Velddrif – Langebaan short excursion

The wind was horrific the past few weekends in Suiderstrand, and after a few wind-swept days in Stellenbosch too, we decided to look for a place where there will be NO wind over the weekend. Fortunately the forecast looked good for one of our favourite places, Velddrif. Kuifkopvisvanger is situated right on the Berg river, and one of our favourite places to go with Cinzi. Rustic, lots of birds, cows in the meadow and flowers in spring time…

When in Velddrif you need to go to Bokkomlaan and explore all the little shops, restaurants, and small bokkom-shops … We had a beer and chips at Die Vishuis! Always had good food here, friendly people AND pet-friendly 🙂

And then we booked in at the Lepelaar cottage at Kuifkopvisvanger and had the most lovely views on the river from the stoep. You don’t have to go anywhere if you don’t want to, you can see most birds from the stoep… We had a little bit of an “encounter” with the cows and more specifically two bulls. As we walked along the gravel road, we suddenly encountered the small herd of cows, there were two bulls (one young) and they were playing with each other, but we were very scared that Cinzi will start to bark and they will storm us, so had to do some bundu bashing to dodge them. I am very afraid of bulls, had a few nasty encounters way back as a child when we stayed on a farm, so I will always try to dodge them anyway…

I love to photograph flamingoes and it seems there were a population boom since we have been in Velddrif. 100’s and 100’s of flamingoes everywhere. Previously we kayaked often in the region and it is quite thrilling to come close to them to photograph them. This time it wasn’t needed for the kayak to come close, since there were lots of flamingoes close to the shore in front of our chalet. Our kayak days are in any case over for now, since Cinzi came along 5 years ago, we don’t like to do trips or outings without her … spoiled brat! 🙂

Sunday morning I got up to photograph the sunrise from the window, just by putting my cell phone outside the window and pressed the button without seeing anything (without contact lenses). The result was brilliant. Cinzi was suddenly wide awake and wanted to explore very early, so we also got up, made coffee and saw the next phases of the sunrise from the stoep. The water was like a mirror and the colours changed every now and again, so I just snapped away. And then the fog came in… The results below 🙂

And then we already had to head back and decided to drive past Langebaan, also to see if there were some flowers left. It was a wonderful wild flower season this year and even early October it was still beautiful.

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This weekend was an absolute treat! And we should more often abandon our Suiderstrand home and explore other places again…

Keep Ithaka always in your mind.

Arriving there is what you’re destined for.

But don’t hurry the journey at all.

Better if it lasts for years,

so you’re old by the time you reach the island,

wealthy with all you’ve gained on the way,

not expecting Ithaka to make you rich.

Excerpt from “Ithaka” by Constantine P. Cavafy