Thinking that we should start the ball rolling into the New Year, Ilse Andrag and I set out for Stellenbosch on the 2nd January, wishing to visit the Botanical Garden in order to photograph the lotus flowers in bloom. No such luck – the Garden was closed…(open again on 5 Jan).
Remembering that Steve and Mela Crane had wanted to visit the Rupert Museum to see the Rodin and Dylan Lewis exhibition (and had found it closed), we drove for a look-see and found the same … sigh. It had now started to rain … another sigh.
So, on we drove in the direction of Paarl, thinking we might visit Butterfly World – well, every Tom, Dick and Harry was there (en famille), with not a parking spot to be found. We said hello to the meerkat sitting on top of his ground heap, and left again, in the direction of Wellington. The skies were dramatically clouded and the possibility of a few polarized shots came into my head. But where could we safely park? Ah, an open farm gate – at last, time to get out the tripods! No sooner had we turned our backs on the car and the farm owner (very nice looking young man) politely came to ask us what we were doing on his property. Ilse told him who we were, that we were members of a club, were not going to make money out of our pictures of his property, after which he told us we were welcome … big sigh of relief…
We spent some time there, and then carried on into the countryside – direction Malmesbury. Dramatic skies, shifting sunlight, hay bales and trees on the horizon – all great as long as we could get the car off the highway. The turnoff to Riebeek Kasteel proved fortuitous – although the Olive Boutique was closed… sigh. We made it to the outskirts of town to Delico Farm Butchery, which was luckily open, and maxed out our credit cards – lamb chops, fillet, farm butter, ribs – you name it they’ve got it (as well as skilpadjies – too rich for me, but many people like them…). There were a few more opportunites to photograph sweeping landscapes, and then it was time to drive back to reality. Now that our batteries have been charged, we are rarin’ to go in 2009!
Tip: sometimes it good to just follow your nose!
‘Lone Tree’ and ‘District Wellington’ by Nettie
Images by Ilse
Helderberg Photographic Society 
It sounds like you had a great outing. I was surprised when we arrived at the Rupert Gallery on the 31st to find it closed then went to the Stellenbosch botanical garden and found that closed too. I would have thought that places like that would stay open when people are on leave and will be wanting to visit.
I agree completely!