Tag Archives: Gansbaai

Lomond wines & Farm 215

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So after our cave expedition on Sat we headed over to Farm 215 which is situated between Stanford and Cape Agulhas. Farm 215 is a “sustainable destination”.  What does that mean exactly?  Well it means that the farm is managed & run in such a way that it puts the integrity of the natural ecosystem around the farm first.  Their main goal is to keep their footprint, as well as that of their guests, as low as possible.

The farm is certified by Fair Trade in Tourism SA and is also in partnership with the African Horse Company, which also has a base on the farm.  The African Horse Company organises guided horse trails which can be anything from 1 hour up to several days.  My older sister is horse crazy, I just know she would absolutely loooove to do something like that.

Quite conveniently for us though, the farm is also home to Lomond Wines and we were lucky enough to get treated to an amazing wine tasting including a massive lunch spread of biscuits, cheeses and meats.  All my favourite things!

The wine tasting / restaurant area was absolutely gorgeous.  It has a very clean, slightly Japanese feel with lots of wooden detailing:

There was the most gorgeous girl there who took us through all the wines.  Sadly (probably due to all the wine & excitement about the cheese spread), I can’t recall her name.  But she was so great and very patient with our rowdy bunch.

Loved this girl…

Now before we talk about the wine, let me show you our spread of evil indulgence…

Seriously… If I had to, I could easily live of this for the rest of my life!

The next pic is happiness personified – just look at how I’m glowing:

Wine, cheeses, meats… I’m in heaven!

From the wines we tasted, by favourites seem to be every wine with the word “bush” in it.  Not sure why, personally I don’t really like any form of bush that much. ;)   But anyhoo. From the white wine selection I was obsessed with:

  • Sugarbush – A single vineyard sauvignon blanc with distinctive green pepper, herbaceous and dusty notes.
  • Snowbush – A white blend green, with ripe fig and asparagus flavours which come from Sauvignon blanc, citrus and lime characters from Semillon, and peach and floral notes from Viognier.

And from the red wine selection, my heart belonged to:

  • Conebush – A single vineyard Syrah with notes of white pepper with hints of wood spice and berries.  This baby was super smooth and totally velvety… mmmmm.

From left to right: Conebush, Showbush & Sugarbush

After lunch, I really did want to have a piece of this amazing looking citrus cake:

Awesome right?

BUT, I opted to go for a little tour of the Farm 215 accommodation first.   While I was away, those who decided to stay behind totally flattened that cake within minutes!  Nice guys… real nice… but be warned, nobody takes cake away form me without repercussions. :)

Accommodation wise, Farm 215 offers up:

  • 3 spacious rooms in the old homestead, which are very very nice…
  • And then 3 modern, freestanding fynbos-suites, which freakin’ blew me out of the water.  I wanted to check in immediately.  Check them out:

Nicely blending in with nature… they were designed by an architect from Amsterdam (just so you know).

The interior is nice and modern, with plenty of space to chillax…

And if that’s not already impressive enough, check out the view from these suites:

I could stare out over that for days and days…

I thought the rates for these suites were really good value.  You get all that for only R1300 pp per night (or R1235 if you book online & it get’s even cheaper if you stay longer).  Those rates are valid up until end Oct, then the high season rates start kicking in, but even then it’s not that much more.  Considering that most luxury hotel rooms cost about that much at least and are tiny in comparison, this is an fantastic deal.

So as for the Lomond wines, I will be hunting them down back in Cape Town once my wine rack situation at home is sorted out.  And I predict a long weekend away at Farm 215 in my near future as well. :)

Day 2 of our weekend away is not quite done yet.   So I’ll show you my very scientific pot belly indicator after I tell you guys about our insane 8 course dinner experience in my next post.

Wanna book your own weekend getaway?  Just call them on 028 388 09 20.

xxx

Cave exploring @ De Kelders

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After our forest walk on Sat, we headed over to De Kelders to check out some caves.

Now the original plan was actually to do some shark cage diving (with Gansbaai of course being the hot spot for it).  But sadly the weather didn’t play along and the waves were too high to take us out.  Sure, I was bummed – having packed a nice meaty steak to feed the sharks with and everything.  I even considered having a “sad shark” T-shirt made, like so:

Ag shamepies… I feel your pain dude, you’ve just been given a bad rep… I totally get it.

