Today is the last day of Xtractor’s thrilling South African adventure, and it comes to a close in perfect style – we arrive at the Italian Embassy in Pretoria accompanied by an impressive motorcade of South African police officers on motorbikes that make us...
Today we have yet another busy day. It starts out with a quick stop at the Italian Sporting Club, one of the meeting places for Johannesburg’s dynamic Italian community. There’s only time enough to honour the memory of Antonio Bianco, a Para trooper from the...
We have reached Johannesburg, the country’s and the continent’s economic hub. Known to South Africans as Jo’burg, its Zulu name is more telling – eGoli, the place of gold, hinting at both its gold rush origins and its present-day affluence. Many come...
Xtractor’s final days are chock-full of wonderful satisfactions. The day starts yet again at dawn, quite a chilly, damp early morning at that, but the fog luckily dissolves by the time we reach our destination, the black suburb of Sebokeng, at the outskirts of...
The sun is back this morning and it’s shining on the South African farming community’s most important event by far – Nampo, a huge yearly fair showcasing anything to do with farming and country living. A rainy day would have spelled disaster, as...
It’s mid May and South Africa is heading towards winter - we know. At the Kruger it didn't feel like that, but here in Balfour we are suddenly forced to face the grim reality. We are back onto the central highlands, where altitude weighs...
We reach the outskirts of Pretoria, one of South Africa's three capital cities together with Cape Town and Bloemfontein. We're just passing by today, on our way to Balfour, but we'll be back in a week's time for Xtractor’s official closing ceremony. Right now,...
In Toitskral, Limpopo province, thanks to Amref we get a glimpse at South Africa’s farming from the perspective of the mainly black labourers who toil on land belonging to others. It’s a poor community. Many are illegal migrants from other African countries who work...
At the usual meeting with the local farming community kindly arranged by the McCormick dealer, last night, we received an invitation to a truly unmissable activity which amply deserves an extra early start. It's still dark when we leave a fast asleep town. Then...
We leave the Kruger, climbing the mountains one last time to go back to the central plateau, bound to Johannesburg and the finishing line of our great journey by tractor. Back to cooler, gentler climates tempered by altitude, we reach Tzaneen....