The Tractor adventure day

What a thrilling day we had today. We left the Bontebok Park at 8, after a quick drive though the park and then we set off to Montagu. Yet again the familiar road was like new when seen through the eyes of  the tourists. Once through Montagu we went along the Touwsriver road and up onto the Burgerspas. At the top of the pass we turned into the Protea farm for our Tractor ride up the mountain. I am not sure what I had in my mind about this ride, but it was not what I had expected. We all got onto the tractor or the trailer or the little "bankie " in front of the tractor or onto the back of the trailer. There must have been about 50 people all together. Other than our group, the rest were all local South Africans.
The first bit of the journey is along a jeep/tractor track, through the protea fields and as you get higher and higher the track gets narrower and then it is like 2 sement tracks up the mountain.  There are not exactly  any drop offs on the sides, however it feels mighhty tight if you are sitting on the side on the trailer. We had a photo stop where the 'omie" sort of just bundubash up a path. The views are spectacular as one overlooks the Koo valley. A little further along he stopped again and said that we are halfway and that we can walk for a bit if we wanted to. Well I walked the rest of the way up, which was great. At the top one can see just about the whole Boland and you are within spitting distance of Arangieskop. We then back tracked a little for a little Muscadel and dried fruit at the overnight hut if one was doing the hike to Arangieskop. Strange but welcome as we were warned that the trip down is hairy. Anyway the muscadel of the area is good stuff at the worse of times. Our visitors also enjoyed tasting all the unfamiliar things, like the local dried peaches. I swopped my " window seat" with Dick and the trip down was not so hairy as I could chatter about all sorts with Sam, who is a lovely lady and never short of  chatter, from making desserts to travel to anything else. She was a nurse and managed health care facilities. She reminds me of some other well connected family and friends.
Lunch was a feast to say the least. The starter was a bread table. There were 2 types of very home baked bread, with jam, vetkoek and vetkoek "sticks". Mains were 3 different potjies, Beef curry, chicken and waterblommetjiebredie. Also soet patats and pampoen. The best was the groups response to all this. They could not stop talking and eating and trying all the different new things. We even got left over take aways of the bread and the vetkoek. We walked the long 700 m back to our vehicles and that was much needed exercise. A afternoon nap was high on the priority list, however we had to get to Oudtshoorn before dark and the shops closed. Some to get provisions for the next few days and me to get Champagne for my birthday on Friday. Nogal a challenge in Oudtshoorn. Lots of JC Le Roux and very little proper stuff.
Tonight we are in Kleinplasie, which must be one of the best caravan parks in SA.