Up the West Coast to Piketberg

The West Coast of South Africa is our favourite place, probably on the planet earth, although I might have to rethink that as we haven’t been everywhere on the planet earth. Yet. I just need a bit more time…

We had a boat in Port Owen, Velddrif, in 1994 and spent 3 incredible months there and met wonderful people, some of whom we are still friends with. You’ll meet Winston and Antoinette later on at the end of our South African adventure, so just be patient. We fell in love with the area and I was teary-eyed when we left to return to Europe. But let’s not dwell on the parting as for all intense and purpose, we’ve just got here!

We visited the old harbour we stayed at – too much progress, bring back the old I say – and the nearby village of Laaiplek we so often frequented – nothing changed there at all, well done folks! We bought our catamaran and then learnt to sail with the help of Willem and our awesome friends, Winston and Antoinette. (See paragraph above)

After Velddrif we travelled up to Saldanha Bay and then from there we decided to travel inland through the Cederberg Mountains. I know the coastal area well, so we decided to take the road less travelled and headed inland. We were not disappointed.

We spent the night just before the mountain range started at a tiny place called Wittewater just outside Piketberg. I tried to book through Airbnb, but they were having difficulty understanding my lack of computer skills and the booking just would not go through! Stupid them…or was it…no, couldn’t be. Anyway, we are not that stupid and were able to find the Farm anyway and Erica and Gerhard were kind enough to take us in.

Fortunately, I’d read on the website that there was a gentle giant of a dog on the premises and I was glad to have read this, because one of the biggest dogs I have ever seen came to eat us, I mean, greet us. Ben is an adorable enormous Boerbull who is sooooo sweet in spite of his huge size. I still wouldn’t attempt to break in mind you.

We had a lovely meal at the Spur in Piketberg – I had ribs and Joerg had a T-bone steak, purely because he wanted to take the bone back for the dog. We wanted to be really sure that he was friendly! Piketberg also has a beautiful neo-Gothic 1880 church by Carl Otto Hager. Who is he, you ask? A German architect who in the late 1880’s designed many churches in South Africa. Clever me!

The best part for us, however, was meeting Erica and Gerhard, their son (sorry, just gone blank on your name!) and the beautiful Ben. If you need a place to stay, stay there as they are kind and informative about what there is to do in the area. (Find them at Airbnb Wittewater Farm, Piketberg) Thank you for having us and see you again sometime! They told us to go to Wuppertal and we did, so that adventure will soon follow on these pages…