Groot Marico

By Elise.

For three weeks we were living on a small permaculture farm called Happy Toes, about two hours north of Johannesburg. The tales from this time are too numerous, so the experience is encapsulated here as best I could.

Happy Toes is a small five acre permaculture community just outside the town of Groot Marico. It has been running for less than a decade, with young fruit trees, temporary housing, and areas yet to be cultivated. There is a wild element to the place, more than just the vervet monkeys that sit in the trees at the bottom of the property. It’s a growing community, a place in transition and growth.

We shared the space with five to seven other individuals, some South Africa's whom were staying a while, or international travellers just passing through. Everyone helped with the cooking, and we ate delicious, wholesome meals with vegetables picked from the garden. We baked fresh bread, and cooked stew over the fire. All without a fridge, and usually not a lot of electricity. One night the wonderful and ever delightful Zelma cooked us all bunny-chow (a Durban specialty curry renowned for its heat), we ate and drank wine by candlelight. We also shared the space with two cats and three rowdy, but beautiful dogs. My favourite of the animals was easily Chenobi (or Obi Wan Chenobi as Zach liked to call him). He loved to sit on peoples laps and hated when we picked the ticks off him. 

The farm has one main building in which the kitchen and dinning area is located. Building maybe isn't the right word, because it doesn't have four walls and is semi-outdoors, with wasps, spiders and small lizards sharing the space. Walls or roofs aren’t really a thing at the farm just yet. This made the cold winter nights pretty rough tough. Above the main area was a viewing deck, and an ancient canvas tent that has clearly been kicking around hippie communes since the 60s. Zach and I slept at the back of the tent for the first week, as one of the dogs, Ginger, was still settling in to her new home at the farm, and spent our first night barking at and jumping on our tent. The bathroom is next to the nursery, which was also outdoors, and it was always a gamble to see if there was hot water in the morning from the previous days solar tank. There were vines of Choko growing over the shower; you could harvest lunch whilst washing. A small compost toilet, and one building on the property made from cob and stone with a small rocket heater, which the manager was living in. Everyone else at the farm lived in caravans or little Wendy house, which is a basic wooden structure just like the cubby my sister and I had when we were young. 

Starting just outside the kitchen was a young food forest, which was called the mandala garden. There were all types of herbs, vegetables, and fruit trees intermingled together, as well as boarders of tall sugar cane. It took some time to learn where everything was located, you think you know where all the kale is and then bam you come across another patch. Towards the north was the market garden, with beds laid out in traditional rows. The was a rooster and non laying chicken in a small henhouse nearby. There was a small aquaponics set up, growing water chestnuts, reeds, and tilapia fish in a series of tanks. Also a useful system to keep your beers cool. In this area is the nursery, for the small seedlings and raising plants to sell in town. The main focus of the farm at this stage was attempting self sufficiency, in addition to selling items at a small shop stall in town, such as salad packs (lettuce, rocket, mustard etc), and chili strings. 

A typical day started in the morning with breakfast at 6.30am (we were always wide awake thanks to the rooster), with work starting at 7am. The work schedule would change day by day; at times harvesting lemongrass, or planting lettuce, now and again potting in the nursery, or making compost. We would break for coffee midmorning, and lunch around 1pm. We may or may not return to work in the afternoon, as the day would heat up, it all depended on the day or what tasks were required. 

My favourite part was the use of water on the farm. There is a river running at the top of the property, which is diverted into a series of swales (or little fairy rivers) that feed water through the farm. Swales are used in permaculture to move an already existing water source throughout a system, allowing for passive watering, as well as creating habitat for water loving creatures. It's essentially irrigation, but where it follows the contours of the land, rather than carving up the landscape. There are little metals gates placed along the swales that can be put in place to shut off water to one area, and divert the flow to another. The swales appear almost natural to the environment, like little brooks amidst the farm. I loved going for morning walks over little stone bridges, listening to the frogs croak at night, or that one time we found a little crab side-walking along one of the swales. The water runs through the farm and is absorbed into the soil, with the excess running off into another river at the bottom of the property. There are also two dams on the property that can used to store water when needed. However, the swales are not fun when you take a misstep and fall into one while gathering lettuce for dinner, or when the only way to get to the tomatoes is to jump into a full swale on a cold day with leaky gumboots.

