FREEZING IN
WAKKERSTROOM – JULY 2009
Crispy, white summer sheets are amazing – but
not when the temperatures are below zero!
The Wakkerstroom weekend was a last minute decision…..
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When we booked our 17th wedding anniversary
holiday, we decided it had to be ‘right-on-the-beach’ and preferably the milder
Natal coast
area. A lovely chalet was found in Salt rock, but only from Wednesday, 29th July.
Debating over squeezing in a
‘low-budget-weekend-away’ or an expensive dinner in Johannesburg, we decided to
drive to Wakkerstroom on Friday, 24th July 2009.
Leaving Randburg at 3.30pm was not such a good
idea … driving an unknown road
instructed by our female GPS in the dark … not such a good idea.
With numerous trucks on pothole roads, we met
the owners, Hannes & Susanne van
der Walt, of the Glass Art Studio Guesthouse in Bethal at 6pm. We still had 134 km to go and it was getting
colder by the minute …
At 8pm, we stopped in front of the Wakkerstroom
Country Inn – it was already zero degrees!!!
Hein dropped me off to order dinner (except for our coffee machine, we
weren’t geared for self-catering), while he fetched the keys.
With a fireplace and green tea to warm me, I checked
the menu. Hein wanted something
hearty. Steak and kidney pie caught my
eye (I’m a poet and I don’t even know it
– ha ha). I dithered between a pasta
dish and a fish/prawn curry. And made
the wrong choice …
Hein’s dish was sublime! Hearty, robust and full of flavour. It came in a soup bowl topped with a small
pastry lid. It looked like the pastry
shrunk. My curry dish – for
R80-something – had 4 prawns, 4 small pieces of ‘monkfish’ and a tiny
saucer-full of curry sauce. With rice. Overpriced, under-delivered and
under-fragranced.
We stopped at the guesthouse after 9pm, with
the temperature below zero. No carport
or garage, so poor ole Rissiepit (our 4x4) had to brave it outside. Hein immediately lit the inside braai cum
fireplace with smoky results. While
unpacking, I’ve switched on the wall heater in our bedroom and closed the door
to keep some heat inside.
It’s a 4-bedroomed house with 2 bathrooms, for
R170/person/night. Susanne has the glass studio and several examples
decorated the house. The lounge has 1
chair, a 2-seater couch and a 3-seater couch – each one of them lazy boys. (Or kick-out-chairs). We moved the 2-seater couch in front of the
fireplace, kicked out the legs and watched the flames.
Noticing only 1 average thickness duvet on the
bed, I searched and found only 1 big blanket and 1 small blanket. Imagine if there were 8 people in the house
under those freezing conditions …
And then having to climb into bed between
freezing cold summer sheets. Do
guesthouse owners not consider things like that?
Saturday 25 July 2009
At 7am we awoke on Saturday morning. I looked through the window and saw frost on
the yellow grass. Pulled on a jersey and
sheepskin slippers (sooo glad I packed those) and walked outside with the
camera. My poor baby car … frost all over her! Hein pledged his love on her frosty window.
Getting ready for brunch in town, I took a
shower but warned Hein the spray wasn’t very good. Enough of a handyman for a shower head, Hein
unscrewed the head and with toothpicks cleaned the holes. He had a marvelous shower.
One of the owners breed with Arabic horses – we
did see horses with fluffy coats. Were
they Arabic? Don’t know.
From the farm road, we saw the whole of
Wakkerstroom. And then laughed when we
saw the outside informal settlement – almost bigger than the whole town. With a beautiful purple house amidst all the
other brown houses.
At the Farm Cheese Stall (a little house) we
stopped to have a browse. Bought some
wonderful dried wors (droëwors), saw more of Susanne’s
glass work, asked for a nice brunch spot and where the rugby would be
shown. And that’s where the
small-town-cuteness wore off a bit … because the locals are very vague in
directing you. And you drive and drive
through town, from the one end to the other, without finding the spot.
We decided on The Garret for brunch. A small coffee shop with high ceilings and
scrumptiously good coffee. Hein had a
beer and opted for the omelet. Probably
made with only 1 egg, it was so small.
He liked it though.
