rock star
Prieska is not a place many people pay much attention to – if at all. Niekerkshoop, lying north of this Northern Cape town, is only accessible via less-travelled gravel roads. But between these two places, along the meandering Orange River, lies the farm Lowerland.
This is how the farm’s website describes its location: Where the Bo-Karoo crashes into Kalahari dunes / and Bonsmaras wake to the fish eagles’ tunes / the vines are nurtured by hand / on our beloved farm, Lowerland.
This is no ordinary farm. Interesting things happen here, like the entire enterprise moving towards being organic. And the man with the compass in his hand and the plans in his head is a former rocker.
Bertie Coetzee was the lead singer of the Afrikaans rock band Zinkplaat from 2003 to 2013. After their last album, Retrospekulasie, and their final countrywide tour, Bertie came here to farm full time, with his wife Alette by his side.
“We played our final show on 9 May 2013,” says Bertie. “On 10 May we had a last braai together on the farm outside Stellenbosch where Alette and I had been living with a few friends. On 11 May I was back on Lowerland. It wasn’t a difficult decision. I remember saying at one stage I want to farm when I turn