Another one of my favourite things about Happy Toes is the morning bee greeting. Most mornings were a hazy affair, spent making lots of coffee, porridge and maltabella. We all loved dousing our breakfast with honey. As the kitchen is in the morning easterly flight path of the bee hives, we often got visitors. There are two hives on the farm of the local African 'killer' honey bees. Being winter, and coming out of a drought, the hives were being left alone until spring. However, these alleged 'killer' bees made for lovely breakfast companions. Their nature was so gentile. They buzzed around your bowl and walked all over your spoon, but never stung any of us. They were curious, beautiful ladies. Unfortunately, this was part of our daily routine, a behaviour so normal I never considered to photograph it. But I will never forget the feeling of honey bees walking over my hand while sipping coffee and starting off the day.

From early evening to early morning you could here lions roaring from the east. The rumble of the lions roaring together was so regular, maybe twice in the hour, but every hour. It was a dependable noise that perforated the night. It was a beautiful harmony, in low raspy tones, that almost vibrated the ground. Sometimes if the wind was right, it sounded like they were just behind the nearest tree, and you could almost convince yourself they were. Our first night there I found the sound so moving, it had me in tears. Unfortunately, it's not a happy tale, as these lions are caged in a near-by 'predator farm'. Of all those we spoke with in Groot Marico, no one is entirely sure what is going on in this insidious place, as the owner is not very friendly, and the entire complex is behind a large gate. But it seems a small pride of lions (male or female, no idea) are held captive. Days after we left the farm I missed the sound of the lion, as we had grown so accustomed to the songs of these beautiful cats.

It would be remiss of me if I didn't discuss the Permaculture Design Course that Zach and I completed as part of our stay at the farm. Our facilitator was Jeannine, also the manager of the farm. For ten days, or 72 hours, we took lessons in the upstairs tent on design theory, or walked around the farm discussing solar energy systems, or learning about plants needs in the garden. As part of the assessment we both completed our own permaculture design assignments. In typical fashion, despite it being only theoretical, Zach created a whole permaculture village from scratch. On completion we had a small party at the farm and fired up the pizza oven, in the shape of an Octopus. It was such a creative time, and Zach and I both grew from the experience. It ignited a fire in me to learn more about permaculture, farming and nature.

Speaking of pizza ovens, we were lucky enough to participate in a natural building workshop whilst on the farm. The existing cob pizza oven, although completely capable of making delicious pizza's, had cracks all over it and so too one of the bench seats. For three days a natural building guru, Carrie, joined us on the farm and led us through the restoration process. We made cob with our feet, threw balls of lime plaster at walls, become sufficiently covered in mud, and just generally had a fun time. 

On our second last day at the farm, it was a Sunday so we went to visit some of neighbours. Anouk and her partner David live across the river, and have started a farm, growing mushrooms and holding space for healing workshops/weekends. We had already been to their place one Saturday night for a little party. Anouk showed us around the farm and their beautiful view of the river. Later in the day we visited another neighbour Jacque and his eco lodge. One of the dogs on the farm named Baleuka, was original from this farm and we brought him back to see his mum. As we arrived two dogs ran to the gate to greet us. Once the pick-up entered the farm we were surrounded by about a dozen great Danes, or various crosses and one Jack Russel. And these were big dogs. Even on all fours, one particularly large number was almost as tall as me. They were in a frenzy about Baleuka who refused to get out of the car for the first ten minutes. The property was a farm stay, with big and beautiful outdoor areas, with mazes and a little waterfront. Zach shocked everyone by stripping down and taking the rope swing into the freezing river. The dogs barked at him the whole time, showing their disdain for someone swimming in the bitter winter water.

One day we took a trip to the 'Eye'; the source of the Groot Marico river. We talked about the changing landscape and environment as we drove up into the hills. On our way there we met a lone meerkat named Daisy, who had a run in with an electric fence and now spends her time digging holes and hanging with dogs. At the 'Eye' we took a small hand powered barge into the centre of the small lake, to see the great drop down into the earth. Growing around the waters edge was lotus, papyrus, with small 'Jesus birds' walking across the pads. The spring and the water it provides was apparently rated some of the tastiest natural water in the world, as we were told over and over again by the locals. On our return to the farm we spotted different wild buck along the road, including a pair of nyala on either side of the fence.

We loved our time in South Africa but in the end the bitterly cold nights on the farm made us reconsider our plan to travel around the cape in the dead of winter, so after only a month in South Africa we headed north into Botswana.