Moer Koffie and Melktert at Die Tolhuis Bistro and Farm Stall in Ceres (2016-12-10)

Towards the end of last year, over the course of our weekend away in Tulbagh, Chantelle and I decided on the spur of the moment to try our hand at cherry picking on Klondyke Farm (as well as fuel some nostalgia by checking in on Ceres’ Dennebos – aka Pine Forest – holiday resort that both of us frequented as children), which then of course meant an impromptu trip over Michell’s Pass.

If you are not familiar with it, the pass carves a route through the Skurweberg and Witzenberg mountains, in the process connecting Ceres to Tulbagh and Wolseley, and is named after the Cape Colony’s first Surveyor-General, Charles Michell – incidentally the man responsible for planning this very path in the first place.

The original road was constructed by famed road engineer Andrew Geddes Bain and it stood for nearly a century before finally undergoing two major upgrades to form the tarred pass that we are now so familiar with.

Pleasingly, the historic toll house survived all these changes, and now acts as a welcome halfway stop along the pass, with the grounds hosting a small farm stall filled with odds, ends and tasty treats, and a small bistro (aptly called Die Tolhuis) which serves up some good old traditional ‘boerekos’ on its wickedly tongue-in-cheek menu, very much designed to put a smile on South Africans’ faces.