Walking off the calories in Franschhoek
After a few days of eating out with friends in some of the fine Franschhoek restaurants we abandonedAkademie Street Boutique Hotel to try and walk off the calories.
It was cool and misty when we set off so we decided to walkon the farmLa Motte, probably the best maintained, and sign posted hike on the stunning mountains that ring Franschhoek.
It was quite an easy two to two and a half hour walk but with some steep patches. In places one needed to clamber over the boulders. Not exactly the easiest for this unfit 74 year old but it has lovely views over the valley which rose up as the mist started to clear.
Like in a Chinese paintingthe mountains on the opposite side of the valley started to appear through the mist. The fynbos with its blues and reds and yellows pulled one’s gaze away from the view until one was over the rise.Then one lookedaway from the valley towards the mountain face with the kloof (river gorge) cutting deep into the rocky mountain. From civilised farmlands below it had all changed to Prester John-like wilderness.
The riverin this kloof provides the water for the farm. It is one of the many perennial streams watering the valley that made it possible for the Huguenots to settle here in the 1680’s and before them the San Koi who lived in the mountain caves leaving behind their rock paintings. The fading mist made one think ofso many people, so long a time and so many feelings of wonderment at the vistas folding into the distance.
At last the sun burned through properly and wearily we plodded alongthe finalstretch. It ran past the farm cemetery first laid out in 1760 and then followed the flat farm road edged with shady London Plane trees.
Once back a glass of cold white wine under the old oak trees while the girls visited the wonderful farm shop and bought cakes; more calories for further walks.
Goederust
What with all the world class accommodation, hotels and guest houses and South Africa’s leading edge restaurants sometimes it is a great pleasure to hark back to the days when Franschhoek was not so sophisticated.
Right across the road from the super league Leopard’s Leap and La Motte is the small farm Goederust belonging to the Peplers, an old Franschhoek family. Drive in past the enclosure where they keep their pigs and their tortoises, many of the latter very old. Walk past the hedge encircled, round water dam, sit under the big Plane tree and look down the farm’s vines to the Franschhoek River and the mountains beyond.
Have a simple sandwich using their glorious home baked brown bread and a glass of wine. There is a wonderful coffee roaster on the farm as well.
Vista Point
A lovely autumn day and we walked up from the top of the Franschhoek Pass to Vista point on the Mont Rochelle reserve. It is a short but steep mountain hike and when one reaches Vista point one needs the rest to catch one’s breath - but what a place to rest.
The views are breath taking. The pass snakes up and over the continental divide, the Franschhoek valley nestles below and the pink and yellow fynbos dance in the sunlight.
Outdoor activities and events are increasingly becoming a reason to visit the valley and its surrounding
mountains and then tired but happy head back down in the evenings to good food and wines.
No wonder the Franschhoek hotels are always full at this time of the year.
Franschhoek Five Star Snake Hotel
It is that hot time of the year when snakes come out in Franschhoek.
Last summer we had a REAL visitor - a beautiful, almost two metre long, dark brown Cape Cobra. Actually it probably was not a visitor. It might well have lived in the rocks by the pond at Oortuiging for years.
It is only in the dog heat days that they come out and then disappear for years (or forever) the moment they see a person.
We asked Richard Parkfelt, who loves snakes, to please come and remove it. He did, only to later release it on the mountain. Richard said he had not seen such an ideal site for a cobra before – shelter in the rocks, a pond with frogs that the snake could eat without even leaving its lair and a storage shed with mice and squirrels right close by. He called it a real Franschhoek five star snake hotel.
It seems that the Five Star Akademie Street Boutique Hotel has its own sub-five star hotel right there in the garden.
This year we had several small visitors. The slug eater in the picture is a Tabakroller. They roll up– like a person rolling tobacco into a cigarette – when frightened, hence the name. We had another small snake a week later, which twice tried to commit suicide by crossing the road. We had to carry it back into the shrubs to save it from the cars.
