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Exploring the known and unknown
Do you consider yourself Haarlemmers? We just walked into a shop and startled the few people inside the shop included the owner; they looked at us probable thinking : Who are these white weardos.
The South Africa southern route East –West , just inland from the coast is called the garden route. The landscape changes quickly as the long east-west ridges divide the land into a coastal strip along the ocean. Then there is the inland Garden Route area called the Klein Karoo. Across the mountains is the Karoo desert/semi desert area.
The Garden route is nice and green and the northern route very rugged and has many dirt roads. The towns along this route have often have Dutch names and counterparts in Holland. Of course we were looking forward to a certain town where we stopped to meet some locals. After taking some pictures at the road sign we drove into to tiny town and stopped at the (closed) post-office. Next door, behind some metal bar gate was a building which looked like abandoned shed but turned out to be the local food store. On entry we started a conversation during which we asked them if they considered themselves "Haarlemmers". Yes they said, Well, that's very interesting as so are we, was our answer while I pulled my passport out of my pocket to show them that it listed my place of birth as Haarlem. They found it very amusing and asked questions where that was, although they were aware of Haarlem (Harlem) in the USA. They found it interesting to learn that both Haarlem and Harlem where taken from the Dutch city of Haarlem.
Later that day we entered Oudtshoorn with its sister city of Alphen aan de Rijn. The original spelling was Oudshoorn which was a town now part of that Dutch town.
Oudtshoorn was and still is famous for its Ostrich farms. It still has the world highest Ostrich population. During the late 1800’s feathers prices fetched higher prices than the gold and birds were sold at around 1000 GBP per pair.
Oudtshoorn is also famous for its extensive caves about 20 km north of the town. The caves are very extensive and still not explored all the way to the end. Here are some pics of the area and a few things we passed on the way. The scenery is often breath taking, unfortunately the pictures don’t show this as we saw it.
The South Africa southern route East –West , just inland from the coast is called the garden route. The landscape changes quickly as the long east-west ridges divide the land into a coastal strip along the ocean. Then there is the inland Garden Route area called the Klein Karoo. Across the mountains is the Karoo desert/semi desert area.
The Garden route is nice and green and the northern route very rugged and has many dirt roads. The towns along this route have often have Dutch names and counterparts in Holland. Of course we were looking forward to a certain town where we stopped to meet some locals. After taking some pictures at the road sign we drove into to tiny town and stopped at the (closed) post-office. Next door, behind some metal bar gate was a building which looked like abandoned shed but turned out to be the local food store. On entry we started a conversation during which we asked them if they considered themselves "Haarlemmers". Yes they said, Well, that's very interesting as so are we, was our answer while I pulled my passport out of my pocket to show them that it listed my place of birth as Haarlem. They found it very amusing and asked questions where that was, although they were aware of Haarlem (Harlem) in the USA. They found it interesting to learn that both Haarlem and Harlem where taken from the Dutch city of Haarlem.
Later that day we entered Oudtshoorn with its sister city of Alphen aan de Rijn. The original spelling was Oudshoorn which was a town now part of that Dutch town.
Oudtshoorn was and still is famous for its Ostrich farms. It still has the world highest Ostrich population. During the late 1800’s feathers prices fetched higher prices than the gold and birds were sold at around 1000 GBP per pair.
Oudtshoorn is also famous for its extensive caves about 20 km north of the town. The caves are very extensive and still not explored all the way to the end. Here are some pics of the area and a few things we passed on the way. The scenery is often breath taking, unfortunately the pictures don’t show this as we saw it.
- comments
Rob That is a great picture and reminds me of our holiday at the Island of Curacao. Over there, an Ostrichfarm was started in the mid '90's by a man from RSA. During our tour at the farm we also had the opportunity to stand right on top of such an egg, a crazy experience. We were told that Ostriches were once farmed extensively at Curacao until the late 19th century, and became extinct in the 1930's. Until this man from RSA revived it for produce of meat (delicious) and feathers. He was murdered a few years ago while on holidays in his fatherland, RSA. As he already envisaged his farm will soon introduce other species from Australia as well, including the Emu and the Cassowary.
Wilma The name is some what weird if I may say so.
Heather Smart I know you musta had a great day yesterday but was too busy to remember to send you a Happy Birthday message Frank. Best wishws for your new year and many more to come. H
Heather Smart Thanks Rick your photosand travel updates are grande. I used to work for a milliner when I was very young she imported ostrich feathers and dyed them pretty colours. Huge and fluffy, fluff got up my nose I had to leave from allergies to all that fluffy dust.
Anneke Hij lijkt inderdaad wel een beetje, in mini uitvoering dan
Anneke Ja dat heeft hier een andere betekenis, hahaha..maar daarom zal je het wel op de foto gezet hebben
Anneke Ook van mij gefeliciteerd!
Joke Otte Lieve Frans, van harte gefeliciteerd met je 75 ste verjaardag. Je ziet er goed uit !!! Leuk om je verjaardag eens op een ander werelddeel te vieren. Veel plezier nog, jullie zitten al over de helft geloof ik. Maar geniet er nog ff van. Liefs Joke
ienke Gaaf , Richard om die namen te zien vooral Haarlem en Alphen a/d Rijn.......
Henny Smit Nog even een verlate verjaardagkus van je schoonzuster. Happy birhtday Frans van Hans en Henny
mitch Now im thinking. . Would there be more haarlems around the world ?