March 2015 Day Trip

So - off we go on yet another day trip where the weather looked like it wouldn't play along. Driving towards Malmesbury, the heavy clouds and threatening rain really looked like they would dominate the day. But, everything had been planned and lunch had been booked, so we decided to just make the best of what was on offer.

Into the beautiful little town of Malmesbury and we came across this home on the right-hand side of the road with the most amazing and imposing tree! What a grand old lady!

Through Malmesbury and on the way to the Riebeecks (Kasteel and West). Still quite cloudy but with the sun starting to make more of a presence. No rain as yet and things looking up.

We decided this time to give Riebeeck Kasteel a miss and went through to see if there were any noticeable changes in Riebeeck West since our last visit some years ago. We came across this delightful little cottage and just loved the name! We didn't stop to go in, but found out later that they are a bead shop. 

Shortly after turning around to head off toward Hermon, we came across this interesting complex (I unfortunately didn't get the name) who have really made their presence known in the town. These magnificent red cannas all along the road really make a statement, and the solar geysers on all of their buildings do as well.

We thoroughly enjoyed the little detour and were then off to Tulbagh, where we planned to have coffee. For the first time for quite a while, my trusted Garmin gave us the run-around. We got to Hermon ok, but then Gertie sent us off in completely the wrong direction. Happily, we had printed out the map of the route, and my trusty navigator sitting beside me was able to get us back into the game.

And then, quite out of the blue, we came across this magnificent wind farm. Again - great to see the folk making use of the elements to produce and conserve electricity. This turns out to be the Gouda wind farm, rated at producing 138mw when the wind plays its part.




And so - finally into the delightful little town of Tulbagh. For a tiny town, there were certainly enough police vehicles around! We saw two when we arrived, and some more while we were there. Having a superb coffee at the friendly Kuierbossie restaurant, we witnessed the police arresting someone who had just robbed a local store. All this at no extra charge! After coffee, we then went looking for a fridge magnet for Jacqui, but alas, none was available. So it was off on the last part of the trip. We had planned to spend a few minutes in Wolseley, but the town really didn't look that interesting, so we decided to rather just head off for our booked lunch in Agter Paarl.

During a day trip some time ago, we drove over the Bain's Kloof Pass on the way through to Wellington. At the time, I saw a house at the start of the pass. It made an impression then, and I've always regretted not taking a photo of it. As we were in the area, Jacqui humoured me this trip and we made a small detour to finally take the photo. Such a typical South African image - obviously not much money around, but the priorities were there with a satellite dish to make sure they never miss a Stormers' match!

After the small detour, we were back onto the road towards Worcester, and came across this stunning-looking little farm stall. The pink feather dusters caught the eye and we had to stop for a photo and a look-around. Sadly, there was nothing inside that was as intriguing as the outside, but it was interesting nonetheless.

By not stopping in Wolseley, we had some extra time, so once we were on the Du Toit's Kloof Road, we decided that, rather than drive through the tunnel, we would use the extra time to go around the pass. It's been some time since we have done that, and were very pleasantly surprised by the quality of the road. The views, as expected, were as spectacular as ever. 

The restaurant of choice for the day was Mountainside, on the Ruitersvlei wine estate. We were first introduced to this estate many, many years ago, and this was a welcome return. Our timing was spot on, arriving 2 minutes before our booked time of one o'clock!

We were very impressed with the friendliness and helpfulness of the staff at the restaurant. They did their best to make us feel at home, and while the food was good, it wasn't exceptional. But the overall experience was enough for us to go back and try them again.

From there it was straight home. A round trip of just short of 300 kilometers.