VINO CAMINO - The Event

AN EVENTFUL TRIP

Living in Fraserburg was an experience I will never forget and will cherish for always.  During my stay there, I recorded stories that happened and will share those with you too.  Here is one that I clearly remember.

The drive to Port Elizabeth from here is a truly beautiful one, down from the Karoo Highlands and into the Klein Karoo all the way to the coast.  Just the other side of Prince Albert, one travels through the Meiringspoort.  This has to be one of the most breath taking passes that I have ever seen.  On the way down, I stopped to absorb it all.  The fold mountains of the Swartberg Mountain range, the colours, the sounds and the smells.  Because of the recent rain, the waterfalls were pumping to a rhythmic beat.  The smell of the damp earth, refreshing.  The rubicund rocks with their blend of ochres, browns and verdant lichen intriguing.  The sheer height of the mountains, overwhelming.  My wish for you all is that one day you too may travel this road and go through this experience.  It’s a real must to put on your list of one hundred things to do before you die.

The trip in general was not the most successful for supplies, as the shops were badly stocked and disorganized and I wasted so much time running from place to place for the items I needed.  In the end I had to prioritize and just get the most important things, cat food, shop supplies and paint.

My last stop was the cat food.  Leaving the veterinary surgery, I tripped and very nearly fell. Not a pretty sight to be sure.  My arms were laden with five months supply of cat food, which by some miracle, I managed to cling onto.  This was one of those moments when I wanted to swear and curse out as loud as I could, but the very nice vet himself was standing right next to me, so I politely smiled and said F#*@! under my breath.  The situation turned even more embarrassing when I couldn’t put my foot down, as any pressure made me want to swear again, only louder this time.  I am not sure if the gentleman was just a real sweetie, or afraid of a libel suit, but the next minute, he had me sitting in the car and was massaging my ankle with HORSE gel. (Thank goodness I’d remembered to shave my legs the night before!)  After assuring him I was quite alright and the pain in the ankle had eased, he finally let me go.  To be very honest, the handsome vet was the most pleasant part of the trip.

Four and a half hours later, I decided to take a break and stopped in Prince Albert for a cold drink.  I hobbled over and sat down at a table on the patio at one of the street cafes.  The town was surprisingly quiet and only one other table was occupied.  I couldn’t help overhearing the conversation and picked up that the couple, with broad Canadian accents, were looking to purchase a property in the Karoo.  So being me, I struck up a conversation with them, and being as passionate about my new home town and lifestyle as I was, I told them all about Fraserburg, which they said they had seen on the internet when searching, but had no intention to go out that far. Having just run an Estate Agent’s office there for the previous ten days while the owners were away, I happened to know exactly what was on the market at the time and was able to give them a bit of a run down on what was available.  As it turned out, Karen was a South African who had studied medicine at the University of Cape Town and had then gone travelling.  She met her husband in Canada and had remained there ever since, returning once a year for a family holiday.  She has since divorced and has been with her new man, Richard, an herbalist and permaculture gardener for the last five years.  They were looking to buy a place to holiday at for the next four years while her kids finished school, and then move out to South Africa permanently.  After much chatting and swapping of numbers, I was once more on my way.

The following day, Sunday, I received a call from the Canadians to say that they had changed the course of their trip and were now on their way to Fraserburg. We've remained friends ever since.

LEARNING SOMETHING NEW

Every day I have so much to be grateful for.  My wonderful niece Chanel is such an inspiration and has been so instrumental in helping me to get this blog off the ground.  I still feel like the old aunty who has so much to learn from the 'younsters' at this stage, and I used to hate it when I heard older people (not that I'm old of course. ;-)  ) saying that years back.  But I seem to fumble around, when they make it all look so easy.  I look in the permalink block and it says type in a post name and save the URL, so I go searching all over the place looking for a special block to type it in, and it's not there.  No, says the niece, that's not how it works, this is what you must do.  Oh, sigh, why didn't I know that?  Anyway, I so do love that I am learning something new every day.

CONNECT TO PRINCE ALBERT

I cannot express just how blessed we are in the town Prince Albert, so if there is more that you wish to know and I have not gotten around to writing about it here yet, please have a look at the Prince Albert website which is www.princealbert.org.za or www.patourism.co.za.


COUNTRY LIFE

Loving the country life, I also adore all things with a country feel, beautiful things, pretty things, for the house and garden, as well as photography and art, so I will share with you some of the places Chanel and I have found so you too can link in and share their sites.

I have started to follow Lanalou Style.  She has the most gorgeous things on there and feel inspired just looking at it all.