Traffic and a Rickety Bridge

Back to base. Friday.

We’ve had a long run today. Starting at the elegant Mardouw Country House quite near to Swellendam, we travelled through Ashton, where the Koo canning factory is obviously working at full capacity processing the tons of fruit now ripening in Robertson’s orchards.

In spite of the week’s searing heat the roses lining Robertson’s main street were as glowingly bright as ever as we scooted past.

In Worcester we left the main road and headed south toward Villiersdorp., then West along the shores of the Theewaterskloof dam, past the charred areas ravaged by last month’s fires, then down the spectacular winding pass into the pretty Franschhoek valley.

The sign at the entrance to Franschhoek has some letters missing, so it welcomed us to Frans hhoe.

As we puttered through the town I found myself thinking yet again that the people of Franschhoek obviously put a lot of energy into being more French than France.

The signs are full of haute this and clos that – vignes, monts and Dieus, Provence and petit everything.

Still, it makes a change from the usual Kerkstraat and Hoofstraat of most country towns, I suppose.

Rickety Bridge wine estate has developed into a popular stop-over, with an elegant wedding and conference venue and generous picnics in the vineyard.

A nice touch is offering wine pairings with your picnic. A neat rack holding three different Rickety Bridge wines is brought with your  picnic basket. Each tasting glass is labelled with the name and a description of the wine and a recommended food partner.

The sauvignon blanc proved a perfect partner to the fresh asparagus, while the delicious dry rosé tasted good with everything.

To add to he Frenchness of it all, there’s a neat boule court laid out among the vines to keep the adults occupied while the kids enjoy the swings and jungle gym on the lawn.

Then it was on to Stellenbosch, where they have the worst traffic jams of any town in the entire Western Cape.

Trying to drive through the town anywhere close to 5pm is simply a nightmare.

They have traffic officers along the route, directing the flow.

But there’s just no flow. It has often taken me half an hour to pass through the town.  Today was as bad as ever, even on two nimble wheels.

Don’t they know about traffic engineers in Stellenbosch?

We did make it through the town eventually, and scooted gratefully along the edge of  False bay, where the first weekend anglers had already cast their lines into the waves and hopeful gulls wheeled overhead hoping for handouts.

And so home to cats, laundry and a familiar bed for the weekend.

We ride again on Monday.