Absinthe: A taste and talk on the blisteringly powerful creative lubricant which has earned an enduring place in alcoholic folklore…with Roger Jorgensen of Jorgensens Distillery

What better way of welcoming in the festive cheer by coming to taste and listen to the story behind mind-bending effects of the notorious medicinal tonic, Absinthe, otherwise known as the Green Fairy, and its re-birth on a Wellington farm.

Invented in the late nineteenth century, consumed by the bohemian café societies of Europe and banned in 1915 for inciting irresponsible, debauched and risqué behaviour. It is now legal, and being carefully and passionately crafted in Wellington by Roger and Dawn Jorgensen, under the label of The Field of Dreams. They produce other artisanal spirits and will have these, and The Field of Dreams, for sale on the 18^th of December at The Library. For more info visit Jorgensens Distillery.

Time: 6.30 pm

Date: Sunday 18th December

Venue: The Library, 16 Wilhelmina Street, Franschhoek

Cost: R100, including light snacks.

To reserve tickets please email bandoola@mweb.co.za

‘Chasing The Devil’ – In Search of Africa’s Fighting Spirit. Tim Butcher lectures at The Library, Franschhoek

 

Best-selling author (Blood River) and adventure-traveller Tim Butcher lost friends in Sierra Leone during its civil war and was threatened with death by the Liberian warlord Charles Taylor, but he faced down these demons by trekking 350 miles through the jungle on an epic journey to one of Africa’s most overlooked regions. He wanted to learn how a society recovers after conflict so brutal it created some of modern Africa’s most troubling icons – child soldiers, blood diamonds, prisoner mutilation. Following a trail blazed in 1935 by a young and whisky-steeped Graham Greene, Tim slept in villages run by `devils’, masked spiritual figures who keep society’s secrets.

In his talk, Tim will describe an unforgettable adventure and how he encountered a remarkable spirit to survive. But he will also tackle difficult questions about how this spirit to survive rarely transforms into a spirit to thrive.’

Time: 7 pm

Date: Thursday 24th November

Venue: The Library, 16 Wilhelmina Street, Franschhoek

Cost: R100, including a light supper. Wine available

To reserve tickets please email bandoola@mweb.co.za

Tim Butcher is an award-winning journalist, broadcaster and best-selling author.  His first book, Blood River, used an account of an epic journey he made through the Congo to unravel the region’s turbulent history. It was a number one best-seller, translated into six languages and shortlisted for various book prizes. For his second book, Chasing the Devil, published recently, he trekked 350 miles through Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone.
On the staff of the Daily Telegraph from 1990 to 2009, he specialised in awkward places at awkward times, reporting on conflict in the Balkans, the Middle East, Africa and south Asia. In 2010 he received an Honorary Doctorate for service as a writer and was made Patron of Save The Congo, a British-based charity.
Born in Britain in 1967, he is based in Cape Town with his girlfriend and their two children.

 

 

 

 

The Library, Franschhoek: some images

Framed by two old Jacarandas, and an ancient oak, sits the The Library. The accommodation sleeps up to six, in three en-suite, spacious bedrooms, tucked away in a quiet quarter of Franschhoek.

What better way to relax on holiday with a pile of books, a view to devour, dip in the pool every now and again, watch your favourite movie on tap, amble a few minutes into the village to collect Sunday morning croissants, trundle up to one of the best restaurants in the country, or simply cook up a feast upstairs and uncork a bottle in the expansive open-plan living area and upstairs deck. It also sits (and inter-connected, if required) next to the Explorers Club. Rates are from R3,500.00 per night for two to R4,900.00 per night for six.

Enquiries can be sent to bandoola@mweb.co.za

Baltic Oddballs

A voyage is not complete without a degree of bizarreness. I knew this passage would be a little out of the ordinary and had put some effort into research. A former military prison where you can stay – they treat you as a prisoner; a restaurant resembling a hospital where you eat with surgical instruments, in straightjackets; the amiable collector of beach flotsam and jetsam; the Museum of Antlers in the hamlet of Valde; a Baltic wedding procession with a bra-less mother of the bride and a Jumbo Jet converted into a hotel.

