mo-nique works mostly from home. They do a lot of skype-ing to keep in touch with the cape town team and their export partners and Pete travels extensively abroad.

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The red espresso team: Pete and Monique ethelston and Carl Pretorius



march 2010

Two years ago, La Vigne wine estate in Fran-schhoek was on the market. But instead of selling it, its owner, Norwegean Robert Jør-gensen, will now be using it to train foreign students in the art of wine making.

robert, a former sound engineer and educator, is best known in the valley for playing classical music to his maturing wine in the belief that it changes the wine in a positive way. he even went so far as to build a new wall at his cellar to control the sound - which has to be played at more than 90 decibels to penetrate the oak casks. each vintage is matured for 12 months to a different composer.

Before acquiring La Vigne in 2004, robert was involved in private education. over a period of 20 years, he established 10 performing arts col-leges under the banner of the nordic institute for Stage and Studio. today it has a turnover of around r100m a year and is the leading insti-tute of its kind in Scandinavia.

he scaled back his involvement in education when he bought La Vigne, finally selling his shares in the business in 2008. But robert is a serial entrepreneur and once he gets a business idea in his head he finds the challenge of realis-ing it irresistible.

“when i sold my stake i thought that’s it with education, but having attended wine courses in Sa i realised that with more than 10 000 peo-ple in norway either selling, importing or serv-ing wine, and with no proper wine academy, that there was a market to provide training. i couldn’t keep away from starting my eleventh private college.”

called the nørsk Vinfagskole (norwegean wine Vocational School), the academy plans to enrol about 70 full-time students in its first year and for that to grow to 150 by the second year.

The course can be taken as one or two six-month semesters. The first semester will allow graduates to obtain a certificate or diploma that covers the serving, selling, importing or distribution of wine in norway. it is targeted at chefs, wine waiters or anyone working in the industry. robert has employed two top Scandinavian masters of wine as lecturers and says students will get to sample more than 500 wines and spirits on the course. The academy will also be the first to offer an entire diploma course through interactive e-learning.

The second semester is a six-month diploma course in wine making. Up to 12 students will be invited to join a harvest at La Vigne in Franschhoek for 6 – 8 weeks to observe how its award-winning winemaker, ossie Sauermann, does things first-hand.

“i thought this would be an excellent way of sharing my enthusiasm for wine and even though ours is a small cellar (making 20 000 bottles a year), students will be able to see the entire wine-making process - from harvesting to fermentation, bottling, labelling, packaging – all on the same estate,” robert explains.

“what drives me is the pleasure of mak-ing something happen from a good idea,” he adds. “obviously it’s important that the ven-ture turns a profit, and it will also increase the level of knowledge about wine in norway, but what’s really driving me is the process of seeing an idea come to fruition.”

at the same time, robert has formed the inter-national wine academy which in time will of-fer wine courses to students all over the world via the internet. For the past year, one of nor-way’s leading e-learning experts, Kai wahl, has been working on this project for robert.

“it is time-consuming and very expensive to produce this type of high-quality interactive e-earning,” he explains. “we are busy working on a virtual wine cellar where students will be

Making it HappenBy the staff reporter

able to click on a link and enter a different part of the cellar, and even see what the chemical outcome is depending on how you treat the grapes, juice or wine.”

Ultimately it requires a tV crew to go around the wine world filming. “we would do record-ings in our own cellar at La Vigne, but that’s two years down the line,” robert says. “we will pilot it in norway first.”

Students will be taught traditional wine mak-ing approaches, though of course at La Vigne they will also be exposed to robert’s musical wine experiment.

a perfectionist with a deep curiosity about things and a scientific bent, has resulted in robert taking the experiment further than many others would have. not content to just

play music in his cellar and use this as a clever marketing ploy to differentiate his wine, robert is determined to prove scientifically that wine tastes better as a result of listening to music.

he has gone to great lengths to get special speakers and fittings created so that he can fit certain barrels with them, while allowing other barrels with the same wine to mature in si-lence. once these wines have matured, robert plans to ask Stellenbsoch University to arbi-trate a blind tasting of the musical wine versus the rest.

“it will be difficult to admit to it if playing mu-sic reduces the quality of the wine,” he says, but this is not his expectation. So far his wines have garnered surprising accolades.

“Students will be able to see the entire wine-making process - from harvesting to fermentation, bottling, labelling, packaging – all on the same estate”

Robert Jørgensen, founder of the Norwegean Wine Vocational School



6

Not Too Far From Here...By the staff reporter

If you’re thinking of paying the Bang-

hoek Basin, off the Helshoogte road, a visit for the first time on a misty or overcast

day, don’t. The experience of driving into the valley along the Zevenrivieren Road is one that will stay with you for life, so wait for a fine day to make the most of it.

as you descend into the valley, said road begins to twist and turn and there are shades of the route to nature’s Valley while at the bottom of the hill you may even feel that you’ve stepped into hobbiton in hog’s Back. The valley is impressive enough from anywhere but it’s the unbelievably spectacular grandeur of the per-spective that will catch your breath as you look out through the trees at the sheer and imposing rock faces that hem you in.

The sense is exacerbated by their closeness and,

untouched by the recent fires in the region, they remain lush and unspoilt in places and make a perfect backbrop for the wine and fruit farm-ers in the small valley. The area owes its name to the fear it inspired in travellers of old, who, on passing through it would need to navigate the treacherous road while avoiding leopards, elephants and even slaves on the run from their masters. today the locals are mostly harmless but leopards are still believed to roam the area. historically the Banghoek area referred to the Franschhoek Valley as well and only later, when the name Fransche hoek stuck, was Banghoek reserved for the entry point into the valley via the helshoogte Pass.

at the bottom of the zevenrivieren road there are number of signs that point you to olden-burg Vineyards, mount Joy, rainbow’s end and a couple of other spots. if you miss the

turn and head straight beware the unmarked speed bumps, there are quite a few. The large wall that will no-doubt catch your attention when you hit the first of them gives way to the Banghoek Valley wholesale nursery and after that there isn’t much to see along the road. rather take the turn-off to the right and prepare to be re-impressed. a word of warning though, the road from here is poor. Don’t take your Polo.

consider a visit to oldenburg Vineyards (S33º55,761’ e18º56,875’) – though they’re not quite ready for visitors yet. The farm has recently undergone a change in ownership and by the end of 2010 it is going to be a desti-nation wine farm of note. The views from the farm and the proposed tasting room are awe inspiring (in the true sense of the word). The farm’s vineyards drape the rondekop and give the estate the unique feature of a number of microclimates and terroirs all on a relatively small piece of ground. Their wines will be worth watching in the future. The 2008 vin-tage release is available at Le Pommier along the helshoogte road. Buy it there if you’re keen to try and can’t wait until the end of the year.

rainbow’s end is a little further along and most definitely open to the public – but by appoint-ment only. it’s a family-run affair and everyone is very hands-on, so phone ahead. The road doesn’t get any better here but at 540m above sea level and wedged up against the Jonker-shoek mountain, the views do. From the en-

trance to the farm, look out over rondekop down in the direction of Paarl over Kylemore, Pniel and Boschendal. on a clear day the view is as good as it gets. The malans produce a mix of traditional and new-world style wines that have earned them a handful of michaelangelo international wine awards. everything is done by hand, which includes basket pressing! it’s easy to see the small French oak barrels they’re so fond of as pots that hide the gold at the end of their rainbow.

The Banghoek Basin can also be reached via Kylemore by leaving the r310 just before hit-ting the Pniel road-works on the Stellenbosch side. it’s a useful diversion on a day when wait-ing the 10 minutes for the ‘Stop-n-Go’ guys to do their thing gets your goat. You won’t get the same views as you will from the zevenri-vieren road but the majesty of the mountains remains impressive, particularly when viewed from the local high school. if you don’t make it all the way into the valley or you emerge feeling a little shaken, consider the great wine stops along the helshoogte Pass. with Delaire Graff, Thelema, alluvia, Le Pommier, zorgv-liet - there’s plenty of Dutch courage to be had if Banghoek has you scared.

for more information on the area, the wine farms and accommodation contact the Dwarsriver tourism as-sociation on 021 885 2467

Banghoek Basin

“The area owes its name to the fear it inspired in

travellers of old, who, on passing through it

would need to navigate the treacherous road

while avoiding leopards, elephants and even slaves

on the run from their masters”

Tricky T Concepts is an owner managed marketing agency situated against the

backdrop of the picturesque Paarl mountains.

Contact Michelle for all your marketing needs

[email protected]

072 207 8210T

trickytconcepts.co.zaW

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graphic design

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activations

publicity

A view of the Banghoek Valley from Oldenburg Vineyards

Expect to find barrels of ‘gold’ at Rainbow’s End

Banghoek wines stocked at Le Pommier



march 2010

I read in the Weekend Argus that researchers from the Department of Food Science and Technology at the University of California have discovered that beer contains dietary silicon, which may help keep bones strong and healthy. With the paper smartly tucked under my arm I headed to Dieu Donne where they brew their own beer according to the Reinheitsgebod, as reported in the February edition of The Month. After suc-cessfully dodging the potholes above Cha-monix and climbing the flight of unusually broad steps that leads to the restaurant and bar, I felt justified in ordering a ‘pint’ from the friendly barkeep. With a straight face he looked at me and said “No sir, we don’t have paint, we have beer.” I said I’d have a glass of Ale and systematically worked my way through the micro brewer’s three beers and then repeated the process, twice, to be sure that my silicon stocks were sufficient to tackle the week that lay ahead.

Unfortunately it seems that dietary silicon has the same effect on muscle tissue as krypton-ite has on Superman, as i found it impossible to keep my much strengthened skeleton in an upright position. one of the staff, rynard, knocking off for the afternoon, kindly offered to drive me home and unashamedly prayed what he referred to as rynard’s Gebed, gener-ally reserved for family gatherings that involve watching the Stormers take on anything other than their cheerleaders, he shared. The prayer, he explained, would mean that there would be no need to clean up after me.

in a related matter… i caught wind of the planned visit of the Stormers rugby team to haut espoir a couple of weeks back. i inter-cepted a hapless col’cacchio delivery guy and

for a hundred bucks and a newspaper article about the benefits of drinking beer i offered to do the delivery for him. he was keen for the break and i was soon at the wine farm’s cellar

doors armed with 40-odd steaming pizzas. “i thought you guys all rode Scooters,” said Joe Pietersen who is far friendlier than he is funny. Bryan habana showed that he still has a lot of

pace for a sportsman of his age and before i could ask for his autograph he was gesticulat-ing for more pizza. i was surprised at how un-imposing the players were and turning to Bolla

conradie to make the point i was interrupted by Joe again who was kind enough to point out that i was speaking to Gio. “oh,” i said, “i feel so ashamed.” Thinking that i’d said “You all look the same,” second-rower, andries Bekker turned sharply to the defence of his diminu-tive teammate. i didn’t wait around to explain myself and after what he threatened to do to me, i’m compelled to sell my newlands season tickets to anyone who would care for them.

i wasted no time in getting hold of Ferran Griede (featured last month) to have him set me up with an online Forex trading account. For r100.00 i got a tax free account somewhere offshore and a personalised login to something with lots of numbers and graphs that go up and down like the mood swings of my wife, the fitness junkie. “Be cautious with technical trades and do your homework on fundamen-tals,” said Ferran. not having a clue and feeling a little stupid to admit it i bought US$1000 worth of Swedish Krona (SeK), hoping that it would strengthen against the Yen and make me a tidy return.

