We woke to a lovely sunny, though still cold, morning. But it was sure to warm up later. Eleanor had croissants for breakfast, a real treat. Today our destination was the Sevilla bushman painting trail and then the Biedouw Valley where the flowers were said to be very good. Our route took us through the Pakhuis Pass, now tarred and a very easy drive compared to when I was last there. Near the start of the pass we turned off onto a gravel track that Marianne had often seen on her tours and wanted to look at properly. It turned out to be an excellent coffee stop, and we walked a bit up the track to try to see where it lead to. Marianne thought it might be a track she had walked along many years ago on her varsity days. It would certainly be a good place to bush camp although the litter at some of the hidden away spots indicated that it might be popular with locals. We passed the campsite at Kliphuis where we had camped many years ago. The views from the top of the pass were dramatic and it was not long before we got to the Sevilla padstal where we parked the Cruiser, paid R30 each and collected trail details. We had to cross the Brandewyn River, which was flowing strongly and then set off upstream towards the numerous overhangs where the paintings are located on a clearly marked track. Nine are described in the brochure. (We suspect that there are more given the potential number of sites) The quality of the paintings is generally very good and the it was lovely to walk through the veld following the river and explore the numerous overhangs. There were not many flowers in this area, but that was not the point. Possibly the best site was number nine, which had the added interest of a collapsed roof that required a bit of scrambling. We could not linger too long as we still had to get to the Biedouw valley to see flowers. It was brisk walk back to the parking area at the padstal. We had planned to have soup there for lunch, but it was quiet busy so we settled for our sandwiches and then set off east. The turn is just past the English soldier's grave and the road was corrugated in places, but generally not too bad. The view down onto orange and yellow fields from the top of the Hoek se Berg pass gave an indication of good thing to come. On the way down we saw a number of cars parked in the field and wondered how to get there, but at the bottom there was an open gate on the left hand side of the road and we followed a track till we got a a notice that said "Nou moet jy verder loop". The fields of yellow and orange flowers were spectacular, but even better was the variety of flowers in the little stream bed that bisected the field. We took the opportunity to have afternoon coffee. It was just about time for the flowers to start closing and it was getting too late to still go to Wuppertal. Athe top of the pass we looked back on to the colour spectacle below and realized that this would be a flower high point of the trip. It was a relatively short drive back up the Pakhuis pass and we got back to the farm with enough time to walk around and have a good look at Gilbert's orange orchards. The Navels had already been picked, but the Valencias orchard was heavy with fruit that would only be picked in October. The lady electrician was busy trying to fix the water pump. Eleanor had had a crisis each morning with her pump supplying water to her cottages and was hoping it would now be sorted out. We chatted after supper and had two hours of load shedding before we got to bed. It was cold and hot water bottles were very welcome.

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