Oppiwa = #%$^&*@!!

We have just returned from a somewhat shortened trip!

Read on!

Once a year over the first weekend in February, (apart from those manic few weeks over Christmas), Jacobsbaai becomes a frenzied village, so we do the right thing and leave!

It always amazes me how, once people have moved here exclaiming loud and long about how quiet and peaceful it is, they decide that it all must be changed and that Jacobsbaai 'must be put on the map'. So a few years ago, a few people (hoteliers and estate agents mainly...) put their heads together and 'Oppiwa' (meaning 'on the wagon') was born! This festival consists of some obscure singers and the odd poet or two, each sitting on a wagon being pulled by a tractor, singing or reading or quoting or whatever, while a bunch of visitors and villagers, who have paid handsomely for the privilege, sit in awe on said wagon, drinking their wine and getting covered in dust from the road, especially if the wind blows! While they are being trundled around the village they stop off at various demarcated homes for coffee, a braai, a loo stop, tea and biscuits etc, and then on the Saturday evening they all end up at one of the Guest Houses for dinner and more wine.

On Sunday they all go home.

So, in order to avoid all this unpleasantness, we head off on the Thursday and stay away until it is safe to return.