Midlands Day 2

As promised, today Kim mapped out a route and consulted with all of us about some stops and lunch ideas...lunch we thought on a wine tasting estate which also serves cheese platters....first off was the Ugly Duckling Shop "a shop which has something for everyone", there was a lot of junk, but some cool things, Kim managed to buy something to hang his jacket, mom brought some wrought iron things...next up was Hillford pottery, that I am not going into details as it wasn't really worth it...after that Tsonga shoes, that was rather impressive, beautiful ballerinas, handbags, boots, timberland-type shoes, really nice...and yes, we managed to find something there also....

 Entrance to Tsonga

Tsonga Journey

Then it was off to a little place called Piggly Wiggly where there were a few shops to walk around, one was a deli where Kim actually found a real Stollen (made in Germany), for those that don't know they are filled with marzipan, so of course Kim was in heaven, some chutneys etc. Nice little spot....Kim then wanted to check out two more leather places, Dirtroad Traders and Groundcover, but we were impressed with none, Tsonga definitely much much better, actually cannot compare.....

Last stop before lunch Hammocks, Kim and I are building and hence thought a hammock would look good on our terrace, and man they are so comfortable....so yes, we bought one, the owner was very friendly asked us where we were going for lunch so we mentioned the Kleinberg Estate and Wine place, he then said we should definitely stop at the Blueberry farm and have a blueberry cheese cake for dessert, it was just over the Exit 132 by the Nottingham Road....what a good insider tip especially because Kim absolutely LOVES blueberries...so we travelled to the wine estate...and another disappointment...the gates locked....but suddenly they opened, we drove in and asked the lady whether they are open, she said yes we are open, so I enquired about the cheese platters to which she stated they have run out....hmmm...so strange, we decided to give the wine tasting a skip and maybe we should go find this Blueberry farm and see what this was all about, even if we could only get a blueberry cheesecake....off we drove...we found it as the owner has described it, over the highway on the left...called Blueberry Cafe.....we parked and walked inside, man it was buzzing with people, we asked whether they had a table for 5, to which the lady said "Do you have a reservation?", nope....she said she would call the manager...the manager was a pleasant man, he said he would make a plan for us, we should just have a seat on the couches.....the menu looked great...exactly what we were looking from, cold meat platter, cheese platter, some light meals etc....hmmmm...this was a very good insider tip...now let's just hope the food will not let us down....Mutti, mom and I decided to share a cold meat and a cheese platter (later the manager told us we should have ordered the Meze platter to share cause it has everything the cheese and cold meat platter has and more, good tip...next time)....Kim and dad both had the trout....

 View form the Blueberry Cafe

 Trout with hollandaise sauce

 Cold meat and cheese platter with different relishes and bread

The food was delicious and we said when we come to the Midlands in April, we will definitely stop here one lunch....and yes, we needed dessert....the blueberry cheesecake...two for all of us to share...it was a fresh cheesecake, meaning NOT baked...and it was good...but this is a preferential thing, cause I prefer the non-baked cheese cake....divine...and we all loved the lunch....good we stopped at the Hammock place :-)

Blueberry Cheesecake

After lunch, we were all lazy and said, one more stop and finito....so we stopped at "The Junction" cause I wanted to se the sweet shack and the choc dipping shop.....the sweet shack, nothing interesting, the choc shop I was quite amazed, I am normally not a fan of Belgium choc, but these ones were actually very good, ended up buying a few different ones, short bread choc, marzipan choc, orange rind choc, whole cherry choc and mocca choc.....so yes, we had a good day out and everyone enjoyed it...all in all we were out for 7 hours, so really take your time, don't rush and enjoy, the scenery is also breath-taking....I will share some pcis in my next blog :-)

The evening was spent at the Woodrige Country Estate, menu was slightly different but nit really, so the four of them had mussels with a coconut sauce and I went for the salad with walnuts and apples. Mains, nothing tickled my fancy, so guess what...I had the same chicken again with the red wine sauce and bacon and mushrooms and mash potato (mom had the same), Mutti had the vegetarian pasta and Kim and dad had the baby chicken....dessert....same as yesterday, so Kim was very happy cause he could have his Malva Pudding again, as I said in my last blog, food was surprisingly nice....tomorrow we would be off to the Drakensberg, via a scenic route that Kim compiled for us....exciting....so speak to you soon.....