Grahamstown, South Africa 9 - 10 March 08

Grahamstown, South Africa

9 - 10 March 08

Thorn Kloof and Kasouga game farms

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9 March 2008. Stellenbosch to Grahamstown (IFR 2:52). A pleasant flight with a slight tailwind at FL110. We filed IFR as we were passing through both George and Port Elizabeth class C airspace. From the airfield in Grahamstown, we drove about 65 kilometres north of Grahamstown to the Bowker Safari game farm called ‘Thorn Kloof’ (3000 ha), where we were welcomed by Angela's 4th cousins Denham and Meyrick Bowker and their wives Louise and Alexis. Denham’s and Meyrick’s parents Frank and Jenny Bowker were unfortunately absent. The Bowkers have occupied this family farm since 1842 or 6 generations. Denham showed us the family cemetery, where many Bowker generations are buried, including Angela's 3x great-grandparents, William Monkhouse and Hester (‘Hessie’) Bowker. Denham and Louise drove us to the nearby ‘Water Fall’ farm (2800 ha), which is also operated as a combined angora goat and game farm by Frank’s brother Robert Bowker, his wife Pamela and their son and daughter-in-law Kevin and Natalie Bowker. We were given a tour of the shearing shed where they shear the goats for their mohair wool and we were invited to tea with the whole family. Robert showed us some large stones engraved by the late Berners Beddoe ('Benjie') Bowker with the birth and death dates of his family. Robert told us that one of Benjie’s brothers had been quite angry with him for engraving his stone with ‘196 ’ leaving a gap for the last digit, while he was still alive, under the assumption that he would die in the 1960s! In the evening Denham, Louise, Meyrick and Alexis invited us for dinner at Meyrick’s house. They showed us numerous old photo albums, and later in the evening Flemming managed to scan a few very old photos of some of Angela’s ancestors. 10 March 2008. Denham gave us a tour of Thorn Kloof farm. In one of the rooms, we saw a photo taken in 1906 of Frank William Monkhouse Bowker with his younger brother Meyrick and their hunter friend S.M. Hart. They had just returned from a hunting safari in Kenya. Underneath the photo, Frank had written about himself: As a beauty I’m not a star. There are others more handsome by far. But my face I don’t mind it For I am behind it. The people in front get the jar.	Leaving Stellenbosch for Grahamstown, the first leg of our return trip to Geneva	Nathalie, Louise and Denham watch the youngest generation's antics
	Thorn Kloof farm has belonged to the Bowkers for six generations.	Denham with his 2-year-old daughter Courtenay
	Kevin, Denham, Robert and Angela look down on the stones carved by the late Berners Beddoe 'Benjie' Bowker with birth and death dates of his family.	In the sheep shearing shed, these wool presses made of kaori wood were imported from New Zealand
	Bowkers in the garden at Water Fall Farm	The Bowkers' graveyard at Thorn Kloof
	The gravestone of Angela's great-great-great grandfather William Monkhouse Bowker	Frank William Monkhouse Bowker stands behind his younger brother Meyrick (right) and their hunter friend S.M. Hart. Picture taken at Thorn Kloof upon their return from a Kenya hunting expedition in 1906.

JAlbum 6.5 Copyright: Angela & Flemming PEDERSEN