I've been itching for another road trip ever since our 5,000 mile jaunt across the U.S. last year. (To say nothing of the fact that I haven't been on a plane in over a year, which is the longest plane-less stretch I've had in 20 years. But I'll get my plane trip later this month.) So naturally, when I had an opportunity to go to a conference in Cape Town, a mere 1,000 miles from home, we decided to drive. Lest you think we are totally crazy, we are taking 3 days to do it.
Here we are, car all packed and ready to leave a little after 8 this morning.
We started the journey in the kind of thick fog that often sweeps through the Swazi highlands. Not being able to see more than 30 feet in front of your car gets even more dramatic when you frequently pass pedestrians walking on the thin shoulder, let me tell you. Thankfully the fog disappeared as we dropped down into the lowveld. After the first hour or so on the road it was new territory for us, and the land reminded us quite a lot of the US Midwest. Wide plains with fields and an abundance of velvety brown cows, windmills and grain elevators, an enormous sky. Except for the African huts, and occasional guinea fowl by the side of the road, you wouldn't know you weren't in the Midwest.
At lunch time we stumbled upon a gem of a restaurant. (You'll see how much I liked it by how many pictures I post!) Coming into a small, rather non-descript town, we saw a frilly pink sign for a restaurant called French Toast, and the word "French" in the title was enough for me. We found it next to a store called Mad Price Fashion Shop...
With the occasional town.
I love empty hours in a car with nothing to do but look out the window, contemplate life, listen to music (a little Over the Rhine, a little Bach, a little U2), and discuss with Joel questions like whether our kids will like U2, or consider them to be old fogey music. (This thought makes us sad.) Of course, there was also a fair amount of staving off toddler tantrums by reaching behind me to offer William objects that I hoped would prove entertaining for a few minutes, or to tickle small feet, or to bribe him with cereal (which always works until we run out of cereal). Cassia obligingly decided to sleep the whole six hours we were in the car today. William was a little on the crotchety side, but that could be because we forgot to change his diaper all day long. (Yay, us.)
In late afternoon we started to climb again, towards the town on the Lesotho border that was our destination.
Here we are, car all packed and ready to leave a little after 8 this morning.
We started the journey in the kind of thick fog that often sweeps through the Swazi highlands. Not being able to see more than 30 feet in front of your car gets even more dramatic when you frequently pass pedestrians walking on the thin shoulder, let me tell you. Thankfully the fog disappeared as we dropped down into the lowveld. After the first hour or so on the road it was new territory for us, and the land reminded us quite a lot of the US Midwest. Wide plains with fields and an abundance of velvety brown cows, windmills and grain elevators, an enormous sky. Except for the African huts, and occasional guinea fowl by the side of the road, you wouldn't know you weren't in the Midwest.
At lunch time we stumbled upon a gem of a restaurant. (You'll see how much I liked it by how many pictures I post!) Coming into a small, rather non-descript town, we saw a frilly pink sign for a restaurant called French Toast, and the word "French" in the title was enough for me. We found it next to a store called Mad Price Fashion Shop...
and stepped through the door to find this.
So, somewhat incongruously, I found myself eating Salade Nicoise and camembert while listening to Frank Sinatra, in a small town in the Free State of South Africa. It was such a lovely lunch. Here are more pictures. (I warned you.)
Joel had coffee with whipped cream and fresh orange peel. What a great idea!
Yes, the cheesecake was as delicious as it looks.
After lunch it was more hours of watching that vast green land roll by.
With the occasional town.
I love empty hours in a car with nothing to do but look out the window, contemplate life, listen to music (a little Over the Rhine, a little Bach, a little U2), and discuss with Joel questions like whether our kids will like U2, or consider them to be old fogey music. (This thought makes us sad.) Of course, there was also a fair amount of staving off toddler tantrums by reaching behind me to offer William objects that I hoped would prove entertaining for a few minutes, or to tickle small feet, or to bribe him with cereal (which always works until we run out of cereal). Cassia obligingly decided to sleep the whole six hours we were in the car today. William was a little on the crotchety side, but that could be because we forgot to change his diaper all day long. (Yay, us.)
In late afternoon we started to climb again, towards the town on the Lesotho border that was our destination.
We are spending the night in a spectacularly beautiful town called Clarens, and we wish we were spending a week here rather than a night, as there is so much to do. All kind of hiking and outdoor sports, and a bunch of cute shops and art galleries, and more cute little restaurants than we have in all of Swaziland. We walked around the main square tonight in a perfect spring evening, and bought fresh cherries (it's cherry season here), and found a micro-brewery, where Joel tasted beers and I tasted ciders and we demolished a bucket of sausages.
Funny story of the evening: after bringing us our cider and beer tastings, the waiter brought William a small glass of a pinkish liquid with a big head of foam on top. We hadn't ordered it and were both really startled, thinking that he was offering William something alcoholic. I was thinking, "Do they usually let kids drink small glasses of beer here?" (You know, like those kids on the Mayflower...) Then we realized it was just carbonated juice. Ha!
For the last couple hours we've been enjoying the remarkable fast and FREE internet here at the hotel (to think we used to take such a thing for granted)... amazing how much more fun it is to blog when uploading pictures doesn't take all night... but now, to bed.
Joel looks like a happy man with all that beer in front of him! And wow, it so does look like the Midwest, crazy!
ReplyDeleteAlso, didn't you fly somewhere to a conference when you were pregnant with Cassia? Or was that over a year ago too? ;)
Unless my pregnancy amnesia was worse than I thought, I haven't been to a conference (except a little one in Swaziland) since we moved here. ;)
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