We are in the Baltics and the former Russian republic of Latvia, a troubled whirlwind of fierce struggle and downright rebellion, they seemed to have turned into amusing lunatics – well worth the detour.

The first stop was to see Biruta Galgalas (and her gigantic wrestling nephew Ugis) who has been collecting items that have been washed up on the shores of Latvia, just down from her wooden shack. Sadly she is moving on and most of the collection has been removed, but there were still remnants left to look at, including an outhouse which Ugis must have just used. Luckily we didn’t stay for lunch as we heard an almighty belch from Ugis’ vast stomach crack the air above our heads as we left. He was obviously making more room for a vast Latvian feast.

Where the Bison Roam…and other beasts

Apart from startling a buck in Mavrovo National Park, in Macedonia, and encountering at least half a dozen vipers on paths and roads, we fell short on encountering some big game. The signs were there but guides were slim on the ground.

Enter general oracle Laco Molnar, primarily wildlife vet but also part-time hunter, on the Slovakia-Hungary border. I arrived to visit Laco and his wife Milota and found Laco skinning a roebuck he had shot in the early hours of the morning. The doors were opening on the Central Europe Safari.

No sooner had he butchered the carcass (we had the fillet for dinner) he was onto planning a boar hunt that evening, in his backyard, with the local, hard-drinking, hunting fraternity. The guns remained silent, we necked some beers and Jagermeister, but we still managed to see a pair of roedeer and some foxes in the half-light of the late evening. The boar were rustling and snorting in the forest across the open grass from where we perched, but they did not show themselves. Instead, we inhaled the damp evening air and listened to sounds of birds settling to roost in the forest. Laco then told me of his latest project of collaring bears to track their movements. He does work after all.

The next morning, belly filled, I set off north-west towards the High Tatras in search of the bear man – Robin Rigg. Laco put me in touch with him and I tracked Robin down in Liptovsky Hradok, in the shadow of the Tatra Mountains. We had a thick cup of coffee in his local bar early in the morning, while the locals tilted back their necks and emptied jars of beer down their throats for breakfast. My luck ran short as he was on his way to collect a Canadian professor who was half-way-there to broker an accord between the National Hunting Association and the Slovakian conservationists. It has been a long slow process, but he was confident of progress. He offered to take me up the mountain to look for some wildlife after the weekend, but I was pressing on. I witnessed no wildlife after all but he gave me some images that were taken in the mountains above his town.

National Parks of Montenegro, Albania, Macedonia and Kosovo

One of the purposes of coming to this region is to uncover some of the lesser known backroads and wilder areas. Although the larger wildlife has remained elusive it has not in the least detracted from the mountains, lakes and rivers of that we have encountered. Snakes, on the other hand, have been much more evident and in three weeks we must have encountered at least ten of them crossing roads, paths and swimming across streams. Local fable tells of a breast-feeding snake that in the leaner months attaches itself to cows udders, and occasionally when the opportunity arises, to a woman’s breast. Have yet to spot it.

Lake Skadar NP sharing a border with Montenegro and Albania, Thethi NP in Albania, Galicica, Pelister and Mavrovo NPs in Macedonia, Sara in Kosovo and one of the three primeval forests left in Europe at Biogradska Gora National Park in Montenegro have all been on the route so far. We have managed to pitch tent in three of them without being arrested. The primeval forest was especially spectacular, driving through 60 m tall beech trees. It’s a perfect time to visit now, before Europe takes off on holiday in July and August. The parks have been empty and blissful.

