WIND TURBINE BLADE

Umoya Energy Wind Farm, situated on either side of the R45 on the West Coast of South Africa, supplies the country with 176 600 MWh of much-needed green energy per year.

For a long period of time as we drove in and out from Cape Town to our farm in Hopefield we saw a single blade ( You couldn’t miss it) laying alongside the road at the entry to the wind farm.

We bought it from Umoya Enegery Windfarm and had it placed on our farm for visitors to look at when they come to the Plaasmol Padstal and to see up close how big it is. This gives you a perspective of how big one complete wind turbine is.

Blade Length: 49m | Blade Weight:7 TON | Foundation: 380 – 395 cubic meters concrete |Top Speed: 120 km/p

LARGEST PIZZA OVEN IN THE WORLD 

GUINNESS WORLD RECORD ATTEMPT IN HOPEFIELD

Amidst the lockdown and the global threat of Coronavirus, a benefactor from Bellville and a business in Hopefield has launched a positive initiative to help those less privileged and to provide the citizens of South Africa with the opportunity to be part of something positive while making a difference to those less fortunate.

Bellville resident and owner of a farm in Hopefield, Burger van den Berg, and the owners of the Plaasmol farm stall, a well-known tourist attraction, situated on the farm, has joined forces with Italoven to build the largest pizza oven in the world. The oven inside diameter will span 3.4 m.

The initiative will be a Guinness World Record Attempt with the sole aim of doing good.  The public and business sector can become part of the record by sponsoring a brick of which the proceeds will be donated to charity. In return, their names will be engraved on a metal plaque which will be erected next to the oven solidifying their participation in the attempt.

Trolley

POPLAP SE STOEL

Poplap se stoel bosts over the west coast.

To concur a ladder of 6.16 meter is not for the faint of heart, but for those brave enough for the big climb, a beautiful view over Hopefield awaits. A place high on top where you can find peace for a few minutes.

In October 2015 the launch of ‘Poplap Se Stoel’ with a height of 11.5 meters was accompanied by Saldanha Bay municipality’s mayor – Francois Schippers.

The name Poplap is the name that the owner of the farm – Burger Van den berg calls his wife, Elsabe van den berg. He had the chair put up for her birthday in August.

To get this chair standing was quite a mission. To assemble the chair was not the hardest part because the parts simply slide into each other. The problem, however, was that at one point the chair had fallen over while putting it up. Certain parts were put up too early and tractors had to help get it up straight again.

 

At least now ‘Poplap Se Stoel’ is standing in all its glory. It weighs a whopping 2.7 tons and the public ( older than 16 years old ) is more than welcome to take the climb to the top.

‘Poplap Se Stoel’ is now the highest chair in Africa. It is higher and bigger than the Chair at Rooiberg Wine farm in Robertson.

Don’t however try climbing the chair after some Dutch courage. Maybe just get a milkshake at the coffee shop afterward.

There is nothing more beautiful than the face of the West Coast fields on a hot summer afternoon outside of Hopefield.

Back: 11.5m | Seat: 6.16m  | Feet: 5.3m x 5.72m

AIRPLAIN – DAKOTA MARK 3

Well, it has a fascinating history.
The aircraft was built in December 1943 as a Douglas C-47A-DK in Oklahoma City for the United States Air Force. Its serial number was 12205. It later became the property of the United States Army Air Force and was issued with a military serial number 42-92408. This serial number was left unused and the aircraft was transferred to the Royal Air Force under the lend-lease program as FZ647 “H” (The “H” was the radio call sign). On being impressed into the Royal Air Force, the aircraft was known as a “Dakota Mark 3”. On June 5 & 6, 1944 she is confirmed as having been a glider tug with no 512 squadron RAF and was used in “Operation ‘Coup de Main’ / Operation Tonga”, the first stage of the Airborne assault in the Normandy landings in June 1944.

In between the main airborne operations of D-Day, Arnhem and the Rhine crossing, it carried out casualty evacuation and general transport duties.
Following the end of hostilities, it flew missions to the Middle East before moving to Egypt in early October 1945 and later Italy, from where it flew various routes including Greece, Egypt, Romania, Austria, and the UK. In February 1946, it returned to the UK, was demilitarized, and thoroughly overhauled at Scottish Aviation before being sold to THY ( Türk Hava Yolları)Turkish Airlines as TC-EKE on the 25 July 1946.

It served THY faithfully for 12 years until it was sold in 1958 to Ethiopian Airlines and served them for 33 years! During 1969 she was leased to the Ethiopia-United States Mapping Mission to be used in the aerial photography of Ethiopia and Djibouti. As one of the longest-serving of Ethiopian Airlines DC-3’s (DC-3 is the civilian version of the military nomenclature, C-47) it was eventually sold in April 1991 to Swaziland-based, Mozambican Airline, Scan Transportes Aéreos as C9-STF.

It carried food throughout Mozambique during the devastating civil war. In mid-1996 she was removed from service, stripped of useful components (to be re-used on other Dakotas) at Rand Airport, Germiston, and later transported by road to Cape Town for static display at Ratanga Junction.
Quite a story, quite a history.

Train

The coaches were used by the railways as sleeper coaches. These were 3rd class coaches and 6 people could sleep in a coach.

In 2020 I was contacted by a scrapyard owner who could not let this part of history be destroyed and be gone forever.
The train coaches were cut into halves to be able to transport them with no overloading transport cost.
Kleine Hopefield bought the train and it was delivered in 2021.

The idea is to turn it into accommodation when the time is right.