But after like 5min I was all smiles again, cause they had already lined up plenty of other cool things for us to do.   This cave expedition thing being just one of them.  On the way down to the caves we stopped to have a look at what they call “wild dagga”… apparently you can smoke it, but it’s totally legal… hmmm… interesting:

Leonotis leonurus – also knows as Lion’s Tail or Wild Dagga.  Native to SA and Southern Africa.  Known for it’s medicinal & mild psychoactive properties. Thanks Wikipedia!  I’m sure Billy (our guide) told us all of this as well, but I am really poor at paying attention for extended periods of time… I think he lost me at “dagga”…

The De Kelders shoreline is absolutely incredible.  I mean just check out the perfection in this photo:

Absolutely zero post editing on this shot, I promise.

We got to check out the Drip Cave (named after the dripping water inside).  We were actually very lucky to go inside because it’s not open to the public.  Ooooh aren’t we fancy. ;)   I was concerned mainly about 3 things:

  1. I’m pretty night blind.  So I don’t do well in dark spaces.  Luckily we were each given a little LED flashlight. Sweet.
  2. I’m claustrophobic, so didn’t want to have to climb through any tiny holes or anything.  Luckily they assured us that this would not be the case.  Sweet again.
  3. I’m not a huge fan of bats.  I have this massive fear that they’re going to fly into my fair and get all knotted up in there.  But apparently that’s a total myth…  hmmm, wasn’t 100% sold on that one.

Upon entering I made sure I was walking behind the tallest person there (sorry Zane) cause I figured if the bats were going to attack, they’d get him first and then I’d have time to make a quick exit.  Hey, don’t judge me… it’s survival of the fittest out in the bush! PLUS Zane doesn’t have looooong hair to worry about like me. ;)

Luckily though the bats were quite chilled and I actually felt quite at ease.  It was probably mostly because it’s so calm and pretty in there.  Lemme show you:

Bjorn chillin’ in front of some crystal clear water…. ah bliss…

Colourful rocks… stalactites & stalagmites… (OK, I had to Google those terms – I used “pointy thingies in caves” as my search term.  It was surprisingly successful.)

Back outside, Billy showed us how to make a vuvuzela out of some dried out kelp.  Zane was the first one to give it a bash… he gave it all he could as you can see in this pic:

You can do it Zane!

Other peeps decided to do some serious chillin’ on the rocks…

Tanya, Lunga (our awesome driver) and Clayton… workin’ it…

We did a bit of a walk and some minor rock climbing to get to the other side of the little cliff area we were in.  From here we could see plenty more caves which one could explore:

I see… I see…

Sadly we were on a bit of a tight schedule.  So we had to get movin’.  But at least now I know where they are – if I ever get back to that area, I’m going to check them out for sure.  I mean people used to live there, like way way way back when.  They have found bone tools, stone artefacts and even human remains in these caves… I find stuff like that very interesting.

Oh also good to know, this is apparently a great spot for whale watching from Sep to Nov.  Just one more awesome reason to take a trip out there. :)

We’re only about a third through day 2 of the Gansbaai weekend now…  much more to come.

xxx

Fynbos Retreat: Our weekend hideaway

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So we’re on to day 2 of the Gansbaai adventure weekend.  But let me first tell you about our home base…

We stayed at the tranquil and super cosy Fynbos Retreat, a little gem hidden in the hills of the Grootbos Nature Reserve between Gansbaai & Stanford.   Not only is this the perfect spot to take a breather from the hustle and bustle of the city, but you can also feed your adventurous spirit by going on a hike, a mountain bike ride or a refreshing swim in the dam.

There are 2 fully equipped houses where one can stay.  Arum Lily House has an old Cape Dutch feel and can sleep 12 people:

Arum Lily House

Beautiful outside dining area at Arum Lily House

Then the Fountain Bush Cottage has a more modern look and can sleep 6 people:

Fountain Bush Cottage

Fountain Bush has some beautiful bonsai trees on the front deck area

The other thing you might want to know about this particular cottage is that it has an outdoor shower.  Which is very cool, but just keep an eye out for hikers & mountain bikers.  We gave one guy quite a surprise and he almost hell off his bike.  I don’t think that was the kind of “bird watching” he had in mind when he read the brochure. :)

After breakfast on Sat we got to explore the Stinkhoutsbos forest which is literally a 2min walk from the Arum Lily House.

