15. Adventures with Hanle

Mountains rise dramatically around Franschhoek and Stellenbosch

When I was planning this trip, friends Sandy and Derek Newton from Stanthorpe contacted me to say that their daughter Sam and her family live in Stellenbosch. Sam in turn contacted me and put me in touch with Hanle Hill, one of her best friends who is the official tour guide for the Dylan Lewis sculpture garden. Don't you love how things just fall into place?

The delightful Hanle picked us up at Leeu Estates yesterday, Wednesday, in their farm vehicle, an extremely comfortable twin cab Toyota utility. Her husband grows young fruit tree stock for orchardists.

We left the Franscchoek Valley (meaning French corner, after the Huguenots who first settled here) for Paarl and the famous garden at Babylonstoren (pronounced bab-ee-lon-stoooooren). It's owned by media mogul Koos Bekker and Karen Roos, former magazine editor and one of South Africa's style queens, just the recipe!

Babylonstoren dates from 1692 and is one of the best preserved farmyards in the Cape. Based on the design of the Company's Garden in Cape Town and the ideal of a Persian garden with flowing water, the eight-acre garden is divided into 15 rectangular sections of fruit, vegetables, berries, indigenous plants, fragrant lawns, bee hives, a prickly pear maze, ducks and chickens. Many of the outhouses date from the 1750's and the homestead was built in 1777.

This is Gundula Deutschlander, a passionate gardener who has been involved in this project since Koos and Karen bought the farm 9 years ago. She's quite fey, looks like Mary Poppins and speaks quietly and confidentially as if she has a magic secret she wants to share. I think she does. A gold star sparkles on one tooth.

How lucky can I be, to be here, she says. It’s paradise lost and found.

As we passed the citrus area, Gundela pulled leaves from the trees, inviting us to crush them in our hands to release the fresh lemon oil fragrance. All plants in the garden are edible, many medicinal. It's all organically grown with organic solutions for any problems.

This little dog stayed with Gundela every inch of the way, jumping up on anything higher than himself for a better vantage point. This water is gravity fed from the Berg River ten kilometres away.

She picked and ate the petals of the cape pond weed, or waterblommetjie - it's used in cooking, and looked wonderful in vases back in the produce shop.

This is a woven bird-watching pod, with comfy cushions inside, made by Porky Hefer.

They're not inexpensive! We had seen another in a gallery near the Silo Hotel in Cape Town.

Gundela led us like the pied piper along the garden paths. She really is quite enchanting.

This is a medlar tree, the first tree brought into the country by Jan van Riebeeck. It's been grafted onto four quince tree ‘legs’.

Koos loves trees with a story, and also has a tree grown from a cutting of Sir Isaac Newton’s apple tree in England.

There's a fun thornless prickly pear maze.

Did you know that cochineal comes from a scale insect that lives on prickly pear?

Karen employed French architect Patrice Taravella to help them design the garden. His influence is evident in the pyramidal rose arbors at the intersecting axes. Koos and Karen transplanted older trees to give the garden a head start. Guava trees over 150 years old were transplanted two years ago and are already fruiting heavily.

Spring is here! The plum trees are starting to flower.

If I ever knew it, I'd forgotten that the grey leafed melianthus major on the left is a South African plant.

Art installation or storage?

Transitions from one part of the garden to another are marked by changes in surface - from gravel, to lawn, to abalone shells, to fruit seeds.

The fabulous foliage of the Jerusalem artichoke in front of grey olive trees.

The conservatory was imported from France - this area with its metal chairs and tables is a little Paris.

Luncheon party anyone?

The pretty decanter of complimentary juice in the conservatory is made from the three friends of winter: plum blossom, pine leaves, and bamboo. It tasted ummmmm interesting.

The tender leaves of the rhubarb are protected by nests of woven vine clippings.

New low rock walls were being white washed in keeping with the Cape Dutch theme.

At the end of the tour, the wonderful smell of fresh bread drifted from the bakery, cheeses were ageing in the cheese room, strips of biltong hung near baskets of fresh eggs. There's a botanical bathroom product range too, and kitchen ware.

How pretty do the waterblommetjie stems look, wound around inside this glass vase? How did they do that?

We called in at Rustenberg, another old winery with a pretty English style garden, this one renovated by the present owner Rozanne Barlow in 2001. Don't you love the tracery of branches of the deciduous trees?

Such a pretty vine-clad summer house.

