We have had visitors! Our youngest son. Younger son stood on his laurels and told me that he has been reading my Crawls, and why do I only write about his older brother, and not him? For that reason, this Cape Crawl must be all about him.

Let me introduce you to my 1.84m tall “baby.” He is big, strong, and robust, and comes with a larger-than-life personality. He has no filter, and his handbrake doesn’t work. The world is his oyster. Oh, to have that amount of “Hutzpah”.  He looks like he could play rugby, but then sits down at a piano and plays Mozart like an angel. (I would like to take the credit for that, but it was not me. It is thanks to a very short, but very gritty music teacher, who instilled a love for music into both our sons. She deserves a Nobel Prize for perseverance.) He did not visit us alone. He was accompanied by his very small, hug-a-bug girlfriend, who has been part of our clan for almost 6 years. We love them both and I had been counting the days. PS: the only thing I regret leaving behind in Pretoria is the 2 of them.

Youngest son was able to arrange to work remotely for a week, which was spent visiting the older brother that may not be mentioned – all I can or may say about older brother is that Truffle is turning into quite a sassy “princess”. On Friday, after what felt like too long, we collected them to spend some time with us in Botrivier.

The thing about living in the Western Cape now is that it loses the excitement of being a visitor. Nothing quite beats that feeling of stepping off a plane, pulling your wheelie bag behind you, hopping into your rental, and finding your way to you destination. Instead, the airport drive becomes a “have to do”, and once you have driven a mountain pass or walked up the side of it, you can never view that mountain through excited visitor eyes again. There is only one drive though, that can never cease to excite, no matter how many times you drive it, and that is the windy-windy Clarence Drive. And so, we drove them back along this most beautiful road. Mountains on the left, ocean on the right and a traffic jam caused by baboons crossing the road. We drove past our mountain, stopped at Kleinmond Harbour for fish and chips in a little boat, had lickey cones and arrived in Botrivier, but only after a stop at the Cheese Farm Stall, where we left with not only cheese, but also farm butter.

Once again in our small village, we became the focus of attention. There was a constant traffic of people happening to walk past our door. Some tried to be discreet, others just invited themselves in to meet our visitors. Each time, Youngest Son would stand up, and “groupies” would marvel at how tall he is, and how short his girlfriend. Ooo! You do have 2 very attractive sons, was the consensus. Again, I would like to take credit for that, but I can’t. Dad helped with that one. After 4 days of doing the local motion, we set off on our annual family experience, exchanging BoTrivier, for a farm stay at BoKrivier. We are in a charming wooden cabin, complete with wood fired hot tub. In the suburbs one gets woken up by Hadadas, in the country by Guinea Fowl. Bokrivier had us throwing slippers at Peacocks this morning. The son I may not mention, with the wife I may not mention, together with Truffle will be joining us on the third day. I hope we can rely on Truffle to take care of the Peacock problem.

In the meantime, we have explored the area. Our travels this time has taken us slightly further north. Swellendam is the third oldest town in South Africa. On the way to Swellendam, you will see signposts that take you to Riviersonderend (River with no end), named for all the tributaries that flow into it. The old explorers could not figure out where the river started and ended. Then there is also Greyton and Robertson. No matter where you go in the world, you will always find a Scot and a Coke billboard, and this area is no exception with towns named Bonnievale and McGregor. When the French were sent to Franschhoek, they planted French-styled vineyards and produced wines with fancy names. Let a Scot loose, and the area around Swellendam is known for producing naturally sweet red wine, with ordinary names, such as Robertson Naturally Sweet Red Wine. Clearly, they stepped off different galleys. Scots have a way of saying the obvious, using minimal words. If it is red, it is red – it is not “blush”, and sweet is sweet – it doesn’t haven hints of raspberry and lollypop.

The farms here also grow a variety of fruit. Today we passed farms with peaches and citrus fruit. I think it was nartjies. Colin refused to slow down so I could have a better look. When I was at school, we were taught in Geography about all the regions, you know, stuff like tropical and subtropical, and which fruit would grow best in a certain area. The Western Cape seems to have not attended my school, because they just seem to grow all types of fruit here. You will even find great blue berry farms, all covered over with plastic domes. I live in hope that my Avo saplings also missed out on school, and that I can get them to grow here. So far, they are doing very well in Botrivier. They may have a change of heart in Betty’s Bay.

But what struck me most about our travels today, was the thick hedges of Cannas as we drove into Robertson. I have never really liked Cannas. (By the way, they are related to ginger plants.) They are not exactly attractive plants, and once they find their wayward way into a neatly planted garden, they pop up like a bad relative at a will reading. This time however, they were growing next to the road in lush strips, initially only red, but later white and pink Cannas as well. Looking at them, I could only wonder how long it must have taken to get these plants to look so lush, and what I know from Cannas, I can imagine it took several seasons and plenty of faith that the plants will eventually impress. (Another Nobel Prize for perseverance?) I need to go home and have a word with my tree nursery. Unless they grow well, I may replace them with lovely red Cannas. And then there was the cows. Today was an exceptionally hot day. On one of our walks on one of the wine farms (The family were walking, I was going from vine to vine, sampling the last of the grapes), we eventually walked along a river full of cows. Yes, you read it right. Cows. They did not fall into the water, they were not in distress, they were cooling down, in a river. Yup. There is always a first time for everything. Bathing cows. Girl day at the SPA.

Tomorrow, we are hoping for a shorter day, so we can get back to our cabin earlier. We are planning to fire up the hot tub. No cold river water for this cow!

At the end of this family experience, I need to take a walk to Beaumont, for a family experience with a difference. I have been told about a pair of nesting Cape Eagle owls that I need to go find. Remember when I said that I hope Beaumont may have some winter surprises in store? Turns out, it does.