Clanwilliam weekend

Last weekend Jacques and Kim invited us to join them for a weekend at their holiday house near Clanwilliam, about 250km north of Cape Town. Situated at the foot of the Cederberg mountain range, Clanwilliam is renowned for being the only place in the world where rooibos tea grows and the fact that it is the home of the veldskoene... on second thought maybe the veldskoene thing isn't that well known yet. Anyway we weren't going there looking for tea or shoes, but rather some of that famous hot sunny weather and the opportunity to do some water skiing.

Jacques and Kim's place was on the shore of the Bulshoek Dam, just north of Clanwilliam. The dam is primarily there to provide the farmers along the banks of the Oliphants river with water to irrigate their crops. Its water is fed into a system of canals stretching over 80km and creating a 10,000 hectare oasis in the middle of an otherwise arid landscape. However a few enterprising farmers sold off plots on the water's edge turning it into a bit of a holiday destination.

After leaving behind a cold, wet and windy Cape Town facing winter's last gasp, we woke up Saturday morning to warm sunshine and the prospect of a great weekend. As soon as the sun was up Jacques took Adam and Luca, gave them a couple of fishing rods and hooked a bass for them.

Next order of business was to launch their boat... and it was a beauty. A new 18ft Panache with a 150hp engine that literally purred along the water. After a quick cruise down to the end of the dam to check out the beach, it was time to pull on a wet suit and go for a ski.

It had been five years since the last time we had been water skiing, but in no time Anree was slaloming across the glassy surface and carving out nice roostertails of water for herself. I got up on one ski on my first attempt and was so surprised that I promptly crashed. After a few not so successful attempts at getting up, eventually I was up and doing my best to emulate my wife.

Luca was pretty concerned that it would hurt when we'd fall down and at first didn't want to look while we were skiing, but he loved riding in the boat so much that he insisted on going out every time the boat went out and before long was getting into watching the skiing. Since then he's been pretending to ride around the house on his "jet board" which is basically anything that he can stand on, balance and then fall off in a heap on the ground.

Saturday evening we had a sumptuous braai and told stories before falling asleep early, completely exhausted from our day of activity.

Sunday was pretty much a repeat of Saturday, although the weather was hotter and the temperature topped 30C, so there was a bit of laying in the sun reading books and floating lazily in the dam mixed in with the water skiing and fishing.

All too soon it was time to pack up the car and drive back to Cape Town to return to work on Monday morning... where we were greeted with more rain and cold weather. Ah well, summer is just around the corner and now we've at least had a taste of it.