DOIN' IT DIFFERENTLY

Honeymooners André and Janine Nordier arrived at Dolphin B&B+S/C on Sunday April 5, having been married on Cloof Wine Estate the previous day. Affixed to the back of their vehicle were their offroad bikes, which they used to work off the festivities of the wedding ceremony to good effect.
Now, in my humble experience, most newly-weds either never come out of the main en suite or they laze around on the deck in blissful nuptial harmony. Don’t get me wrong! These two were completely in tandem (no pun intended); they just got their kicks in another way. Each to his own, I say.

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Derrick Williams regularly tunes into Cape Talk and in particular likes to listen to John Maytham in his 15:00 to 18:00 slot. Derrick decided to give the general knowledge quiz a shot and in the play-off found himself the winner of “a free night for 2 at a luxurious Guest House, including Breakfast at the Dolphin B&B on the West Coast of Britania (sic) Bay, plus R400,00 cash and 7 bottles of Seven Sisters wine”.
That’s how he and Johanna ended up staying over with me last night during which time he shyly explained the competition and how his question stumped the rest of the team. Having lived at Wingfield Airport during the first quarter of the last century – sounds odd, doesn't it? – he is au fait with aircraft of all kinds and his question was: which four aircraft were used in domestic service prior to the jet engine? De Havilland, I knew was one, and possibly Douglas Skymaster, but the other two names eluded me, which simply stated means that had I entered I would have been knocked out.
Johanna’s a Graafwater girl so this return trip to the West Coast was like coming home and I do hope that their stay with me had that touch of home about it.
Oh yes … he tells me he hasn’t uncorked any bottles yet, so cheers, Derrick!

MUCH IN COMMON

Jules Bos, from Alphen, a village between Antwerp and Rotterdam, has the best of both worlds: he’s retired but still gets to visit developing countries acting as a consultant for a quasi-government organisation with headquarters in Den Haag.
It was on this basis that I was tasked with looking after his needs for the two weeks that he was visiting South Africa’s West Coast. “Tasked?” I say. Nay, it was indeed a pleasure to host his two-week stay and to talk with him about matters general and more specific, like the derivation of words that our nations share, like the Zandvliet Shiraz Rosé which he enjoyed with his curried kreef, Zandvliet of course translating into Sand River (vliet = flow).
They term it Chambre D’Hote in Europe; we call it Bed & Breakfast -

but hopefully our definition provides the requisite levels of service and personal touch.

MUD, MUD, GLORIOUS MUD

Wendy Stone of the Dept of Microbiology in the Faculty of Science, Stellenbosch University, is doing her Masters on the occurrence of anammox bacteria (yes, readers, I also raised my eyebrows at that one) in South Africa. Her Associate Professor Alf Botha and Jan Wilsenach (CSIR), an expert on the anammox process, act as her study leaders on a joint project between the two organisations.
The overall aim of this project, which is largely sponsored by the Water Research Commission, is to search for anammox bacteria in South Africa. Writes Alf, “Under unaerobic conditions, these bacteria use nitrite to oxidize ammonium mainly to nitrogen gas.” He explained to me that this process has the potential to be used by the waste water industry in South Africa.
One of the sampling sites that they identified as a possible natural habitat of anammox bacteria was St Helena Bay – and that’s where Andrew Pascall, laboratory manager at CSIR and colleague Alistair Adonis (who, with his family, stayed at Dolphin B&B+S/C) proved invaluable.
So it was that this happy little band spent Valentine’s weekend scraping the proverbial bottom of the barrel, that being the bed of the bay. Follow the red lines in the sketch to trace their route.
Alistair, skipper of Waverider, CSIR’s outsize rubberduck that sports 2X90 4-stroke engines, steered them out to sea in what was one of the gustiest days we’ve experienced this season. In situ the multi-corer was dropped and scooped up the requisite samples, which were then retrieved by the Davit system that operates on the vessel.
I know both Alistair and Andrew from the St Helena Bay Water Quality Trust (when I was manager till November 2008 and now a trustee) and who managed the bacteriological sample collection on behalf of the Trust. Alistair has upgraded his licensing to 40 nautical miles and the group was in excellent hands and the few herbies were not of his doing. As Alf puts it, “Without them sampling in the scientific manner would have been impossible. They could tell the properties of the sea bed and, very importantly, they were able to get us there and back in one piece.”

IF I KNEW YOU WERE COMING ...

I’d have baked a cake – so says the song, but in this case good friend George laid on lunch for my guest Lois Kolver and me at his wonderful bed and breakfast establishment, Blue Dolphin, across in Paternoster.
Here they stand with Sarah tucked into George’s arms (”She’s the boss around here,” I am reminded) with the wonderful view of Groot Paternoster bay in the background.
Colleague Courteney missed out on the delicious lunch, as he was manning his equally delightful gift shop in the town’s fish market square. But perhaps I made up for that by spending money on yet another set of earrings for myself (I now own over 200 pairs). “Do you really need more?” he enquired and of course the answer is “No, but I want them!”

MARTA MEETS MOM

Maxie van der Vyver met her future daughter-in-law only days before Marta and Christiaan were married at her home in Postmasburg, a small town tucked into the corner of the Free State.
Originally from Poland, Marta’s home is now England where she tends customers at The Queensbury in Willesden Green while Christiaan designs computer-animated graphics.
Maxie and Marta took to each other immediately – but then both are warm, opening folk so it was a given – and the three travelled together to South Africa’s West Coast where they celebrated the honeymoon as one happy family - en famille, so to speak.

They spent the balmy days sunbathing on Britannia Bay’s Golden Mile beach and the evenings challenging each other at Trivial Pursuit. (Wonder if Marta let her ma-in-law win?)

From here to Langebaan and then back to Postmasburg for a spell on the family farm before returning to the U.K. on January 26th. Brrr!

You two newly-weds, have a wonderful life.

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RAPT UP

From personal experience I know that if I decide to enjoy a plunge-pot of coffee at See-Plasie local coffee and gift shop and garden nursery where indigenous and endemic plants prevail, the chances are that the Thearts and I will chew the proverbial cud over all things general and affairs tourism in particular for hours on end.
Lucy and Gerry (see “Summer Serenade” below) too were caught up in the charm of co-owners, husband and wife team, Rossouw and Monica and were simply enchanted by all that this very successful little business has to offer.
Determined to find something depicting dolphins with which to present me, the Veens found a stunning fabric-painted shawl, which Monica (left) has draped around her shoulders. (Rossouw’s the wit olifant in the meedle.)