Unfortunately the small matter of the fires in Franschhoek meant that i was busied making sandwiches and buying bottles of water that the junkie insisted i deliver personally to Lodine maske of the Lions. when i finally got around to the internet in essence on wednesday, i’d missed the climax and lost all my SeKs*.

Waiting in the Eye of the StormBy Jim Waite

BEST IN FAMILY LIVING

To arrange a viewing | T +27 21 867 8000 | E [email protected] | W pearlvalleygolfestates.com

SITUATED IN THE HEART OF THE CAPE WINELANDS, A SCENIC 50 MINUTE DRIVE FROM THE VIBRANT CITY OF CAPE TOWN , PEARL VALLEY GOLF ESTATES IS HARD NOT TO FALL IN LOVE WITH. ONCE YOU ARRIVE, THERE’S A WHOLE LOT OF LIVING TO BE DONE – WITH A WORLD OF ADVENTURE AND ACTIVITY FOR THE ENTIRE FAMILY , WAITING TO BE EXPLORED.

contact | T +27 21 867 8000 | F +27 21 867 8096 | E [email protected] | W pearlvalleygolfestates.com

4 BEDROOMS - ENTERTAINERS’ DELIGHT

This is the ideal entertainer’s home, offeringeverything from 4 bedrooms, an indoor braai area, to a Jacuzzi and the perfect wine cellar. The design of this home definitely reflects a personal touch and attention to detail.

NORTH FACING DESIGNER HOME

This creative 3 bedroom design offers great familyliving. The kids have their own play room. The home also offers a separate loft study area. The outdoor entertainment and pool area offers great flow and is ideal for a family.

LUXURY ON A LAKE

Estate, with sweeping views across a lake onto the fairway. It is finished to a very high standard and offers luxurious indoor and outdoor living from its wide patio and large pool.

R15 .95 MIL incl.

R8.995 MIL incl.

R12.95 MIL incl.

The Month QP 19 February 2010.indd 1 2010/02/22 09:30:12


march 2010 the monthfood and wineFooD & wine

on the way in to Franschhoek, almost di-rectly opposite the Berg river Dam wall, is a sandwich-board that advertises wine tasting. Unremarkable to be sure, except for the almost naïve tag line that simply reads: mmmmm. intrigued, i stop at La chataigne to see if the description is true.

at the cellar door i meet owner richard Park-felt as he chats easily to a regular visitor (to the valley and the farm) who’s on the hunt for property. Listening to their conversation i come to realize that richard is a pretty funny guy, in the style of a mark Lottering rather than say, Frank n. Furter. he’s seen the valley grow and change and is as passionate about village-life as he is about his wine.

The three wines produced by the farm are meant for drinking. richard is not in the busi-ness of making wines that should be hidden away – the gold or silver ‘labels’, hand-written directly on the bottles make that quite obvi-ous. “every time i make a mistake writing the label i have to finish the bottle myself,” he says straight-faced. The glint in his eye makes it clear that he’s joking but the only other person in the tasting room, isreali chemical engineer, or, who has a little wine training and an obvi-ous knowledge of wine, doesn’t notice. i can see him wondering why richard doesn’t just use a damp cloth or simply print the labels.

The first wine, a Sauvignon Blanc, reminds me of nearly ripe granadillas. it’s crisp and clean and i’m hard-pressed not to polish off the healthy serving and ask for more. or likes it too and pauses only briefly to watch me at the spittoon

while he drains his glass. La chataigne’s other white is called Kastanje and richard explains that it’s the Swedish word for chestnut. The chenin Blanc / Sauvignon Blanc / Semillon blend is almost floral and feels “full but light” according to or. Perfect for a summer’s day, it’s a wine i’m familiar with but i must have had one or two of the bottles he labeled af-ter a couple of mistakes, as i’ve always called it Kastaiing, which i learn is the afrikaans word for chestnut. he’s funny and clever!

i find myself doubting the latter, however, as richard reaches for the fridge to present a (very) chilled red called marron. it’s a merlot / cabernet Sauvignon / Pinotage blend, matured for eight months in French oak. “it’ll open up wonderfully as it gets to room temperature,” he assures us and from the very first mouthful the fresh berries and oak start their magic. i mean to ask about the name but by now or and i are chatting like old friends and it completely slips my mind. The last wine on the list is the mmmmm (any number of ms it seems will do). Sadly it’s so popular that there’s none for sale at the cellar at present. “hmmmm,” i say as dejectedly as possible, hoping that he’ll give me some of his private stock. he doesn’t fall for it and simply says: “mmmmm.”

La Chataigne is open all day on week-days and on Saturdays from 10am to 2pm. the whites are r40.00 at the door and the reds, r60.00 (pay with cash as there are no credit card facil-ities at present). Contact the farm on 021 876 3220 or [email protected]

BICCCS (Bread, Ice cream, Cake, Croissant, Coffee and Sandwiches) opened its doors in Franschhoek without fanfare a few weeks ago. The bright colours have attracted quite a bit of attention from visitors and locals and I decided to pop in for their ‘Meal of the Day’ to see if the generally positive com-ments are justified.

The restaurant is in what used to be Gideon’s Pancakes and more recently the ‘old’ tourism office, on the main road, opposite the Fran-schhoek Live craft centre. on a hot day head indoors where the air-con is as cool as

their (very good) coffee milkshakes; otherwise eat outside under the willow tree with a view of the goings-on in the main road or claim a couch and put your feet up with a daily paper or a magazine.

my meal of the day was a ‘Pasta with basil pesto and chicken’ for r48.00. manager, Peter oberzaucher, assured me that it was a “decent portion” and as i was in a bit of a hurry i hoped that “decent” didn’t mean “big.” conscious of my dinner plans later in the evening, i ordered an iced coffee, though what i really wanted was a milkshake. Both the coffee and the pasta arrived without fuss, and with a seat under the trees, i set about tucking in to what was an unpretentious but tasty bowl of food. as portions go, it was certainly decent. not big, but certainly big enough to mean that an iced coffee was a better choice than a milkshake. my waiter was close-by but unobtrusive and one of the managing staff came to see that i was happy about half-way into my meal. at BicccS, staff-development is an on-going focus and from my experience they seem to be getting there.

other menu items include a meat pie (r15.00), Pizza slice (r30.00), soups, salads (r40.00 or less) and homemade ice-cream. For r100.00 expect something to eat and drink, a tip and some change. By the looks of things, and the fact that many locals have been to visit the res-taurant post the initial trip to suss them out, BicccS adds another decent option to the of-fering in Sa’s gourmet capital.

Winery ReviewBy the Wine Correspondent

La Chataigne

Restaurant ReviewBy the staff reporter

BiCCCs

Israeli chemical engineer, Or, with Richard Parkvelt

BICCCS manager, Peter Oberzaucher


the monthfood and wineFooD & wine march 2010

march 2010

This year’s Franschhoek Literary festival, which takes place from Friday 14 May to Sunday 16 May will include a cookbook event similar to the one held in 2009. On the morning of Friday the 14th, three local cuisine gods: Marlene van der Westhuizen (Sumptuous), Mark Dendy Young (La Pe-tite Ferme Cookbook) and Myrna Robins (Franschhoek Food) will wow the crowds with their take on just what’s cooking in the world.

Sumptuous was launched towards the end of 2009 and is as its name suggests. There’s an insight into van der westhuzen’s life, lived through dishes that capture the essence of what it means to be on the move between charroux and cape town. a trained chef, her fondness of ‘brasserie luxe’ (simple but sumptuous food) usually sees her in front of a stove, and it will be interesting and no doubt rewarding to have her trade her pans for a microphone and a seat between mark and myrna.

La Petite Ferme’s cookbook was featured in The month in november and any self-respect-ing cook in the village is sure to have a copy. The book reflects the Dendy Young family’s down-to-earth approach to most things, yet the dishes remain elegant and refined – as the Pear and Blue cheese Soup recipe this month demonstrates. Pick it up from La Petite Ferme before the festival to get a head-start on the au-tograph hunters who’ll be out for marks scrawl on the day.

myrna robins is a darling with everyone in Franschhoek and her book, Franschhoek Food, effortlessly captures the three things that make it worth having: it’s about food, about Fran-schhoek and it’s by myrna robins.

Literally CookingBy the staff reporter



10

Tel: (021) 874 1611 | Corner of R45 and Klapmuts Simondium Rd, PaarlVisit our website to join our wine club: www.vnl.co.za

Photo by Eddie Wilson

Free Wine Tasting | Open daily from 10h00 to 17h00

If you’re looking for a good ‘pick-me-up’ you’ll no doubt find all you desire and more in the foot-tapping tunes and good natured fellowship of the Franschhoek Oesfees, the annual music festival hosted by the Solms-Delta wine estate, to be held on Saturday, 27 March.

The festival, now in its third year, is an in-clusive celebration of the harvest to which all Valley farm workers are invited. whilst it gets widespread support, the oesfees it’s geared for locals, and has “no airs and graces - just good, authentic rural cape music and Kaapse kos” according to festival organisers. The result is a festival that has become a veritable Fran-schhoek institution.

The musical line-up this year includes the wit-ty cape Flats born-and-bred actor and singer, emo adams, of “District 6: The musical” fame. adams recently released his fast-selling cD, “tall, Dark and afrikaans” which is receiving widespread acclaim. also featured is The ra-dio Kalahari orkes which incorporates the un-likely musical talents of actor ian roberts and writer/poet rian malan – expect music born from solid working class afrikaans roots with classic roberts’ tongue-in-cheek and razor-sharp social commentary.

Local and artist in residence at Solms-Delta’s music van de caab, Les Javan, acknowledged as one of cape town’s great composers, will be on stage with his band nonspesifiek. toe-

tapping, cape vernacular music will be provid-ed by Solms-Delta’s women’s choir the Delta Soetstemme; a brass, guitar and vocal ensemble known as the Delta Langbroek Band; the Delta Bluestars brass and klopse band and the ever-

green locals, the Papier Family Langarm Band. Jakobus and hester cloete, Pieter van der west-huizen and tannie Grietjie and the rieldance

champions from Grabouw and witzenberg; Ghoema Jazz of ‘national gem’ mac mcKenzie and his Ghoema orchestra will add to the pro-gramme that features old favourites, legendary spoon-wielding slide guitarist, hannes coetzee and cape Jazz king, robbie Jansen.

to keep dancers and performers fuelled for the ‘fees’, authentic cape flavours will be on offer in the form of local favourites such as water-blommetjie bredie, snoek en patats and afval potjie. alternatively stop by at mary’s tuck-shop, which will sell chips and sweets as well as shoelaces and airtime.

The oesfees is the brainchild of the estate’s partners, mark Solms and richard astor, who strive to lead the way in the empowerment of winelands farm workers and residents. The festival is the largest performance vehicle in music Van de caab, a multi-faceted rural cape music Project that preserves and celebrates the vernacular music of the cape.

tickets are available through webtickets.co.za, at the farm or the Franschhoek tourism office and will set you back r160.00 per adult and includes a meal voucher. entry for kids under 12 is half-price while those younger than six get in for free. Visit www.solms-delta.co.za for more information.

If you thought that the big debate in wine circles is still about screw-caps versus cork, you’re wrong. The big question wine farmers and consum-ers will soon need to consider is: Plastic or Glass?

Yealands, a new zealand-based winemaker that prides itself on its sustainable ap-proach to all things, has just launched its Full circle range of wines in recyclable Pet plastic bottles. with a smaller carbon footprint than glass – the Full circle range generates 54% less greenhouse gas emissions and uses 19% less energy to produce than had it gone into glass – Yealands is generating as many nods of appreciation as they are stares of disbelief.

