Nicky Pentz of Groote Post wine estate arranged for us to be collected from the V&A Waterfront
and driven to Groote Post, where we met him at Hilda’s Kitchen restaurant for
lunch
In a classic Cape Dutch homestead,
it is full of old and
interesting furniture, artworks and other lovely historic artefacts
Lunch was set up in a
private room filled with beautiful old Dutch furniture and blue and white
pottery
Some of the excellent wines
we tasted with lunch, Behind the bottles are Maryke and Clifford Roberts of The
Letter Box
Warm breadsticks with
balsamic and olive oil or butter
A very fresh goats' cheese and beetroot salad goes so well with their Chardonnay
The charcuterie platter
is all locally produced and is served with a very good home-made chutney
Lynne had the warm
camembert and tomato tartlet, it was delicious.
The pastry on all the dishes was sensational, so thin and crisp and
buttery. The soft filling went really well with the Riesling which surprised
Lynne; she loved it.
Osso bucco in a really
rich tomato sauce looked worth returning for
Lynne, wisely, chose the
traditional chicken pie with a cranberry jus, good roast potatoes and duck fat
potato wedges.
Marijke had the oxtail which, she said, tasted good but needed a bit more time in the oven.
This was the sensational
steak sandwich with garlic aioli. We
halved both our starters and mains and Lynne really enjoyed the quality of the
very, very tender beef and the hand-made aioli. And, yes, there were more duck
fat potatoes
A very soft and creamy
cheesecake with vanilla ice cream
Lynne thought she had
room for the rich and warm chocolate and nut tart; it nearly defeated her, but
was wonderful. John managed his
One of the historic
‘moments’ you encounter in the farmhouse, Diamond scratched graffiti from 1887 on a window pane, by a previous owner.
Groote Post co-owner Nick Pentz and
winemaker Lukas Wentzel
Off to the Voorkamerfees,
we meet for a chat at the Ormonde/Alexanderfontein table
One of the stalls was
selling delicious macaroons and insisted that we taste them.
The enthusiastic and
talented vendor
The crowd gathers in the
early evening
Darling Wine Shop's stand, opening
and selling fast
Charming and
generous Charles Withington, owner of the Darling Wine Shop, where you can taste and
buy all the wines of the area. Call him if you need something, delivery can be
arranged.
Tables to sit at in
front of Evita’s Peron
The taxi organiser
telling people to get into their queues for the visits to the voorkamers (parlours)
Traders get
involved making and selling handicrafts
Ironwork and amazing
beadwork flowers
While waiting for the
taxis, we watched some local children do a choreographed dance using hula hoops
Pieter Dirk Uys is a living legend in South Africa. His alter ego, Evita Bezuidenhout, has been satirising our politicians and any others with vulnerable egos and things to hide for many years. He was signing
copies of his books in Evita se Perron - (Evita's platform - he took over and revived the old, defunct Darling railway station)
There is a very amusing
art exhibition featuring Evita, her sister Bambi and others in the collection
of Pieter Dirk Uys’ characters. Each painting is a reworking of a very famous
painting. They are very skillfully done
You might recognize some
of the faces in this reworking of the French Revolution painting…
A triptych of Darling
and its folk
There are some very amusing satirical sculptures in the gardens
Some echoes of Apartheid
on the way to the old station platform
Marion Pla is an intern at
Marie Claire magazine. She has just arrived from Paris to work here for a year
and was loving the new experiences.
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Our taxis line up to take us to the mystery venues in Darling residents' homes for the evening's entertainment
Our friendly and safe driver
Jerome de Lilie
Our first venue, in the
middle of Darling, was a classic turn of the (last) century house
We arrange ourselves
wherever we can fit into the voorkamer
for the first show, which was a concert
by two drummers: local, Barry van Zyl, who is the drummer for Johnny Clegg,
& Daniel Bloem from Holland who presented NATIVE RHYTHM
Then it was off to the
very neat township
where we were warmly
welcomed by the house proud owner
and entertained by very
funny Michael Kudakwashe , a comedian, actor, MC, voiceover
artist....therefore (according to him) unemployed.. He has been in the business
for 14 loooong yrs and is an incredible mimic.
His stage was a meter
square and he used the space very well!
Then off to another well
kept property
beautifully decorated
and furnished
to hear a Moonlight Serenade by Louise Howlett (Soprano)
& Albert Combrink (Pianist & Musical Director) She sang some beautiful
arias, and then changed to jazz ,musicals and film. Titles included Dvorak’s
‘Song to the Moon’, Dvořák’s “Song to the Moon” from “Rusalka”, Lloyd Webber’s ‘Memory’ and Howard’s ‘Fly me to the Moon’ and
then stood outside with us, while we waited for the taxi back to the festival site, and
sang another couple of songs without accompaniment.
People enjoying the
evening part of the festival
Charles Withington
generously treating us to a Darling beer
Posy Hazell, who
organised all the media visits to the festival, Charles and Groote Post's Wimpie Borman bidding
us all farewell
© John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus 2013
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