2009-09-26 – Route 62 - from port to port

Yay! We finally found out how to open an ostrich egg! We watched as one of the ladies at Backpackers Paradise used a stone to weaken the top of the egg, slowly grinding a hole into it. She then used a knife to complete making a proper hole. Next, she just shook the contents of the egg into a bowl, and then did the preparations to make the scrambled eggs that would be our breakfast. (Um no, we did not eat a whole ostrich egg.)

Ostrich egg is very rich and flavorful, and über-tasty, with a texture very unlike chicken eggs. Our scrambled egg was served with bacon, tomato, and toast.

After breakfast, we checked out and drove out to an ostrich safari farm, where we just went to the gift shop to buy ostrich leather goods. Ms. Penguin bought a purse, two wallets, and some credit card holders, and Mr. Penguin bought a belt, a credit card holder, and a keyring. Expensive stuff, but hey... it's kind of special stuff that would cost at least 3 times as much at home.

After shopping, the car's RoF was whining about needing to be fed, so we went to an Engen station to feed it with a tasty unleaded 95 octane, and then we all headed out to Calitzdorp. Calitzdorp is the port capital of South Africa, and regular wine is produced as well.

Along the road, we saw quite a few tortoises, and even stopped to pick one of them up from the road, to put it on the side of the road, in order for the poor little thing to not become roadkill...

Our first visit was to Calitzdorp Wines, where we tasted a lot of their goodies. They had a lot of really nice wines (as opposed to what we tried in 2007), and ended up buying a chardonnay (almost got the Sauv. blanc, but the chardonnay was slightly better) and a shiraz.

The next stop was De Krans. Their regular wine was only so-so, but they had a wonderful tawny port; it had a beautiful apricot color and was very flavorful. We just had to buy a bottle of it! At R60, it was excellent value for money.

The final stop was Boplaas. Their regular wine was also only so-so, except for a sparkling Pinot Noir brut (2009):
color: salmon/trout pink
nose: raspberry drops (hard candy), Kool-Aid
palate: dry, refreshing, lots of tiny, crispy bubbles. Flavor of raspberries and love hearts (this Norwegian candy). Great wine as an aperitif alone or with canapes, or with strawberries. This was a very different kind of bubbly. It was very nice.
grade: :-D

We also tried their port wines and ended up buying a bottle of their flagship port; we're going to bring this back home :-D We also bought a little bottle of some generic port for enjoying at some point during this trip, as well as some dried fruit.

So it was back on the road, and our next destination was a rather (in)famous haunt called Ronnie's Sex Shop. The place is, well, special. It's owned by a guy called Ronnie, and was originally a sort of general store. Ronnie's Shop. Then one day, probably after a very drunken evening, some of Ronnie's friends painted “sex” on the shop wall. So it became Ronnie's Sex Shop. Of course Ronnie was upset about this at first, but in the end, he milked it for what it was worth, and the place is now a pub and café (Road Kill café). The décor in the pub is rather, um, interesting. If you haven't been there or know of its reputation, you'll have to wait for the photos. Otherwise, there's a geocache inside the pub. We traded a Norwegian puffin with a little plastic lizard; photos to come.

The Penguin RoFs really wanted food by then, so it got food. From the Road Kill Café. Mr. Penguin got a (roadkill?) burger, while Ms. Penguin got a broccoli quiche.

After our meal, we continued driving, and drove along some very beautiful mountain landscapes. However, we were both getting very tired, and Ms. Penguin even dozed off a bit. When we arrived at Montagu, we found a charming little tea house where we had coffee (!!!) and cake; Ms. Penguin had the chocolate mousse cake and Mr. Penguin had the cheesecake. Both cakes were delicious, but very rich – a bit of a match for the Penguin RoFs.

By then there was really nothing left to do except drive on to Robertson Backpackers (OK, with a stop in between to take photos of a very beautiful mountain pass), where we will be spending the next three nights. When we arrived, it was somewhat chaotic; there were lots of people there! The braai was already fired up, so after we got our stuff into our room, we headed out to a nearby Pick 'n' Pay to buy some boerewoers for the braai, plus some salad to go with it. We also bought a big package of strawberries; 1 kg for 30 Rand!

So that was dinner – woers and salad and some Windhoek. And of course, as expected, Roxy (one of the house dogs) was veeeery interested in our food. Poor girl; she has developed a grass/lawn allergy recently and has to go on steroid medication for it. One of the side effects is that she is more interested in food than usual. She observed Mr. Penguin cooking the woers on the braai, and of course connected him with food. When we were eating, she was sitting patiently by Mr. Penguin's feet, looking at him with huge, hungry, “I'm starving to death here” brown eyes.

Now we're sitting at the table, drinking our bubbly and nibbling on strawberries. Life is good. Again.