A couple of weeks ago we had the wheel bearings on Gemsquash (our caravan) replaced, so, of course, we had to try them out! We have just returned from a wonderful few days at Klondyke Cherry Farm. Just north of Ceres, the fruit capital of W.C., the farm is tucked under the Matroosberg range and enjoys cooler summers and colder winters (often with snow up to the front door!) than much of the surrounding countryside. The actual Matroosberg peak is the highest in the Western Cape. It doesn't look it though, but when you add the height of the peak to the 1200 metres (3720 feet) above sea level of the area, well, it is so! Table Mountain is about 1100 metres all by itself and it has it's toes nearly in the sea!
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| The Beautiful, stark Matroosberg range. |
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| Moonrise behind the pine trees. |
We had the whole campsite to ourselves, which is exactly how we like it! Rob took a portable HAM radio station, consisting of radio, tuner, and antenna and took part in the SARL Field Day that ran from noon on Saturday to noon on Sunday, local time. Amazingly he managed to contact a Russian ship that was near Madagascar, and he also spoke to solo round the world sailor Jeanne Socrates who was 400 km south of Port Elizabeth heading towards Hobart! Her 36 foot yacht is called 'Nereida', after the 'nereids' of Greek mythology who were the hand maidens of Poseidon or Neptune. Have a look at her website, http://www.svnereida.com/ it makes fascinating reading. She is actually on her third RTW circumnavigation. Brave? An understatement!
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| Rob's field station. |
Alfie made friends with one of the farm dogs, an old labrador called Stoffel, but Bess, the young German Shepherd simply wanted to eat him, so every time she came close, we bundled a complaining Alfie into Gemsquash and closed the door until she had gone!
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| The old bell, beautiful. |
During our trundle around the area, we came across this old bell. It was near to very old abandoned farm buildings, so we surmised that it had been used to call the men to work, or possibly to call the people to worship. Nobody seemed to know it's history, and I have tried to google it without success.
On Monday we ventured into the small town of Ceres as we wanted to visit a successful home industry run by a wonderful lady called Eileen Baron. Called 'Baba's Jem', Eileen makes and sells preserves and light meals, runs demonstrations on how to make traditional Cape Malay foods like mosbeskuit and vetkoek, chakalaka and samoosas and also has group tastings of her delicious jams. And all this from her own home! She was telling us that when overseas tourists first visited her, they said that they could buy jams at home, what was different about her jams? That started her thinking and experimenting and she has come up with a unique range of preserves and jams. As we were camping at the cherry farm, I wanted cherry products and found Cherry Chutney. I wish that I had bought a case full as it is the best chutney that I have ever tasted! The other flavour that intrigued me was Cherry and Chilli! Have a look at http://www.babasjem.co.za/
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| The very talented Eileen Baron. |
I asked her where she got her ideas, and her answer made me feel very humble indeed! Before she gets up in the morning, she thinks of a new idea to try, a new combination of flavours or ingredients and then gets to work and tries it out!
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| So much to choose from, all delicious! |
It takes me all my waking-up time just to make sure that all my joints are moving and that everything is in working order!
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