It takes a family

Christian Fry and his fiancé, Pippa de Lange, arrived at Dombeya with just a day to spare before the Covid-19 hard lockdown commenced in 2020. Their purpose was to save the Fry family farm from being sold. They've settled into life in their Elands River Valley haven now but continue to dream big and work hard.

- MIA LOUW

In a beautiful valley between Ngodwana and Waterval Boven, about 15 km southwest of the Sappl Ngodwana Pulp Mill, a gravel road off the busy N4 leads north across the Elands River towards the foot of a mountain. This is where you'll find Dombeya Farm and Nursery with its bucolic stone structures - homes, cottages and sheds scattered around an established garden with exotic trees reaching to the heavens.

This is also where the Fry family lives. Pippa greets us with her pack of German shepherds: Winter, Degas and Ginkgo.She is wearing a bright-magenta blouse, comfortable white trousers and fine leather shoes. "I'm not usually dressed this nicely when working in the nursery, definitely not! One thing that the farm has taught me is to be practical."

Pippa and Christian were aiming to move to Dombeya at the end of 2020, but arrived at the farm on 26 March that year, one day before the nationwide Covid-19 lockdown was due to commence. Christian is a freshwater ecologist who does environmental impact studies for mines, while Pippa worked as an interior designer and project manager.

"I wanted to change jobs at the time," she says. "And Ebba, Christian's mom, who's 83 years old now, was desperate to retire. The family farm was going to be sold if we did not come up with a plan. I told Christian: 'Why don't we give it a try? Let's take over the nursery, go in with a five-year plan and see what happens."

Ebba arrives at the picnic table under the big oak tree in front of the house, carrying a homemade Italian lemon cake to be enjoyed with the tea Pippa had made.

We talk about all the beautiful stone buildings on their property. "Aah, yes," Ebba says. "If we could make money out of stone, we would have been very wealthy. Look at that: stone, stone, stone..." She points to a building, a wall, to the table our tea and cake rest on. "These structures are old."