Today was Woman's Day here in the beautiful South Africa, and mine has been absolutely fantastic. Originally the plan was to spend the day shopping for odds and ends for the kids (daughter has grown out of all her winter clothes again) and possible take a few more cars for test drives. But then, when I viewed the weather report yesterday and realised that we would be in store for a glorious spring day I changed all my plans. So this morning, after breakfast, I grabbed my camera, packed the kids in the car and headed up the R27 (a.k.a. West Coast road - aptly named as it runs all the way up the western coast of the country) in search of the renowned spring flowers which are reportedly in bloom a month early due to the rain this year.
WOW... and double WOW. We ended up in a dorpie about 200km's outside of Cape Town called Dwarskersbos and the surrounding veld was just bathed in beautiful white and yellow and orange and mauve flowers. It really was beautiful. We did the mandatory photo snaps with kids and flowers, a little walkabout to stretch out the legs and then turned the car around to start heading back, with the intention of grabbing lunch on the way.
Now, one of the very well known restaurants (and I use that word lightly - you'll see why later) is just outside of Langebaan and is called Die Strandlooper (literally translated into The Beachwalker). This is where I decided to pull in at noon for lunch not truely realising what lay in store for us. To set the scene... Die Strandlooper is quite literally on the rocks by the beach... there is no building to speak of, instead the tables are made out of cement with wooden planks for benches, open fires in rock mounds are everywhere. The atmosphere is completely relaxed. And the food... oh the food... It is a set price for adults, children under 12 pay per height and the under 5's eat free.
We started off with fresh home made bread straight off the fire with fresh cooked mussels (plain or garlic) AWESOME... this was followed by braaied Harder (a type of fish) DELLICIOUS... then seafood paella MOUTH WATERING... then lamb stew (yup lamb... couldn't quite figure that one out) DELECATBLE... then braaied Snoek ALL TIME FAVOURITE... then Stompneus (Stumpnose) and smoked Angel Fish INCREDIBLE... and to top it all off Crayfish tails WOWWIE. And along with all of these the fresh bread and home made preserves just kept coming. This entire EVENT takes about 3.5 hours to complete but it is the best spent 3.5 hours I have had in a long time. The kids were in heaven, they could run around on the beach (with buckets and spades provided by the restaurant) while I could sit back, enjoying the beautiful sun and having the most relaxing afternoon.
7 comments:
It sounds like the extended remix of "stop and smell the roses"
Sounds like you had a Fantabulous
day out, why do I feel so damn
homesick now?!! LOL!
oh man! that sounds just incredible m, i'm quite jealous- i must make sure to find that restaurant when i eventually get to the cape!!
That sounds absolutely decadent. The perfect way to spend a public holiday, M. And you realise you have no made me hungry too!
robert Namaqualand is a little far for a day trip... but it is on my list of things to do.
kyk That was exactly the plan... just slow down for one day :)
ginc FANTASMICAL day out
angel I had better find out about commission for referals...
katt food glorious food...
Die Strandloper is every bit as amazing as you say it is - even during an unexpected rainstorm. We arrived, soaked, and were greeted with whiskey in tin cups and armfuls of black bin-liners to fashion into raincoats. One of my favourite afternoons ever.
that restaurant sounds incredible. Wish it wasn't an 18 hour flight and four hour car ride away, or I would check it out.
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