Here we got to see beautiful old Stinkwood & Milkwood trees.  Our guides, Billy & Colleen, who also manages Fynbos Retreat and pretty much looked after us for the weekend, made sure to give us lots of info on the flora & fauna from the area.  It’s really nice to meet people who are truly passionate about that kind of stuff.  Being a city girl I’m definitely only “street smart”, not “bush smart”.  So in a game of Survivor for example, I’d be good with the mind games, but would probably not last past day 2 cause I would end up eating some poisonous berry or lying on some soft leaves that ends up giving me a full body rash or something. ;)

Billy & Colleen looking happy as can be in this perfect bush setting…

I really liked the fact that at Fynbos Retreat you could just chill because it’s so peaceful there.  But if you happened to get tired of that, there’s also lots and lots for you to do.  Perfect.

Billy mentioned that a lot of people stay over at Fynbos Retreat for one night as part of a 3 day hike that they organise.  You can check out the Walker Bay Trails website for more info or follow Billy on twitter (@walkerbaytours).

Or to simply make a booking at Fynbos Retreat, contact them on:

  • 028 384 8048
  • info@fynbosretreat.co.za

xxx

Gansbaai adventure – The kick off

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This past weekend I was a seriously lucky girl – I got to tag along for an action packed weekend to Gansbaai and it’s surrounding areas (also known as the Overberg – just FYI) thanks to the lovely people at Cape Town Routes Unlimited (CTRU) – the marketing organisation for Cape Town & the Western Cape.

How did this come about?  Well Bjorn met them at an event a while back and thanks to his charismatic charm, they thought of him when putting together this weekend which was aimed at introducing people to all the amazing places to check out and things to do, without having to travel very far.  Of course me being the bestest, awesomest, most fun girlfriend in the world, I couldn’t exactly be left behind. ;)

Other fabulous folks who came along for the ride were Tanya Nefdt from E News, Fairlady’s Marketing manager Roxanne Cloete, journo and celebrity blogger Clayton Morar and hunky Zane Maqetuka who just came 3rd in Mr SA.

During the 2 1/2 hour drive from Cape Town the gang got some time to get to know each other.  Actually looking back, I think that only took about 5min after which we all felt comfortable enough to let our inner craziness hang out. hehe.  Love it.  I could tell at that point that this was going to be one hell of a weekend.

Our first port of call was a little restaurant called B Blondes in Gansbaai.   It’s a very cute little spot with a bit of a brasserie feel with lots of dark wood furniture and a really nice old school bar.

We immediately jumped into “happy snapping” mode – all in attendance clearly loving the camera. :)

Zane & Tanya workin’ it

Me with “laugh a minute” Clayton & Roxanne

We even attempted a BIG group shot.  But as you can see, it was quite hard to get all the different strong-willed personalities to all focus at the same time.

From left to right: Glenda from Gansbaai tourism, Nomonde from CTRU, Zane, Tanya, Clayton, Roxanne, me & Bjorn

Now let’s get down to the serious stuff… the food.  Bjorn was the only one smart enough to go for a starter.  I love how small towns don’t do any skimping on servings, here even a starter is a whopper of a meal.  Check out this beef carpaccio:

This is on a big plate people… we all had serious food envy… but I was lucky enough to get a bite and it was delish.

For mains people went for a wide variety of hearty “comfort food” options:

From left to right: Grilled baby chicken, ribs and calamari & hake combo.

More chatting, laughing & wine drinking followed.  We got so brave that at one point we even considered doing some karaoke at a local pub.  Ideas after a few bottles of wine are NEVER good ones.  They seem to be absolutely brilliant at the time, but don’t fool yourselves, they aren’t. :)   Luckily some sanity prevailed and we decided to rather settle in at our accommodation as the next day promised to be jam-packed.

Then this part is just to brag, but once we had checked in at our accommodation (which I’ll tell you about in my next post) we decided to play some darts.   Seems I’m pretty damn impressive with wine pumping through my veins cause I busted out a bullseye.  Here is the proof:

BOOM! And nooooo, I did not simply place the dart there. I was way too sozzled to think of something that clever. ha!

After that moment of pure awesomeness, I decided to quit while I was ahead and my head hit the pillow… hard.

Now this was a weekend which included a lot of eating.  Therefore I decided to leave my normal eating  / no eating obsessions at home (just this once) and totally overindulge.  I will be showing you a very scientific depiction of how my pot belly progressed over the weekend.  Here are the results after day 1:

Things are still OK at this point… it’s still totally manageable with a bit of extra time in the gym…

More to come on day 2 & 3.

xxx

Oh PS:  You can follow Cape Town Routes Unlimited on Twitter here.   And while you’re at it, you can follow me too! HERE.  (Shameless punt for myself there as well.  Cause hat’s just how I roll…)