Living in hope

August 29 2011 at 09:25am
By Myrtle Ryan

INDEPENDENT NEWSPAPERS

Seen on a day drive into the surrounding countryside. Picture: Myrtle Ryan

It was the driveway that caught our attention. It swept away beneath huge, shady old trees. The owners, Sandi and Mark Holmden, later told us that during agapanthus season, the drive is cloaked in a haze of purple blue, with flowers standing taller than a person. It must be spectacular.

Anyway, the vista, even without flowers blooming, was enough to persuade us to investigate… and check in.

We opted for the self-catering option, leading off a small courtyard. The charm of these cottages becomes more evident when you walk through to the wooden deck on the far side, framed by stately blue gums. The ground drops off steeply, but is covered in flowering plants and shrubs. Canvas “curtains” on the deck can be dropped to give each room – with names like Earth, Wind and Fire – privacy.

Sitting on this deck, we felt part of the farm scene as tractors puttered past on their way home.

This being a citrus farm, there is a profusion of lemon and orange trees, where guests can walk freely in the orchards, pluck ripe fruit, and inhale the clean, citrusy smell. Or they might choose to sit quietly by the farm dam.

According to Sandi, a tame kingfisher used to swoop down to take food from her hand. He died, but his babies are still flitting around the farm.

Sunlight dapples the long, shady driveway at Good Hope Farm. Picture: Myrtle Ryan

INDEPENDENT NEWSPAPERS

Obviously, a trip to the Addo Elephant Park is one of the highlights of the area, but a drive up the Zuurberg Mountain Pass is also a good way to spend a day. Perhaps you might want to take lunch at the famous Zuurberg Mountain Inn, which is over 150 years old.

I spent a fascinating evening engrossed in a book about the early history of the area. It told how brothers Arthur and Kit Briggs, fresh from the battlefields of World War I, met Sir Percy Fitzpatrick, who was on a promotional visit to the UK to extol the virtues of the Cape Sundays River Settlement Scheme.

Their mother advanced the boys money to buy a 12ha farm in the Addo area, and a life of great hardship began, quite different from the rosy picture painted by the famous author of Jock of the Bushveld.

When the brothers arrived in 1920, they found a dustbowl, with violent winds and drought.

In due course, Arthur went to the then Rhodesia, where he met people who were selling their farm (the current Good Hope) in Selborne. He pounced on it, with Mum again advancing the funds.

There were already some citrus orchards in place, and by the 1950s the whole area was experiencing its heyday. The bubble burst in 1957 when Lake Metz, which supplied the water, again ran dry.

A wander through the orchard early in the morning, was soothing. Picture: Myrtle Ryan