I have had such a wonderful week and weekend. Last week we had my beautiful baby girl Lily in Cape Town from Sunday night until Friday morning as she was down here taking a wood-working course. Lily stayed with us until Friday and then she went to spend her last night in town with my other daughter Caitlin for a sister’s girls night as Norman and I were invited to spend the long weekend with our friends in their cottage in Struisbaai.
On Friday I had training on the Jira project management tool that we will be using for our new project and begged to skip out about 2pm. We finally got packed and the car loaded and were on the road about 3:30pm. It is a little over a 3 hour drive from our house but there were interesting vistas and not bad weather so it wasn’t unpleasant especially as we were both excited to get away.
This charming little cottage in the pic below was ours for the weekend and it came with a big Queen sized bed and our own bathroom. The covered area where I was shooting the pic from had a lovely braai and a large table with benches for us to chill out.
There were 2 big comfy day beds in the corner where the dogs snuggled up in their blankies in the evenings. My friends have 3 rescue dogs, on the right is the lovely long legged Georgia and next to her is the nervous and jittery Sammy. The perky & bouncy Jack Russell Buddy was probably off chasing lizards when I took this.
I loved Buddy so much. The last night we were there Buddy hopped into our bed at the end of the evening when we went to our cottage. I could have shoved him in my suitcase he was so lovely. We left them all a nice treat when we went out and when we got back Buddy had buried all 3 of the treats, cheeky little sod.
Every evening the pups were given a home made liver treat and they went mad for it.
The first evening we were there the lads cooked a gorgeous beef fillet with a lovely sauce and served it on a bed of bowtie pasta with broccolini. We sat outside drinking wine and chatting after dinner but did not stay up late as we knew we were going to be up early the next morning.
The main focus of our visit was the Agulhus Wine Triangle Festival which started early on Saturday morning at Lomond Wine Farm. We got up early and had breakfast and then headed out about 9ish. If it was just Norm and I on our own we would have had gone much later in the day but it was good that we went early as we grabbed a table and avoided a lot of the crowds. I never imagined myself drinking champagne before 10am nor all the other gorgeous wines we consumed but it went down easily.
They had a variety of different wine makers: Black Oystercatcher Wines, The Giant Periwinkle, Ghost Corner, Land’s End and Strandveld Vineyards from the Elim wine ward, Sijnn Wines from Malgas, Bruce Jack Wines from Napier and of course the hosts Lomond Wines. We buy a lot of Bruce Jack online as it is Norm’s usual tipple at home and he had just bought 4 cases before we went away.
There were a few different options for food such as ribs, pulled pork sandwiches or a locally sourced cheese and charcuterie platter nibbles snack box.
We grabbed a table inside the large marquee with a view of the Lomond Dam with unparalleled views of the farm, vineyards and valley.
We decided which of the wines we wanted to purchase and the lads spent a fortune on scoring some choice bottles. Norman and I ended up buying a few bottles of Black Oyster Catcher as it is one of my faves.
My friend Dolores lives in Gansbaai and when she heard I would be there she wanted to meet up to chat and she arrived around 12pm and it was great to see her, she took the pic above if you are wondering why it is better than the others.
It was such a brilliant day.
Norm and I both had a wonderful time.
There was live music from Newton & Co who were fabulous. What is better than nibbles, endless sips of gorgeous wine and live music??
I give the Festival 5 Kitten Stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐.
L’Agulhas is known for being the place where two oceans meet at the foot of the continent of Africa and the country of South Africa.
As per Wikipedia: “L’Agulhas is the most southern coastal village and holiday resort in Africa, located within the Cape Agulhas Local Municipality at the southernmost tip of the African mainland. It is situated next to the town of Struisbaai and about 30 kilometres (20 mi) south of the regional centre of Bredasdorp. The name “Agulhas”, Portuguese for “needles”, is said to have been given to the cape because the compass-needle was seen to point due north, that is, with no magnetic deviation.“
Agulhas also has the second-oldest working lighthouse in South Africa which “was designed by Colonel Charles Cornwell Michell in homage to the Pharos of Alexandria. The lighthouse was lit on March 1, 1849. Some 150 ships lay scattered along the South African coast, many due to the treacherous Agulhas Reef. It is in memory of the countless lives lost and to warn passing ships of the pending danger that the Cape Agulhas Lighthouse was designed and built. The lighthouse was declared a National Monument in 1973.” It is also the second-largest lighthouse in South Africa.
There is a new Map of Africa monument with a circumference of 30 metres and includes the shape of the continent and the design elements of a compass. The sculpture consists of a low walked circle representing a compass. Each point of the circumference is marked with a metal square with either ‘E’, ‘W’, ‘S’ or ‘N’ cut into it to mark the directions of the compass. It is so large we could not get a proper photo of it from the ground. It really is beautiful.
The monument is coloured to align to each area and a number of well known African landmarks feature on the monument and it is a topographical representation of the whole continent. You can see Table Mountain which is near where we live and the very southern point where we were standing. It is really such a cool concept. Here is an online image which shows an aerial view of the whole area.
Norm and I went for a drive on Sunday morning and stopped for a coffee and they had such gorgeous looking pastries that Norm decided to also get us a chocolate croissant. We sat outside at a picnic table and munched then headed off to explore. We parked up and walked along to the monuments. It was a lovely day and we saw Angulate Tortoises, lizards and some beautiful fynbos.
Afterwards we headed home and our friends suggested we go for a short stroll to see the sea but then once we were out of the cottage they decided to take us for a walk around the village in the mid-morning sun. My fat arse almost had a heat stroke but it was such a beautiful estate and the beach was gorgeous. There was a huge marsh with long legged birds and a gorgeous long beach stretching all the way around the bay.
After our walk we freshened up and went for lunch at Earth, a new venue just on the edge of Struisbaai. There is a large restaurant with lovely shops and a bit of a petting zoo and play area and we had booked a table outside on the patio.
Norm had a regular cheeseburger and I ordered the Chicken Burger which was described as ‘homemade chicken patty served with hand cut sweet potato chips, mozzarella, bacon-pineapple chutney & aioli or cheese sauce’ for R115. I had mine with the cheese sauce.
It was a lovely venue with very cool shops but there were a lot of loud boisterous children and we waited over an hour for our food to arrive. We both felt like our meals were very average and give our meals 3 Kitten Stars. ⭐⭐⭐ If there were not so many unruly screaming children it may have scored higher but the kids made the whole vibe a wee bit stressful.
We drove home yesterday morning, leaving around 9:30am. The weather was abysmal with grey skies and about an hour into the journey it started to rain and half way there the skies opened and it poured so hard we could barely see the road. We decided we did not care if we went slow and just let the other cars overtake us if they were in a rush. We stopped half way at a well known farmstall for a coffee and we each got a Houw Hoek chicken pie for dinner last night.
The dogs were beside themselves with excitement that we came home.
And finally to round off my fabulous week, I finally know which of the 10 puppies is going to be mine. Meet ‘Finn Snoweyriver Spirit Eagle’ our beautiful Swiss Shepherd who will be arriving in Cape Town on Saturday. Isn’t he a beauty? I cannot wait to meet him.
Until next time, stay safe, wash your hands, wear a mask and get vaccinated. Kisses from the Kitten xoxoxoxoxox
Kitten in the City 