Opening of Leopard's Leap
Last Friday night Katherine and I were invited to the opening of Leopard’s Leap Vineyards’ new facility. The facility houses wine tasting, a superior cooking equipment shop and delicatessen, a cookery book library, and the state of the art Liam Tomlin Food cooking school. The metal sculpture of a leopard on a large arching bough (by Marco Cianfanelli) is intriguingly visible from the main road. The facility is right next door to the La Motte Farm.
Glitterati were there in abundance including the Premier of the Western Cape and Nobel Prize winner F.W. de Klerk - it was quite a function on a beautiful, still evening with the last rays of the sun lighting up the Franschhoek mountains!
The place is beautiful, the facilities beyond belief and it is a real plus for the Franschhoek Wine Valley. Many events will be taking place there and if you are really interested in food and cooking tweet us - and we will let you know what is happening and when.
Congratulations to our Valentines Day Winner!
Hazel and Charlene drew the winning name Hester Gikas.
Looking forward to meeting you Hester!
Win Valentines Night in beautiful Franschhoek...
Win Valentines Night in beautiful Franschhoek in our romantic double-story guesthouse Gelatenheid which usually goes for R3990 per night (See here: http://www.aka.co.za/gelatenheid.htm).
To enter all you need to do is either:
Visit our Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/akademieguest and click on the "like" button at the top of the page
Or
Follow us on twitter at http://twitter.com/akademieguest and retweet the following tweet: "Win Valentine’s Night in our romantic guesthouse Gelatenheid. Details on www.akademie.typepad.com. Follow us & retweet this message to enter"
Tell your friends to do the same so they also stand a chance of winning this fantastic prize!
TERMS & CONDITIONS OF COMPETITION
- Entries close on Tuesday, 7 February 2012 at 17:00 pm local time.
- Winners announced on 8 February 2012.
- Entrants should be older than 18 years.
- Prize valid on 14 February 2012 only.
- Prize includes breakfast and a complimentary bottle of Graham Beck Cap Classique.
- Accommodation in honeymoon suite, Gelatenheid only.
- Flights and transport not included in prize.
- The judges’ decision is final and no correspondence may be entered into.
- Prizes may not be redeemed for cash.
Restaurant with a view and what a view
Yesterday Katherine and I went for lunch at Delaire Graff with some old friends from Ireland. They used to stay with us at Akademie Street Guest House and Boutique Hotel but fell so in love with the Cape wine lands that they bought an apartment in Stellenbosch.
Disreputable as ever in my shorts, slip slops and open neck shirt I rode on my motor bike, up Helshoogte Pass, up past the gardens and the statues up along that lovely driveway with its glimpses of that wonderful view, peeking through the avenue of tree trunks.
We sat on the terrace, surrounded some of the wonderful bronze statutes from Mr. Graff’s great collection of contemporary South African art and feasted on the view down the valley.
There cannot be a better view while visiting Franschhoek though with our mountains we have many beautiful view sites where one can eat. It is not the cheapest restaurant in Franschhoek but miss it at your peril.
Meet the people at Akademie Street Boutique Hotel and Guest House
Lena Hoffman has worked with our family most of the time over the last 28 years.
Lena, a remarkable woman, comes from Pella in the Northern Cape - Pella, the missionary village best known for its beautiful church and the dates grown nearby on the banks of the Orange River.
She went to the mission school and was taught by the nuns. She learnt how to skin and debone a goat before she was ten and to bake bread in a mud oven. Cooking has always been her great love.
She moved to Franschhoek at the age of 19 and married Flip who also works with us now at Akademie Street Boutique Hotel and Guest House.
For five years she worked with us as chef at Le Quartier Français and when we sold the restaurant moved to La Petite Ferme (the two icon restaurants in Franschhoek.)
When our daughter Jessie was born she came back to us and Jessie grew up as another one of her children, often staying in her home when we went on holiday. Lena has an oil painting of herself standing in front of the Pella Church with Jessie in her arms.
