South African Road Trip

Perfect timing. Last night I had the best restaurant dish since I’ve been here. Seared Tuna edged with sesame seeds, a huge amount of sliced ginger on a bed of salad and cherry tomatoes with Balsamic vinegar plus some sliced pineapple and a few other tasty bits thrown in. I topped up the salad with even more Balsamic and it was delicious, far more than I was expecting all for a bargain price. Dulcenea had the mini (that was by no means mini) burger with salad. Looked great too.
Including a very nice bottle of Chinon blanc total price £29!!!
They got a very good tip.

 

Bunny chow? Salad?

 

My homage to Ansel Adam’s the great American landscape photographer. He used to go out with huge plate cameras and wooden tripods and take photographs like this.

Yosemite circa 1937
Yosemite being another place on my list that I’ve long since wanted to visit. I’ll have to get myself over there.

This is my tribute.
Drakensberg Mountains 2023

 

I’ll check it out.

 

Headed up to Franschoek yesterday. Left before 6am and stopped off for breakfast
in the Wilderness. Dramatic views.

 

You know you’re in a fancy place when you’re walking along and some guy pulls up in a 1961 Ferrari California Spyder and parks it at the side of the road. James Coburn owned one for many years and at one time it was auctioned off as the most expensive car in the world. Of course it’s the kind of car you would use when you’re popping out for dinner on a Friday evening, wouldn’t you.

We were walking right by and had it not been for his Mrs looking at us expectantly in a self satisfied way I would have stopped and checked it out. I surprised myself by knowing exactly what it was, instantly. It was bonkers as I’ll probably never get so close to another in my life but we didn’t even break our step.

As we walked away I said I was disappointed by the sound of the engine and the sound of the door. It just didn’t sound like $10million dollars should do mainly because now they’re apparently $18m!!! And it didn’t sound like that either. We kept walking and I began to wonder if the driver was the owner of the Franschoek Motor Museum. It has been another grey drizzly day and Dulcinea came up with the idea of going to said motor museum. I didn’t even know it existed and I wasn’t going to object, better than shopping and I didn’t want to get pissed going around wine farms. ( I hate the term Wine Farm, why can’t they call them Vinyards? I don’t make the rules though).

So we went to the museum which was interesting but they could have and should have had more info on the provenance of each car. They listed manufacturing details but absolutely no history. Anyway it was interesting but I have to say nowhere near as interesting as the Malaga car Museum. That is worth getting on a plane and making a special trip to see, especially as the owner is threatening to move it to the States.

All the way over here and there’s this sign on the wall originating 15 or 16 miles from where we live now. How weird is that.



Nice Bugatti type 23 and the specially built version for Bugatti’s son.

This had real presence. I could add one of these to the collection.


Dulcinea says I can have a collection like this. Then I can have as many as I like. Which is an idea that I like but I also like the big ones too.


This 1938 was fantastic. Nowonder Adolf and friends used to like parading around in them. Why can’t manufacturers build cars with a bit more panache nowadays.


Recognise the logo? An amalgamation of DKW and Auto Union.


I had one of these in red. A 1964 1/2 convertible, it was immaculate and I bloody well sold it.



Doesn’t need explanation.



1960 Chevrolet Corvette, designed by Harley Earl. The first American sports car, surprisingly it’s fibreglass. I saw one of these at the classic car show in Birmingham last November. It was instant love and my god it’s calling me. Shite wheels on this replica though and it’s too low.



This was interesting, 1956 Aston Martin. I wondered how I’d never seen one before but apparently there were only three built. That might explain it.
Beautiful car and strangely not unlike the aforementioned 1961 Ferrari.

So many cars, so many motorbikes, so little time.

 

Plettenberg to Franschoek. 488km.

Well, well, well, high praise indeed. Thank you very much and I’m glad you’re enjoying it.
Two things I want to do in the States;
1.As previously mentioned I’ve long since wanted to tour Yosemite.
2.Early in the year, around about March I think, Eagle rider do a deal where you can take a bike from
Florida and ride it to Los Angeles. Basically because most people do it the other way and they end up with surplus bikes in Florida. Sounds like a good ride to me, I’m thinking about it for next year but wondering what the weather will be like.

 

Thanks, glad you’re enjoying it too. You’re absolutely right Gandalf, we came in over the pass stopping to take in the spectacular view over Franschoek. I’m glad we did because there would have been no view yesterday or today because of the weather.

Today is the final leg back to Cape Town but we’ve allotted four days to go and see things. We’re meeting our South African friends there again so I’m sure there’ll be more instalments to come. It’s never enough time but we do need to save things for next time and given it’s such a lovely place and 22 Rand to the £ as of yesterday, why wouldn’t you want to come back?

 

When we were staying in the Cavern in the Drakensberg Mountains I went into their wine cellar to choose a bottle of wine for the evening meal. I like Merlot, which in our house is always incorrectly pronounced Mertalott because our son mispronounced it when he was aged about five. So ever since it’s always been said that way.

My mind and memory is very visual so my memory for names is appalling. I looked at their selection and I had no idea which one to go for. I noticed there was one that was very depleted, in fact there were only two bottles remaining. I crossed my fingers, hoped that meant it was good and therefore popular.
What a result, I can tell you, to our taste buds the Longridge 2019 Merlot was fantastic. I went back for the last bottle the next day and it wasn’t a fluke. So today we’re detouring via the wine estate. I’ll pick up a few bottles for our friends and consumption before we go back but I’m also going to ask if they’ll ship a case or two for me. It was £11-£12 in the hotel which for something that good was incredible value. It’ll be interesting to find out what they charge for it at the winery, wine farm, fuck it why can’t they call it Vineyard, or Vignoble, not only does it sound better it’ll taste better.

If they will ship it, let’s hope it tastes the same by the time it gets to England because if they don’t, I’ll be drinking cheap shite from Sainsbury’s again.


I’ve just been told I’ve got to get up, which is just as well because if I hadn’t been told I’d never have known.

Onwards.

 

Confess, your real name is Elon not Euston.
I understand you refuse to sell your cars in South Africa. Understandable with ‘load shedding’.