Food - Travels with Verne and Roy

Margaret River Getaway 7-11 June – Part 1: Dunsborough

We’re all going to Dunsborough; magnificent market; three-quarters of the way there; review: Bayshore Beachside Resort; Gracetown and Cowtown; finger-lickin’ picnic spot

Having visited and stayed in the town of Margaret River several times now – check out these two blogs here and here, for example – I hankered to try somewhere different.

Good old Groupon directed me to the coastal town of Dunsborough. “I love Dunsborough!” exclaimed Carrie when I told her we’d booked a Monday-to-Friday stay at Bayshore Beachside Resort. It was a snip at $600 for four nights in villa “under the peppermint trees” with two bedrooms and a spa bath.

It’s around three hours’ drive south from home in Joondalup to Dunsborough – the red pin marks the spot – in WA’s Margaret River region

Love in the time of Covid-19, Part Two: Flattening the Curve, May 2020

Winter whinge; my loser husband; cycling for svelteness; surf ’n’ turf birthday barbie; hallelujah for Phase 3!

Though there’s still a fair amount of sunshine, the weather has drastically cooled here in WA. We set off on our often blustery morning bike-ride to Mullaloo in temperatures of 13°C or 14°C; it might rise to 20°C or so by lunchtime, and in the wee hours it can on occasion drop as low as 8°C.

Coastal cycling path from Burns Beach to Mullaloo

Cape Town with the Campbells Part Two: Wine Tour, 31 January

Delaire Graff for delish wine-tasting and decadent diamonds; Boschendal for Dutch-gabled perfection; Franschhoek for a fabulous lunch and a motor museum

Accommodation agent Stay Amazing – through which we’d booked the Cape Town apartment (see Part One) – also operates wine tours.

Over dinner the previous night at La Perla – our first decent meal in Cape Town – our Capetonian foodie friend Karin Jenkins had suggested a one-day itinerary to introduce Californians Ellie and Steve to the Cape Winelands.

Brahman Hills and Verne’s Big Birthday Bash, 17-22 January 2020

Several good hotels and spas are to be found in the green and pleasant Midlands of KwaZulu-Natal. The newest and shiniest of these is Brahman Hills, designed for weddings and conventions but also geared for girly getaways.

A few days after Verne’s Big Birthday Bash* at the Oyster Box Hotel in Umhlanga, sister Dale and our mutual BFF Julie tore me from the bosom of assembled family and friends for a magnificent Midlands Meander birthday treat. (Click here, here, here, here and here – what, so many? – for posts on previous meanderings.)

(*Scroll down to the end for a whole lot of party photos, if you feel so inclined. Plus a gratuitous video of the author busting a move.)

Durban Curry Wars, January 2020

Sampling an authentic local curry is a must on the itinerary of any first-time visitor to Durban. With our Californian friends Ellie and Steve due to arrive in a couple of weeks, it behoved us to suss out the best place to take them.

First up, with daughter Wendy as the third member of the judging panel, we drove 20 minutes north from Umhlanga, Durban to the Sea Belle at Desainagar Beach, Tongaat, traditionally an Indian area. Mostly, the place came to mind because my sister Dale – also due to join us soon from London – had mentioned an ardent desire for its famous prawn curry.

Five Days in Mauritius, 16-21 October

Rhotacism: can you say your r’s properly?; Yo ho ho – get thee to a rummery, go; The Residence Mauritius

A rhumerie is of course a place where rum is made. And the reason I wanted to start this post with Chamerel Rhumerie is that it was probably the highlight of our visit to the Indian Ocean island state of Mauritius.

Arles Interlude, 4-7 October

Romantic Roy retrospective; Le Café La Nuit; Roy does 10,000 Roman steps; the Camargue – white horses, black bulls, grey salt and brass bands

Retrospective

Way back in the mid-nineties, long before the digital era, Roy and I spent a week in Provence. We flew to Nice, overnighted there in a room above a betting shop, then drove our hired car to Arles.

Visa Run to Blighty – Part 3: 25 Sept to 1 Oct

The Morrises and The Ivy; friends, family and the three-day Fish Rule; England’s Rose Freehouse; The Real Ship Inn at Sandgate; Eurotunnel to Calais; Beaune again

Sister Summer Trilogy: Shoreham, Herne Bay and Saint-Geniès

Sometimes, we leave Karanja in her home port of Moissac and go off for a while. From what we got up to in August, here’s a trio of sister-centric outings, in the UK and in France.

While visiting my sister Dale and her family in Kent, England, she and I did a couple of day trips – first to Shoreham village and The Mount Vineyard, and then to Herne Bay. Then Roy and I went back to the Dordogne to meet up with his younger sisters Lyndsay and Cheryll.

#1 Shoreham (Kent)

You have to specify Shoreham (Kent) because there’s another one – Shoreham-by-Sea in West Sussex.

Canal de Montech to Montauban and back, 13-19 July

I’d been itching to cruise the Canal de Montech, and it was great! This pretty waterway runs from Montech to the gracious city of Montauban, linking the Canal de Garonne with the Tarn River. It’s just 11km long and manages to squeeze 11 locks into that distance.