The first Full circle wine to be released is a 2009 Sau-vignon Blanc. The plastic bottles use Diamondclear technology to keep oxygen out of the wine and the la-bels on the bottles encour-age consumers to drink the wine within 18 months. Peter Yealands, owner of Yealands, be-

lieves that environmentally conscious consumers are going to place increas-ing pressure on the industry to ad-dress the heavy packaging needs of

the traditional bottling process.

South african wine exporters know that the high cost of shipping wine to the States or europe is directly related to the transport of heavy glass bottles. with an 89% weight saving over glass, simple economics must dictate that plastic will become more com-mon even if it takes a while to become popu-lar.

For consumers, the small-er size and lighter weight of the plastic bottles will

make them more conven-ient for picnics and intro-duce a new option for pubs and outdoor events where glass is banned.

Yealands have an interest-ing website at www.yea-

lands.com which is worth a visit.

It’s Harvest Time!By the staff reporter

BottleBy the staff reporter

Legendary spoon-wielding slide guitarist, Hannes Coetzee

Cape Jazz king, Robbie Jansen

emo Adams and local, Anna-Marie

Shock



march 2010

Right now, wine-lovers across the world are waiting with baited breath to see if they’ve cracked the nod as potential buyers of Boekenhoutskloof ’s mixed case of single varietal 2007 vintage wines, three each of Semillon, Cabernet Sauvignon and Syrah and two demi bottles of Noble Late Harvest, anchored by the legen-dary Journeyman.

The Journeyman was previously only available to friends and family and the 2007 vintage has garnered a reputation to exceed that of the 2005 offering. marc Kent, the winemaker at Boekenhoutsk-loof, explains that the wine was his an-swer to some of the criticism that was levelled at the estate some years back for producing wines from grapes that were not all from the Boekenhoutskloof es-tate or even the Franschhoek region. he chose to focus on cabernet Franc as the experience of the likes of chamonix and L’ormarins suggested that the varietal is perfectly suited to the Franschhoek valley. The cabernet Franc didn’t make it into the bottle in its first year (2001) nor in 2003 but the 2005 harvest, did crack the nod. The blend of cabernet Franc and the estate’s cabernet Sauvi-gnon was never intended to be for sale which marc justifies by suggesting that they didn’t want to give people the im-pression that they were trying to create a local Bordeaux-style wine; they were just producing a decent estate wine. ironically the de-cision to give the limited release away possibly earned them a bigger return than the sale of wines would have. in 2006 marc again decided not to bottle any wines

whilst only two barrels of cabernet Franc made it into bottles in 2007. “Very good barrels,” marc points out.

according to neil Pendock (times Live, 13 December 2009) michael Fridjhon is to thank for the existence of the idea behind the case, for it was he who suggested to marc that present international trends would make this a sensible offering. The proof of the pudding has been the growing demand to be placed on the ‘waiting list’ for the wine. The list is essentially Boekenhout-skloof ’s mailing list and lovers of the estate’s wine need do no more than ask to be placed on it. There’s no guarantee though that Johnny-come-latelys will stand any chance of laying their hands on the desirable collection given the fact that marc will afford Boekenhoutsk-loof ’s long-standing fans the first chance at ownership and then steadily work his way down the list. Given that the 2005 Journeyman is regarded by Pendock as ‘fabled’ there’s every chance that the 500 mixed cases available will be sold to the first 500 in the mailing list. at the time of going to press the list numbered about twice that.

marc has suggested that 2007 and 2009 were exceptional years for the estate (and South african wine in general) and the price tag of r3500.00 will do noth-ing to deter would-be buyers. in fact the

inclusion in the collection of the noble Late harvest (also not commercially available) will make it as sweet a purchase as any.

The JourneymanBy the Wine Correspondent

27 MARCH ’10SAT.

11am - 9pm Gates open at 10am.

at

F R A N S C H H O E K3 r d a n n ua l

OE S F E ESCelebrate authentic Cape tradition

at the third annual harvest musical fest.

A rousing feast of Cape music and lekker kaapsekos. One of the great

highlights of the Winelands calendar, this inclusive festival celebrates the hard work of the

Valley’s farmworkers, with an outstanding showcase of local

musicians which this year will be even bigger and better than ever before.

Tickets are available through webtickets.co.za, at the farm or Franschhoek Tourism off ice for R160.00 per person, which includes a meal voucher. Food stalls will serve traditional kaapsekos throughout the day, and a cash bar for wine and soft drinkswill be available. Entry is free for children under six and half price for under 12. See www.solms-delta.co.za for further details.

FEATURING:EMO ADAMS RADIO KALAHARI ORKES HANNES COETZEE ROBBIE JANSEN LES JAVAN MAC MCKENZIE & D IE GHOEMA ORKES TANNIE GRIET J I E & P IETER VD WESTHUIZEN

ATKV R IEL DANS FEES WINNERS :GRABOUW RIELDANSERS & WITZENBERG RIELDANSERS



12 march 2010

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Does Star Grading Tell the Whole Story?Here at

The Month, we under-stand that accommoda-

tion outlets want to be Star Graded because by do-

ing this their establishments are immediately seen as being

part of a legitimate and credible organisation which offers substantial

consumer confidence. But what does it ac-tually mean? Does it help the visitor make the right choice of where to stay? We went to find out.

Star grading, it seems, is an independent assess-ment of what guests can expect to find at an ac-commodation establishment. it’s based on the establishment’s overall quality and takes into account the facilities you’d expect to accompa-ny a particular star grading. The grading runs from one to five stars (with five stars denoting the very best quality) and types of accommoda-tion are defined as follows:

Bed and Breakfast - This type of accom-modation is likely provided within a family home and has the owner or manager living in the house, or on the property. Breakfast must be served and the bathroom facilities may or may not be en-suite and/or private. in general, the guest shares the public areas with the host family.

a guest House - This can be an existing or renovated home or a building that has beenspecifically designed to provide overnight ac-

commodation. a guest house will have public areas for the exclusive use of its guests and as a commercial operation may have the owner or manager living on the property.

a Hotel - more generally described as ‘a provider of accommodation to the travelling public’ and as such it would have a reception area, offer at least a breakfast room or commu-nal eating area and, in general, make food and beverage services available to guests – either outsourced or in-house.

the Country House - Usually a large Guest house situated in natural, peaceful sur-roundings such as a nature reserve or a forest and it would offer all the services of a hotel, including dinner.

the Lodge – Similar to the country house but that charges rates inclusive of all meals and the experience offered at the lodge, be it a game drive, a battlefield tour or whatever.

So, having established what type of accom-modation we’re going to be grading, we now know what we’re dealing with. The next step is to grade the place and the star system is fairly clear in this department:

1 Star - a one star would offer fair to good (acceptable) quality in the overall standard of its furnishings, service and guest care. it would be clean, comfortable and functional. Guests

could expect a quick cooked or continental breakfast and are sure to find soap and a towel in the bathroom.

2 Stars - a notch up in the quality of the furnishings, service and guest care, to ‘good’. You’d find a continental breakfast with per-haps a choice of cooked items and now you get a hand anD a bath towel in the bathroom. and the soap’s thrown in too.

3 Stars - Up to ‘very good quality’ in terms of the standard of furnishings, service and guest care. now there’s an ‘extensive’ variety of cooked food for breakfast and bedrooms more spacious with additional furnishings such as a desk. The bathrooms are now saying ‘stay a while’ with the offering of shower gel, wrapped soap and shampoo plus the givens like towels, of course.

4 Stars - Superlatives abound for your four stars – “Superior” “excellent” in terms of com-fort and quality. expect a high standard of fur-nishings, service and guest care, a fully cooked breakfast anD service at the table. Bedrooms now mUSt have a working area with a desk and room service. The bathroom has now be-come a destination with hair conditioner, body lotion, face cloth, shower cap, the works. and loads of towels!

5 Stars - exceptional, top of the range qual-ity – what is described as “luxury” accommo-dation – i.e. like you’d find overseas. expect the highest standard of furnishings, flawless service and meticulous guest care. if it’s a hotel it will offer 24-hour room service which is great if you like a fully cooked breakfast served all day in your room. if you can pull yourself out of bed you’ll get table service in the eating areas and the bedrooms must, again, have a working area. Business facilities (like the internet and a fax machine) and health and beauty services would be offered if not on site, certainly nearby. and don’t even think of going to the bathroom unless you’ve got an hour to kill.

So now we have a general idea of what to ex-pect but how do we know what it’s actually like? how’s the style, the view, does it have the ‘X factor’? it seems this is where the web-site trip advisor (www.tripadvisor.com) has cornered the market by offering a Popularity index incorporating ‘actual traveller ratings to determine traveller satisfaction’. trip advisor ranks places on the number of positive reviews they receive from independent visitors with emphasis placed on the most recent informa-tion. So although you know it’s star rating and rates that fit your budget, you now have ac-cess to free, independent global views on the accommodation establishment you choose to book.

it seems that, although a place may tick all the boxes in terms of its star rating, we can now get a good feel of the non-definables: the atti-tude of the manager, the safety of the location, the cleanliness of the rooms, etc. So if a place does not live up to its star-ranked expectations, you’ll pick that up on trip advisor.

The month will follow this theme closely in future editions as it examines accommodation offerings in the Valley.

Akademie Street Boutique Hotel and Guesthouse which is ranked the number one Hotel in Franschhoek on Trip Advisor. Other categories include B+Bs/Inns and Speciality Lodging

www.themonth.co.za 13march 2010

This month, we spoke to Tom Clode and Tony Neves about Franschhoek’s newest Real Estate company, Fine and Country, and asked them what was different about their offering compared to the others?

Tom Clode: well first up, we’re approach-ing this very differently. The market is gener-ally divided into two sectors: there’s the sales side who dabble in holiday and long-term lets and there’s the letting agents that don’t to do sales. we’re combining the two into a one-stop property shop in the way that none of the other agents are. with 7 full-time staff we have the infrastructure to do all of the above. it’s unique.

The Month: and is the approach working?

TC: Yes. we have over 20 holiday homes in the 4 and 5 star-equivalent bracket, 25 long-term lets and a sales mandate book of almost 20 properties and growing. we made our first sale this week of a holiday home owned by an overseas couple to local buyers. also, the other key difference is we don’t operate on an agent commission basis. There are four agents who are equal partners; tony, Dale, heidi and my-self, so you don’t get internal differences within the office in relation to commission – a sys-tem that usually means you compete with your colleagues. our ‘common objective’ approach gives the client a better service.

TM: So how did it come about?

TC: it is basically a merger between the two companies Franschhoek cottages and Fran-schhoek rentals. cottages was set up by hei-di and myself about two years ago where we managed about 15 holiday homes and rentals was affiliated to Seeff and was bought by tony and Dale in December. we bought the Fine and country licence in December and merged the companies. adding the Fine and country brand gave us the ‘property supermarket’ pack-age.

TM: So it’s a licence to operate, not a fran-chise?

TC: Ja, there’s no royalty fee on sales just a li-cence fee. a franchise comes with a big fat rule book which tells you how to operate what you can and can’t do whereas the Fine and coun-try licence is aimed at independent operators

who want to align themselves to an upmarket brand. we chose them because they are an up-market brand and we perceive the Franschhoek Valley as an upmarket area. Fine and country are international with 200 offices in the UK and others in Dubai, mauritius and Thailand, yet South africa is its second biggest market with over 50 offices. There’s a particularly strong UK/Sa connection and exposure to the national footprint and we have already seen a lot of referrals from Gauteng consistent with semi-gration to the western cape.

TM: So what is your objective?