Their
breakfast menu is minute, so I had a choice between an omelet or ‘bacon,
cheese, egg & mustard scones’ – and made another poor choice. The scones were nothing spectacular – if I
didn’t see the bits of bacon, it would have been just an ordinary salty-ish
scone. But the raspberry jam was divine!
We located the spot for rugby - ‘De Oude
Stasie’ (Old Railway Station) outside town and went back to the house for a
nap. After 2 hours we lit the fire
again, read some and then I went to have a lovely shower. What a difference it was from my morning
shower.
Arriving at ‘De Oude Stasie’, we saw this funny
‘bicycle-tram’ contraception.
Good leg exercise. The big screen
was waiting for the game, the beers were cold and cheap and I had a most comfy
chair. I itched to read my book, but
with that particular crowd and no lighting in the room, I thought it best to leave
it in my handbag. And watched the
game. But I firmly refused to dine
there.
With the final whistle, we rushed to the car
and I started to phone around for dinner.
In Wakkerstroom’s newsletter a few mentions were made of ‘Xmas in July’
at local restaurants. First I tried the
Mucky Duck, but the owner closed the kitchen and was on her way home. Then I phoned the Country Inn, but they were
fully booked. Realizing we might have
made a mistake in not booking dinner, and dreading having to celebrate our
anniversary with crisps, chocolates & coffee, I was referred to The Bistro. They had a table for us.
Stopping outside The Bistro, I was first
confused to step outside to read the sign - which said ‘Metamorphosis
Studio’. And then we entered the inner
sanctum of gloriness!!
A lovely old house, doubling as art gallery and
restaurant. We entered the room and were
embraced in warmth, ambience and conversation.
A skeleton dragon hangs from the ceiling, 4 small dining tables close to
each other, a hearty fire, 2 lovely couples and Lizzie, the cook/owner, arty
with long earrings in the one ear, studs in the other. Xmas decorations tucked around statues and
big, fat red and green chillies on the tables.
And the menu …
For starters we had pickled herring with
olives, baby tomatoes, Wasabi mayonnaise and greens. Light, subtly flavoured and tasty. Conversations were flowing to and fro, while
my eyes flitted around the room to all the artwork. The whole atmosphere was too precious for my
camera. You will have to experience it
yourself.
Hein chose the fillet, flambéed with 3
different liqueurs, and loved it! I had
rabbit with chorizo sausage, beans and olives.
Robustly flavoured, soft and juicy.
Lizzy nearly had a fit when she took my plate – why didn’t I finish my
meal? Because I had to save some space
for dessert … she was happy.
The three dessert choices I can remember
were: Christmas bombe (fruitcake with
ice cream, I think). Nougat with
rose-flavored-yoghurt. The lady having
it was urging me to choose it. But from
the start my eye was on the 3rd choice: hot chocolate pudding with berries. And for the 3rd time in one night,
I made the right decision. Sublime!!!! Hein had a lovely bottle of red wine and we
toasted everyone, talked, laughed and had a most memorable evening.
Until we slipped in-between those darn sheets
again. Hein was soon fast asleep – I
tossed and turned, cold as anything.
Sunday 26 July 2009
Waking on Sunday morning, I was so tired. Hein made coffee and then we packed. Looking forward to a nice breakfast, we
thought we’ll skip Wakkerstroom and head to Volksrust for a Wimpy.
Heading to town, I squinted when I saw
something white and glistening next to the road. A water pipe had a hole in with a thin stream
of water bursting into the air – and it formed icicles in the grass. Nature’s own art gallery.
In
Volksrust, about 30 km from Wakkerstroom, we refueled and saw this absolutely
gorgeous explicitly explained notice:
The Wimpy was still closed, so we pushed on to
Standerton, another 70 km. I decided on
a cheese burger, no chips, milky coffee and Hein ordered the Dagwood. And for a few moments, I was totally blank
when he ordered it – I could just not picture what a Dagwood looks like …
When my
burger arrived, I squirted mustard & tomato sauce on the inside, lifted it
with both my hands and chomped.
Absolutely divine!!!! Exactly
what I wanted.
After
breakfast we headed back home … and to our cosy winter sheets.
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