When I visited a recent
innovation at the farm was horse riding, not on regulated trails but real cowboy
stuff. Telling us about it Julian said he told riders ‘there are some
cattle over there on the horizon go and fetch them, I’ll go round left, you go
right and we’ll meet over there’. This allowed the riders to choose their route
and made it far more interesting.
To add to the
feeling of the old West Julian had some wild horses on the farm which Tertius Swart from Bloemfontein, South Africa’s own horse whisperer had tamed.
As soon as the sun had warmed the wheat, Julian was impatient to get on with the harvest but, as we walked along the passageway past that skull, he mentioned it was that of
the last Hippo shot in the Cape Peninsula in 1869 and was apparently shot in
the Berg river where it flows in front of the house lawns.
As we walked out, Julian casually pointed out a row of guns one of which shot the last hippo. The
gun was made by Joseph Manton, London in the late 1700’s and was given to
Julian’s great-great-great-grandfather by the Earl of Caledon, the Cape
Governor.
At that time the approach in
the brochure was via Malmesbury and Hopefield, a charming drive through
grape and wheat country. You could return via Velddrif and the R27
coast road giving you the option of visits to the coastal towns along the way
but it is noticeably longer.
You could fly yourself in and land on the farm's strip but, before you submit your flight plan, you'll have to check with Julian.
