Brits - The place my parents call home

[M4346]

Well, as promised here is the second topic that will be, as can be expected, incredibly image-laden. There will be a total of 81 photos / images in this post, you have been forewarned. 

I wanted to share this, and so to speak, freeze this in time, because my parents' home and the town of Brits is a very special place to me - it is the place where I completed my High School 'career', matriculating at Hoërskool Brits (English: Brits High School) in 2005, and a place where I met many friends, had some good and some bad times, but all-in-all it is still a very special place to which I like to "retreat" on weekends, away from the hustle and bustle of city living (in Pretoria).

So, to give you an idea of where Brits is, here's the first image (which is actually a map, courtesy of Google Maps. ):



The map doesn't show the completed N4 Highway that runs through the area from the Mozambican border (coming from Maputo) straight through to Botswana (cutting through Nelspruit [where Colyn / CSX lives], Witbank [where my grandmother, aunt and uncle lives], Pretoria [where I live], Brits [where my parents live] and Rustenburg, among other places).

My parent's house (red arrow below) is close to Hartbeespoort Dam (the dam wall is indicated by the yellow arrow) and the Magaliesburg Mountain Range.



Close-up of my parents house and the N4 Highway:



The property highlighted:



Close-up of the N4 with the "Solitary Blue Gum," (more photos of that later). 



So, I'll begin this recollection with images of our property, garden and home. All the images were taken today.

Inside the House

I'm not going to show much of the house inside, it is still after-all a private dwelling.  It is a 5 bedroom house, of which 3 of them are en-suite, with two living rooms, 2 television rooms, a guest bathroom, 2 kitchens, an "entertaining area," a dining room and a storage room.

The entrance hall, bar and main television room (that's about all you'll see. My room is a bit unphotogenic. ):









The Entertaining Area

It's sort of outside, and inside, well, it's difficult to explain, I'll just have to let you see.













The Garden and exterior


Outside the other television room, the window looks out on the "pool" above.


The garden / yard, a view from the main entrance gate


The main entrance to the house


The water tower for the borehole

"Garden shots"









Bougainvillas, along the east-facing wall of the property.





The surrounds

I think that's all of the garden that I'm sharing, for now, and now I'll show you the surrounding area. 

The  canal, that for the farm land in the area.






The mountains in the background are the Magaliesberg Mountains.











Dams in the area are fed by the canal, and the water is used for irrigation. In Afrikaans they're refered to as "Plaasdamme," meaning "farm dams."



















The fields are currently covered in drying Maize / Corn, or even sunflowers as you'll see.












** The photos of the sunflowers were edited in Picasa and heavily saturated.




The Magaliesberg in the background


Above you can see Brits (the town) and the grain silo.

More fields...




The northern border of our property is a smaller canal (not depicted below) and the dirt road...



Some more dirt road...

The highway and it's surrounds are also rather interesting. The N4, or at least the stretch that runs from Pretoria to Brits was completed a few years ago only and as mentioned above now forms a stretch of road from Mozambique to Botswana, through South Africa.













A close-up of a house next to the highway...





Above, The Crocodile River mine and a "plaasdam."




The wall of the Hartbeespoort Dam sits nestled between the two peaks in the photo above. 

A few trucks / lorries passing on the highway...






Storks have also taken to the highway scenery and have settled in the grass next to the highway. 










Above: Wilhelmina, one of our workers walking over the bridge. She actually asked me to take a photo of her in passing.

And now on to my favourite part... The Solitary Blue Gum next to the N4. 

If any of you have been monitoring or checking in at my MD (-> Click!) you would know that I am almost obsessed with Eucalyptus, and they dominate the landscape of Elytheria Novo. Even though they are not indigenous to South Africa I still love them, and there's nothing like the smell of Eucalyptus in the morning. 









Well, that's all then folks! I hope you've enjoyed the photos! 

-M-

PS. If you have Google Earth you can download the "My Place" attached to this post and view the area in Google Earth.

[Gaston]

Wow M you weren't kidding when you warned that it was image intense.    Well worth the time waiting for the images.    Very interesting indeed.    I love seeing parts of the world I don't really know anything about.   Thanks so much for sharing it with us.

You said:

The water tower for the borehole

What is a borehole?



---Gaston

[M4346]

Wow M you weren't kidding when you warned that it was image intense.    Well worth the time waiting for the images.    Very interesting indeed.    I love seeing parts of the world I don't really know anything about.   Thanks so much for sharing it with us.

What is a borehole?



---Gaston

I'm glad that you decided to wait for the images to load, and thank you for checking them out. 

I'm sorry about the "borehole" reference, and now I'm not even sure if it's the correct English term...  But it's basically a hole that is drilled and you get your water from it. LOL. We don't use municipal water, we get our own water from under the ground (if that makes sense... I seem to be very uneloquent at the moment...)

Anyway, I hope that clears it up, and I'm more than glad to share info about my country! 

[Gaston]

Yes M that  indeed clears it up.   Another term that we would be more familiar with in the states, would be a "well".    But since you explained what it was for I figured it out.   LOL     Thanks.   BTW,  You have a great looking home.  I can see why you love your home.    The farmland isn't that different from here.  Until you look at the mountains.   Nothing quite as dramatic here in the mid-west.      Thanks for sharing a bit of your life. 


---Gaston 

[dedgren]

Those are some fine pics of some beautiful countryside.  Life looks rural, yet comfortable.  The wide open spaces with mountains on the horizon are very Montana-like.

The discussion between you and our friend Gaston about boreholes and wells is fascinating.  I took a look and found that "well" is from the Old English wylle or wella and has meant the same thing over most of 1,000 years.  It always amazes me when, as much "crosswalking" as goes on between European languages, there could still be terms that have no common understanding.

Between you and Colyn, Marius, you have made South Africa out to be a fascinating place.


David

[Giligone]

What a beautiful place. It looks so warm and pleasant.

**looks out window to see miles and miles of snow across a frozen lake**


brrrrr. hehe. I'm looking forward to more pics from S.A. 

[Vandy]

Hi, M.

Thank you for the lovely tour around your parents "neck of the woods".  I very much enjoyed the scenery and commentary you provided.  What a great part of the world you live in.

Thank you for sharing with us.

Regards,

Gary