We left on Saturday morning - headed out of town on the coast road - in the rain. First stop, The West Coast National Park on Langebaan Lagoon. The park, home to one of the world's most important wetland areas, hosts thousands of bird species and is a hot spot during the wild flower season - which runs fro
m August - Sept. After an hour's drive through the park, all we spotted were a few flowering ice plants (which Alex immediately wanted to stop the car so she could pull them out– a habit gained from working with Return of the Natives back home:), a couple of stunning herons and their nests, and some very tall, long-necked wild ostriches (which quickly distracted our wild flower search). Seems like the wildflower season is starting late this year - but there's always next weekend.
As we continued our drive north, Maya was struck how the landscape began to look like what she imagined Ireland to be – green, low rocky hills with patchworks of cultivated fields and grazing sheep! We finally arrived at the Potanaster Hotel in the late afternoon. When we went to check in, we found that seemed like the whole town inside a smoke-filled room, with beer mugs in hand, watching the big rugby match against Australia! Needless to say, Seth wanted to hang around and catch the rugby buzz, but the rest of the family wasn't convinced...
A cloudy afternoon on Potanaster beach
We called to touch base with Ah!, and Arnold,the co-owner/chef told us to come for dinner at 7:30pm. When we asked if we could come a little earlier (South Africans eat a later dinner than the Pollacks), he explained that all the guests eat together at the same time. Well, at the end of the road, on a quiet beach, we found Ah!. We walked into a small, thatch-roofed building where in front of a large roaring fireplace was a long, wooden table, with lit candles down the center, places set for 14 guests. At the other end of the warm, cozy room was a simple kitchen - open to the dining area. To shorten the story of a 3 hour, 3-course dinner, we had a wonderfully delicious dining experience! Arnold prepared each course with such thoughtfulness and taste. He welcomed the girls to the table, and they held their own so gracefully in the company of adults. The food, the wine, the conversations, the music - it was all stunningly perfect. We'll remember that evening for a long time to come!
The skies were a little clearer on Sunday morning. While we ate our white toast and cold cereal in the hotel dining room, listening to Afrikaans folk music, we couldn't help but think of the guests at Ah! We packed up, and headed south back to Cape Town.
We stopped at a smaller nature reserve in hopes of getting a peek of some of the season's flowering bulbs, b
ut still no luck. Definitely have to have another look in a few more weeks. where are those wildflowers??
Continued south and made a lunch stop at another small village named Darling. Although we quickly agreed that the town was aptly named, we later learned that the town was named after Mr. Darling, a Canadian who was a lieutenant governor of the Cape in the early 1800's. The real beginnings of the town dated back even earlier - to the late 1600's - followed by the successful Afrikaan dairy farmers, the Swedish butter makers, and the Lithuanian Jewish merchants. During our tour in the Darling Museum, we also discovered that the Duckitt family, originally from England, settled in Darling in the 1800's and still have descendants living there today. You see, we're moving next week to a house on Duckitt Ave and in case you might be wondering “who was Duckitt?”, well now we know! The street today was part of William Duckitt’s farm. He was an inventor of new and improved farming equipment and the first Duckitt in South Africa!
As we drove into Cape Town, we were welcomed by the view of Table Mountain. We all took note of its striking beauty in the afternoon light. It was good to be back home in its shadow.
