Tulbagh and Ceres

The salads at Rijks Country House were shocking, just a few dead leaves of skinny lettuce and six scrapings of carrot. Where was the chilli on the Thai noodle salad? Bland, bland, bland. Service was excellent

An unplanned detour led us to this vineyard

with peacocks

and a wonderful old barn

We had a lovely tasting at Saronsberg and bought some wine for our cellar

Montpellier: a chapel in the vineyards for weddings, a lovely old Cape Dutch house, willing service and so-so wines

Readers restaurant in Tulbagh, another charming old house, filled with cats, real and decorative, good fresh bread, but our food was disappointing

overdone eland fillet and dry, bland trout

.

This one is real

Cat control device?

Frozen chocolate mousse

Tulbagh's main street

The countryside is quite barren and then suddenly you turn a corner and you find a huge cherry orchard

An abundance of cherries at Klondike

Well-used farm machinery

Bains Kloof Pass, between Ceres and Wellington

We stopped at a farm stall outside Wellington to buy bread and found these happy pigs

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© John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus 2016

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Picnics and lunch at Holden Manz, Franschhoek

Just before Christmas, we were invited by Karl Lambour, 

 

the new Cellar master at Holden Manz in Franschhoek, to sample their picnic, which costs R145 per person for a basket for 2. Children have a special menu at R45 per head. He has moved there recently from Constantia Glen.

We started with a tour of the Guest House, whose decor has changed considerably since our first visit, when the farm had its original name, Klein Genot.

The basket comes with a tablecloth, napkins, cutlery & plates and a bottle of mineral water. 

If you wish, you can buy some of their wine and they will supply glasses. 

Our basket had humus, tzatziki, olives and chicken liver pate with bread and melba toast, two salads packed into jars, charcuterie, warm steak slices, chicken pieces and good local cheeses with fig preserve. 

There were even 2 desserts: cinnamon chorros and the best chocolate brownies we have ever tasted. 

What impressed us the most was the wonderful picnic spots along the riverside, all with marvellous views of the mountains and river and most with good shade. They have placed concrete benches and tables for you to use as well or you can sit on the grass. 

When we had taken lots of photos of the picnic and sampled a little of the food under a heavily overcast sky, we saw that rain was imminent, so we went to have lunch at the restaurant and to enjoy a glass or two of the very good Big G Bordeaux blend. 

John and Carl had venison with blueberries and pink grapefruit topped with parsnip crisps while Lynne had an enormous plate of delicious food, enough for two people! 

There was tempura squid with a chilli sauce, a very fresh and moist piece of cob on confit potatoes and a lovely piece of tuna on pesto. No desserts but very good coffee before we left.