Nothing can ever prepare you for it: waking up in the pitch-dark night with the realisation that there are people in your house. Strangers.
In that moment, even through the fog of a deep sleep, you know the whispers and the swinging beam of a torch in the next room don’t signal anything good. You jump out of bed – relieved that you had the foresight to put on pyjamas – assess the situation double-quick, and make half a dozen decisions in a split second: Is this a dream? What can I use as a weapon to defend myself? Your eyes scan through the dark. Not the hand-carved knobkierie a friend gave you as a present. Not the leaden statue of the Virgin Mary that you bought in Croatia. You see three figures…What if they have a knife? No, they’re too small, children even.
You surprise them as they’re hunched over your desk with your laptops, cameras and other essential tools on it with a polite, “So, what’s going on here?”
And then you’re caught off-guard by the wild chase that ensues. Shouting from the homeowners, the burglars panting. Seconds of complete chaos that feel like a lifetime, even centuries. They aim for the window that they had entered through, but you manage to catch one of them by the ankles. More shouting and yelling and swearing, but you hold on for all you’re worth. Tonight, you are personally handing this hooligan over to the police. But you don’t hear the repeated, “Get him with the knife!” and you don’t see the blood. You’re in pit-bull mode. And then, suddenly, you start feeling dizzy and your hands let go. They’re gone. When you turn around, you see the bloodbath in front of you. And you’re the one who’s wounded.
Esta historia es de la edición Summer 2021/2022 de go! Platteland.
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Esta historia es de la edición Summer 2021/2022 de go! Platteland.
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There are few secrets in Verlorenvallei
All platteland towns have that one famous (or infamous) character who knows everyone's business. Meet Livia Hoogenboezem, the keeper of every piece of gossip in Verlorenvallei...
To the babbling brooks of Sabie
Roughly every five years, Jaco and Jens Reverchon get itchy feet. They hopped around Cape Town, moved up north to the Greater Kruger and then, recently, put down roots next to the Sabie River where they live a peaceful life with their animals.
Willie Strauss Never an idle moment
A variety concert... that is how to approach your life and career when you want to survive as an artist living in the platteland. So says singer, lyricist and radio food expert Willie Strauss, who entices visitors to Die Sinkstoor in Cullinan with traditional offal and his mother's Bushmanland boerekos.
To die for
How do you avoid the tourist avalanche if you live in an Afromontane forest where holidaymakers descend in December? You drive to lonely outposts in the mountains of the Cape, says photographer Obie Oberholzer, and you make pictures rather than take them.
The art of small talk
In the city, a glib smile suffices when it comes to interaction with any stranger that crosses her path. Yet a visit to Struisbaai taught Elizabeth Wasserman that small talk is no small matter
Find wisdom in the forest: It all starts with soil
A tree is an investment in any garden, even though patience is required to pluck the (figurative) fruit. When you plant several trees together to create your own forest, the reward is much greater. They offer shade, they support life… and they improve your soil. We spent time reflecting in our white karee“forest”– and learnt a lot
Ohrigstad's tiny big farmer
Agriculture courses through the veins of the Els family, who have been farming in the Ohrigstad valley in Limpopo since the 1930s. And they are getting younger and younger: Grandfather Jan Els was 36 when he set out, father Dewald 27… and littleWaldo got behind the wheel of massive machines at the age of 6!
On mountains and moments
On a trip in the southern Drakensberg, a torrential downpour and a field of prickly thistles got acclaimed photographer Obie Oberholzer thinking about the power of perspective
Spring on a stick
Expand your braai repertoire by serving a side dish of flavourful spring-vegetable kebabs cooked to perfection over the coals.
Postcards from the Tankwa
The R355 between Ceres and Calvinia is the longest stretch of gravel road between two towns in South Africa. And if you find yourself on this route, you're in the Tankwa Karoo. From the road, the surrounding plains seem lifeless and dull, but when you stop your car, sit quietly and breathe in the atmosphere, you realise there might just be much waiting to be discovered here.
