After a morning of strawberry picking at Polkadraai Farm you could of course just grab a simple bite to eat there, but if you want something a little bit nicer (with a 100% more beer), you would do well to quickly nip down the road to nearby Skilpadvlei, a wine farm, accommodation hub, wedding venue and most important of all, family-friendly restaurant.
This is exactly what the girls and I found ourselves doing one afternoon out and about in the Stellenbosch surrounds, and again, thanks to Skilpadvlei’s lovely kids play area (featuring an amazing jungle gym setup), friendly atmosphere and a good food and beer selection, I find myself once more highly recommending this as a lunch time option if you are out and about with small kids.
And yes, the 78 hectare, fully operational farm is charmingly named after the colony of tortoises that were found in its vlei back in the 1800’s.
Way back in October last year, on a beautiful and windless Thursday afternoon, Chantelle and I picked the girls up from their respective playschools and headed out towards the Stellenbosch winelands, making our way to the super popular Polkadraai Strawberry Farm for an enjoyable strawberry picking session. (Midweek, because that place is far too busy on a weekend come strawberry picking season!)
Anyway, following our romp in the strawberries (which the girls absolutely loved), we decided to round off the outing with some lunch, and so we did a u-turn and headed back down the road to the nearby Skilpadvlei Wine Estate, known for its local wine, accommodation options, its use as a beautiful wedding venue, and if you have small kids, it’s impressively large wooden jungle gym!
Whilst the inside of the restaurant is always a nice and quirky affair, we almost always sit outside to take in the tranquil vineyard views, and this day was certainly no different. With the place almost entirely to ourselves, we enjoyed a great lunch, with the girls wolfing down their food as fast as possible in order to maximize their play time in Skilpadvlei’s great kids play area.
Not that I was complaining mind you… ;)
Oh, and in case you are wondering about the rather unusual/charming name of this wine estate, i.e. Tortoise Marsh in English (admittedly, perhaps not the best translation), it stems from the large colony of tortoises who purportedly called the vlei home in the 1800’s.
The estate has notably been in the hands of the Joubert family since 1917, with the fully operational 78ha farm being primarily made up of 55ha of vineyards, 3ha of olive groves, and of course the rest seemingly being taken up by that jungle gym of theirs…
Also, I did my best to annoy Chantelle with my camera phone as much as I could on the day:
With Saturday having been such a nice day (Jessica’s school concert, both sets of folks over for a braai, winning our Rugby World Cup game against Wales), we treated ourselves to a nice family Sunday lunch out at Skilpadvlei Wine Farm, a recent re-discovery of ours.
It was a particularly beautiful day, and so I guess it was no surprise that the Skilpadvlei restaurant was pretty much packed to capacity – i.e. it probably would have been a good idea to actually make a booking first!
Luckily for us though, they could squeeze us in a spot (with a smidgen of shade as a bonus), and from there we preceded to enjoy quite a nice lunch, with the kids particularly more-or-less (neither seemed quite their self on the day) happy to bounce from play area to play area.
Whilst my food was delicious, and I think Chantelle enjoyed hers, I definitely remember that Emily was not super impressed with the slice of lemon that I gave her!
Dads will be dads I guess.
Anyway, after a nice lunch and some play time for the girls, it was back to Gordon’s Bay for the four of us, with Chantelle heading back to work to finish off her split shift, whilst I entertained the girls, gave them supper, and then settled into my chair to catch the rugby.
