Desert wine

If it weren't for the mighty Orange River, I doubt anything but khakibos would grow out here. As it is, though, there is plenty of water for everyone and this area is blanketed with wine farms. The scenery's changed considerably since we left the highveld before dawn this morning. We've travelled through the flat plains of the Free State, and saw the terrein become progressively bushier and rockier. The sand is already getting red under the veld, and we spotted what's sure to be the first of the many gemsbok that we'll encounter on our travels.

What we haven't found yet is nuts. None of the big supermarkets stock anything other than peanuts. And boy, do they have peanuts! All roasted and salted and flavoured with everything you can imagine... But that's not what I was hoping to find. Since leaving Upington, though, we've seen a remarkable increase in roadside farm stalls. There appears to be one every few kilometers. Tomorrow, we'll try and see if we can find something other than peanuts there.

We've also seen a remarkable increase in cop cars. Every few minutes we seem to pass one, and we've even been stopped at two road blocks today. Kev reckons there isn't enough work for them here and they should be recruited to fight crime in gauteng, which isn't a bad idea actually. But they're probably not keen on giving up the good life here guarding grapes.

Those grapes, by the way, are sundried into the biggest raisens I've ever seen. On the way into the Augrabies National Park, where we're spending the night, we saw them out in large trays catching some sun. At the gift shop, they're sold in big bags. They get as big as my fingernail, so they must've started out as some pretty impressive grapes!

What wasn't so impressive was dinner at Augrabies. Clearly, avos are grown nowhere near here, as they are imported as a paste (or pulp, as it states on the bill) into the Northern Cape. Then, for some absolutely unknown reason, the pasty green pulp is heated before served in a little dish alongside salad. It's so bizarre. When it happened earlier today, we assumed it was a mistake, but apparently hot guac is a weird thing they do in this region...

Kev's meal was only marginally better. He says his kudu must've been about 50 years old before it got dished up (serves him right, though, in my opinion) and they served it with glazed carrots - which he absolutely hates. At least the service was friendly and the ambience was nice and romantic.

Nevertheless, the wine was delicious. Having driven past all those wine farms made me curious, so I had to try some. Without a doubt, it made the perfect toast to our first honeymoon evening. Cheers!