Back home

We arrived back at Moyhill at lunch time today - 47 days after we left. 6 flights, 2 hire cars, 22 different beds, 34 restaurants and innumerable wine tastings.
Our flight from Johannesburg on SAA was probably the best long-haul flight for some years, with a cheerful and efficient cabin crew who seemed to care about their passengers.
After such a great trip, it was also good to be home which was just as we left it - although decidedly drier. There has been no rain here for about 10 days - the longest dry period in Clare since June 2012 - and the forecast is for another week or so.
Guess I will have to get started on the vegetable beds this week - back to reality with a bang!

The journey home

Started yesterday morning from Robertson – 2 hours on the road to Cape Town Airport - Amazing drive through the Huguenot Pass and Tunnel

Our flight to Johannesburg was fairly ordinary – although being served a meal and a drink on a short haul flight was a bit of a novelty. Then we took the new GauTrain from the Airport to Sandton  - only 12 minutes, avoided the traffic and didn't have to deal with the airport taxi drivers again - definitely the best route to and from the airport.

Big thanks again to Sue who collected us and gave us a bed for the night and fed us dinner in return for accompanying her to a 'girly' movie. Seemed like a fair deal to me

Spent Monday relaxing in the garden while she was busy with her studies - persuaded her to take a break at lunchtime - and then she dropped us back at Sandton for the return journey to the airport this evening.

One of the birds we have seen frequently have been European Barn swallows and over the last couple of weeks they have started to gather together on the telephone lines getting ready for their journey home. Hopefully some of them are Irish swallows and we can look forward to seeing them at Moyhill in the near future.

The best wine and food?

Our visit to the Arendsig Winery yesterday was the perfect end to our holiday in South Africa – a beautiful location, warm sunny weather, excellent wines and food and of course the friendly welcome and attention throughout the visit.

We enjoyed the walk through the vines with Lourens van der Westhuizen – the owner and winemaker - and his passionate descriptions of the land and the grapes and the wines. 

We were also treated to canapes to match the wines we were tasting and a light lunch which was catered by Axel from Mo and Rose restaurant. 

It was great to end our trip in such warm, friendly and knowledgeable company and to know that we can come back again on our next trip!

Robertson

We are staying in a very pleasant guest house in Robertson, which is the heart of the Breede River wineries.

I imagined that the town was named in honour of some kilt-wearing ancestor of Neil's who wandered through the valley swinging a claymore as part of a proud Scottish regiment engaged in expanding the great British Empire. 

The reality is that he was Dr William Robertson and a Scottish minister of the Dutch Reformed Church.

Guess I have read too many Sharpe novels.

More wine tasting

We decided to spend our last weekend back in the winelands – this time the Breede River valley – and join in the 'Hands-on Harvest' celebrations which mark the start of this year's grape picking.

Started yesterday with a tasting of sparkling wines at Graham Beck – our current SA favourite – followed by an excellent lunch at Rooiberg.

Last night there was a 5 course tasting dinner at Jan Harmsgat – the food was quite good, the wines mediocre, the service slow and disorganised and our host spent more time talking about himself and his recent divorce than he did about the wines and then disappeared after introductions and was never seen again (he may feature in a later blog item!)

This morning we are off to Arendsig for a 'canape' tour of the winery followed by a light lunch and accompanying wines alongside the river.

Decided this would suit us better than actually picking grapes and getting into the vat for bit of stomping!

The Birds

Where is Hitchcock when you need him?

After our day at De Hoop, the list of bird species for our trip has now passed 100 – 105 actually - and still counting with 3 days to go. Linda's guide to the Birds of Southern Africa is looking decidely well-thumbed.  

Lady Anglers

After the Marlin fishermen and the Christian bikers, we now have the SA National Ladies Shore Angling championships. There must be 50 or 60 of them fishing on the beach – complete with support teams and 4x4 trucks racing along the sand..