Friday, October 10, 2008

chance encounters

The joy of travelling 'without portfolio' is that unplanned events often turn out to be the most enjoyable. We dropped james dog off at a kennels outside town while we took the van in for an oil change and made the most of being dogless and homeless by doing a large amount of shopping.

The kennels is run by Andrew who also manages and runs Ego Creek Vineyard, a wonderful 20 acre plot on a hill looking out to the ocean. He claims that there is no money in grapes so his hobby is funded by dog sh*t! On collection of the hound we went on to taste his produce and stocked up the cellar with a case of chenin blanc.After much wine and chat we ended up parking in the vineyard for the night, surrounded by curious dorper sheep.

From trek phase 4


From trek phase 4


From trek phase 4

The next day we stayed to help out, with Vanessa utilising her veterinary nursing skills helping the dog groomer beautify a few boarders and myself being kitchen assistant while Jane prepared the food for the weekend's wine tasting event.

James dog made a new chum ( well, bullied the poor young lad into submission truth be told)

From trek phase 4


Jane also runs a small cattery which is the most high class feline residence I have ever seen- she is an artist who works in stained glass and the cat lounge area had ( as well as the sofas, wood burning stove, garden areas and sea views) the most beautiful stained glass windows and partitions. We were particularly taken with 'mouse-e -vision', a series of glass mouse houses so the cats could watch the mice scurrying about. The mice are obviously not fazed by the feline attention, and are breeding happily.

From trek phase 4


From trek phase 4

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