The little town of Darling ( Or waylaid on the road to Rocherpan...)

Hello again everybody, and no you have not been deserted, it's been rather hectic, and I am trying to snatch a few quiet moments to fill you in on our sortie up the West Coast to see our famed carpets of spring flowers earlier this week. As mentioned in my last post, we decided to break with our usual day trip and picnic at Plankiesbaai in Postberg Reserve to overnight in the Rocherpan Reserve, making it a more leisurely trip. As the theory that your unborn babies will sleep through the night and eat all their vegetables eschewing all sugar coated offerings, this remained a completely theoretical idea.

We shut shop and set off bright and early on Monday morning, which was also supposed to be bright and beautiful and perfect for the opening of the flowers. It was, however, bitterly cold and overcast. Another debunked theory, even before we had begun. Not to be deterred, we motored up the R27 hoping things would clear up by the time we arrived there. Postberg Reserve only opens to the public between August 1 and September 30 for this annual floral display, so the window of opportunity is very limited. You can call the Flower Hotline on 071 3207146 or see their website www.capewestcoast.org just to be sure though.

Darling, the dear little town which Pieter Dirk Uys put firmly on the map with his Evita se Perron theatre was our first port of call. We chanced upon the Darling Museum in Pastorie Street, manned by Dianne le Roux, who dispensed information far beyond the walls of this utterly captivating museum to the many foreign visitors passing through there. She also told us about the Voorkamerfest which had taken place over the weekend. It sounds fabulous as a one-of-a-kind festival taking place in the front rooms of people's homes in the village, ranging from the grand to modest township homes, leaving everyone in suspense until each performance takes place. Great idea, and apparently very well supported, so book now for next year.  email:tasha@voorkamerfest-darling.co.za

For a modest R10 museum entrance fee we took a step back into our past, practically entering a time machine as we crossed the threshhold. I can't imagine where so many artefacts were sourced, but they have been imaginatively used to reconstruct scenes depicting the lives of citizens in days of yore. I wish I could have spent all day gazing at classroom scenes, medical equipment, the toys in children's bedrooms, right down to period books and magazines they read to the fox stoles their mothers would have worn on grand evenings out. The shed houses a fascinating collection of wagons and coaches, and all the stories I have read about trekking were brought to life seeing the wagon wheels and coach lights and imagining them traversing the terrain we had just covered. I would highly recommend a visit to the Darling Museum as it really lifts the dry and dusty image of museums to fascinating  new heights.  www.darlingmuseum.co.za

Thirsty work all this history and culture, and still not much promise of the flowers opening we were told, so we decided to pop in to a winery we had long wanted to visit along the road, namely Groote Post, whose Pinot Noir Mr SQ had previously admired. Aah, the joys of not having to rush back from the flower route for the school run we sighed as we drove into the farm, admiring the flower strewn fields at the entrance.

Here to be warmly welcomed by Wimpie, for a complimentary tasting of some of the finest and well priced wines around. We kicked off with The Old Man's Sparkle - a delightful MCC Brut Rose which is a definite for the wine fridge. We then tasted the first 2012's I've tried this year, which always thrills me, and across the board, Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnays both wooded and unwooded. Chenin Blanc, Weisser Riesling and The Old Man's Blend didn't fail to titillate our palates. 

In the true spirit of country hospitality, we got to meet the winemaker, Lukas Wentzel, who can't seem to put a foot wrong. Not only is he a wine maker par excellence, he is also a raconteur and generally nice fellow altogether, with none of the pretensions of some of the other winemakers we've met. When he and owner, Nick Pentz finally got to their sales meeting, we savoured the magnificent red selection before placing our order and getting back on the road. Hilda's Kitchen is apparently an excellent restaurant, but is only open from Wednesday to Sunday, so we were left with the option of finding a spot for our picnic lunch.
www.grootepost.com

Fate, as ever, played her wicked way with us, and we spied the Darling Brew sign just as we were leaving town. Ah sure, why not try the local beer too we wondered, specially as they had a board advertising lunch as well, and we were starving by this stage. Gloria served us a selection of their slow beers, the Bonecrusher being the best of the bunch we reckoned, with hints of coriander and orange peel. Decent tasting of four brews for R36, with an empty spot awaiting the famous Christmas beer, which reportedly has cinnamon and other festive spices. Beers and service were great, food less remarkable, but perhaps one should heed the advice of Kitchen Confidential and never eat out on Mondays.

www.darlingbrew.co.za

By this stage, we reckoned that bed weather called, and that we would try to see the flowers on our way back in the morning, and wended our way up to Rocherpan, which was a little further away than expected so glad we had taken some sustenance en route. We rather looked forward to reaching our destination and resting our weary wine and beer tasting bones! So much for the flowers en route, but manyana...zzz the flowers are sleeping!