This time I was more careful with the choice of accommodation and found a jewel called Good Hope Farm. It is a working farm with loads of different animals. They have ponies, donkeys, sheep, lambs, turkeys, pigs, chickens to name a few. They are also pet friendly by prior arrangement. Jessie just had an ear op, she could not only join us but they also babysat her while we went on a tractor ride on a nearby farm!
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| Cottage: Good Hope Farm |
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| Good Hope Farm |
We arrived after dark on Friday and I was surprised to see the gorgeous view when I woke up on Saturday. Our cottage overlooked a dam with an abundance of bird life.
We booked a tractor ride on the nearby Protea farm and I was almost sad to leave our lovely accommodation.
The trip to the tractor ride took us passed orchards full of blossoms. Boland at its best!
The tractor ride take you up the Langeberge overlooking Robertson. Dress up warm though, it is freezing!! You also see the whole of the Koo valley and Keisie. The mountain is covered in our national flower, Proteas.
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| Look at the heart! Protea |
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| Robertson |
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| Keisie |
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| Koo valley |
On top of the mountain you can enjoy a "soetetjie" (Muscadel) and dried fruit. There are also "a eat as many as you like" supply of apples and pears on the tractor. We were joined by two labradors who hiked up the long way but then took a lift down on the tractor.
Afterwards we enjoyed an amazing meal. There were homemade breads, jams and potjiekos. The best was the dessert and "moerkoffie" made over an open fire.
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| Moerkoffie |
The kids ran around enjoying the open space and collected pine cones.
We did a few picture taking stops on our way back.
On the Sunday we stopped at a few winefarms, the best stop was my favourite cheese shop just outside of Swellendam. They even sell Nastergal konfyt!
In South Africa Solanum nigrum is known as “nastergal” in Afrikaans, nightshade in English and Umsobo in Zulu. It is actually a vegetable and family of the potato and tomato.
The purple berries are hand- picked between January and April.
Cooked with sugar the end result is a beautiful runny jam.
“Nastergal” is a delicatessen jam and not commonly available in the market. Usually “nastergal” is found at farm stalls or hand selected shops.
“Nastergal” can for example be enjoyed with scrumptious scones, as a topping on cheesecake, ice-cream or with homemade bread or on toast.
I cannot wait to visit this beautiful area again.
Between Swellendam and George we passed fields of bright yellow canola. It was a lovely sight and off course we stopped for a few pics!
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| Canola next to N2 |
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