South African Break Aways

RONDEGAT WEEKEND (Day 3 – Final)

June 2021

We were awakened by the cheerful chirping of birds (far better than a noisy alarm) and it puts me in an instant good mood!

We’ve headed out to the porch with a cup of coffee to watch the birds moving quickly from tree to tree … it almost seemed as if they were in a playful mood this morning. We are unfortunately no bird experts (and even worse at taking pictures of these energetic creatures), but we’ve managed to take a couple of photo’s and just enjoyed watching them.

These might be family of the mousebirds …

Since it was another sunny day (and our last one here at Rondegat), we’ve decided it was time to take a walk in the dam … no, that doesn’t sound quite right … let’s rather say a walk in the floodplain 😉.

The floodplain – normally this is covered in water during winter
Taking a walk towards the current water’s edge
We were quite surprised to see a road in the dam (I mean, in the floodplain)
This can be a small island when the dam starts filling up

It felt quite surreal walking here … knowing that during winter this area is flooded with water and it then turns into a proper dam!

Reaching the (current) water’s edge
It seems there was a road here long before the dam … looking at the stones going towards the other side
There’s even a tree trunk in the dam

I was quite surprised to see the bottom of this dam – if you didn’t know it’s normally covered in water, you would be forgiven to think it’s just a normal hiking path.

The water will start rising once this area receives the first hard winter rainfall
The road leading back to the edge of the dam
All these rocks are covered under water once the dam is full
A closer look at the suspected road inside the dam

Once we’ve looked back towards our cottage, we were mesmerized by the scenery – it was beautiful to see the floodplain with the stunning Cederberg mountains in the background.

The majestic Cederberg mountains towering in the distance
On our way back over the floodplain to our cottage

Throwback to 2018:

Now, just in case you’re doubting our story that this is actually a dam … we have some evidence of a previous visit back in 2018. It was just after winter and we’ve spent a fun weekend here with friends …

Back in October 2018 … that little red arrow indicates the end of our walk this morning
More pictures dating back to 2018 … see, a full dam with lots of water activities

It was now quite hot when we’ve reached our cottage again – the weather really turned out wonderful for our weekend away.

We were also surprised to find a “guest” on our porch … the owners of Rondegat did inform us that one of their dogs will sometimes come down to the cottages to see how the visitors are doing … which was indeed the case. I can’t remember his name now, but he was a great companion and spent the rest of the day with us.

The owners’ dog decided to pay us a visit

We’ve decided to make another fire and have a “potjie” lunch (a dish prepared outside in a cast iron pot over the fire). I must admit, we were quite happy to have some of the trees’ shade over the “braai” (barbeque) area, because the sun was now really hot!

Berto relaxing in the shade next to the fire

After our late lunch, we’ve headed to the bright swimming pool … now was a good time to cool down a bit!

Even the dog was excited to follow us to the swimming pool
He really enjoyed the cool water we were throwing towards him
Ahh, this is THE life!

After a relaxing time at the swimming pool, we’ve headed back to our cottage. It was such a wonderful day – a bit of everything … walking, sitting next to the fire and enjoying the swimming pool. We could not have asked for anything more today!

Our cottage in the last sun light of the day

What a great weekend we had here at Rondegat! This is a place that quiets your mind … where you experience absolute tranquility and made you appreciate life just so much more!

For the last time, we’ve sat on the porch and watched the sun goes down.

Our last sunset at Rondegat
A view to remember

Many thanks to the owners of Rondegat for giving us such a wonderful place to relax and enjoy nature. We will definitely be back!

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40 thoughts on “RONDEGAT WEEKEND (Day 3 – Final)”

  3. The Cederberg Mountains forms a beautiful backdrop to your photos. The soft winter light looks so nice and it all looks so still and calm. I really hope I can visit South Africa one of these days. Have a good weekend both of you. Marion

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    1. Indeed Marion, the Cederberg Mountains are really spectacular … we hope to go back there soon again.
      That will be great if you could visit South Africa … remember, you definitely need to have at least one ‘braai’ day with us whenever you’re here 😄.
      Enjoy your weekend as well. Keep well, Corna

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  4. Pingback: RONDEGAT WEEKEND (Day 2) – Wet and Dusty Roads

  5. Definitely looks like a wonderful place to stay – such glorious mountain scenery AND a swimming pool to cool off in 🙂 And I’ve learned something interesting. Here in the UK we use the word ‘dam’ to mean a structure that blocks water’s flow and holds it back, but we call the body of water thus formed a ‘reservoir’. But you seem to use ‘dam’ to mean the body of water itself. Do you also use it for the structure or does that have another name there?