TC: to become a significant player in Fran-schhoek. we’re already seeing that our business plan works with short-stay guests wanting to become owners and owners of guest cottages wanting to sell through us. There is a continu-ing trend in foreigners coming to visit who fall in love with Franschhoek and want to purchase a home. So when we look at the buyer profile here we think we have a network that will pro-duce a significant market share.

TM: and does your licence territory extend right through the valley?

TC: Basically to Val de Vie (so it includes Pearl Valley) to Boschendal and over the Franschhoek Pass to Threewaterskloof. These ‘Lifestyle es-tates’ suit our Franschhoek buyer profile. we manage a number of properties there also for owners who want piece of mind on returning to their properties or when sending family or friends so we’re seeing plenty of synergy there too.

TM: and lastly tony, the world cup?

Tony Neves: well the big story about the world cup is that it’s not going to be as big a story as we thought! Primarily, i think, with games in cape town in the off-season, a lot of

the Guest houses and ho-tels are running fairly low occupancies. So much of the slack will be taken up there leaving us largely

unaffected. also, with Fran-schhoek being quite a way from where the games are played it’s unlikely people will stay here rather than cape town unless there’s the spill-over, of course.

TM: So the benefit to the valley is likely to fol-low after the world cup not at it.

TN: we believe so. The exposure we’ll get at the tournament will benefit Franschhoek over the next three years. People will come back when they see how much there is on offer here which suits our approach since we’re here for the long term – we’re running a marathon not a sprint. we’ll have a high street presence within the next couple of months and are already using the branded vehicles. certainly buying senti-ment has changed for the better in the last few months and we’re well positioned for the fu-ture.

TM: Thank you tom and tony and good luck.

Contact tom Clode from fine and Coun-try on [email protected] or tony neves on [email protected]

A Fine Life

The Fine and Country team from left: Tom Clode, Heidi Clode, Dale Neves and Tony Neves


ProPertY & LiFeStYLemarch 2010

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march 2010

march 2010

ProPertY & LiFeStYLe

Please contact us for any property related queries.

Dionne Gurr 072 460 2586, Shelly Schoeman 083 301 8833, Doug Gurr 072 610 7208

Franschhoek Office 021 876 2100, [email protected]

www.pamgolding.co.za/franschhoek

“The South African residential property market is showing encouraging signs of early recovery -there is a tangible sense of optimism in the country.” Andrew Golding, Chief Executive.

always driven by excellence

The Franschhoek team would like to thank all our loyal clients for their continued support.

A selection of properties recently sold by us.

New releases for sale.

R2.9 million * R2.9 million * R3 million *

R6.4 million * R8.5 million plus VAT * R15 million *

*Listing Prices Quoted

FRANSCHHOEK – R23.5 million TIMELESS CLASSIC.This beautiful, established wine farm on 17ha offers wonderful views of the Simonsberg Mountains. The large manor house, nestled amongst mature oak trees exudes elegance from a bygone era. 3 Self-catering cottages, positioned on the banks of the river, overlook the vineyards, pear orchard and citrus trees. A truly excellent lifestyle opportunity.

Bedrooms: 5 Bathrooms: 3 Garages: 3WEB ACCESS 1013301Sole Mandate: Dionne Gurr 072 460 2586, Shelly Schoeman 083 301 8833,Doug Gurr 072 610 7208

FRANSCHHOEK – R4.4 million DOVE COTTAGE.This immaculate home with underfloor heating and air conditioning, is situated in a quiet village location with pretty garden and mountain views. Bright, spacious living areas with good quality finishes. Charming covered patio and swimming pool with separate entertainment room, single car garage and carport.

Bedrooms: 3 Bathrooms: 3 Garages: 1WEB ACCESS 1016700Sole Mandate: Dionne Gurr 072 460 2586, Shelly Schoeman 083 301 8833,Doug Gurr 072 610 7208



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march 2010

“You could buy a much nicer house in Stellenbosch but there’s just one problem. It’s not in Franschhoek”

A wise man once said to me that if you want to understand the value of property in a town get into the local coffee shops and check out the local estate agents. That man was local entrepreneur, Thys Geyser from Franschhoek Investments, so I took him to Franschhoek’s latest coffee and breakfast joint, BICCCS, and asked him to share with The Month his views on property valuation in the Franschhoek valley and the future. As the coffee flowed so did the knowledge.

Thys Geyser: The most amazing thing to me is that estate agents work in the only profession in the world where it is standard practice to gladly impart all their knowledge at the first meeting. They will tell you everything they know about what properties are on the market, tell you what you can buy and where, why you should develop, etc. - a doctor or a lawyer would never do that. You’ll also get opposing views so you can build up a huge amount of knowledge completely for free.

The Month: So why are properties here valued so highly? isn’t it just de-mand and supply?

TG: of course you can value prop-erty on demand and supply but it’s area specific. in Pretoria it’s all about square meterage. if 100m2 sells at r1m, then a 200m2 place would be priced at r2m. That doesn’t work in the cape. There’s no correlation be-tween the size and the price. normally you’d value the land first then the physical building. That theory doesn’t really work here. here it’s about understanding what people want and correctly pricing property to sell.

TM: So valuation here is less mathematics and more art – more right brain than left brain?

TG: it’s the monaco of Sa. in Franschhoek there’s some sort of dynamic beyond econom-ics. This is a place where property decisions are based on emotions. You could buy a much nicer house in Stellenbosch but there’s just one problem. it’s not in Franschhoek. The brand is not attached to it. So it’s not easy to value. Three estate agents will come up with three dif-ferent values. it’s not an exact science. Business minds want to do that but property doesn’t work like that.

TM: So it’s really about imagining how a prop-erty could look?

TG: The agents that do well here are the ones that can paint a picture. how can a hectare be worth r7m? i’ll tell you how. Look at what’s actually selling around it, not offered, selling. Let’s say a place sells for r15m and you could build a similar house for r4m and r1m to tidy up the plot, fix the entrance, sort the view. This picture, quite rightly, is worth r15m. So the

empty land is worth at least r7m. This is what i call ‘changing the dynamic’ of the property to unlock its value. The simplest example is buy-ing a big plot and chopping it up into stands so you can sell the view many times over instead of just once. This changes the application (the dynamic) from a to B. or a big house into a Guest house – it’s the same thing. to unlock value you need to paint the picture that people want to see – but at a premium, not at input cost.

TM: So the valley still holds good value.

TG: Ja, but i think there’s a general misconcep-tion. The money in property is made on the way in, not the way out. in other words it’s important to buy right, understand the poten-tial and unlock it. There’s no perfect formula. it takes emotional intelligence.

TM: and what is the valley likely to attract in the future?

TG: That’s an interesting one. Undoubtedly it will continue to attract but more likely people with similar sized cheque books not necessar-ily similar taste. only a certain strata can play here. why do people make wine? Because it’s

part of the aspiration. People buy for aspira-tional reasons so they can say they own a piece of Franschhoek.

TM: So, we’re not overvalued then?

TG: Look, agents naturally overvalue to get the mandate but there’s also a benefit in the focused marketing that follows. an agent may tell you your property is worth r5m if the oth-ers are telling you it’s worth r4m so he can get

the mandate. But can he sell it at r5m? he’ll say “Give me a sole mandate and i will because i’m going to have to work hard to sell it and i don’t want to have to do the work and lose the sale.” hence the secure mandate focuses the marketing effort even if it is unrealistic.

TM: and lastly do you think the recession has left the valley largely unscathed?

TG: There’s no doubt the availability of money affects property prices but in Franschhoek you have cash buyers. Banks have certainly begun to release the handbrake and if you look at the stats, viewings over the recession did not drop – it was just the ability to make the deal that ceased. it’s all about timing and if everyone is supplying your timing is wrong. You can buy right, build right and see all your potential de-pleted by carrying costs.

TM: Thank you for your time, Thys, we’ll be following up with you in the near future.

thys can be contacted at fran-schhoek investments on 083 452 4774 or [email protected]

Unlocking Franschhoek’s PotentialBy the staff reporter

FASHIONSHOW

Ladies & Mens

Tickets are available from � e Hospice, Träumerei and

at Graham Beck Wine Estate15th March 2010 @ 6.00pm

R 130.00 per person

IN AID OF FRANSCHHOEK

HOSPICE

Thys Geyser: “This is a place where property decisions are based on emotions.”



22

Many visitors to Franschhoek will be aware of the wine bus tours which run from Otter’s Bend and take place using an open four-wheeler ‘bus’ small enough to literally slip between the vines. We spoke to Mark He-istein, the man behind both the bus and the bend, about the development of his business in the Valley.

The Month: You’ve been in the Valley for 26 years now, what brought you here?

Mark Heistein: to be honest i ended up here by mistake! we were looking for property in

clovelly or Fishhoek but couldn’t find any-thing. we came through to Franschhoek, had a look around and ended up buying our farm on the same day. The road into Franschhoek was a single, tarred road back then. There were no gates, no fences, no gardens.

TM: You have a history in the hotel industry, did that motivate you to go into the accom-modation game?

MH: not really. again, it just happened. The farm does lend itself to accommodation as it’s close to town but not in it. with a son at uni-

versity in cape town and many friends who want to stay over in Franschhoek rather than trek all the way back to ‘res’, targeting the niche ‘back packers’ market made sense. other than mid-week, we’re full most of the time.

TM: tell us a bit about the wine Bus tours.

MH: many of our guests look for alternatives to simply eating and drinking. we considered things like hiking, birding, fishing… to keep people occupied between meals. The bus was an idea that came up as a variation to the typi-cal wine tour. in fact the wine part of it is the smallest part of it! typically a tour takes four or five hours as we head up into the mountains to enjoy a picnic and do a bit of hiking along the river. There’s a fair amount of birding, we chat about the region, explain the Fynbos and pop in to a few wineries along the way.

TM: Sounds like you and your staff need some very specific training to pull that sort of tour off.

MH: For sure. when we wanted to start we couldn’t find enough trained guides. we in-terviewed a lot of people and found that there were many cultural guides but very few field guides. They’re generally committed to game farms and reserves up north and even if they are available their knowledge often doesn’t ex-tend to Fynbos of the Fynbos biome. So we got involved in training them through a rela-tionship with Loius willemse from FeGaSa in the western cape. our guides do the usual course to which we add a number of modules that specifically cover the cape region. we run the courses here on the farm on monday nights for people who are interested. initially the pro-gramme is free. Those that cope, and it’s quite tough given that there’s so much to cover, are then able to go on to do the FeGaSa qualifi-

cation and we try to help them with sponsor-ship to cover the costs.

TM: You’re also involved in De Poort. tell us about that.

MH: De Poort is the vacant 5ha piece of ground next to oude renbaan as you go into Paarl and was the brainchild of Frances Grace, ten years ago. it opened to the public recently and the support has been as overwhelming as it has been satisfying. Basically De Poort will en-sure the preservation of the wagon-making his-tory of Paarl and teach people the related skills such as forging, upholstery and carpentry. in a sense it’s a museum, but it’s much more than that. it’s a living village where skilled craftsmen will work and interact with the public. The first building is up, more are on the way and soon we’ll have steam-driven machinery restored and in use along with displays of tools, wagons and carriages that would otherwise be rotting away somewhere.

TM: Thank you mark and good luck with De Poort - see you on the wine bus!

Otter’s Bend and the Wine Bus can be reached on 021 876 3200.

Things to Do in The ValleyBy Werner smit of Winelands experience

MINUTES WITH . . .MARK HEISTEIN

Combine a wine tour and local herit-age experience at Solms-Delta

Solms-Delta is a wine estate located 15km from Franschhoek village and offers visitors a variety of experiences including wine tastings, picnics and modern cape cuisine at the Fyndraai res-taurant.

