August 2007

Looking for an escape and unexpectedly finding love.

To get out of an unstable relationship, I decided to abandon city life and go to a rural area so that I could save money for an overseas trip – a rarity in 1962!

I accepted a teaching post at the Balfour-Katberg Secondary School in the Eastern Cape. I travelled by train and had to change at Fort Beaufort. The train arrived at Fort Beaufort at 6 o'clock in the morning and I was very anxious I might miss my connection to Katberg. I did not realise that there would be only one compartment for passengers attached to a goods train that left Fort Beaufort for Katberg at 9 o'clock only three times a week!

The 20 mile journey to Katberg took three hours, because the train had to stop at various sidings to load and off-load produce. I immediately fell in love with the countryside. I was overwhelmed by the sight of the citrus orchards, the green lucerne fields as well as the large dams along which grew beautiful poplar trees.

It was very hot, but it had rained during the night and the steam rising from the dams made it look like a fairyland. At Upsher siding I saw a very handsome gentleman sitting in his two-tone Opel Kapitan, but thought nothing of it. Arriving at Katberg station I was met by the station master's wife who took me to the Kat Tavern Holiday Resort where I would reside. I saw the Kapitan again this time parked at the resort.

I had been there for three weeks, when a colleague invited me to make up a foursome for a game of tennis. That was when I finally met the mysterious owner of the Kapitan. I later learnt that he had given the other eligible men of the valley only three weeks to date the new teacher before he would make a move.

After tennis his friends dared him to take me up the Katberg so that I could taste the Katberg water. The belief was that, once you have had a taste of the water, you'll never again leave.

I was so naïve. It was already dark and I had no idea where this stranger – 12 years my senior – was taking me. Fortunately he was a real gentleman and when he later returned me safely to my room, he quietly asked whether he could kiss me goodnight. The following morning I literally walked on a cloud – 12 inches above the ground.

We got engaged in June, married in December and went on to have a pigeon pair who gave us much joy.

Unfortunately we had to leave the farm near Upsher siding because of governmental decisions at that time. The farm was located in the area which became the Ciskei. We then moved to Cape Town and we were married for 37 years when my husband passed away in 1997. I am 70 years old now – my overseas trip never materialised – but I have come to retire in Cradock and I am blissfully happy to be back in the Eastern Cape.