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    1. It is indeed a lovely place, thanks Sarah. You’ve asked me an interesting question now … I had to double check with my husband ☺️. The structure, we call a dam wall and the body of water is called a dam. We also use the word reservoir (for example a small dam on a farm or to supply water to residents in a town). Gosh, I hope this make sense … it sounds a bit confusing now 😁.
      Enjoy your weekend – hope it’s a sunny one there in the UK!

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      1. Thanks for explaining – so the words are definitely used differently in our two countries 😆 Sunny here today but rain forecast for the weekend! Hope you have a good one!

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    1. That’s true … but fortunately, the dam is fed by a river that lies in a catchment area where it snow and rain a lot during winter. I won’t be surprised if the dam is almost full by now because the last week we had our first hard rainfall.

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  8. How unusual that the dam is completely dry at times of the year. This looks like a lovely place to spend a few days. My favorite is the photo with the silhouettes of the mountains in the distance.

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    1. This dam is in a very dry and hot area and this is normally the case during summer … but as soon as that first hard winter rainfall comes down, it fills up again – agree with you, it is indeed quite unusual! Oh, we love those mountains – glad you like it too ☺️. Thanks for reading and your lovely comments.

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      2. My thoughts are with you and Derek 💌 … yes, 83 is probably the age where one lived a full life, but it’s still sad to say goodbye (that is until we see each other in the life after this one 🙏🏻).

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    1. Ah, thanks Lisa … those mountains are truly spectacular! Absolutely … this is a great dam, don’t you think – in summer time it’s a hiking path and winter time a lovely dam to enjoy water sports 😁. And true, it was great to have such a lovely visitor for the entire day … we loved him too.
      Thanks for reading and, once again, your lovely comments. Keep well 💌.

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  13. Another beauty of a post here, Corna.

    I love the concept of the owner’s dog “checking up” on the visitors to make sure they were OK. A fine looking animal and obviously very friendly.

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    1. We are definitely dog ​​lovers (we had two cocker spaniels for many years until we had to put them down due to age) … so, it seems we always attract dogs to us – no matter where we are! This dog was such a darling and we enjoyed having him with us all day 🐾.

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      1. I am so sorry to hear about your spaniels but such is life (and death, sadly). Would you not think about getting another one, or even two?

        lthough I have never been in a position to own one myself (Berto knows the situation, too much time “on the road “) I do like them and seem to get on well with them.

        I do understand why people are fearful of dogs, particularly what is, let’s be honest, a fairly scary looking beast like your “friend” but I’ve never had a problem.

        It is strange. I have mentioned in my blog that I have never had any kids of my own and yet they seem to be drawn to me, possibly because of my physical appearance and it is the same with dogs, perhaps they feel an affinity with another creature that shows them some affection. Who knows?

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      2. We’ve got great memories of our dogs (one with a very much Afrikaans name – Stoffel – and the female quite English – Juliet 😁 … we always said Stoffel is the Afrikaans version of Romeo)! No, I don’t think we’ll get dogs soon again – like you’ve said, too much on the road. But you never know what the future is holding for us … maybe we move to a farm and then you must have a dog 😀.

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      4. I don’t think the intention is that Stoffel should mean “fabric” 🤔 … it is just a very common name in Afrikaans – there must be a whole lot of Stoffel-dogs in South Africa (it’s such a popular name, that it’s even a nickname for humans)!

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      6. Haha, I like Lynne’s saying 😅. Ah well Fergy, what can I say … it’s an Afrikaner thing!
        Ok, let me tell you where it’s coming from: When you are an Afrikaner and born in the 1900’s, you will get the names of your mother/father and their mother/father and their mother/father, etc … you get the picture? And then those names would be shorten for “every day use”. So, that’s how the name Christoffel were shortened to Stoffel … see, it’s not that weird 😄.
        By the way, between me and Berto, we’ve got 6 names …

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