Road tripping to the Cape for a wedding

One of my oldest friends got married on Saturday in the sweet village of Greyton in the Western Cape. I don't know the Western Cape at all so we took the opportunity to take interesting routes down and interesting routes home to see a bit of the region.

Forget Cape Town. The rest of the Western Cape is spectacular!

Here are some images from our travels.

Vanderkloof Dam wall

The koeksister monument in the town of Orania. We enjoyed our visit and found the inhabitants to be very friendly and the town to be neat and tidy. We went in search of some koeksisters and found them. Yum!

Die manne keeping watch over the town of Orania. From Oom Paul to Strydom, Verwoed and co.

We spent the night on the trip down in Calvinia, at the same place we stayed when we went to Afrikaburn last year - Katryn's B&B. The biggest bathroom every. Super shower.

The Vanrhyn's Pass dropping down from Niewoudtville on the R27 to Vanrhynsdorp (cute town).

At the top of Vanrhyns Pass. 

Lunch, red cuppachino and a shared slice of rooibos-baked cheesecake in Clanwilliam.

Great view from Marina Break, a B&B in the suburb of Chapman's Peak, Noordhoek, in Cape Town. The access to the beach is just below us. Unfortunately we got there late in the evening and left early the next morning. Excellent location.

We made it onto Chapman's Peak just before it got dark. I haven't been up here for many years; a very enjoyable drive. The road safety / rocky cliff reinforcements that have been made are incredible. View of Hout Bay, which is where we were headed for dins with friends.

Lunch with friends in Melkbosstrand. What an awesome village and not even an hour out of CT.

Oh goodness! Check the carpet. This was in a B&B that we stayed in for a night just outside of Franschhoek. The place actually won us over with its ancient decor, large bedroom, comfy bed and pleasant blue bathroom (excellent shower) - across the corridor. It let us down on breakfast which was toast (and bread - lots), tea, coffee, melrose, few slices of salami... No eggs.

Heading up the Franschhoek Pass. My first time travelling through Franschhoek. We had a lovely dinner in the town (at the Old Station pub) and took a quick look around in the morning. It is undoubtedly a pretty town but a bit too perfect and contrived. I felt that it lacked personality, something so many of the other towns through which we travelled had a lot more of.

The lovely deck outside our room at Marina Cottage in Greyton. BEST PLACE WE'VE EVER STAYED.

Running around Greyton.

Late evening run in Greyton - light starting to disappear.

End of town. Greyton.

Magnificent crocheted dream catchers at Shaun and Shane's Epic Wedding. There were a bunch of these, each with a different pattern and different sizes too. Oh, my heart.

A deliciously misty and drizzly drive through Tradouw Pass on the way home.

Looking downstream, back the way we'd come.

We just love the passes.

Meiringspoort. Totally, totally magnificent. On the route from Oudtshoorn.

Spectacular rocks. Meiringspoort.

We arrived home to see our sunflowers in bloom - they were still closed when we left. Next project - painting the garden wall to show off the flowers (ivy is off and the wall has been scraped down).