Karsten South Africa ? Upington, South Africa

? Upington, Northern Cape, South Africa
Monday, January 14, 2013

Today was my first proper day on the Karsten farm in the Northern Cape of South Africa. It felt so good to arrive after six months of waiting and 15 hours on planes. I landed in Cape Town on saturday morning to a beautiful day and 25 degrees, 24 degrees hotter than when I was last outside back in London! Unfortunately I don't seem to be able to sleep on planes so saturday afternoon was a blur of tiredness having been up for about 30 hours.
I stayed in a hotel in the centre of Cape Town and had a quick wander around the neighbouring streets. I found a market on the next road in a square that was bustling with cafes, bars and groups of children dancing. Then on the way back to my hotel I passed a group of people jamming on drums outside, the atmosphere was fantastic.
On Sunday morning I returned to the airport to fly to Upington, which is about 40km from the farm that I am based on. The flight was only an hour so the plane stayed fairly low and the view was amazing. Upington is on the edge of the Kalahari so most of the neighbouring land is desert but thanks to a large river running east to west through the northern cape there is a strip of fertile land which is great for growing grapes. Karsten have a number of farms along the river.
I was picked up by Joa who is the group training manager and we went to his house for lunch with his family. The thermostat in the car reached 39.5 as we were driving along, it is definitely going to take me a little while to get used to!! After lunch Joa dropped me at the guesthouse on the farm which is where I will be staying for the next 3 weeks. There are a few other people staying here and their families were up for the weekend so they invited me to join their braai (barbecue). A great start to my stay! One of the men had two daughters who were about 4 and 5 who followed me around all evening so I was kept busy!
This morning was very relaxing as the finishing touches were being made to my itinerary but after lunch I headed over to one of the packhouses. The farm is split up into sections and each has its own manager, packhouse etc. I was given a tour by one of the managers who talked me through the processes. It is fairly simple, but on a very large scale. The workers stand on either side of a long bench, one side is for the cutters who trim off any damaged or bad grapes and then on the other side is the checkers who grade the grapes in terms of size and double check the quality!
Thankfully the guest house has a TV lounge with air con as the temperature outside can get a bit overwhelming! I've only actually dared sit in the sun for 20 minutes so far as you can literally feel it burning into your skin!!

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