Newly planted beds under the old pergola.

We called in quickly to Tokara Deli, with its interesting shop and art installations. I hadn't eaten since Monday and I suddenly felt the need for pizza!

We loved this sculptor's version of himself posing in undies, after Degas' little dancer.

The amazing metal tree sculpture is by Marco Giafonnelli.

Delaire Graff Estate enjoys a fine reputation and is owned by Laurence Graff, one of the most prominent diamond dealers in the world, so we'd been looking forward to seeing the jewellery boutique. Unfortunately after a heist in the past month, it's all been shipped back to London, and the boutique closed. We were so disappointed!

Photo courtesy Delaire Graff when the trees are in leaf

And now at the end of winter, with new plantings on the left.

The powerful Dylan Lewis cheetahs didn't disappoint. Laurence Graff allows the hotel to display much of his private and impressive art collection.

I think this is Anton Smit.

Another work by him, called Faith. Isn't that a wonderfully expressive pose?

As I was still feeling very wonky, the chef made me as a pizza chaser, from scratch, of the most delicious chicken soup, served from a teapot poured over the bowl of finely shredded meat. Helen remains maddeningly well!

The stylish boutique à la Capri features a linen range by Antonino Aiello.

Three powerful works at the front desk.

There's a glorious view of Stellenbosch from the spa pool.

Smiling Brigitte works in the dining room.

The rooms at Delaire Graff are actually suites, each with a horizon pool, sitting room, kitchenette and huge dressing room. And you know how I love a heated bathroom floor. You must walk through the garden to reach them. Leeu Estates on the other hand is bedroom and bathroom only, but it has the edge design-wise!

After Hanle picked us up this morning, she dropped me at a medical centre while Helen had a look at the very stylish shops in Stellenbosch. It's a beautiful town of old buildings in the white Cape Dutch style. A very thorough young doctor did a pin-prick malaria test which proved negative. He laughed, nope you're not pregnant, and I staggered away gratefully with a clutch of pills.

Our schedule was now looking rushed, and we whizzed through this stunning florist on our way to coffee with Sam.

The perfume of the stocks!

It was great to see Sam and her friend Julie who makes leather handbags. With Hanle, they're a tight little group of girls all with children of roughly the same age, sharing a lovely bond. Sam and I had a quick photo while super-shopper Helen bought two knitted Trendology tops.

Sam took us on a (literally) running tour of the central streets of Stellenbosch past this laser cut-out of Nelson Mandela. Hanle picked us up at the ATM where we both needed cash.

A whirl of goodbyes and we were off again. We had one more stop before the airport - the Dylan Lewis Sculpture studio and garden. We've seen so much of his work already but we were looking forward to this very special place where he displays his work against the towering backdrop of those beautiful mountains.

If you're interested, this is a link to a five minute youtube explanation by him of his creative process.

Dylan came from an artistic family - his mother and grandmother were artists, his father an artist sculptor. He dissected birds with his father and worked in taxidermy to get a better understanding of physiology.

He started sculpting birds and moved on to the big cats, his love. His present work incorporates the human figure with mythological overtones.

His big break came in 1995 when Mr Rupert asked him for one leopard for a brand new golf course. Dylan cleverly came back with the suggestion that he do a series depicting a day in the life of a leopard, one at each hole of the eighteen hole golf course. So turning an order for one leopard into eighteen.

We've been very impressed wherever we go here that entrepreneurs and companies are prepared to give funds to so much of the creative arts to beautify their properties.

His work is handled by Christies and is in high demand throughout the world. If you click on any of the photos above, it will bring up a slide show. It says something of the dominance of these magnificently powerful sculptures that they not only compete with but actually complement the backdrop of the dramatic mountains.

Dylan has been inspired by the poetry of Ian McCallum and his book on ecological intelligence. They did an exhibition together at Kirstenbosch Gardens in this specially built space by architect Enrico Defonecchio which was then demounted and brought here to the sculpture garden.

A dash to the airport, goodbye to Hanle with thanks for such a great couple of days, a quick flight back to Johannesburg and Tau's reassuringly smiling face at arrivals.

Dear Jo came around for a quick drink at Athol Place, typically in her generous way bringing us a tin of local olive oil each, before we tumbled into bed, exhausted!

Tomorrow we go to Sabi Sabi Sands on the last leg of our African journey, hopefully to see the big five! Until then, buddies...