(As Julius Caesar definitely didn't say)
On Friday we left Cape Town driving north through the Western Cape, which appears to be sparsely populated, hot away from the coast, and fairly scenic, especially up in the Cederberg Wilderness Area where ancient geology has left shrubbery dotted over carved mountains forming an orange and green frame to wide valleys.
On Friday we left Cape Town driving north through the Western Cape, which appears to be sparsely populated, hot away from the coast, and fairly scenic, especially up in the Cederberg Wilderness Area where ancient geology has left shrubbery dotted over carved mountains forming an orange and green frame to wide valleys.
It's not a proper travelogue photo unless you take it from a moving vehicle
Up here, it's all about the journey not the destination (except when your journey is interrupted for 10-20 minutes for roadworks that have brought a mile or more of road down to a single lane so that they can work on 100 metres of it at a time).
Our actual destination is Clanwilliam, which is a one horse town and even the horse leaves on Sundays (as we discovered when we tried to find lunch and dinner within 50km the day after the wedding). But the church for the wedding was really nice - simple whitewashed walls and yellow flowers - and the wedding went off very well. Unfortunately I was painfully aware that the positioning of the video camera trained on the happy couple meant that I would be in the background just to one side of them throughout the ceremony, and so despite a scorching hot day I had to make absolutely sure I didn't nod off during the sermon.
The happy couple - congrats guys!
Then we all piled into a bus to head to the bride's family's estate 10km outside town, a beautiful 1920s farmhouse set against a stunning mountain backdrop. A refreshing breeze and a couple of drinks sustained us through to dinner in a classy marquee, and I have to say it was a brilliant venue with many thoughful touches for the day (loved the table plan written on hearts hung from a tree) and we had a great evening.
Many thanks to Karen and Gav for inviting us and we wish them a very happy married life.
The gradual blurring of Lilly's picture is intended to represent her evening
60km west on the coast is Lambert's Bay, to which we all headed the night before the wedding for a famous braais (or barbecue, as popular here as you'd expect given the amount of sunshine). We were a bit bemused to find that it was held in what looked like the first shack an enterprising caveman ever pulled together, and caught unawares by very cold sea breezes. My fish-eating fellow diners gave it a very good report (even though our too-early arrival had caused us to discover that some of the fish was frozen), and the seafood carried on coming for some time while I waited over an hour for something that wasn't fish to finish cooking.
There are a few other small towns up here - we stopped for lunch at Citrusdal - but nothing to really hold your interest beyond the scenery.
For our last day or so we drove back down to Stellenbosch and Franschhoek, just outside Cape Town and the heart of wine country. It feels like a different country entirely - somewhere in southern Europe, perhaps, with picturesque 19th century buildings and fancy restaurants.
A quarter of Stellenbosch and the whole of Franzhhoek seem to be put on entirely for tourists to have a base while they drive around the many dozens of wineries that take up almost every inch of space here in between the mountains.
My turn to be designated driver so Lilly could enjoy the vino while I enjoyed the views - Guardian Peak had the best view of the half-dozen we visited (see photo below), but against some stiff competition and many beautiful estates.
You could pass a few relaxing days here quite easily.
Chocolates paired with wine at this one
Just a bit of mist in the background on our last day
Designated driver from the POV of designated drinker
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