Wegbreek Weskus Vakansie

Skemertyd op St. Helenabaai

Just south of Piketberg we took Route 399 west towards Velddrif and the Atlantic Ocean. Two months prior to our visit we rented a house on the beach in St. Helena Bay where we met up with M’s brother and sister and their spouses for a 4 day family reunion. It was lazy days and long evenings of sightseeing, braais (BBQs) goods eats, tasting local wines, walks on the beach and exploring the peninsula. En gesels en gesels… catching up after not seeing each other for many years. It has been 7 years since I last visited South Africa.

 Club Mykonos

Ah, just to be next to the sea again. For most of the time the bay was unusually calm, protected by dolosse and the lay of the land. You could hardly hear and seldom saw breaking waves. Only after the 3rd day, late in the evening, long after midnight, after everyone already went to bed, while I was sitting outside, alone, sipping on a brandy, smoking a cigarette and making notes on my Blackberry, did I hear the breaking of the waves, sometimes accompanied by the squealing of sea birds. It was spring tide that night and every now and then I would see a flashlight from someone out on the beach trying to secure his small boat against the rising high tide. On this stretch of beach, known as Hannasbaai, between the fisherman’s harbor in the northwest and some ruined buildings and the stone foundations of a long-gone jetty in the southeast the beach was sort of secured so people left their small dingies and kayaks on the beach, just outside the reaches of the high water level. But that night, with high tide moving in, more secured measures were required to tie them down.

Die Winkel op Paternoster

One of the days we traveled to Club Mykonos near Langebaan, blew some money at the casino and I had an excellent lunch of mussels in a garlic and white wine sauce in a restaurant at the waterfront. On another day we visited the quaint fisherman’s village of Paternoster with its tiny white houses and colorful boats on the beach for a light lunch in the local hotel. This is lobster country and there we purchased 40 Cape lobster tails and that evening we braaied them, and together with garlic bread and several salads we ate like kings and drank Graca Rosé and although I am not a great lover of Rosé wines, I must admit the wine was a perfect pairing for the rich seafood, not sweet, no hint of heavy acidity, just a perfect balance. I contributed by making a pre-dinner guacamole dip and a Middle Eastern inspired couscous salad.

Koningskos - Kaapse Kreefsterte en Knoffelbrood

During the trip through the Boland we never visited any wine estates, that was still to come, but while we were in St. Helena Bay with all the braaing and eating taking place there were ample opportunities to savor some of the local wines and I especially enjoyed the slightly wooded Chardonnays from Darling Cellars and Durbanville Hills and the Shiraz from Thelema.

Maar alle goeie dinge kom tot ‘n einde en ons moes weer terug keer Kaapstad toe. Die wegbreek vakansie binne ‘n vakansie en die familie reunie was baie lekker en genotvol. Dit het goed gevoel om weer my kop te kon lig en die Suiderkruis te sien, om weer die Suidooster gevul met seelug te kon voel en proe op jou lippe, om weer die klemtone en die grappe uniek aan Afrikaans al rondom jou te kon hoor eggo. Dit was heeerlik om weer te kon smul aan Karoo skaaptjops en Grabouw boerewors gebraai op hout kole, en om weer kreef te kon eet (snoek was nêrens te vinde). Saans soos dit skemer geword het en die son agter die horison verdwyn het, en die vuur in die braaiplek sy kole begin maak het, en die flou branders op die strand uitgespoel het, was dit heerlik om te kon uitkyk oor die baai, te sit en sip aan ‘n Kaapse wyntjie en die dorpsliggies van Velddrif en Dwarskersbos in die verte te sien en die kaleidoskoop van die Weskus in my geheue te versteen.

Kreef bote op Paternoster Strand

Paternoster se kenmerkende huisies

St. Helenabaai - Die paadjie see toe