SURPRISE!
the morning.
All this generates income for special projects such as the training centre, where young San people do an eight-month accredited guiding course – which knowledge they take back to their homes.
Another leg is culture and heritage – they are working on a museum.
“This is a dream we are working on, we will get there, we are used to it,” says Daiber cheerfully.
Then, we set off for a walking tour with André Vaalbooi, a Bushman who has been at !Khwa ttu for several years. He took us through the history of life on the land, dispossession and revival that his people have gone through – and showed us the traditional uses of some of the plants that have been cultivated around the centre.
There was a demonstration of Bushmen artefacts and culture in a mock Bushman village. These can often be a little cringeworthy, but in this case it was done with humour by the San themselves, speaking their own tongue.
A cup of mint tea was handed out as Donika Dala spoke lovingly of clothing and customs in the !Xun-tali language, with translations by Kerson Jackson, who had also been our driver up from Cape Town.
And back to lunch, where we were served dishes that are available on the restaurant’s usual menu, accompanied by wines from Ormonde, the neighbouring wine farm.
Chef Jane Wallace introduced each course, and it is clear that the emphasis is on sustainability and sourcing local ingredients. The waiting staff come from the training school as part of their experiential learning.
Our first course was a deliciously light cheese soufflé with pears and caramelised nuts. The accompanying wine was a cool and flinty Ondine semillon, poured and lovingly described by Adré Rheeder, Ormonde’s chief operating officer.
Next up was venison potjie. Wallace said the meat was sourced from the reserve’s own animals, which are humanely slaughtered. Local vegetables and mash were washed down with an Ormonde Chip Off The Old Block cabernet sauvignon. The wine was full of berry and vanilla but the venison was a little too peppery for my taste. Then there was a small, intensely sweet yet refreshing lemon palate cleanser.
The chocolate mousse dessert with a layer of grape jelly was accompanied by the award-winning Theodore Eksteen, a shiraz/grenache blend from 2008.
The mousse was sublime and the wine a good match: deep, spicy and gorgeous. There was a final round of homemade limoncello and biscotti – but not for me. I stuck with Theodore. After lunch, we gathered on the veranda under the trees where frantically busy weaver birds were making their spring nests. We wandered over to the training centre, and had a tour of the small but well-appointed facilities.
In the training room, we interrupted a session on eco-guiding and were introduced to the students, some of them from as far afield as Namibia.
It looked like good things are happening in the training field.
Then it was back on the bus for the 70km drive back to Cape Town, well-fed and inspired.
Now I know what’s up on that hill – and I’m glad I do.
It’s always good to see dreams coming true.
Website: http://www.khwattu.org/IOL@ren eemoodie@IOLTravel