Taylored Trips – Elgin Food and Wine Festival

I wasn’t going to do a story on this event because we weren’t going to do the actual

wine route and other than the excitement of a huge steam train pulling into Elgin station, I didn’t think that there would be much to write about. That was until I saw the brand-new Elgin Railway Market! This new Market is so special that every one should know about it and go and see it.

Besides, no matter which direction you come from, Elgin and Grabouw make a superb, mountainous destination.On the way there the scary sight of the near empty Theewaterskloof dam greeted us.

Theewaterskloof Dam

We got to Elgin station where we were directed to a parking and then we saw this amazing building. It was so new that

they hadn’t actually finished with some of the outside paths and areas yet but the detail was already obvious as we approached. Someone has gone to a lot of trouble and expense in transforming this old building into a masterpiece of design and décor. The intricate detail of the railings, bannisters and doors

are really something to see and the fan system is a work of art. It works too. All around the inner hall are stalls for vendors who were selling everything from clothing to craft beer, burgers, biltong, hand bags and platters to coffee and yes, even wine. There is a mezzanine all around the inner hall and an open

deck area right on top.

Elgin Railway Market

Once this place gets up to speed and becomes more widely known, they will have to put a limit to the amount of people allowed in or they will have to build another one like this. They have a winner here, of that there’s no doubt.We took a walk down to the station proper to await the coming of the

puffing, hissing, steaming giant of yesteryear’s travel. This time two of them in glorious unison as they needed extra power to haul the long line of passenger coaches up the Hottentots Holland Mountain face and over into the Grabouw valley.Dominique and Jessica caused quite a stir as they rolled gracious

ly past us with the occupants of the coaches hanging out of the windows, waving to the onlookers.

Ceres Railway Company's Dominique and Jessica

After all the excitement we took a drive down to the country club but unfortunately they were closed so we ended up at the ever-popular Orchard Farmstall for a

bite to eat where we nearly ended up watching the F1 qualifying in the bar.

The Orchard Farmstall Shepherd Hut

On a recent visit to

Grabouw I saw this Shepherd hut at the Peregrine Farmstall so I took Verine to see it. She was about as excited about the hut as she was about the F1 qualifying.We had a very picturesque trip out of the mountainous valley, over Viljoen’s Pass, through the little settlement of Vyeboom, back past the

depressing Theewaterskloof dam, over the spectacular Franschhoek Pass, through the bustling town of Franschhoek and then through the lavish sprawled out winelands and stables of Simondium to Paarl and then Wellington. This, I still consider to be one of the most beautiful and scenic routes in the

Western Cape. Until next time, “Keep on Tripping!”