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32
MY
ROUSES
EVERYDAY
JANUARY | FEBRUARY 2016
the
Around the World
issue
In the bush, it’s eat or be eaten. We ate.
And drank. We started each day with coffee
spiked with Amarula, a cream liqueur
made from the South African marula fruit
that tastes similar to Bailey’s Irish Cream
(Rouses can order it for you). We ended
it with South African wines and cocktails
made by our bartender, Sphiwe Romeo
Mkhwanazi.
I should have asked him if was
born Romeo or earned his nickname.
Breakfast was full English fare, lunch made
up of salads, hot meat and vegetable dishes
and cheeses. Dinner was traditional South
African food served by candlelight at tables
set up under the stars. Meat in South Africa
is usually grilled or stewed on the
stove or in a three-legged cast
iron stew pot called a potjie. We
had bobotie, or boo kap, which
is a Cape-Malay dish of diced
beef or lamb spiced with cumin,
coriander and cloves; morogo, a
wild African spinach; springbock
(antelope); and African braai
(barbecue) of meats and boewars,
which are coil-shaped African
sausages. Dessert was typically
a custardy melktert or malva
pudding, a sweet and sticky baked
sponge pudding.
Pap and gravy were served at
every meal. Pap or mieliepap
or slap pap is made from white
corn (90% of the corn grown in
Africa is white, whereas 90%
of world corn production is
yellow). Pap is similar to grits
but much thicker. Afrikaners
eat it with chakalaka, a spicy
vegetable relish or stew; with
milk, butter and sugar; with
meat (think grits and grillades);
or topped with shiba, a tomato
and onion gravy (think shrimp
and grits).
We were joined for dinner
by our trackers and game
rangers who shared stories of
the Big 5 and safaris all over
the world. Sabi Sands is a no-
shoot reserve, and the rangers
are true conservationists. David
was born in Britain, Daniel in
Zimbawe, and Derrick in the
local village of Justica.
On our final night, we were surprised with
a performance by the Mabarhule Youth in
Action Choir. They taught us a few songs
.
We taught them how to second line.
Soweto
We returned to Joburg for Leah’s bat
mitzvah. Bryan and Stacy’s friends the
Steins had us over for a traditional Shabbat
dinner at their home in Joburg on Friday
night. Saturday it was
mazels
all around.
From Joburg we went to Soweto with a stop
at the ApartheidMuseum on the way. South
Africa began institutionalizing apartheid in
1950, and the township of Soweto, now an
urban area of Joburg, was the scene of some
of the ugliest political aggression, including
the Soweto Uprising in 1976, when police
opened fire on 10,000 students.
Mandela and his family lived in Soweto
from 1946 to the 1990s (though Mandela
was imprisoned part of the time). Their
house on Vilakazi is now a museum.
Vilakazi Street is said to be the only street in
the world where two Nobel Laureates have
lived — Mandela and Desmond Tutu.
Each person on our trip had a connection
to Bryan, Stacy, Anna and Leah. (Erika is
Stacy’s best friend from college). Bryan’s
friend from South Africa, Lisa Schneider,
also had a connection to Mandela; her
father was his private physician. Lisa’s
family was in Nasrec (Soccer City) when
the soon-to-be president made his first
speech after his release from prison. Doctor
and patient remained close friends until
Mandela’s death in 2013.
Capetown
The last leg of our trip was in Capetown,
which is very Dutch, very French.
We spent a lot of time sightseeing. And
eating. Leah, aka Snacks, is never far from
food, and she always has a bag of something-
or-other with her. South Africans eat dried
meat the way we eat potato chips. There
was a lot of biltong, a thinly sliced, air-dried
meat, and droewors, which are air-dried
sausages.
Table Mountain has an incredible view of
the city and the ocean — we took a cable
car up. We took a boat out to Seal Island
and a bus to see braying jackass penguins
at Boulder’s Beach. That same bus took us
down twisting, turning, winding, curving
Chapman’s Peak Drive, one of the most
spectacular marine drives in the world. I
threw up when we got to Cape Point.
The next day eight of us packed our
bathing suits and drove to Kleinbaai
harbor in Gansbaai. This is a prime
spot to go Great White Shark diving.
The boat took us to Shark Alley, about
an hour offshore. We dove in custom-
built shark cages — trust me, it was
still scary. Three of our crew threw up,
adding even more chum to the water,
but I’d learned my lesson the day before,
and had stocked up on Dramamine.
On our last day, we drove to the heart of
the Cape Winelands, about 45 minutes
photos by
ErikaGoldring