The Accursed Mountains of Theth, Albania

For seven months Theth is isolated, cut off by the winter snows. The rocky track to get there is arduous, with slippery hairpin bends, even when the snows have melted in May. As we climbed the narrow pass and entered the clouds, the weather closed in, and the temperature slumped. Tea was taken on top, wrapped in fleeces, snatching fleeting glimpses, through the cloud, of the fields far below. We are in a remote corner of northern Albania, with Kosovo to the north-east, six hours drive from Skhodra. The highest peak reaches 2,700 metres and snow is clinging to the summits.

As we descended the other side, to the Shala Valley floor, and approached the snow melt in the river we saw a young boy, wearing a stripey sweatshirt, sprinting haphazardly over the bleached boulders on the far bank. It turned out to be Francesco. He leaped onto the running board of the car and proceeded to drive us along the trails to show us the layout of the irregularly spaced settlement. We spent the next few days in his company, naming him the Miniature Mayor of Theth, for the respect he commanded from the elders we encountered. Inevitably he coaxed us back to his family, the Harushas, where we stayed for a couple of nights, ate their local fare and consumed home made rakija. The meat and cheese seemed to get more pungent and rancid by the hour, but the honey was deliciously creamy, the butter was soft, nutty and freshly made and unsweetened black cherry jam was a delight.

The customary code of the Kanun still rules in Theth and in these mountains. The Kanun has over a thousand articles, which regulate all aspects of the mountainous life: economic organization of the household, hospitality, brotherhood, clan, boundaries, work, marriage, land, and so on. The Besa (honour) is of prime importance throughout the code as the cornerstone of personal and social conduct. The Kanun applies to both Catholic and Muslim Albanians.

Some of the most controversial rules of the Kanun (in particular book 10 section 3) specify how murder is supposed to be handled, which often in the past and sometimes still now lead to blood feuds that last until all the men of the two involved families are killed. Apparently there was a killing in Boga, over the mountain, ten days ago…

Luckily foreigners are exempt.

Gravediggers; Sweaty Twins; the Harushas of Theth; a bizarre serenading boatman and multiple shots at dawn – some of the characters so far….

The first foray into the unknown has taken in Montenegro, Albania, Macedonia and Kosovo. Not your a-list destinations, but the so called underbelly of the Balkans. These are some of the characters that opened our eyes to the local hospitality, filled with generosity, usually flushed down with some home made rakija, no matter what time of the day. Click on the link below for the route.

http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?msid=203432027551283041826.0004a5f66c2bd2445af13&msa=0

An expedition sailing down the Irrawaddy, through the James Bond islands and onto Langkawi

In 2002 I organised a sailing escapade in the Far East. It was four months long and it started 1,000 miles up the Irrawaddy River in Burma, close to the Chinese border, and ended at Langkawi in Malaysia. Recently a sailing magazine in the US asked a few questions about the voyage and the article, and associated photos, appears through clicking on the link below.

Bandoola – Small Craft Advisor article Jan 2011

A glorious weekend exploring Indian Food with Reza Mahammed

If you can, do yourself a favour and call African Relish, the Cookery School in Prince Albert, and get your name on the waiting list for next year’s course hosted by the unplayable BBC personality and chef extraordinaire; Reza Mahammed. What a weekend!! It was a mesmerising display of colour and layers of exotic flavours bursting forth in the amazing food that Reza helped us all prepare, and consume, with great gusto, ably supported by Vanie Padayachee and her team.

With his boundless and infectious energy he has an unique ability to communicate the somewhat alien techniques required to produce some of the most delectable Indian food, we all agreed, we have tasted. It has been a memorable few days of raitas, chapattis, daals, tempering spices, masalas, vegetable concoctions, biting through loin of lamb tenderised to the consistency of Turkish Delight, green spicy prawns, stir-fries and crunchy salads.

African Relish is a beautifully conceived and designed Cookery School in the most unlikely of locations, in the restful and charming town of Prince Albert, at the feet of the Swartberg mountains on the edge of the great expanse of the Karoo. It maybe four hours from Cape Town by car, but worth the adventure as the journey takes you through some of the most dramatic scenery in the Cape.