24 Dec Christmas Eve

Today we decided to visit a small city/town, some 4o KM away and maybe just maybe drop in to one of the 152 winery along the way. Well, the town was full of excitment for sure. First, it appears to be a town that provides the winery's and Olive Groves with workers so it is mainly a " Black " town and that was obvious. Also there was two funerals going on at the same time and they appeared to be mainly Black people. What got our attention was that a Bus delivered the people from the church to the cemetary. However, when you think about it most Blacks do not have a vehicle , especially if they are just a farm worker and you will understand why later in this Blog.
Since it was hot and the excitment about the funerals was over we decide to head for the closes beach which was in Strand , about 55 KM away. However, we thought we would drop into a winery, grab a few " Tastings " and possibly some Lunch. But along the way we spotted an Olive farm with a " We are Open : come on in for a Taste " sign, so in we go. The owner was most congenial and gave us the entire rundown on growing, processing and selling the Olives. We tasted Green, Black ( actually purple )and dried ( not my cup of tea ) salted black Olive. He also processes Extra Vigin Olive oil and he walked us there that process. He advised us that once you open a glass bottle of Olive oil you will let air in and it starts to oxidize the oil causing it to go Ransach quickly. To overcome this problem he has started to bottle his Olive Oil in a plastic wine cask and that way no air can get in the container when you open and close the valve.
Moving on with the story, this farmer also grows " eating " grapes which are very hard to manage as they need the right amount of sun to reach there proper sugar content. He says he should be picking this week but due to the cool temperature he is at least 2 weeks behind hence his customers ( Woolworths ) are waiting for the grapes. He has 125 hectarces of both Grapes and Olive and I forget the split but he says he is moving to 100 percent Olives once the grapes are past there prime growing age. We ask about labour and he says he has 20 full time workers who live on the premises in housing provided by him. When picking is in full swing he picks up 20 to 40 workers each day in the nearby town. We ask about the pay and he say a new worker gets R6.50 ( 1.00 cdn ) per hour and the ones who come every year get up to R8.50 ( 1.50 Cdn ) per hour. Now you know why the workes don't have a vehicle.
The farmer spent about 1 1/2 hours answering our question and providing us with the info. He also said he spent 6 months during one winter in Nippawon , Sk and I said and you servived. He said some friend took him Ice Fishing which he thought was quite novel since they do not have ice here. I said, what hell took you to Sask and he said his EX-wife who is a doctor was covering for a cdn doctor.
After leaving the Olive farm, and since it was around 1 PM we headed for the Beach ( Indian Ocean ) and stayed there for 3 or 4 hours. The water was beautiful and the sun was " Tan " perfect.
So: you ask, what are we doing Christmas Eve. Well, we bar-b-Q steak for supper and we will sit around the fire, like 50 plus other campers waiting on Santa. Merry christmas to all