Day 73: Exploring our Vineyard, Downtown Franschhoek

by Margaret · Published March 19, 2019 · Updated March 22, 2019

This morning Teddy was still under the weather, poor guy.

The Auberge Clermont property also includes a B&B, so there’s a breakfast buffet option (and daily housekeeping for our house!). Amazing combination of both worlds.

(Side note, back a few weeks when Willa was learning what “pros and cons” were, I had her write a list of pros and cons about staying in Airbnbs. One of the cons was “no bofay” as in no breakfast buffet. Ha!)

We chatted with a nice elderly British couple in town for a wedding, and the kids had about 50 trips to the modest buffet, cleaning the place out of yogurt/fruit compote, hard boiled eggs and Nutella. And making such a mess while at it. Really working on our sloppiness.

We skipped school that morning because of Teddy’s bug and I took the kids for a “nature walk” to explore the vineyard. Here’s Teddy convalescing on the porch:

Auberge Clermont is a working farm — vineyards, plum orchards and an olive grove. The farm is about 25 acres, majority of which is vineyard for Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, Shiraz and Merlot.

You can walk the full loop in about 30 minutes, longer if you’re looking for bugs and sticks as we were.

At one point we were moseying along a path when this truly ginormous German Shepherd came rounding a corner headed for us at a DEAD SPRINT. If I hadn’t read in the welcome book that some friendly dogs lived on the property I really would have fainted.

“Rusty” stopped right at our feet for a snoof. Turns out he is a *very* good boy. But he has a big problem with cars, trucks, wine tour trolleys and cyclists zooming by on the road along his property, and sprints up and down the dusty path trying to chase them (?) away.

As we continued on, we passed the owner’s house — and she came out to greet us. Lovely Angela had heard about us and our trip around the world, so we milled about her front yard for a while chatting while the kids threw sticks for her second dog, a chocolate lab named Pepper. A very good girl.

And there’s a third dog on the property! Stella, “the little one,” who’s a street dog from a nearby township. She’s two and her fave things is to chew lovingly on her mom Angela’s pant ankles at all times. “It’s quite a nuisance,” Angela told us. We thought it was adorable.

We eventually made our way back to the farmhouse to tell daddy allllll about Rusty and Pepper and Stella.

There’s a pond/fountain in our front yard that’s home to tadpoles and frogs, big and small. The kids are fascinated by it and have named a bunch of the new friends: Hidesy, Taddy, Friendly, Grandpa, Ding Dong, Figgy and some others…

There’s also a petanque court (?) adjacent to our house, and I Googled the rules. Willa and James played for a decent stretch.

Teddy mustered some additional strength to drive 1 km into town for lunch and grocery shopping, since he’s the left-hand driver in the fam.

Downtown Franschhoek could be downtown Santa Barbara. Truly surreal.

We ate at The French Connection, which was good.

We’re learning: Restaurant meals do NOT mean main courses for each person. Teddy and I shared a charcuterie/cheese plate and the kids shared fish sticks. It was PLENTY. Trying so hard not to waste food.

We stocked up at the grocery store. Getting the list down pat: milk, cereal, bread, PB&J, Nutella, bananas, OJ, tonic, limes, pasta, butter, pre-packaged heat-up oven pizza, lettuce for salad, cheese and crackers.

We rented some bikes for a continuation of practice.Our home base this week is the perfect spot for learning – flat dirt roads with no cars. We really feel like we’re soooo close and can’t lose the momentum.

So this afternoon Teddy took it easy while Willa, James and I went up and down a slightly sloping downhill road about a thousand times. The progress was really awesome to watch. From wobbly balancing down the hill and a few spills, to basically getting the hang of it for 10 ft at a time.

At dusk Angela and Pepper came by to check on us briefly. As she walked away, Willa said: “I wish she had stayed longer so we could have talked to her more.” Dawned on us then that our poor kids are really starving for human interaction. Looking forward to seeing more friends and family on the road, and made a mental note to make even more of an effort to find others along the way.

Random:

Noticed that they say both “bathroom” and “soccer” in South Africa.

Willa is completely and totally obsessed with the BFG. We’re on the final few chapters and she is just…enthralled. I catch her out of the corner of my eye listening and looking at the ceiling with a giant grin on her face.

There was a massive cyclone that hit Mozambique last Thursday — called one of the worst storms to hit Africa in decades. So far doesn’t look like it will impact our plans but keeping an eye on it. Very sad reports emerging.