Mon 3 Dec, 2018. Day 365
Camping at Stettyn Cellar, 16 km from Villiersdorp
Distance 97 + 20434 = 20531
Average 12.6
Time 7 h 42 m
Location S33.870301, E19.36704
Packed up while throwing the tiny rubber rugby ball to Flash. I gave her the name as she’s super quick and bright as a button. On the road by 7 am but the roadworks between Montagu and Ashton is still ongoing. In actual fact, we heard that the contractor has gone into liquidation and rumour has it that the government hasn’t paid them. So it was stop go but we were given the green light to ride right through … just had to give way when the road wasn’t wide enough for bicycles and cars.
The dreaded wind didn’t play nicely today and we battled head winds the whole day, not fun at all. I just concentrated on the tar in front of my front wheel. We stopped to visit Austin and Jenny who live in Robertson for tea and yummy hot cheese muffins. We also bought two sweet melons from a local farmer who does his rounds selling his produce to folk living in housing complexes. Next stop was PnP for supper ingredients so only left Robertson just before noon. We knew reaching Villiersdorp wasn’t going to happen today and decided not to fight the wind and took it easy.
The road between Robertson and Worcester was almost as busy as the N2 with a few cowboys overtaking cars with traffic approaching, quite hair raising. After riding about 60 km a Landcruiser stopped ahead and five people got out to chat. Alexander P van Heeren of Grand Provence Wine Estate chatted for a bit, gave us a bottle of wine and invited us for lunch at the estate’s restaurant tomorrow. This winery and restaurant is rated up there with some of the best in South Africa, so picture Peter and I in our scruffy mangy looking clothing and more than likely smelling rather like two polecats?
Not even one km further Peter realised that he’d lost his right front brake pad … fortunately it came off close to where we were chatting to Alexander. Next stop was at 15h30 at ‘Die Pampoenstalletjie’ (The small pumpkin stall) where stacks of pumpkins of all varieties were on displsy outside the farm stall. Inside candles were lit as loadshedding was on. We got chatting to Didier and Penny who owns a travel company called Soul Traveller Tours. The two of them were checking out hotels on Route 62 going up as far as Montagu. Penny has a friend in CT who makes panties with cycle padding especially for ladies who cycle. I’d like to buy a pair and try it out.
We finally got off the busy road and headed in the direction of Villiersdorp. For the first time we got turned down by a farmer when we asked if we could camp on his lawn, but we got to Stettyn Cellars 9 km towards Villiersdorp and Albie Treurnicht has made our camping here tonight a very pleasant one. He unlocked the tasting room and has given us the use of the kitchen and we can use the loo and basin (with hot water) in the cottage annexed to the tasting room. The cottage is currently used to store wine. We chatted to Albie for an hour or so and he opened a bottle of Stettyn’s ‘double gold winner’ white wine for us to have with Peter’s chicken and peanut butter dish he created for supper. I was surprised to hear that Albie’s mom was manageress of the Foschini store in Paarl, she passed on about ten years ago aged 88. Albie told us that there well known artist, Dale Elliot, previously from Knysna, now living in Villiersdorp is seriously ill.
We plan to pop in at his gallery tomorrow as we have a number of his paintings. It’s 22h30 and I haven’t washed yet so I’ll end off here. Night all xx
– Beautiful Montagu mountains
– Austin and Jenny Roberts
– Alexander P van Heeren of Grande Provence Wine Estate, Franschhoek
– Die Pampoenstalletjie on the road between Robertson and Worcester
– View from Stettyn Cellar
– Stettyn Cellar’s wine tasting building
– Albie Treurnicht, winemaker at Stettyn Cellar
