When we left Lamberts Bay, we took some more gravel roads to slowly make our way back to Cape Town.
Somewhere halfway between Lamberts Bay and Piketberg we passed yet another massive solar installation: Paleisheuwel.
Getting closer to Piketberg we, once again, drove amidst the yellow rolling hills of endless wheat fields and we could see that harvesting was in full swing.
After a road side night stop between Piket Berg and Morreesburg, we continued with a detour via art town Riebeek Kasteel. It was a whirlwind little visit with a visit to Pictorex photography studio (always keen to learn from professionals and hoping to improve) and popped in at Short Street, a quirky little street with a few cool shops and eateries.
On the road section between Paarl and Franschhoek, we saw a road sign pointing to the Berg River Dam and decided to go and have a look.
That look became a 3-night stand. Seeing we were still hanging around in the Western Cape waiting for things for the truck, we might as well move around and see nooks and cranny’s and have R&R’s in beautiful spots.
As said, we decided to stick around for the next few days.
And that proved quite interesting:
- We had howling winds that made Trokkie rock, even when Stefaan had dropped the jacks to stabilize her. It made us realize how lucky we are with Trokkie, that we didn’t need to camp in a tent.
- We figured out that the spot seemed very popular with mountain bikers and romantic couples!
- And on the third day we had an unexpected bonus event: a whole team of sanitation, catering and film crew made themselves at home on the parking lot. When Stefaan couldn’t hold his curiosity any longer and went to chat to some of the guys, it seemed they were going to shoot an ad for a new VW bakkie.
After the third day we decided to go find a spot at another dam: the Theewaterskloof Dam. The only way to get there is via Franschhoek and the pass over the mountain. We had done half of the pass before (when we had met Armando) but this time around we would go all the way to the other side towards the dam.
The side we did before (up the hill out of Franschhoek) has beautiful vista’s over Franschhoek and the valley, but the other side (going down towards Theewaterskloof dam) is (in our opinion) much more beautiful. The mountains are rough and unspoiled with lots of lookout points. Unfortunately. Most of the time, the lookout points are dirty and strewn full of litter. It’s a pity!
When we eventually came out of the pass, we turned right over the Theewaterskloof Dam and took another small detour through the Vyeboom vineyards, before stopping for the night at a stretch of sand right next to the dam. Stefaan pulled out his culinary skills and fried good old Belgian style chips in a potjie, while I cooked the rest of the meal inside the truck.
We had a glass of wine on our ‘beach’ with an amazing sunset over the dam.
Just beautiful!
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Franschoek Pass and a dam or two