Franschhoek, a Bobotie & a Milktart, Montagu Pass and Swellendam

Wednesday 6.1.2016

At 9.00h we are ready to depart, but we can't find the lady for payment. G. takes a first test round of left-hand driving with a right-hand drive car, and at 10.00h we finally find the lady who has been in the house for a long time, but had parked her car in the garage. Aaaaaahh! We wanted to leave early. Well, for 3,500 Rand (about 150 EUR) we stayed royally here for 2 nights.

Today it's not as hot and we start shortly after 10.00h towards Franschhoek. However, we still stop at one of the most famous wineries here in Stellenbosch: Boschendal. Besides wine, they also have a large (vegetable) garden, but you can't visit it, only from a distance.

The vegetable garden

We had hoped for breakfast in a beautiful setting, but the garden restaurant doesn't have a view, it's in the garden of the winery buildings. There is magnificent looking farmhouse bread in the shop, but it's not transportable or practical for us, so after taking some photos, we decide to continue driving to Franschhoek.

The town of Franschhoek has French roots and the name means 'French Corner'. The 30 km from Stellenbosch to here are quickly covered. The place is quite cute with many small shops, boutiques, cafes, restaurants, and lots and lots of tourists.

Franschhoek

We stroll through the main street and I get 3 strawberries covered in chocolate on a stick - breakfast!

View from Franschhoek Pass

We continue to Robertson. The landscape offers great views, especially from the Franschhoek Pass, which is only 700m high. We look out over a wide valley and can see the water reservoirs for the vineyards. Wine is grown on the slopes up to a few hundred meters high. The road is good and winds through the hills and mountains. Beautiful views, so many mountain ranges and foothills. As soon as a plain is reached, there are vineyards again. We reach Robertson around 14.00h. It was only 100 km from Stellenbosch, but the winding road and the stop in Franschhoek took up some time. There is a Pancake House on the roadside that serves breakfast, lunch, and everything else.

The Pancake House in Robertson

They serve all kinds of pancakes with all kinds of fillings. I decide to go for a purely South African typical combo: a pancake with Bobotie and one with Milktart.

Pancakes with Bobotie (right) and Milktart (left)

Bobotie tastes stay-in-your-seat good. It's (lamb) mince with onions, raisins, and curry. It comes with delicious chutney. Milktart, on the other hand, is sweet and tasty. Usually, you find Milktart more in pastries. It looks like vanilla pudding and tastes almost like it too. I enjoy a strawberry milkshake and a coffee, and just before bursting, we are back in the car and follow a recommendation from our travel guide and head towards McGregor.

McGregor - one of the few photogenic thatched houses

Our guide yesterday and also our Baedeker say that it is a worth seeing village which is now an artist colony and has many old thatched houses.

The approach on the quite good road (the USA doesn't have this quality on some highways) is beautiful, but the place looks like a collection of run-down huts and houses that are not beautiful. Life obviously only takes place on the street, and you have to watch out not to run someone over. Unfortunately, it's all very dirty.

We take a drive around and then immediately - without stopping - head back to Robertson and turn towards Montagu there. We now drive through the Kogmanskloof, a 'cleft'/canyon that has formed about 200 million years ago, when folding plates due to tectonic pressure. The Kogmanskloof separates the fertile area at the Cape from the semi-desert beyond. The pass of just under 10 km is well developed and offers great views of extraordinary rock formations.

On the way to Montagu

Kogmanskloof

Montagu is much nicer than Robertson and McGregor combined, but we only take photos of houses from the car and drive around a bit. In Long Street, there are 17 listed buildings. Thatched roofs everywhere. You wonder if this doesn't make fire risk almost incalculable in this heat. The houses look a bit like those by the North Sea.

Unfortunately, the sky has completely clouded over by now - that was already visible this morning. Deep clouds hang in the mountains all around, they are very black. At some point before Swellendam, a country rain begins, which probably won't bring much to the extremely dry soil here. Along the road, we see many - exclusively colored - workers walking home on foot.

Since we often only see a place or houses after several kilometers, it is incredible how many hours these people probably spend on their way to and from work every day. But it may be that they only help with fruit picking now and have nothing in winter. Because now we have around 14.5 hours of daylight, in winter they would have to walk for hours in darkness on these country roads.

Except for a few turkeys, no wildlife shows up, and there are no baboons where warnings are posted.

La Rachelle Guesthouse

At exactly 18.00h, we arrive in Swellendam at La Rachelle Guesthouse and check in to our two really beautiful and super large rooms. Considering the price of around 25 EUR per room, we don't expect much and get a lot. The guesthouse only has 5 rooms. Breakfast is extra here (30 ZAR = almost 2 EUR!). They ask us if we want the standard breakfast with bread, cheese, jam, and egg, or with yogurt and fruit, which costs 65 ZAR (about 4 EUR)!

Free WiFi, nice bathroom with lots of amenities, seating area in front of the room in the small patio. The fact that the rooms don't have air conditioning is completely irrelevant today. It has rained and is rather cool at 24°C. So I let some fresh air into the stuffy room and write in my diary and postcards outside at my table. 2 hours of free time!

Since practically every travel guide says you should eat at Roosje van der Kaap in Swellendam, I call them and reserve a table. We are almost the only guests there. The restaurant has room for 18 people, but except for a couple who apparently also stay in the house, no one else arrives. The couple leaves after 20 minutes, and while it's pouring outside, we sit there alone.

The restaurant has no electricity (except probably in the kitchen). The candle lighting is so dim that you can only read the menu with the help of the flashlight app. I order ostrich, which is tasty but not pretty. You can only see that if you shine the flashlight on the plate. At some point, the unspeakable car alarm goes off again, and we pay and leave. The rain continues all night.