Victoria Falls at home

No picture at this stage. There was no time. During yesterday's morning the normal rain turned into a major down pour. Large amount of water tried to squeeze into the gullies and storm-water pipes, but it was too much and it start running over onto the paving and down hill. Oude Wellington is at the bottom of its own little valley and the water follows gravity towards the buildings. The force is so destructive and fast one has to see to believe it. Murphy's law applies so the main drainage pipe blocked soon as many leaves packed into it and found ingrown roots from a nearby tree to hang onto. The result was a flooded restaurant kitchen and a ballistic chef throwing a tantrum as only chef's can do. Our brave and wet workers Mervin, Gert and Hendric managed to clear the ingrown roots from the pipe and eventually the stress was over and all water went downstream less violently and we were left with cleaning up the mess left behind. One needs lots of water to clean properly but you need even more water to make it a real mess.

Winter Time

What are we doing at the moment besides hiding with a glass of red wine in front of the fireplace? On Oude Wellington we are busy with fencing as our neighbour is bringing in sheep to graze on some of the land to keep vegetation low as a fire prevention for the coming season. Sheep arn't the brightest of animals and love to stray away getting into trouble in dongas (deep furrows) and other places of no return. The last few weeks not much else had happend besided the sad story of one of our workers was caught stealing and a dear friend Hannes Adendorff died just last Saturday drowning in a river. He was a skilled thatcher and sole breadwinner of a very large family and employer to many other folks of the area around Bredarsdorp. He will be missed and the tragedy will touch many families
Not easy to lead over to happier events after this one, so here it is. The Country Life magazine published a long article about the Cape Brandy Route including us with a picture of the Oude Wellington kitchen in full page format. If you like you can click here.
The winter rains have come in long and strong with the usual erosion of good soil and blocked drain pipes. It rained into my office and my landrover (but that is part of the Landrover experience).
We started a competition for all wine buyers: one weekend for two on Oude Wellington for wine purchases over 200Rand. For every 75 entries there is a draw. So take the chance and pop in, maybe it is your treat next week.
Todays picture is the proof of Sydney cooking.