We’re in love with Prince Albert!

We like to take the journey to Prince Albert,  over the multiple layers of enormous mountains at a leisurely pace. We stop incessantly to capture the next piece of wonderment that appears around the next bend. Fortunately, my husband’s passion for photography is contagious, my obsession is not anything like as dramatic as his, but in any other marriage there would be a huge possibility of spilt blood! His photographic thirst is unquenchable!!

Along the way there are wonderful rest areas, you feel you are encouraged to pull over and breathe the magnificent air – I love photographing the flowers blooming along the side of the road. This little beauty is an Erica, I’ve never seen it before in such a lovely pink!

Nestled between the layers of enormous mountains are the most perfect, arable valleys. Most of the farms grow fruit and hops for making beer. It’s hard to explain how the geography works, but if you’re interested, I will put a link to the hubbies video he took flying over the mountains – fascinating and amazing!

We like to stop for lunch in Outshoorn – the ostrich capital of the world! This is the terrace of a converted ostrich palace – one of the the Victorian mansions build during the ostrich feather gold rush at the end of the last century. As a restaurant its so-so, more about the atmosphere and taking the journey real slow!

The German tourists next to us were studiously avoiding the laser stare from the decided overweight resident Jack Russell – he was convinced that a nice sausage was about to fall off the table.

Did I mention my mum came along with us?? Emmie fills the car with funny, sad and sometimes completely shocking stories as we wander along the windy roads. She is the perfect traveling companion – always has something to read in case we jump out of the car with our camera’s and  disappear over the horizon!!

I love this little ostrich feather shop on the side of the main road. In South Africa this is called the ‘informal economy’ – and why not??

The beauty is everywhere – if you like huge horizons – this land is for you!!

I love the way the gracious aloe flowers framed my shot

I can never resist a bit of weather beaten fence – and I love the way the clouds dapple the mountains in the background.

We chose to use the Swartberg Pass to get over the final range of mountains down to our destination – the town of Prince Albert. It’s a dirt road, a bit hairy, and definitely not for the timid traveler. (There is the alternative of the Meyering’s Pass – it’s a tarred road, not at all scary, and a lot quicker). But we love a good adventure! I did have to close my eyes a couple of times!

There’s no barricade, so its best to make sure the driver is not doing too much admiring of the incredible vista while he’s at the wheel!

Plan to stop a lot!!

We dropped our bags at our B and B, showered and just made it to our reservation at African Relish – a restaurant and cookery school in the main road of Prince Albert.

http://africanrelish.com/

We loved the open kitchen.

And the food was not at all what we were expecting in a one horse town! Sophisticated, local and delicious! I know people grumble about ‘what I ate’ pics in blogs but really, its part of the story! Twice baked cheese soufflé made with cheese from the local dairy – we’re going there later! Yum!!

The B ad B we like to stay at is called De Bergkant Lodge –

http://www.princealbert.org.za/bergkant.htm

-translation – the side of the mountain.

If you are like me, and B and B’s tend to make you a little queasy- no worries here, absolutely no auntie lavender smell, or doily to be found anywhere! In fact it is so organised and spotless that you could operate on any surface – (that’s my mum’s favorite expression.)

The lodge is made up of a series of old houses surrounded by beautifully tended gardens. The setting is quite charming, and yes I took this pic early in the morning and the sky in the Karoo really is almost navy blue. Zero pollution looks like this!!

The lodge’s rooms are huge and well appointed – they have a little kitchen set up so really you could stay for a year if you liked!! Oh, I should mention, there’s a no children policy – no canon-balling in the pool to disturb the utter tranquility.

Breakfast is a friendly affair which takes place under the umbrellas next to the pool. People swap adventure stories between tables, accompanied by  the cacophony of the bird action on the feeders in the tree behind you. We were perplexed by their mottled colours – discovered they were red bishop birds losing their summer colours – FYI

If you want to know anything about Prince Albert, breakfast time is your chance to pump Charles Roux the charming owner of De Bergkant for information. Charles knows all there is to know about everything and everyone in the area. He loves to sit at breakfast regaling his guests with stories and fascinating nuggets of local information.

The courtyard leading out to the car park is graced by this ancient ficus tree – magical!

D and I grab our cameras and head out to catch some of the morning light – when you hit the top of the road, you’re in the countryside. I love donkeys!!

Startlingly blue skies, and always the backdrop of the lovely mountains.

The adorable Old Cape and Victorian houses that make up the town are the reason that people are so drawn to it. There is an atmosphere that all is quiet and calm in the world. Nothing seems to happen here – sigh!!!

Some of the houses are gentrified –

And I love the ones that are not!

I love the Victorian detail along this veranda.

Some of the houses are hippy-fied – (I should mention there are a bunch of aging hippies who have descended on the town – lucky them!)

Some are quite grand!

Are you noticing that I am taking a lot of these pics while standing in the middle of the road??

If a car happens to come by – it just goes round you. No-one is in a particular rush to get anywhere fast. Imagine it, don’t you want to live somewhere like that for a while????