The estate is also home to the museum van de caab that explores the indigenous his-tory of the farm and region, alongside the story of the colonial owners who would later come to own the farm and the slaves who worked for them. The museum also includes the stories of the present farm workers.

fyndraai restaurant The Fyndraai restaurant is unique to the val-ley and offers modern traditional cape cuisine whilst showcasing the history of the cape wine valley with a truly South african taste. enjoy a wide variety of dishes from their innovative menu and taste how cape, european, asian and even indigenous flavours meet. Fyndraai’s

menu allows you to sample a fusion of the three cape culinary traditions: the

Veldkos of the indigenous Khoi and San communities; cape

malay cuisine (food created by slaves of indian, indo-nesian and east african origin) and Boerekos (the cuisine brought by europe-an settlers and then devel-oped in the cape). expect friendly and highly trained

staff, the majority of whom have been recruited from the

resident farm worker families. The restaurant is open tuesday to

Saturday from 10am to 6pm, and Sun-day and monday from 10am to 5pm.

Highly-acclaimed Wines Solms-Delta offers three wine ranges that rep-resent the estate’s interest in the past with the names that commemorate historical links to the region. The Solms-Delta africana and Koloni wines, released in 2006, are made entirely from

desiccated grapes and are intense, concentrated wines. The label bears the name of winemak-er hilko hegewisch, who was instrumental in implementing the practice of desiccation on the estate. The Solms-Delta Lekkerwijn, amalie and hiervandaan wines, first released in 2005, consist entirely of rhône varietals. The Solms-astor is a lighter range, consisting of unusual South african cape wine blends, and were first released in april 2008. inspired by Solms-Delta’s involvement in reviving tradi-tional folk music of the rural cape, these wines reflect Solms’ partner richard astor’s love of music and his dislike of pomposity. The wine farm is open seven days a week, from 9am to 6pm tuesday to Saturday, and 9am to 5pm

Sunday and mon-day. entrance is free of charge. wine-tasting takes place in the museum or under the oak trees outside.

There are no admission fees and museum tours are free of charge. For more information, visit www.solms-delta.co.za or contact them on 021 874 3937.

The Franschhoek oesfees or harvest Festival on 27th march hosted by Solms Delta wine es-tate is a highlight on the local calendar. See the article on page 11 for more information.

the term Khoisan is a name coined by scholars in the 20th Century to refer to the wider ‘racial stock’

to which both the herding ‘Khoikhoin’ and hunter-gather ‘San’ belonged during the colonial period. While this term glosses over both cultural interactions and the

disputes that occurred between these two different indigenous groups, its widespread use is perhaps

the result of the mutual fate these two groups were to share as their cultures, languages and

livelihoods were destroyed. Learn more at the Museum van de Caab.

DiD You Know?

Solms-Delta

even the Fyndraai restaurant celebrates Solms-Delta’s history

Restored wagons at De Poort



march 2010

RESULTSGROUP 1 - FeB 6TH

ReuBeNS/FRANSCHHOeK PIRATeS 1-2 WINeLANDS eXP. FHK uTD u19

PAM GOLDING/TRY AGAIN 2-4 LA VIe Du LuC SeA LIONS

LA PeTITe FeRMe/MIGHTY BROTHeRS 4-1 SeeFF SILVeR STARS

BuILD-IT HOMe DeFeNDeRS 4-1 ALLee BLeue BOMBeRS

GROUP 2 - FeB 7TH

TRICKY T eVOLuTION 2-0 eLePHANT & BARReL SCORPIONS

TRuCKLeS CHeeSe PeACeMAKeRS 4-0 SOLMS-DeLTA ALL STARS

PeARL VALLeY KING PIONeeRS 4-0 COL’CACCHIO BLACK ACeS

FReNCH CONNeCTION eLeVeN ATTACKeRS 0-2 PLuM DeVeLOPMeNTS JNR CeLTICS

La PEtitE fErME LEaP four PLaCES aS toP tWo LoSE in grouP 1 anD StiLL CLoSE in grouP 2 WitH PEarL VaLLEY LEaDing tHE WaY with three matches played and four more to go in the 2010 Franschhoek Soccer championship, both groups are heading towards an exciting finish. in Group 1, the La Petite Ferme mighty Brothers defeated the joint league leaders Seeff Silver Stars 4-1 in the surprise result of the weekend and fellow leaders reubens Franschhoek Pirates lost 2-1 to the winelands experience Franschhoek United U19 in a closely-fought match leaving only three points separating the top six teams. in Group 2, leaders Solms-Delta all Stars lost to the truckles cheese Peacemakers and dropped from 1st to 5th which shows how tight this group is. There are three teams level on seven points with the Pearl Valley King Pioneers leading the way, followed by the Peacemakers and tricky t’s evolution. check the results and league tables for the gloating leaders and for those who appreciate food more than football, try not to smudge the printing with tears for col’cacchio and French con-nection. we look forward to the mounting tension as the tournament enters its final stretch and thanks, once again to The ivy’s ivan Goodman for his kind donation to fix up the etyotyombeni pitch.

Former Commonwealth Games Gold med-allist, African Pole vault record holder, three-times Olympian and numerous medal winner Okkert Brits, is also a director and partner of the Franschhoek Health Club. Having vaulted competitively against each other, Managing Partner Theo Beyers and Okkert become friends and realised they shared the same vision, functional training

approach and desire to make a dif-ference in peoples lives. This led not only to their joint involvement in the club but also in fundraising ef-forts locally.

after going through mental and physi-cal tests okkert was recently chosen as one of 18 celebrity survivors out of about 400 possible contestants on m-net’s Survivor show. he only had a week with his family and friends be-fore he was flown off to ‘paradise’ on the island of Santa carolina.

“i really didn’t think they would choose me” he said. “There were a lot of deci-sions to make. i run a company and it would mean being away from my family for a month, so i only said yes at the last minute.” The first three or four days were the hardest of his life, he said, “if you ever think you have been hungry in your life, you haven’t!” Brits, who weighed 108kg when he started the show, and returned home 12kg lighter, said his number one con-cern on the island was food.

his Survivor cause is aLLUVia’S ‘GiVe me a chance’ chiLDren’S FoUnDa-tion started in october 2004 by Delarey and Sandie Brugman of local Banhoek valley Specialist winery and Guest house, alluvia, in an effort to make a tangible contribution to the future of children that can hopefully, in years to come, look back at this project as the turn-

ing point in their lives. Their vision is to make a difference in the lives of promising children – ‘Give me a chance’ holds the philosophy that children, when given the opportunity, have the ability to help themselves to succeed, extricat-ing them from financial dependence.

Brits is currently training to take part in the an-nual cape argus cycle tour in march for char-ity and is looking for people to challenge him to compete in extreme events to raise money for good causes.

The Franschhoek health club uses the LifeFit-ness range of cardio and weight machines that incorporate what okkert and Theo believe is the latest in gym equipment technology. Fran-schhoek health club is also very fortunate to own the sub-Saharan distribution rights of LifeFitness, the leading brand in fitness equip-

ment. treadmills, upright and recumbent cy-cles, summit and elliptical trainers, rowers, barbells, dumbbells and more are all available at the club and you are likely to see okkert getting back into shape on these machines in the coming months after his many charity ex-ploits.

Vote for franschhoek Health Club Director okkert Brits on Celebrity Survivor Sa and you could win a nEW VoLVo C30 or a triP to Ba-Zaruto’S BEautifuL inDigo BaY rESort! You can vote online via M-net WaP site or by smsing “okkert Brits” to 34086. SMS cost r2 - terms & conditions apply.

Charitable BritsBy the staff reporter

Soccer Update

The La Petite Ferme Mighty Brothers receiving brand new boots from sponsor, Mark Dendy Young. It clearly worked with ‘The Brothers’ running out 4-1 winners.

Franschhoek Health Club Director, Okkert Brits



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Wine tasting innovators, ‘borde{aux}room’, collaborated with Haut Espoir Wine Estate in Franschhoek to give Super 14 contend-ers, the Stormers, a chance to lay down their tackle bags and bond as a unit with a Red Wine Blending Competition. The instruc-tion was simple: make a Bordeaux-style blend that the judges would want to drink.

Divided into teams with names from the ‘Gen-tle Giants’ to the ‘high hopes’, the day was a great success for all with every member of the estate getting involved, though winemaker, nikey van zyl, was careful not to give away too many of his secrets to the ever-pressing front-rowers.

all five Bordeaux varietals were made avail-able to the teams who engaged in some heat-ed behaviour, not dissimilar to their on-field competing. with percentages measured out as accurately as possible considering that the measuring instruments are appreciably smaller than rugby balls, there were calls for ‘injury time’ as the one hour time-limit was used right until the last second to ensure that their team blend would stand up to the tasting panels critical assessment.

Judging proved to be ‘not for the faint hearted’ as some of the blends were akin to taking on the crusaders Front row. The discerning Judg-es Panel included nickey, representatives from haut espoir, borde{aux}room and The month. The teams certainly made a sterling effort with some blends even cracking the nod for a haut espoir estate Blend. in the end the top three had to be blind tasted with all pleasantly insep-arable. The winning team, ‘Petit V’, which be-came the ‘Petit iii‘ included willem de waal, Dylan des Fountain and Dewaldt elstadt. There were, however, some cries of ‘cheat-ahs’ from the unplaced teams, as a certain fly-half has a degree in Viticulture.

David wibberley made special mention of col’cacchio Franschhoek and Jack Black Beer for their provision of “gap fillers” and refresh-ing palate-cleansers.

The mission of borde{aux}room is to expose wine enthusiasts to a new experience of tast-ing wine. “we want to add a dimension where

there is education, creation and a generated desire to seek new wines and new experiences. we strive to take the heart and soul of the win-emaker and replace the boardroom briefings, trade Shows, Festivals and even the festive wine club, with the ‘tastevins’ of the present day,” said wibberley. “The wine industry pro-duces many fine pieces of art and they need to be displayed in various ways for all to enjoy. By getting into the hands of those who don’t have the chance to experience the everyday joy of what most people take for granted, we will offer an experience that will benefit all parties involved,” he continued.

contact haut espoir on 021 876 4000 and for more information about borde{aux}room email [email protected] or visit www.bor-deauxroom.co.za for more details.

Brewing Up a Storm at Haut EspoirBy the staff reporter



march 2010

The Month asked Andrea Seidel to intro-duce what we hope will be a regular advice feature, by answering this simple question: What’s the best way to cope with living in the country?

Okay, so I got you there. sounds like…, but isn’t. The title of this column eludes to the particular magic that reveals itself when breaking a day down into secs i.e. sections or seconds and learn-ing to live within the wonder of that moment, and what better place to do this in than in the beauty of the countryside! And so it is that you are invited to join me in the experience of secs in the country. everything that sounds like…, but isn’t!

surprisingly much of what brought most of us to the country is actually a fairly mutual value-system. In some way all of us wish to be a part of a smaller community and all that we hope is embodied in that concept - the caring and shar-ing and so forth. ‘Away’ from the anonymity of the city, is the driving force for many of us who selected to live out here. The dream of meeting at the local restaurant and enjoying a good cappuc-cino, chatting to familiar faces, having a conver-sation with a familiar face while passing through the aisles of Pick n Pay or even working out at the gym, this is what life in the country is all about! Isn’t it?

