I made a long weekend out of last Thursday’s public holiday, and spent Friday exploring the canola fields and farms around Malmesbury.

One of the many things I love about Cape Town is that farmland and near-total isolation is just a short while outside of the city. It’s a lovely time of year for taking the Old Malmesbury road – around every corner you’re greeted by a growing sense of peace as well as beautiful pastoral scenes that would feel at home in a collection of Windows desktop images.

A hectic cold front was scheduled for the whole weekend but luckily it only started clouding over towards the afternoon, meaning our trip was mainly decorated by blue skies.

Heading back towards Durbanville we passed an overturned cement mixer and stopped to talk to the officials at the scene – apparently it had happened about an prior and was the third accident that day. The driver was fine and standing around with the cops, who were all super friendly and approachable, clearly all the fresh air and beautiful scenery allows them a bit of a rosier outlook than their inner-city counterparts.

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The canola is in full yellow loveliness at the moment and well worth a visit; the West Coast flower season is also kicking off right now, and September will bring various wild flower shows around the Malmesbury and Darling area – spring is creeping ever closer…