We arrived at the lovely little town of Franschoek at around 12.30, in time for lunch and to see that National exhibition of Ceramics that was being held at Cape Provence vineyards. Finn had found this fantastic place during his visit here, and it has some of the most contemporary displays of art it its gallery that I have seen here in ZA.
Jessie and I were not disappointed.
We pottered in the fantastic shops where Jessie bought me a fantastic canvas shopping bag, and we both indulged ourselves with a few new holiday clothes! We visited another couple of galleries and then had to tear ourselves away as it was getting very late and we still had a road trip to get to Stanford and Mosaic Farm, on the southern coast.
We exited Franschoek by travelling through a steep and hair pinned series of mountain roads..NOT for the faint hearted! I couldn’t look, and winced as Jessie “Ooohed and Ahhed” and shrieked “Look at that”...I didn’t!
Over a huge bridge and suddenly the sat nav directed us off road. After about 10 kilometres on a mud road, I started to feel a little nervous, the sat nav told me that we were heading for Stanford, but we appeared to be doing it “Off Road”. To our great delight we came to a tar road. But after only 5 minutes we were once again directed off road. [Feeling slightly uncomfortable] but the rolling farm land either side of us was majestic. [Jessie’s photos!], once again we joined up with a tar road, and yet again we were directed off, this carried on another 5 times.
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| Blue Cranes [very protected here in ZA] |
As the light was starting to fail, the people at Mosaic Farm called to see if we were still coming. “Yes” we shrieked,
“Where are you?” they asked.
“We don’t know as we are off road, but the sat nav sais we have 30 miles to go.”
“Okay .” They replied, “we shall book you into the lodge for supper as you will probably be quite hungry when you arrive.”
Eventually we reached Stanford a beautifully old fashioned village on the south coast..sighs of relief , until the sat nav directed us off road once again, for 20 kilometres we travelled through fynbos on dirt roads initially but then on white sand tracks. WE arrived in twig light and really couldn’t even guess at the terrain around us.
WE were shown to a fantastic self catering chalet, like no other I have ever stayed in before, with a huge open lounge and wood burning stove, a great kitchen, two double bedrooms downstairs and 3 bathrooms and a mezzanine floor with huge windows that had 6 single beds.
The girl who checked us in, said that we should be at the Lodge for 7.00 and that it was a 10 kilometre drive through the sandy tracks..”Just follow the signs”
I was aware that we were travelling on a sandy track and there were lights in the distance after about 8 kilometres, we simply headed for them. Eventually we pulled up on a patch of gravel when the sand track petered out.
There was a huge copse of dark trees, and raised pontoons with tiny lights glowing, encouraging us to walk under the trees that formed a canopy over the lighted decking. The two of us crept along the dark pathway, until we came to what was the centre of the copse. Here behind a huge milk wood tree was a thatched lodge. The boughs of other Milk wood trees had been used to for the structure of the lodge, and it were utterly fairytale like. Inside was a warm fire and a table laid for supper. Jessie and I could just make out 6 smaller thatched buildings, through the copse, these were individual suites for Lodge guests.
Fantastic supper and a bottle of very drinkable wine, soon relieved Jell and I [mostly me] of the tension of off-road travelling in a foreign country, and we managed the return trip to our S/C chalet remarkably quickly and with no difficulty!
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