Let’s think about it! When last did you stop for a good cappuccino and chat to someone you have seen in the neighborhood, but don’t really know? And, for how long have you been ducking and div-ing between the cans of tomato soup and shredded tuna in the aisles of Pick n Pay – avoiding any conversation – in order to get the task done, and

get out of there? And at the gym? Are you feeling good about training next to your slim and trim buddy? Or do you revert back to the head space of the city – of competition and self-depreciation?

We have to admit that the human psyche is in-credibly habitual, and that to encourage some changes seems close to the impossible. But, that is eXACtLY what this is all about! Looking at the ‘secs’ that pass in the country and trying to identify what it is that we wanted to enjoy about being out here – and have abandoned along the way.

The thing is, we have actually forgotten the basic skills needed for open, honest and naïve commu-nication to take place with another fellow human being. We get completely caught up in the world of assumptions. ‘I am sure she is too busy to chat’, ‘I am too boring for them’, ‘he doesn’t seem to be in a good space’ and so the list continues with all of the preventative measures we have at the ready, blocking any form of open communication! And then we begin to feel lonely, isolated, misunder-stood and eventually really depressed – a far cry from what we anticipated country life to be like!

so, here is the challenge: let’s drop all of the as-sumptions that we have; go for the cappuccino with the intention of communicating with some-one else - and I don’t mean only the waitress! Walk down the aisle while shopping and actually ‘look’ to see if there are any familiar faces to connect with and exchange a few words. And at the gym – smile at the bionic neighbour you may have work-ing out next to you and connect!

Nothing is as it seems…

In a follow-up to our crop-spraying investi-gation in January, we asked Dr Shelly Hel-lig for information on allergy testing to help readers identify potential non-spraying re-lated irritants. Shelley responds:

allergies have been plaguing humankind since time immemorial. King menses of egypt died at the hands (sting!) of a wasp as early as 3000 Bce. richard iii used a strawberry-induced rash to order the death of Lord william hast-ings, blaming him for the unsightly, uncom-fortable blemish.

in the 1800s the term “hay fever” (having nothing to do with horses) was coined and various avenues of research finally led to the discovery of the mast cell in 1953. This is the manufacturer of histamine in the body – the

chemical responsible for tears, itching, sneez-ing and coughing which makes 30% of the world’s population miserable and the pro-ducers of Kleenex rich! any particle of an al-lergen inhaled, ingested, injected or touched, can cause an increase in the blood component called ige (immunogloubulin e). This clips

onto the mast cell, triggering it to release its malicious bounty. Franschhoek has a myriad of possible antigens: house-dust mites, moulds, animal fur, animal saliva, crop sprays and, of course, the pollens and grasses. hot-off-the-press research has provided an ex-planation for the exponential increase in aller-gic problems over the last twenty years: vehicle emission particles cling to the pollen. They facilitate penetration of the lining of our air-ways, allowing for easier entry of the irritants. The mast cells are hyper-stimulated and secrete even more histamine. They paralyse the clean-ing services (cilia) of our air tubes; leading to a buildup of allergen residue (al Gore is enjoy-ing this…). manifestations of too much histamine include hay fever, asthma, urticaria (itchy skin weals), conjunctivitis (watery, red eyes), eczema and food allergies. to conquer the enemy we must first identify it – this is usually done using the most important tool in a doctor’s armoury – the history. to-gether with the examination, a very plausible diagnosis is reached and most of the time that is all that is necessary for further management. The “allergy tests” are really just a piece of the diagnostic jigsaw.

There are two types : the screening blood test confirms that one is allergic and basically indi-cates a large amount of ige. The skin prick and raSt tests can further identify the specific substance to which one is allergic. For the skin

prick test, a miniscule amount of the allergen is scraped into the skin. if a weal forms, it means the person has specific ige which recognizes this irritant and therefore is stimulated to open the mast cell – as ingenious as that! This test is the “gold standard”, being cost effective, sensi-tive and specific. it can be used on patients of any age.

The raSt (ratio-allogosorbent) test measures the amount of ige present for specific allergens - it is a blood test, expensive and not always ac-curate. one should never use it to determine if one is “allergic to Penicillin,” for example. So, if this has left you feeling more uncertain than before, remember your doctor can usually give you most of the answers without having to resort to special investigations. Furthermore, if you have the wherewithal, go to the Karoo in Spring time. as for me, an electric car is next on my shop-ping list!

Shelley hellig

Secs and the CountryBy Andrea seidel

Scratching the SurfaceBy shelley hellig

“The “allergy tests” are really just a piece of the diagnostic jigsaw.”



26

Even for an experienced mountaineer, there is often a sense of trepidation as you stand poised at the edge of the drop, gazing down into the water 3 or 4 metres below you. Log-ic tells you that it has been done before, the water is deep and that there is no way you will touch the bottom or hit a rock, but the act of throwing yourself off a perfectly stable platform, rather like bungee jumping, con-jures up all sorts of fears and emotions that need to be conquered. Kloofing, of course, as we will see, is not all about jumping into deep water; there are far milder forms which are just as much fun for children and adults alike.

So what exactly is kloofing? Kloofing, or can-yoning, is believed to originate from the Swiss alps and is the sport of descending a natural watercourse that may be dry but more often wet. in the Summer months in South africa, namely December through march or april, it is a wonderful activity that enables climbers, hikers and mountain lovers to stay cool and fresh, while the temperatures often soar well into the 30s and sometimes 40s! Because of the adventurous nature of the sport, many kloofs remain relatively unexplored, and gorgeous flowers such as disa orchids and red and orange gladioli can be found growing on vertical rock walls. During your adventure, a wide variety of tech-niques are employed, including hiking, abseil-ing, jumping, bum sliding, scrambling, swim-ming and river walking. There are no hard and fast rules, the name of the game is simply

to descend part or all of the ravine or gorge carved out by the river. none of these methods is overly complicated and all can be learned and mastered with a little practice. Jumping is about as straightforward as it gets! You arrive at a rocky drop off and are confronted with a deep pool below you. Summoning your cour-age, you take a breath and plunge feet first into the water below. it is important to mention at this point that you should not jump into pools that you do not know or that you can-not see into. Far too many people have been injured jumping into streams or dams, only to encounter hidden obstacles such as boulders or dead trees. everyone has his/her own jumping

“threshold”. For most people it will lie between 2 and 8 metres. For the more adventurous and experienced adrenalin junkies, it may extend to 14 or 15 metres. Beyond this, it starts to hurt, and this is when we can resort to abseiling.

abseiling (from the German “to descend using a rope”) is the art of using a harness, together with a small metal descending device such as a ‘figure of 8’ and a screwgate karabiner, to control one’s descent down a steep, rocky face. Frequently used by climbers to retreat down their rock routes, care needs to be taken that the rope is threaded correctly and that the gate of the karabiner is screwed shut. The rope is securely anchored to a stainless steel bolt (eu-rope) or a loop of 7mm cord (South africa) and retrieved from below. if you have never ab-seiled before, practice at home or with friends on gently sloping ground where there is no risk of you getting hurt! always ensure that the

most experienced members of your party go first and last.

now that you are in the water, there are proba-bly two options. if it is shallow enough to stand comfortably i.e. waist height, then you can riv-er walk or wade until your next scramble, jump or abseil. if it is chest height or deeper, then i would advise swimming. waterproof 10 or 15 litre kloofing bags, into which you can jam your camera, cell phone, car keys, a few snacks and some dry clothes, make superb flotation devices to help you paddle through the pool. it is stating the obvious, but for goodness’ sake make sure you are a competent swimmer be-fore realising that you don’t float halfway down an 8 kilometre river gorge!

Bum sliding speaks for itself and is probably the main reason for taking old, scruffy cloth-ing that you don’t mind being dirtied and torn. if you are a British softy like me, you will probably want to resort to wearing a 2 or 3mm ‘shorty’ wetsuit, but a lot depends on the nature of the kloof (narrow and closed, or open and exposed to the sun) and of course how much one feels the cold. even with a wet-suit, i would still advise wearing an old pair of shorts to protect the neoprene. an old pair of hiking boots or tackies and some sort of long-sleeved shirt complete the clothing profile. as for technical equipment, the main items have already been mentioned: a climbing harness, a helmet, a 50 or 60m rope, a descending device, a couple of slings, some karabiners, some 7mm cord and a sharp knife. if you have never been before and have no idea what to wear or take with you, please seek the advice of an expert before setting out.

whether or not you opt for an easier kloof such as crystal Pools below the Steenbras Dam, or a harder all-day classic such as Suicide Gorge or the Kromrivier canyon, kloofing is an action-packed and fun-filled day for all the family. make a 2010 resolution to give it a go!

“Life is brought down to the basics: if you are warm, healthy, not thirsty or hungry, then you are not on a mountain” -Chris Darwin

ed Flitters, cape hiking

Taking the PlungeBy ed flitters of Cape hiking

British softy, ed, in his ‘shorty’ wetsuit



march 2010

Behind the MicWhere is the Franschhoek Motor Museum and what happens there? This is the ques-tion aimed at us happy residents by car lov-ing near ones and dear ones. Well, had you listened to the radio... Wayne, he who reigns there, motored down to the studio to talk about the Concourse and Time Trial hosted at the Franschhoek Motor Museum at the end of February. It’s a really exciting affair where classic cars do individual time trials and owners can find out just what their cars are capable of. The finest vehicles on the con-tinent display themselves in the concourse, where the judges pick the best. I’m think-ing it is only in Franschhoek where this car-loving indulgence happens on a wine estate, paired with wine tasting and good food. Ah, the good life!

we were thrilled at Franschhoek Fm to meet up with a swallow who broadcasts. colin and carol mcintyre from Glasgow popped in dur-ing their annual visit to the valley. colin is a seasoned BBc radio presenter and currently does television programmes on itV. That’s his afternoon job; in the mornings he is an air traf-fic controller. he is also a private pilot and we had some fun talking about being in the air and on the air and comparing memorable in-terviews. his was Kylie minogue, mine cliff richard. colin kindly recorded some pro-gramme and station announcements for us, so listen out for his gorgeous voice!

it was inevitable that Valentine’s Day would foist itself upon us again. Same place, same time and for some, not same, but new, ro-mance. i decided to go with an old romance in my regular interview with historian, tracey randle. She related the story of the Duke and Duchess of windsor. apparently he was a diffi-cult teenager and his father, the king, was con-cerned about his suitability to be king. well, he became the Prince of wales, had some unsuit-able affairs, acquired an unsuitable reputation and was unsuitably in love with the twice di-vorced wallis Simpson when he became king. he gave up the British throne for wallis, who was never treated nicely by the other royals, and adored her to the end. She had said ‘how can a woman be a whole empire to a man?” She probably did not find it easy, because on another occasion she had said “You have no idea how hard it is to live out a great romance”. Sigh!

i didn’t stop there, i also spoke to local jew-ellery manufacturer cathy clayton about ro-mance, but this time our focus was gem stones.

romantic pink and red, gem stones to be specific. The most astounding thing was her explanation that some rubies are actually spi-nel, mistakenly classified as rubies. The Black Princess ruby in the crown jewels is actually a spinel. This beautiful stone, which is mostly mined in myanmar, is found in a range of col-ours, the most prized being the red ones. The official colour category for the most valuable rubies, by the way, is pigeon blood red. makes you want to give back your rubies, doesn’t it? The other gem stones we discussed were gar-nets, rose quartz, tourmaline and morganite.

i was intrigued by an advertisement for owl and bat boxes, so invited robbie, the advertiser, to the Franschhoek Fm studio. i don’t like the idea of a bat box attached to my house, but do believe robbie when he says that the resident bats would eat most of the bothersome insects; so eco-friendly, no poison. as is the idea of having owls in a tree close by or in the vineyard or orchard. They eat the rodents. he makes different boxes for spotted eagle owls and barn owls, as their nesting habits are different.

