Picnic at Vergelegen

Cape Town, South Africa

Having been close to home for the last couple of days, we set out to Somerset West today to visit the Vergelegen wine farm and gardens. They do a wonderful picnic under the trees, and Karol had booked us a late lunch there a couple of days earlier. We took two cars with Geoff and I the volunteer drivers, and set off along the N2 past the airport. Karol suggested that we take a small detour up the Helderberg Mountain, from where there are stunning views of False Bay, so this is what we did. However, it was very windy at the top so we didn’t hang around. On the way back down the mountain we almost ran over a couple of baboons snacking on something at the side of the road, oblivious to the traffic speeding by. On arrival at Vergelegen we had a quick coffee and then explored the gardens, taking lots of stunning photos along the way. It was really hot, well into the high 20’s with a lovely clear blue sky – a perfect day. Vergelegen’s gardens are spectacular, and include some camphor trees which were planted in 1700. We spent a pleasant couple of hours exploring before heading off to the woods to partake of our lunch. It’s really quite a contrast to your traditional English picnic in that it wasn’t raining, and there were no egg sandwiches! This was a four course banquet with a couple of bottles of their very own wine to wash it all down – delicious! Over coffee we were entertained by a bee who decided to literally get into the very sticky sauce from one of the deserts, so much so that he then couldn’t fly. He was a clever little guy though, as he proceeded to climb up the condiment jar, to give himself a bit of height so that he would be airborne immediately he jumped off – maybe not for long though eh? A bit more walking around, and then we headed home with Karen taking the return leg at the wheel in place of Geoff. We decided to take the scenic route back, along the coast road past Khayelitsha and on to Muizenberg. I’m still amazed at the size of the township, and just how far it stretches. The wind was getting up again, and there was a bit of a sandstorm blowing across the road as we headed back. Apparently sustained windy weather usually abates after about a week, but this has now been around for over 2 weeks, and shows no sign of letting up. Let’s hope it settles down before we all have to go home!