Bloem from Naval Hill
Written March 23, Clarens, Free State, South Africa (listening to a very loud political rally just down the road, I can’t see it, but I can hear the cheers and the vuvuzela)
When I was a student at University of Cape Town I became friends with a medical student named Mike and his family. When I went back to Cape Town to work for the Biehl Foundation, Mike’s family adopted me a bit. I was lonely, and they fed me dinners and kept me company. After some sleuthing a few years ago I got in contact with Mike to catch up. After about 11 years I was curious how it all turned out. Turns out he is a hematologist, he is married and he has a 5 year old little girl.
Mike and Kate sitting in art
Mike lives in Bloemfontein (he calls it Bloem), a city without the best reputation. Our guide book says it is “only worth visiting if you are driving the N6 to reach the Western Cape.” Also according to our book, Bloem has a “countrywide reputation as the hick capitol of South Africa.” It is also, alas, not near anything. It is 4-5 hours from Joberg, more like 7 hours to Durban, even further to Cape Town. In the end we decided the opportunity to see an old friend and stay with a real South African family was worth many hours in the car, so I dropped Mike a note and luckily he and his family were up for some last minute visitors.
Andrew with more puppies
Driving in SA entails:
Driving a new car, with a new stick shift system to get use to, on the wrong side of the car
Driving on the wrong side of the street (stick no less)
Dodging people wondering across the freeway
Dodging aggressive fellow drivers
Passing large trucks on one lane roads
Stopping at toll roads
Avoiding people sitting on the edge of the highway
Avoiding cars that just lost their tires
Looking at stunning scenery
Listening to really bad radio
We arrived in Bloem on Monday deeply grateful we made it safely. It is always strange to see a friend after more than a decade. I got a little nervous, but I needn’t have, Mike was very much the same as I remembered him and it was lovely to see an old friend. We sat in his backyard drinking cider and talking. Andrew was instantly happy because there are two golden retrievers vying for his attention. In fact, Andrew spent a lot of time the last few days sitting in the backyard with a drink trying to pet both dogs at once. There is a lot of quality of life in Bloem. Mike has a huge house, with a large backyard that is filled with fun for a 5 year old. There is a pool, playhouse, swing thing, and my favorite: a trampoline. Andrew and Mike’s daughter had a lot of fun jumping together.
For dinner, Mike prepared a Braai, which is South African for BBQ, but oh so much better. We had award winning boerwors, ostrich skewers, and marinated ribs. Delicious. It was also Andrew’s first braai, and that is a right of passage when visiting South Africa. I had a “we are not in America any more” moment when Mike’s wife, Lizelle, set the table. She put out big wine glasses for each of the adults, and a tiny shot glass (really a glorified thimble) of wine for the 5 year old, Rachel. Rachel said grace, and then we all toasted with our wine. I have never clinked wineglasses with a 5 year old before. Good stuff. Eventually, Rachel wanted to leave the table and I watched as Mike explained first she had to eat 3 more bites, oh and did she want to finish her wine?
The next day Andrew and I set about exploring historic downtown Bloemfontein. There are some historic buildings, and some streets look straight out of 1960s palm beach. Andrew took pictures of the architecture and I wished I had a second camera to take pictures of everyone looking very confused at Andrew as he took pictures of the architecture. As a general rule, white people in South Africa don’t walk. They drive from their house, to their jobs, to the mall with its secure parking. They don’t wander downtown. This meant we were very confusing to the locals. People just stared at us mystified. Who were these two, and why would they ever take a picture of this place?
Historic downtown Bloem
Truth be told after less than one hour walking around historic downtown Bloem we felt we had pretty much seen historic downtown Bloem. Mike was able to join us for lunch and an afternoon of exploring. After a lunch in the garden of an old estate and a view of Bloem from “naval hill” (Bloem is landlocked, no water, why naval hill?) we went to the zoo. Our guidebook said the zoo had a liger, a cross between a lion and a tiger. Mike confirmed this. Thus it was decided, we were going on a Liger hunt. In the end we saw many big cats up close and active. We saw baby lions and baby black panthers. At one point 4 baby lions all climbed onto their mother and she licked them, which is really pretty cute. Alas, there was no confirmed liger sighting. Mike thinks we saw him, but he was unlabeled. I can’t imagine you would leave a liger unlabeled.
This morning we said good buy to Mike and his family and drove east toward the Drakensburg mountains.
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