The tall new mayor swung by the studio and seemed rather people-friendly. i was pleased to meet him, but we did not have time to chat. we will be doing regular studio talks to coun-cillors from now on though. Let us know what you think.

my colleague BJ likes introducing new words in his programme and translating them is in-teresting. Did you know that the afrikaans for panjamdrum is groot kokkedoor? numbskull is pampoenkop.

See you around, come and talk to us!

helen naudé[email protected] za

with helen Naudé of franschhoek fM

Well-designed and safe to use educational toys that encourage little hands to build are worth their weight in gold, and often dif-ficult to come by. Parents will know that a busy child is a happy child and teachers are keen to encourage fine and gross motor de-velopment through play. With that in mind I went in search of a decent local toys stock-ist and ended up chatting to Kim Tracey of the speciality kids’ store Chic Pea, in the vil-lage.

She explained to me that the simple act of grasping in infancy is one that is important to nurture and develop. it is a natural instinct and leads to the strengthening of the same muscles that will later be used for handwriting. These fine motor skills continue to develop from birth to three months and are encouraged with toys like rattles and mobiles. From three to six months and beyond, the toys should be more complex and encourage children to develop the ability to grip, to twist their wrists and make more difficult movements of the fingers such as the pincer grip of the thumb and index finger which again, will be used later for holding a pencil and writing.

once the child has the ability to grip, the toys can to take on a whole new dimension of devel-opmental skills. She demonstrated one or two that encourage ‘crossing the midline’, which is absolutely vital for the child’s development of reading and writing skills and helps to in-tegrate the left and right sides of the body and brain. i’d obviously missed something as a tot, because i didn’t get the hang of them and gave up rather sheepishly. She commented that toys that ensure bilateral or cross-lateral motion are responsible for stimulating a flowing commu-nication between the two hemispheres of the brain. i wasn’t sure if, based on my struggles, she was insulting or reassuring me.

it seems that cognitive development has been linked to the understanding of cause and ef-fect experienced in games played by children. memory is also developed as it is a fundamen-tal part of many games available today. chil-dren instinctively repeat tasks many times until they have been mastered completely. eventu-

ally the child will also start to develop lan-guage skills and will be able to communicate through the words learned to describe the toys. This is the beginning of vocabulary building. i asked her if the ‘engrish’ often included in the guise of descriptions of toys on boxes and in inserts meant that the manufacturers had by-passed they own youth or wanted us to do that to ours. She made it clear that chic Pea’s toys don’t come with ‘engrish’.

Learning is something that happens quite naturally and without much effort on the part of young children. toys should thus appeal to a child’s natural desire to learn and also have stimuli like colour, sounds, texture and com-partments with additional hidden objects that will keep them interested and entertained for as long as possible.

toys it seems are not just toys, they’re rather objects of mystery and intrigue. For, every new thing discovered and learned is like magic to a child.

Local speciality kids’ store, Chic Pea, stocks the toys pictured here for tod-dlers and kids. Contact them on 021 876 4600

Learning to PlayBy the education Correspondent



28

In this second article of three, I discover that ForEx trading is no panacea for someone looking to make ‘easy money’, and like a little knowledge, it’s rather more dangerous than benign.

well, it was bound to happen. after the ini-tial euphoria i experienced (thanks to the fair amount of money i made from a couple of lucky trades), two months into my ‘Forex ex-perience’, all i can see is the ex-es. ex-eupho-ria, ex-treme stress and ex-money. i’m practi-cally broke! on top of that, the strain of losing ‘pretend money’ from my practice account has highlighted the immense pressure that traders subject themselves to in this environment. no wonder suicide rates increase as markets col-lapse and many traders give up and become t-shirt salesmen to make ends meet.

my month started well-enough. i’d pushed the balance in my demo account with ac markets from US$2000.00 to US$4700.00-plus and really felt i had a handle on things. as i really don’t know much about the markets and as the world of finance, quite frankly, confuses me, i found myself taking a ‘technical’ approach rath-er than a ‘fundamental’ one. i don’t understand what the latest proposed US rate cuts are going to do so i can’t make an intelligent prediction and act on that. Fundamentally, i’m clueless. So what i do is look at a currency at any given time, consider the trend in terms of movement in the market over 10, 20 and 30 minutes and just to be ‘safe’ i look at a chart for the previous day as well. if there’s a general movement up

in the short-term and it doesn’t look as though the levels are close to recent maximums, i buy. Simple as that. and it worked, save for one or two disastrous days. my failing essentially boils down to my lack of knowledge and i’m reminded of something Ferran Griede said at the start of my Forex journey: “You wouldn’t expect to become an expert dentist overnight.”i had three questions for Ferran this month,

and they were all related to my bad experi-ence. The first was a hopeful one: “after no-ticing that the balance in my account doesn’t change when i take a position but does once my trade is closed, is there any way of reversing

a trade and emerging unscathed if i change my mind?”

“no. Your balance may not appear to be ‘chang-ing’ when you put your trade on, but you are trading. a transaction has taken place and that’s it. The only reason they (ac markets) update your balance when you close a position is for convenience.”

my single biggest loss was in excess of US$2000.00 because i’d missed the fact that my margin was too small. i asked Ferran to ex-plain the concept of a margin.

“The margin is the amount of money they’ll ask you for a particular trade and is already deter-mined; it’s the trade size that you are changing as you trade different contracts and currencies. The ‘margin’ you have is just the pot of money you put down in order to trade. Your coun-terparty (in this case ac markets) will look at the size of your trade and assess the roL (risk of Loss) based on historical (and therefore ex-pected) movement over the term of your trade (plus some buffer).”

my last question for Ferran came about when i realized that i’d gone from thousands of dollars to hundreds in a matter of days without even realizing. i said “why bother?” and his answer was quite an eye-opener. he simply answered “Good question. if you’re going to take this up as a valid pursuit it needs to be taken seriously. Do your homework, knuckle down and get an office.”

to be honest i feel a little dejected. i started this investigation thinking that it would be a bit of a doddle. it’s not. i’m still convinced that there’s a legitimate business in it, i’m just not sure that the business is any of mine. next month i plan to ask a number of the valley’s ac-complished and experienced Forex traders for their take on things.

If you have any questions of your own feel free to email to [email protected] or sms the word Month followed by your question, to 34995 (SMSs cost R2).

ForEx Trading: Reality BitesBy the staff reporter

So you have a Franschhoek lifestyle but can’t really find the car to flaunt it – something that may be a lot of fun when needed – to climb Matoppie, explore the Fynbos and old Bosbou roads, be perfect for the beach house

or pull the boat to the dam, but still be ap-propriate in the school parking lot, protect the family against the harshest Northwester and be practical enough for the everyday?

well, we may just have something for you here – meet the Jeep wrangler rubicon 4-litre au-tomatic – probably the best possible match for the complete valley way of life.

First things first - this is not a sophisticated car by any means. it’s a lifestyle tool based on the world’s original 4x4 so you need to look past a few things.

Like that Jeep ride, heavy fuel consumption (and emissions) and an archaic gear-hunting autobox (although the latter two are easily solved if you choose the crD turbodiesel).

also be aware of the 15-minute three-man roof removal job, if you have spanners. You also need space to store the sizeable roof and its panels somewhere; to put it back on is even more of a ‘schlep’ and the secondary soft top is another mission on its own.

But don’t let that bother you – with close to four months without rain here in summer, you need only remove and replace the roof once a year, so that can become your own personal an-nual festival.

Those drawbacks are also quickly forgotten when you enjoy rubicon at its natural best – open top, adequate protection by the roof

structure and dripping in raw style. of course it’s still fully usable as the daily runabout with five doors, five seats and more than enough ex-tra baggage room to do the business.

First and foremost, this car has to be a lifestyle choice – and if that’s something that outweighs a still healthy dollop of practicality, then con-sider this vehicle. if ever a car was built for the Franschhoek summer, this is it. never mind that it’s more than adequate for winter, too…

words: michele Lupini

images: Kalf van zyl and Giordano Lupini

enjoy our motoring in The month? Pick up an issue of michele Lupini’s cars in action maga-zine at the Franschhoek Pick n Pay or BP for all the latest motoring news, or log on to www.carsinaction.co.za to catch it as it happens.

Road Test:Jeep Wrangler Rubicon 4.0i AutomaticFun & FuncTion

STAT ShEETJEEP WRAnGLERUnLimiTEd 3.8 RUbicOnEnGinE: 3798 cc SOhc 12 VALVE V6

GEARbOx: 4-SPEEd AUTOmATic 4x4

POWER: 146kW

TORqUE: 315nm

TESTEd 0-100km/h: 11.7SEc (REEf

12.9SEc)

TESTEd 0-400m: 18 SEcOndS @

123km/h

cLAimEd URbAn fUEL: 11.9L/100km

cLAimEd EmiSSiOnS: 282G/km

WARRAnTy: 3 yEARS/100 000km

SERVicE PLAn: 3 yEARS/100 000km

PRicE: R359 900



march 2010

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My Word is Your Bond The Dave rundle financial Column

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i have recently been asked whether individuals should be investing in bonds. Few really un-derstand what bonds are so i thought it might be a good idea to write a little about them.

The bond market is by far the largest securities market in the world, providing investors with virtually limitless investment options. many investors are familiar with certain aspects of the market, but as the number of new products grows, even a bond expert is challenged to keep pace. So what is a bond? a bond is a loan that the bond purchaser, or bondholder, makes to the bond issuer. Govern-ments, corporations and municipalities issue bonds when they need capital. if you buy a gov-ernment bond, you’re lending the government money. if you buy a corporate bond, you’re lending the corporate money. Like a loan, a bond pays you interest periodically and repays the principal at a stated time in the future. For example: Suppose a corporation wants to build a new manufacturing plant for r10 mil-lion and decides to issue a bond to help pay for the plant. The corporation might decide to sell 10000 bonds at r1000 each. The face value of each bond is r1000. The corporation then de-termines the annual interest rate (this is known as the coupon) as well as the time frame within which they will repay the bond.

hypothetically, the corporation may decide to sell a five-year bond with an annual coupon of 9%. So for 5 years the bond holder receives 9% on their investment and at the end of the five years the bondholder gets his investment capital back.

Shorter-dated bonds are lower risk than longer dated bonds. normally the coupon on long-term bonds is higher than shorter dated bonds – however, for that additional return the bond holder must bear the additional risk.

and that risk is that the issuer will “default” or fail to fully repay the loan. independent credit rating services asses the default risk of most bond issuers and publish credit ratings in ma-jor financial newspapers. an issuer with a high credit rating will then naturally pay a lower in-

terest rate than one with a low credit rating.

During the life-time of a bond it can be bought or sold on the open market. The purchase price of a bond on the market adds to the total or actual return of the bond. Just like any invest-ment there are good times and bad times to be purchasing bonds.

when listed, a bond price and yield determine its value. obviously, a bond must have a price at which it can be bought and sold. The bond’s yield then, is the actual return an investor can expect if the bond is held to maturity. Yield is therefore based on the purchase price of the bond as well as the coupon.

Simply put, rising interest rates are considered bad for bond investors because new bonds will pay investors a higher interest rate than older ones.

many investors offshore placed money into corporate bonds last year as many of these bonds were trading at a 50% discount to their face value as well as paying a coupon of 7% to 8%. This is definitely worth the risk when you are earning 1% to 2% interest in a bank account.