I fell in love with the sheer simplicity of these benches – I should imagine one of the pickers from Anthropologie would snap them up and replicate the hell out of them in a heartbeat!!

See the water in this sluice going down the side of the road? This is water from the spring coming down from the mountain. Each household is allocated a certain amount of water on an honour system. When its your day, you open up your little flap and fill your garden dam. That’s why people have such lovely gardens in such an arid region. This marvelous  old water system can be seen in many Cape towns that sit at the bottom of the mountains. Lovely!!

The town has lots of fun places to have lunch – this one is right over the road from our lodge –

Delicious home made fare and you can buy a beat up old door with the most fascinating blue patina while you’re about it!

In the afternoon we headed a couple of miles out of town to have tea with one of my oldest and dearest and craziest friends – Nicky. Our mum’s are great friends and we have know each other since we were about 10 years old – that’s a lot of years!!

Prince Albert looking back from the road to Nicky’s

Nicky is one of the most stylish, and eccentric – (and I say that in the most flattering way) people that I know. She went out to Prince Albert to help her daughter build this house, (its made of sandbags BTW) and couldn’t drag herself away. She lives here with her cats, in the boonies and totally loves it! So you see, no need to be lonely, I only need the hubbie and one crazy girlfriend so I’ll be set!

Here’s the view from Nicky’s washing line!

After tea, D and I went off exploring with our cameras behind Nicky’s house – the light was just exquisite – tell me people, do I look happy???

I was amazed to find delicate flowers growing in the dry and stony ground.

Nicky invited us to come back  to dinner the following evening – and meet her mysterious new neighbour!

Sitting around the table, drinking wine and eating the most wonderful, slow-cooked Karoo lamb, – is there anything more wonderful than catching up with old, dear friends?

The next day we headed out of town to see the fig farm that Charles had been banging  on about!

Farm gates, one of my photographic obsessions.

We were warned not to arrive at the fig farm at lunch time as it closes up, but of course we always have a problem with the rules!

All the farm workers were resting under the giant eucalyptus tree.

My mum was late for a date with an old girlfriend who lives in town – no cell coverage –  the  gracious owner of the farm, let my mum call from her phone…. then opened up the little shop for us, not even a hint of a grumble!

We bought a huge pile of figs, dried and fresh – but best of all were the ones D and I helped ourselves to right off the tree outside, warmed by the midday sun, a taste I will remember for a long time –

Emmie and the fig lady bonding

The tree outside that we plundered!

So peaceful, the fig drying tables in the afternoon sun

We had definitely arrived at nap time!

Late lunch back in town at one of favourite lunch spots:

Prince Albert Country Store

Delicious and so stylish!

The owner used to have a successful floristry business in Cape Town, she is an avid  gardener, could you guess??

Having lunch there is like eating in a little oasis. There’s an above ground pool I can love!!

While my traveling companions snoozed, I took myself off the explore the dairy at the top of the road – we had been nibbling on their cheese at all our food stops!

I’m dying for a lovely old barn….

Inside the cheese making operation was really quite impressive!

We woke on our last morning in Prince Albert, with collectively heavy hearts. None of us wanted to leave this hot and dreamy little town.

We decided to head home a different route – through another funny little town called De Rust. Do you love the bustling post office on a Monday morning??

My mad friend Nicky had told us we would get a lovely lunch at her pal’s restaurant – the Village Trading Post. I was not  at all convinced when we pulled up outside. Just the sort of hippy-dippy, slightly shabby looking place I usually avoid!! But in we ventured….

Still totally skeptical – I was trying to be nice about the interiors – there was a liberal use of angels, fairies and re-cycled materials – and then our lunch arrived –

-shockingly delicious!! And such friendly service, had to eat my words and my delicious lunch!

I did a quick tour of the gallery at the back, and pounced upon these little oils of battered old enamel bowls. We bought the pink one and its now hanging in our butlers pantry on my freshly painted Farrow and Ball ‘brinjal’ walls. I love the treasures that I bring back from my travels.

This is how they wrapped out painting and brought it to our table – the little sprig is an unusual fern type plant that the owner loves – he instructed us to put it in a pot of soil when we got home. My mum the gardener snapped it up – such a nice touch!

Leaving De Rust, the magnificent Swartberg Mountains lying there in all there glory.

Our journey home this route took us through very different countryside – I just love the colour of the ochre earth with the startling blue skies – we stopped a lot for photographs, my mum is oh so patient!!

Its taken me over a month to be able to go through all my photo’s and write this blog. You know what it feels like when its too sad to look at  the images after a magical time??

Anyway, its nice to remember in our crazy, busy days, that there’s a place where nothing changes, and nothing really happens. I am sure I can persuade my hubbie to one day buy me a little toy house there…..

And if you happen to be wandering around South Africa with a bit of time to spare, go visit Prince Albert, or any little town in the Karoo and you’ll see, those skies are that blue – absolutely no Photoshop involved!