24 February 2012

A Weekend Away

Last week Friday was Janine's birthday, so I decided to take her away to a little place called Riverzicht which is about 5km out of Robertson & situated right on the Breede River.


As usual we got stuck in the 5pm traffic & only ended up getting to our destination at 7:40 (after leaving work at 3:30pm)  We missed the sunset, but got a glimpse of it on the little dirt road around the corner from our accommodation. 




On the first night we just chilled in our log cabin.  I made a fire in the indoor braai facility & threw on some lamb chops & ostrich wors (amazing)!!!  I woke up pretty early to throw a line, no BASS were caught, but wow, what an amazing morning it was...  Have a look for yourself - 



After freshening up we left for a jam-packed day of activities (mostly wine tasting)  We decided to drive through Robertson to the small town of Montagu then make our way back from there working our way through the wine farms.  When we arrived in Montagu, we were met by a HUGE entourage of Harley's. We quickly learnt that it was the Annual Harley Davidson run, Montagu is one of the stops on their journey.  I unfortunately missed the whole "leaving" of the Harley riders & only managed to catch this old couple on their bike - 


We were stoked to find a little craft market in Montagu too.  We bought some really awesome stuff.  Dried apricots for like R20 a bag, pickled onions for 10 bucks & a kilo of chilli olives from "The French Tart" for 35 smackaroos...  These vintage frames were amazing too, had to take a shot of the Marilyn one for my sister...


After the market we found a quiet little restaurant called The Tin Cup, we needed a good dose of breakfast before all the wine tasting & saw this on the way back to our car - 

Really?  A cat crossing?  Only in Montagu!!!

I also stumbled upon this very cool old-school Jeep.  I have never seen one like this & the condition was like brand new.  It had a really cool trailer in tow as well...

They also have one of the most spectacular church's in Montagu.  It is HUGE!!!


Why hello there sexy!!!


Our first wine farm we stopped at was Excelsior.  They have a rad tasting room which sits right on the water on their little dam.  The uniquely cool thing about this farm is that you can blend your own wines right there & then.  There are little wooden barrels of wine, different barrels are different blends.  They give you a test tube-looking thing, which you basically work out your percentages of what blends you want.  Obviously you taste your blend first, if you don't like it, chuck it away & try another.  You do the entire process yourself, stick your own labels on the bottle, put your own cork in, and seal the top with that little foil thingy!!!  You even get to name your creation!  A MUST-DO if you're out in Robertson one day, it was very cool.  Here is their little tasting room - 


Our second stop was at Springfield.  Situated on a magnificent piece of land in Robertson, this wine farm is amongst some of the top dogs in the industry.  None of their wines are cheap, but non of their wines are crap either. :-)  Most definitely worth the money spent.  Here are a couple pics of the decor inside their tasting room, pretty rad...



Our last stop was at my favourite farm - BON COURAGE.  These guys seriously know how to make any wine blend taste AMAZING. The Muscadel & Red Wine Port are also VERY good.  They make a Pink Champagne called BLUSH.  This is basically the only type of wine variety that Janine can drink (she pretty much HATES wine) By this stage of the day, I had more than enough wine in my system & totally forgot to take pictures of this magnificent wine farm.  

On our way back to Riverzicht, we were both pretty hungry & stopped in Robertson at a place called Bourbon Street.  I was pretty relieved that when we got there, that they had draught (and not wine).  At the same time I got a bit bummed as the only draught they had on tap was Castle.  But anyway, beer is beer & it went down like a homesick mole.  We both quiched out pretty early on Saturday night, but the day we had totally made up for it.



Sunday morning Janine treated us to massages at Rosendal Wine Estate.  It was an awesome way to to finish off an incredible weekend from the hustle & bustle of town.

Thanks for an incredible weekend babs & for the 20th time, HAPPY BIRTHDAY, ballie...  You are now part of the downhill club!!! ;-) x

HAVE AN AWESOME WEEKEND!!!












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