So why consider bonds in a portfolio? Diversi-fication means ‘not putting all of your eggs in one basket’. a stock market investor faces the risk that the stock market will decline and take the portfolio along for the ride. to offset this risk, investors have long turned to the bond market because the performance of stocks and bonds is often non-correlated.

Bonds can provide protection against econom-ic slowdown or deflation and can help protect investors against economic slowdown for sev-eral reasons but primarily because most bonds pay a fixed income that doesn’t change.

an economic slowdown is typically bad for corporate profits and stock returns, adding to the attractiveness of bond income as a source of return. if the slowdown becomes bad enough that consumers stop buying things and prices in the economy begin to fall - a dire economic condition called ‘deflation’ - then bond income becomes even more attractive because you buy more goods and services with the same bond income. when the demand for the bond in-creases, so do bond prices and bondholder re-turns.

many investors have bonds in their portfolio but before you invest make sure you under-stand the risk of the bond before your pur-chase. if this is an asset class that you are going to consider then i would recommend that you use a bond professional to assist you.

Dave rundlerundle management Services 083 658 8055

This article is solely intended to provide you with objective information about financial products and services and is not intended to constitute a recommendation, guidance or proposal with re-gard to the suitability of any product in respect of any financial need you may have.

For the upmarket Franschhoek resident, who drives a gas-guzzling 4X4, commutes at least once a week into cape town, and drinks his or her fair share of alcohol, the 2010 national Budget will make life a bit more expensive.

wine makers and consumers have been hit hard. From march, r2,14 of every litre of wine will go to the taxman.

not only was the tax rate on unfortified and sparkling wine raised by 8,1% and 8,3% re-spectively, but Government also intends re-viewing the benchmarks used to set these tax rates.

“we wish to signal a stronger stance in our ef-forts to combat the abuse of alcohol,” finance minister Pravin Gordhan said in this his maid-en budget.

motorists who regularly drive long distances will be unhappy to learn that taxes on fuel will rise by 25,5 cents a litre on april 7. moreover, if you are planning the purchase of a luxury new passenger car do it before September 1. after this date a flat emissions tax will be levied on new cars. The more fuel efficient your car, the less tax you will pay.

while concerns about alcohol abuse and en-vironmental damage do play a role, Gordhan made no secret of the fact that in order to reduce Sa’s massive fiscal deficit (r177bn in 2009/2010), tax revenues will have to grow rapidly. Thus the budget, while not raising the overall tax burden this year for fear of harming Sa’s fragile economic recovery, contains new measures to wring every cent out of the exist-ing tax purse and to broaden the tax base.

commentators are in no doubt that if these measures are insufficient, or the economy fails to grow by at least 3,5% a year, Government will raise taxes. The rich are likely to bear the brunt of such moves, possibly from 2011.

on a more positive note, the budget inspired confidence for affirming that the prudent mac-roeconomic policies, pursued under former Finance minister trevor manuel, would be maintained.

Gordhan’s defence of the status quo thrilled the markets (which feared economic policy would shift to the Left) but raised the ire of the labour movement, cosatu.

The true test of Government’s mettle will be whether it is able to stick to its guns and stare down strike threats from cosatu over economic policy. Gordhan’s resolve is not in question but there are serious doubts over whether President zuma has the strength of leadership to make deeply unpopular political choices.

Budge-It TimeBy the staff reporter



30

Bridge House NewsSelfless Service is the key to Learning for Life.The President’s Award (College), the Learn-ing for Life Leadership Award (Prep) and Round Square, all inextricably linked and all part of Learning for Life at Bridge House School.

round Square is based on the theories of ex-periential educational philosopher Kurt hahn who believed that schools should have a great-er purpose beyond preparing young people for university. Dr. hahn believed that it was crucial for students to prepare for life by hav-ing them face it head on and experience it in ways that would demand courage, generosity, imagination, principle and resolution. round Square schools are founded on a philosophy which embraces a series of six pillars or pre-cepts which can be summed up in the word iDeaLS. They are internationalism, Democ-racy, environment, adventure, Leadership and Service. Students at round Square schools make a commitment to addressing each of these pillars through exchanges, work projects, community service and adventure.

Pupils in the Prep at Bridge house work to-wards the Learning for Life Leadership award and in the college they aim for their bronze, silver or gold President’s awards. The expecta-tion of serving others is a key pillar and yet one of the most challenging aspects of preparing students for life.

During the course of the year, a group of Bridge house pupils make an ongoing commitment to spend time with pupils from Dalubuhle Prima-ry School in Franschhoek. twice a week, the Bridge house pupils help the children practice their english language and reading skills. The project is run entirely by the students with minimal adult supervision.

The international round Square organiza-tion organises at least six international Service (rSiS) projects every year. These bring stu-dents together from around the world to work as a truly international team, helping commu-nities.

recently, alexander weber (pictured top right) from the college, was chosen to take part in a round Square international Service Project in the little village of Ban mae aeb nai (middle right), a typical Karen village two hours outside

the city of chang mai, in Thailand. The Karen villages are situated in northern Thailand. The aim of the project was to help the villagers of Ban mae aeb nai with the construction of wa-ter storage tanks that would give the villagers access to clean water and thereby help to pre-vent cholera. The project enabled the students to experience the way of life of these wonderful people first-hand. The tanks were completed while alexander was there.

one of the more innovative service projects being undertaken by Bridge house pupils is a fundraising initiative to buy a ninentendo wii for the rusoord retirement home in Paarl. ruan combrinck and Daniel de Villiers (bot-tom right) read about how this technology can assist the elderly to improve their health by playing games like tennis, bowling and golf using a motion-sensitive controller on the wii. Gerard Frater, a farmer in Paarl, heard about their project and donated old wine barrels which the boys are selling to raise funds to buy the equipment. ruan and Daniel sell the bar-rels at Frater Square in Paarl main Street on Saturday mornings. once they have raised the money, the boys themselves will be training the residents of rusoord to get their hearts racing.

as part her Grade 7 leadership programme, helena Seidel has chosen to stage a talent search at Bergendal Primary School situ-ated on Seidelberg wine estate. with the help of the school’s principal, nabeelah abrahams, and the music department at Bergendal, the contest is up and run-ning and the list of candidates are being narrowed down for her. The first round takes place on the 3rd of march and on the 10th the finals will take place at the estate. The top three ‘talents’ will receive some great prizes and all participants will be honoured in some small way.



march 2010

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when i picked up an ‘elderly couple’ at the cape town international airport recently, and had some time to kill, i dropped in to the cape town tourism stand at the arrivals hall and asked the lady there what information she had on the Franschhoek Valley. She directed me toward the route 62 booklet and said i’d find everything in there but when i politely informed her that Franschhoek’s not on the route 62 she recalled receiving a Franschhoek magazine ‘just last week’ and began to fumble around under the counter to locate it. after a few minutes, and clearly relieved, she hand-

ed me a 2008 copy of The Franschhoek Life magazine. it must have been one of the last produced.

it wasn’t the only frown i’ve received recently. The other day when, in conversation, i dropped in a question about the ‘point’ of economic growth i got the bog-standard economics 101 reply that “by growing the economy we gen-erate more wealth so, on average, we’ll all be wealthier.” true. But what happens if, on av-erage, we’re all wealthier but that extra wealth goes to just a few? Statistics are dangerous things and should be used, as the saying goes, as a drunken man uses a lamppost - for sup-port rather than for illumination. The classic example involves the decision to mine an area for precious stones or metals and potentially destroy the natural surroundings in the name of wealth generation. we may ‘on average’ end up being wealthier but our lives (and especially those most impacted) may be poorer.

on the macro-level wealth generation is largely encouraged and the government’s fiscal policy is supposed to distribute the benefits of in-creased wealth if not equally, to where it’s most needed. on the micro-level, of course, extra wealth moving into an area will ‘trickle-down’ as money is spent in restaurants, on property, in shops, etc, in one area rather than another and this gives me licence to speak about the increased circulation of The month.

areas like the Franschhoek valley need visitors and visitors’ cash for business to flourish and employ. in seasonal wine and tourism areas like ours, businesses rightly support local organisa-tions in the hope that they can bring extra peo-ple to the valley. our own FwVta organises festivals throughout the year to bring people

here to eat, Sleep and Drink – their money is spent in this area and, through the trickle down, everyone benefits.

The month has long since ceased to be a local newspaper. what we have tried to do is gener-ate interest in the region and articles talk of ‘Brand Franschhoek’ in an aspirational tone in the hope that people will want to Live, work and Play here too. From that, we believe, is a greater, more effective and ultimately fairer trickle down, with the extra wealth generated by this increased interest finding its way into the pockets of the local plumber, electrician,

doctor and architect.

This month we will print 12000 copies and in-crease our distribution to both camps Bay and tokai (in addition to other upmarket suburbs like rondebosch, newlands, claremont and constantia) meaning that more copies - nearly 7000 - now go to cape town than are distrib-uted in the valley.

we hope that they respond by taking a greater interest in our area. and we’ll drop a couple of papers at the airport for good measure.

The Last WritesBy the sub editor

cAPE TOWnShopping Centres 500PO boxes: Camps Bay 480Claremont 1700Constantia 770Rondebosch 800Newlands 400Tokai 1400Tokai Steenburg 300Hotels & Airport 350

VALLEyWine Farms 500Guest Houses 500Restaurants 500Retail 500Stands 800Post Boxes 1200Schools & events 500Housing estates 800

Min

imum

Dis

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Total 12000

Professional & fun lessons in

Piano, Recorder & Keyboard

In the comfort of your own home

All ages Maresa: 084 825 7730

[email protected]

hugo aCCountants (saiPa MeMBer) - FransChhoeK: - Monthly processing - Vat/PaYE/uif returns and registrations - irP5’s & reconciliations - financial Statements and tax returns for individuals/ Sole Proprieties/Partnerships/Close Corporations and truststeL: 08 44 00 00 64 [email protected]

sutherLanD inngastehuis

Mooi ou Karoo-HuiS,oMSKEP in 3-StEr

gaStEHuiS BiED gEriEfLiKE, gESELLigE VErBLYf.

franCoiS: 0235711432/ 0725479490

[email protected]/

SutHErLanDinn

It’s not always as easy as it looks bringing you the Hikes Page in The Month. Outdoor enthusiast and contributor, ed Flitters from Cape Hiking, was just 150 metres from the top on a ‘long hard’ climb in the Jonkershoek when he was hit full in the face by a falling rock. Dazed, he patched himself up (see pic) and was ‘coptered out’ by Skymed Heli. The result? Nine stiches in is nose and face and he’s

back to his former glory!

sutherLanD tour 23-25 aPriL 2010 & 3-5 MaY 2010

air-ConDitionED tranSPort CoMfortaBLE 3-Star

aCCoMMoDationguiDeD tour oF oBservatorY,

saLt, Louw-MuseuM anD ChurChstargazing session with

KnowLegeaBLe guiDeViSit MatjiESfontEin

PriCE r1650 inCLuSiVE(grouP SiZE of 7)

EnquiriES [email protected]


the social pageSociaLmarch 2010

CLOCKWISe FROM TOP LeFT:

Rosemary Beetge, Ilke Zimmermann and Heide Beetge at ‘Bride of the Year’ held at Val de Vie

Cricket legend, Geoff Boycott, and friends at the Samuel Seeff address at Pearl Valley

A relaxed-looking Tatler editor, Siegfried Schäfer in his element at the relaunch of The Restaurant at Klein Oliphants Hoek

Local belles at the launch of the Place Vendôme Lifestyle Centre

Globe-trotting Jazz artist, Jimmy Dludlu, celebrates his ‘Mandela Moment’ with members of the DCS choir.

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