Cherry picking!

Oh what a fabulous weekend!
The kids broke up for a long 6 week vacation which is also the end of their school year. (here in South Africa we start each new school year in the middle of January and it runs through till the beginning of December. Each term we have a short holiday. So April normally is 3 weeks, June/July is 4 weeks and September 10 days and then December is 6 weeks).

So we were all packed and ready to go on Friday. We went to a place called Petervale farm which is about 2 hours drive away. We went with friends of ours who also have two children.
They stayed in a cottage and we went with our caravan.

What a gorgeous place. It is a honest-to-goodness working farm with no electricity.



These are the camp's "ablutions" which were actually very nice! {yes, that is a REAL grape vine growing in the bathrooms!}And there was hot water!

two toilets and two showers and on the other side a place for washing dishes.
Pretending to drive the local farm tractor!

We got there towards evening, so it was just setting up camp and then making a braai {South African term for BBQ or camp fire!} you need to roll the "r" in braai. And the aai makes a "eye" sound! 'B-rrrr-eye'! hee hee.

the next morning was up early to show the kids were milk comes from! hee hee...When I was little I lived near farms and even had my own horse, so I had my fair share of cows, chickens, etc and had milked a cow before.

It's quite funny as my daughter since she was about 4 had a dream to grow up and milk cows {yes, she set her ambitions very high!} Well her dream came true...


Let's just say, it's not longer her life-dream!!

And here is me giving it a bash!
We also stroked a blue duiker which was so tame and sweet.

saw some cute little piglets...

And picked some blackberries {or maybe raspberries?} I think blackberries though.

After that we packed a picnic basket and headed off to Klondyke Cherry farm.
And the cherry picking began!

So yum and delicious!! It was impossible not to eat while you picked!















And we only saw the sign afterwards that said "do not climb the trees" {oops!} I didn't, by hubby and son did!

After all that eating picking we had a picnic in an apple orchard (something I've always wanted to do!)


So a lovely day out and some good memories to last a lifetime!
Later on was a nice hot shower and another braai.

The next morning we had a lovely breakfast of berries and cherries in yogurt!


And then set off on a hike to a waterfall and rock pools.




A bit nerve wracking with the kids, but they were fine and did so well!It was so hot by the time we got there { a good 45 min hike} and we were all so sweaty, we got straight into that water...oh my goodness....was it cold!!! But so lovely-pure, fresh mountain water!

some slippery rocks to wet and slide down!

After a good 3-4 hours there, we headed back and got back all hot and bothered, so into the dam for a cool down and a row on the boats.




When it had cooled down, we packed up and got home around 9:30pm.

Such a great time....

It's definitely the kind of life I wished we lived on a day-to-day basis, the kind of life I grew up living (mostly) natural, un-tainted, in fresh air and nature. The kids got to do things they have have done before...milk cows, pick fruit off trees and bushes, swim in a mountain stream...
It's so good to give them that experience. Let's just say, it's not the last time we will be going there!