I ♥ Darling Because ...

I ♥ Darling

Hi, I’m Paul Martin from Aloe Cottage in Darling.

Darling IS BEST KNOWN FOR its won­der­fully diverse spring flowers, the Voorkamerfest Theatre and Arts Festival, Evita se Perron (the home of Tannie Evita Bezuidenhout), great wine farms, art gal­ler­ies, country-style res­taur­ants and bis­tros, the Duckitt orchid nurs­ery, the friendly small-town atmo­sphere and relaxed coun­try life.
GET YOUR PICTURE TAKEN AT Evita se Perron where you can pose as "the most fam­ous white woman in South Africa" and take a humor­ous trip down South Africa's memory lane at Boerassic Park.
THE BEST spring flower PICTURES CAN BE TAKEN AT the Tinie Versfeld Wildflower Reserve, Waylands Flower Reserve or at the orchid open days at Duckitt Nurseries on the first Saturday of the month from May to November.
OTHER HAPPY SNAPS CAN BE TAKEN while sip­ping wine at some of the local wine farms like Ormonde, Cloof, Darling Cellars, Groote Post and Tukulu. Continued

A Day of Charcuterie at Lelieblom Farm — Photographs

This past week­end we left Cape Town bright at early on a cold and wet morn­ing and headed out to Darling to the Lelieblom Farm for a les­son in the art of char­cu­terie. The day was organ­ised by Slow Food Mother City and a large group joined up to make new friends and learn some­thing new.

We spent the first part of the morn­ing prep­ping the meat in order to make salami, bacon and boere­wors. This was a day to get your hands a little dirty because you mixed the spices into the minced meat and really got involved in every aspect of the pro­cesses Continued

Fee-Fa-Fo-Fum at Evita se Perron in Darling

For some­thing a little dif­fer­ent and just a short drive from Cape Town why not head into Darling to catch Fee-Fa-Fo-Fum a new pro­duc­tion from Pieter-Dirk Uys at Evita se Perron. The show began its run on 16 June and will con­tinue until 8 July 2010.

Mrs Evita Bezuidenhout has declared Evita se Perron a SoccerfreeZone and although the s-word will not be men­tioned there is guar­an­teed laughter to be had. The show will be a selec­tion of com­edy sketches as only Pieter-Dirk Uys knows how. If you remem­ber the fairytale Jack and the Beanstalk you may recall the words “Fee-fie-fo-fum, I smell the blood of an Englishman”, now this is what inspired the show.

It all begins with the story of Bafana and Sepp the Giant as well as an assort­ment of char­ac­ters which include General Montgomery who is try­ing to cre­ate a plan to cap­ture the Stadium on the Green Point Common… did I men­tion that this is a SoccerfreeZone? Continued

Evita se Perron

After our whirl­wind visit to Darling last week­end I was reminded of the sen­sa­tional Evita se Perron which is found in this Swartland town.  The res­taur­ant, museum and theatre are the res­ult of renov­at­ing the derel­ict Darling train sta­tion which had been closed since the 1970’s (in fact ‘per­ron’ is the Afrikaans word for platform).

From humble begin­nings of a small stage and 12 tables with chairs, Evita se Perron has grown in leaps and bounds and now seats an audi­ence as large as 130!  The theatre is open every day except Monday and the focus is on week­ends when both lunch time and even­ing shows are presen­ted.  The big draw card is Pieter-Dirk Uys and his team of polit­ical char­ac­ters and it goes without say­ing that the star of the show is Evita Bezuidenhout!  Tickets for shows are R110 per per­son and R1 is donated to The Darling Trust. Continued

The Darling Fun Run / Walk / Get Pulled along by your energetic boxer pup event

Darling Marathon

The last time I heard Chariots of Fire was 5.30am at the start line of the 2008 Comrades Marathon.  I heard it again on Saturday morn­ing but this time it was at the start of the 5km Darling Fun Run / Walk / Get Pulled along by your ener­getic boxer pup event!  So a little less nerve wrack­ing than 2008 and per­haps a little more fun.  After all, 36 minutes on the road with Milly by my side instead of 10 hours on the road with no one at my side; 36 minutes is going to win hands down every time!

We left Cape Town at 6am for the drive out to Darling.  That in itself was a test of a mar­riage!  It was dark, it was misty, we hadn’t read the map book and we kept miss­ing the N7!  Around 7ish how­ever the sun star­ted to rise and the coun­tryside peeked out from behind the mist. Continued

It's a 'darling' of a town, is Darling

Darling ...

There is much to attract one to Darling. It's a small town for one, it's close to Cape Town (not even an hour's drive), has its own wine route, and is the closest of the West Coast wine dis­tricts to Cape Town; dur­ing the flower sea­son it hosts the Darling Wildflower Show whilst the Tienie Versfeld Reserve on its peri­met­ers is a car­pet of blooms, and Evita Bezuidenhout (Tannie Evita to you, darling) has ensconced her­self here at the station.

It helped that we chose to visit Darling when the rest of Cape Town had its eyes glued to the Argus, long before the flower sea­son. There was barely any­one in town. Despite this, we had the time of our lives, dis­covered a local gem for Sunday lunch, and got to chat to the loc­als ... Continued

Simoné of Darling

Simoné of Darling

On the corner of Main Road and Van der Stel Street in Darling, just as you begin to leave town behind and become slightly antsy about per­haps hav­ing missed the venue entirely (we had selec­ted the venue from the latest Time Out CT Weekend Breaks), you catch sight of the pretty little Victorian-style home on your right.

The venue has appar­ently been here for a while, although it's only been known as Simoné's for the past three years or so. Before that it was a farm­stall. Simoné greets you as you walk through the bright and breezy entrance — it's as if you've just come through someone's front door. Particularly as she's your unas­sum­ing girl-next-door type ... Continued

Delightful Darling

Darling © Kalimera

Known to some as the per­fect week­end get­away and to oth­ers as an artistic refuge, 75 kilo­metres from the heart of Cape Town lies the sleepy town of Darling. As Cape Town has expan­ded, more and more city folk have chosen to leave behind sub­urban liv­ing and build a new life in one of the Western Cape's outly­ing vil­lages. Darling was one of the first such towns and remains one of the favour­ites for its thriv­ing local com­munity and attract­ive nat­ural surrounds.

In less than an hour's drive you can remove your­self from all the cos­mo­pol­itan bustle of the city to a tran­quil­lity and old-world charm that will steal your heart.

The vil­lage lies amongst wheat fields and vine­yards and invites the vis­itor with its warmth and friend­li­ness to kick off your shoes and relax; to have a good meal at one of the res­taur­ants or the bis­tro and drink some of the well-known wines that make the Darling wine route. Continued