Despite the serious number of beds in our chalet, Jessie decided that she HAD to join me in the huge King sized bed in the main suite..It was fine as it was so vast,and we both woke when the light poured in through our window and couldn’t wait to see where we were.

What a treat.

The view from our house across the lagoon

 

 

The Lodge behind the central Milk wood tree

WE had to be back at the Lodge for 8.30 as our whale watching excursion began at 9.00 ,so we followed the Lodge mini bus in “The Shiny One” [re named Tuareg..explanations later, as the car was most definitely not “shiny” at this point]

I’m just going to post a load of pictures now, the whale watching expedition was one of the most amazing experiences that I have ever had. Jessie and I just smiled and smiled for the entire 2 hour trip.

After getting back to dry land we did a pit stop in the local [and incredibly well stocked supermarket] as we had planned on making Thai green curry that night. On our way through Stanford we stopped and pottered through the quaint shops,and I found and purchased a pair of lovely brass ashtrays for a ridiculously small amount of money. They seemed very topical and I was amused to see “MADE IN SCOTLAND” impressed upon the reverse. David are they art noveaux?

There were some very lovely antique and junk shops and we decided that I really ought to bring a lorry next time I come down.

Back to Mosaic farm, and we were called upon by the Lodge guests to see if we wanted to join them for a sun downer on the beach...Never ones to miss such an offer, we abandoned our shopping and jumped in the safari vehicle. “0 minutes of driving through the dunes covered in Fynbos and we stopped as there was a Carycle standing on the sand track. I had never heard let alone seen one of these creatures before, sandy in colour and the size of a medium sized dog they are stunning members of the cat family. Almost hunted to extinction because of their habit of eating lambs, serious meat eaters!

Then we saw a rare Black Harrier.

Some photos of the amazing beach at Walkers bay

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Jessie and I returned at 7.00 and rustled up a fantastic Thai green curry and went to bed exhausted and very happy indeed..

Franschoek, Stanford and Mosaic Farm

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.

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!

Arrivals and departures

Apologies for the dearth of posts recently. With Jessie’s arrival on the 5th October in Upington and Little’s failure to return to school on 4th on account of tonsillitis, it has been a crazy but very enjoyable few weeks.


Catch up time for the blog.


Jessie spent her first week at the farm managing to catch some rays [the pool although sparkling, is still a touch cold to plunge into], The most exciting things that we did during her stay at the farm, were her being driven around the farm in the bakkie by Little, who has now decided that he can drive the real thing. Off Road of course.Bongo was very irritated not to have been allowed to join them in a quick sortie around the drying slabs.

A white water rafting trip on the Orange river..no photos as I didn’t want my camera drowned. As it was, the river was at its lowest and slowest point for months and Jessie regaled me with stories of the river otters and the amazing bird life.

WE all went on Gerrits safari car and did a Game drive around his 2000 hectares. It was great fun. I had forgotten that he had a pair of stunning Namibian giraffes. And we saw a beautiful pied kingfisher by the lake as well as a pile of freshly laid ostrich eggs, which Gerrit raided and gave us one. Assuring us, that in the absence of a male ostrich it did not have a baby inside.

Pied Kingfisher searching for breakfast

Not an uncommon sight on the roads here





Big disappeared on his month long Europe and USA tour, followed by Little flying back to school. Jessie and I got set for our road trip down to the whale coast. Such a civilised drive, we set out early on Tues 12th October with a large flask of freshly brewed coffee and delicious banana bread baked by Jessie the day before. This nourished us for the 550 kilometre drive to Clanwilliam.

We stayed overnight at a pretty little guest house and in the morning , the lovely owner Wilma, filled our flask up with more fresh coffee and we took the morning to cover the next 200 kilometres to Franschoek, turning off the main road and taking the scenic route.

We lunched in one of SA most famous restaurants RUBENS and went to the national exhibition of ceramics being held at Grand Provence winery. We became terribly distracted by Franschoek and left rather later than we had intended at 4.00