We set the alarm for seven, and when it went off, it was still very dark, but we finally got to breakfast by 8 and I had smoked fish and a bran muffin right out of the oven with goat cheese and some little red spicy peppers. A good combo.
We left Pontac Manor and Paarl after our great stay, and set off north. We're going to a small farm stay place in one of the famous flower areas that was highly recommended by Andrew and Alistair when we first wrote them last April. Almost all of the rooms were already booked for August and September, but we managed to get these three nights and designed our whole trip around them.
We drove north through rolling fields of brilliant green grass filled with cattle and sheep, turning onto the main Cape Town-Namibia highway, the N7. The highways in South
Africa are amazingly smooth and well-designed with wide shoulders - the US could take an example from this country.
We drove over a mountain pass through the town of Citrusdal, and turned off on a gravel road for the slower, but prettier, route north and started seeing groves of orange trees, with dark green, almost black, foliage with brilliant oranges on them. Patches of wild flowers showed up and we stopped to identify a few. The road got narrower and the side steeper as we drove along the Clanwilliam reservoir contending with holidayers hauling their boats home.
After our first refueling in Clanwilliam we drove over the Pakhuis Pass and reached real wilderness: endless expanses of fynbos (similar to chaparral)-covered hills, high mesas and rocky outcroppings. We passed the entrance to Bushman's Kloof, a cave art resort, that we stayed in in 2002 with Hilary and Mary M.
An area of brilliant orange flowers appeared and we stopped and wandered through them for a while. We were feeling pretty good, driving along when we drove through a cattle guard and the car hit the concrete side and we blew a tire! We handily changed it but now we have to get it fixed first thing tomorrow somehow!
About 5PM using two sets of directions, we finally passed the first building of our farm compound and a few miles further tuned into the drive, passed through two more very narrow cattle guards, and pulled into the DeLande area of Papkuilsfontein ( I think "fontein" means
spring in Afrikaans). The area is an old farm dating back to the late 1700s and has a variety of cottages scattered about. There is one modern building where we get our meals, and in which we could have stayed, but we chose one of the original buildings, Matjiesfontein, a spacious two-room cottage with a thatched roof, sandstone floors, and our private terrace and pond! It is really lovely and unique, but very chilly with a few wall heaters and under carpet heating which is great if you're standing on it in bare feet. If I had packed better I would be more comfortable, but I couldn't imagine being cold during the heat wave we've been having in Santa Barbara!
We were told to be at the main house at 6:30 for drinks and arrived and met two English couples and a family of Afrikaaners. We got a bottle of very good red wine and enjoyed an excellent meal of cream of broccoli soup, salad and roast lamb with bobotie, a Cape Malay dish of minced meat served with chutney, and a lovely tart for dessert.
Back to our house for bed and to see about the car tomorrow which in addition to the flat tire, seems to be out of alignment.
Back to our house for bed and to see about the car tomorrow which in addition to the flat tire, seems to be out of alignment.
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