For our delicious breakfast on the farm Evette gave us croissants, with scrambled eggs, jam and cheese. Whichever you wold prefer, not all at the same time obviously! After breakfast Dan, Mum and I drove into town to buy oil for the car, as Mike had very kindly agreed to change it for us. The Castrol oil set us back R480, but as we had put so many kilometres on the car it was necessary!
While we were in town, Jenny and Lesley wanted to walk around some of the small shops that Jenny and I found during our first visit to Graaff-Reinet. I wandered into town while they shopped around and returned a few minutes later after acquiring something to drink. Jenny didn't see me coming up to her in the first shop and let out quite a scream when I hugged her from behind, hahaha! After leaving this shop we walked across the street to a small leather shop that had been closed during our last visit. Lesley bought Jenny a pretty brown and white purse, made of ostrich and cow leather, and we fantasised for the millionth time about owning our own house and what furniture we would fill it with.
All of us then walked back up into town to stop by the bottle shop attached to Spar (Spar Tops!). I had talked to Mike the night before and found out what alcohol his parents really like. Gary and Evette had given us 7 nights accommodation, wonderful hospitality, amazing food and their brilliant company so the least we could do was to buy them some nice booze! We bought a bottle of Bells Select Reserve for Gary and the nicest bottle of red wine we could find for Evette. Once we got back to the farm, Jenny went to the cottage to change as it was quite hot and we left for the train, and left the land rover with Mike. The drive to the train took quite a while, mostly because there had been so much rain the previous two days that the road was very muddy and difficult to drive at any speed as the car would slide. We were actually very lucky to be able to go on the train at all, as we had originally been down to go at 11am but Charles the owner had advised waiting till later as the road was very bad. We got to the train at about 1pm, and what a sweet sweet little train she was! She was actually an old inspection car that they would use to look at the tracks, and her name was Tubby!! My nickname my parents gave me when I was little, much to Dan's amusement, was tublet or tubby as I wore 2 nappies to bed and used to waddle down the corridor. So I was riding n my namesake!!
Charles was very knowledgable about the trains that used the run on the tracks, as he had lived on the farm which they ran through his whole life. His family had owned the farm land since 1906. He took us 11kms down the track on the tour, but he had actually taken her 30kms down the track to the next town! Tubby travelled at around 25kms per hour, so the whole journey took about 2 hours, including the two stops we had. Along the way he pointed out a couple of rocks that looks like a giants bum and a Mexican hat. Once we got to the point where he would turn Tubby around we all got out to have a stretch and walk back down the track to a signpost for photographs. The way she was turned around was brilliant, he got out, cranked down a small circle onto the tracks, cranked her up and then spun he round! Brilliant :D
Our next stop was a little cabin where we sat outside on the picnic bench for drinks and snacks that Evette had brought along for us, yay! The view was so beautiful from up there, and the cabin was built for people to come and have a one night stay over. It was kitted out with every possible amenity you would need, unfortunately it was also kitted out with two rather large holes in the roof. Rain was imminent as a very dark cloud was moving swiftly toward us, I offered a stopgap solution to the holes of putting the washing basins beneath them. Charles had been meaning to fix the holes for a while, so hopefully my helpfulness will save the building from getting destroyed by rain before he finds time to fix it.
The rain started pouring just as we were packing up the chips and drinks back into the bag, so we all scrambled into Tubby and shut the doors for the trip back. It was a beautiful ride back, completely different to the trip up the mountain due to the rain, but we all thoroughly enjoyed it. We thanked Charles profusely when we got back to Tubby's little house and jumped into the car out of the rain. The drive to Neu Bethesda was also very long, the road was dirt and the rain had made it a bit precarious to drive quickly. When we arrived in the quaint little town we all decided to head straight for the brewery to try the beer and have lunch, as we were all starving! It was around 4:30 when we got there, so you can understand why!
It had stopped raining when we arrived, and we walked into brewery section and sat down at one of the tables once it was wiped down. The other side of the room had a roof leak because of the immense amount of rain they had had, 40ml over the last two days. Everyone ordered his honey beer on Gary and Evette's recommendation and I was about to order a coke till he told me he makes his own ginger beer some opted for some of that. Despite being told that it wasn't alcoholic by all at the table, I felt a bit funny after the second one so I think it probably was. Dan agrees as it was most likely to have been fermented to get its carbonation, like Dan did for his ginger beer. We ordered their platter for five and my word was it divine!!
What arrived was a large board filled with fresh olive bread, kudu salami, three hard cheeses, one plain and the others two made with nettles and chives, three soft cheeses covered in pepper, honey and sweet chilli, pickles and beetroot and olives and feta. Phew!! It was just so divine that we asked for more bread to be able to polish off the other yummy bits on the board. My favourite was the soft cheese covered with honey, and second was the sweet chilli soft cheese and kudu salami. It all worked so well together and went perfectly with the beers, both ginger and honey. After our meal Dan and I went to throw sticks for the three dogs, one with three legs and two sheep dogs, one who kept taking the others stick. As we were leading Evette managed to fool us into thinking that one of the plants in the garden was dagga, gullible me thinks!
It started raining as we left, and it was probably a good thing we left then as the river we drove over was flowing even harder over the road and would soon stop cars from coming or going. We stopped quickly at the owl house for Dan to have a look through the fence as it was closed. The owl house is a sort of fascinating Musieum of hundreds of owl sculptures and other sculptures that a lady that lived there used to make, for no reason at all. On the way home we noticed how full all the rivers that lead to Dalham farm were, and Gary told us that it would take about 11 hours for all that rainwater to make it to the river on the farm.
We went to the cottage to pack our things once we got back, and had a peek at the river on the way past which was still at the same level as when we left. Back at the house I sat down for puppy cuddles and Dan opened up a bottle of champagne for us all to enjoy. Gary started a fire for the braai and we sat outside enjoying the lovely evening. Evette brought out some droervors and biltong that had been made out of the springbok Dan shot. It tasted delicious! We also polished off the remainder of the hanepoort as the dinner was being cooked on the braai. Dinner was divine, pork chops, chicken wings, cheese sausages and chicken sosaties, served with a delicious potato bake and salad. Dessert was one each of the last six mocca cubes, but I got to have two as Dan didn't want his!!! After dessert we retired back to the cottage for one last nights sleep on the farm.
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