{"id":837,"date":"2013-03-01T15:14:27","date_gmt":"2013-03-01T13:14:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/travelbucket.co.za\/?p=837"},"modified":"2019-02-26T09:58:56","modified_gmt":"2019-02-26T07:58:56","slug":"montagu","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/travelbucket.co.za\/montagu\/","title":{"rendered":"A WEEKEND IN MONTAGU"},"content":{"rendered":"

An all girls weekend wandering took us to Montagu in the Boland region.\u00a0 The town was named after the former secretary of the Cape Colony, John Montagu.\u00a0 \u00a0It was also known as Agter Cogman\u2019s Kloof.<\/p>\n

With its picturesque setting Montagu is famous for the mineral springs nestled on the verge of the town, impressive rock formation as you drive westwards on the R62 towards Robertson, outdoor activities such as hiking, biking and rock climbing,\u00a0 good food and local wines and of course the Montagu Dried Fruit Company.<\/p>\n

\"Rock<\/a>

Rock formations outside town<\/p><\/div>\n

We used Paul and Shirley\u2019s Koo Karoo Cottages as our base and explored the town and surrounds.\u00a0 Our first wandering took us to the Old English Fort – declared a monument in 1999 \u2013 perching on top of the \u201ctunnel\u201d in Cogmanskloof about 4 km from Montagu as you drive towards Ashton on the famous R62.<\/p>\n

\"Old<\/a>

Old English Fort views<\/p><\/div>\n

The fort was built by stonemason William Robertson and it was garrisoned by a company of the Gordon Highlanders who were surviviors of the Magersfontein battle.\u00a0 They were camped on the original road construction site below Kalkoenkrans.\u00a0 Today this is the parking area below the fort on the Montagu side. \u00a0Montagu had four small rectangular forts and a smaller circular one, all of which were instrumental in causing Commandant Gideon Scheepers and his Boer Commando of 300 men to avoid Montagu.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Just further down the road at a spot called Lego Land a dozen or so rock climbers were honing their skills on the rock face \u2013 definitely not for me!<\/p>\n

It was near lunchtime and seeing that we were in wine country we opted to visit Bon Courage, \u00a0which was established in the 1920\u2019s on the farm Goedemoed.\u00a0 The Dutch Reformed Church acquired the farm, closed the cellars, rooted out the vines, planted lucerne and fruit and used the farm as a training school for farm managers, but this did not work out well \u00a0so the church sold the farm again.<\/p>\n

\"At<\/a>

At Bon Courage<\/p><\/div>\n

Usually there are a lot of people and children enjoying the hospitality of Bon Courage under an old African pepper tree, but the sky was turning grey and the wind picking up.\u00a0 Luckily there is an indoor restaurant with a big fireplace for chilly winter days where lunch, and of course a glass of wine, can be enjoyed.<\/p>\n

After lunch, and some wine, we were pretty laid back and relaxed.\u00a0 As we drove into town in the late afternoon it was time for some pictures.\u00a0 The red autumn vines glowed in the soft light on the white washed buildings and photo opportunities abounded.<\/p>\n

\"Red<\/a>

Red vines and white washed houses<\/p><\/div>\n

Being our last day in Montagu we took a drive on a less traveled gravel road to the nearby village of McGregor to spend some time and make a donation towards Eseltjies Rus Donkey Sanctuary where they care for abandoned and old donkeys. \u00a0Some of the donkeys\u00a0really\u00a0<\/em>looked old and sad!<\/p>\n

\"At<\/a>

At Eseltjies Rus<\/p><\/div>\n

\u00a0The weekend was coming to an end, but before we hit the road we popped in at the Montagu Dried Fruit factory shop in Bath Street which offers the public a range of delicious dried fruit and nuts at wholesale prices. \u00a0\u00a0Now we were stocked with some healthy stuff for the cold winter days!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Cat sig<\/p><\/div>\n

On our way to our \u00a0last treat of coffee and something sweet as a final farewell to Montagu we spot this sign in the village.<\/p>\n

\"Our<\/a>

Our last cuppa at the Montagu Dried Fruit Company<\/p><\/div>\n

It was time to leave \u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An all girls weekend wandering took us to Montagu in the Boland region.\u00a0 The town was named after the former secretary of the Cape Colony, John Montagu.\u00a0 \u00a0It was also known as Agter Cogman\u2019s Kloof. With its picturesque setting Montagu is famous for the mineral springs nestled on the verge of the town, impressive rock formation as you drive westwards on the R62 towards Robertson, outdoor activities such as hiking, biking and rock climbing,\u00a0 good food and local wines and of course the Montagu Dried Fruit Company. We used Paul and Shirley\u2019s Koo Karoo Cottages as our base and explored the town and surrounds.\u00a0 Our first wandering took us to the Old English Fort – declared a monument in 1999 \u2013 perching on top of the \u201ctunnel\u201d in Cogmanskloof about 4 km from Montagu as you drive towards Ashton on the famous R62. The fort was built by stonemason William… Read more ><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":859,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[84,87],"tags":[76,469,75,74,413],"geo":null,"yoast_head":"\nA WEEKEND IN MONTAGU - TRAVELBUCKET<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"With its picturesque setting Montagu is famous for the mineral springs nestled on the verge of the town, impressive rock formation as you drive westwards on the R62 towards Robertson, outdoor activities such as hiking, biking and rock climbing,\u00a0 good food and local wines and of course the Montagu Dried Fruit Company.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/travelbucket.co.za\/montagu\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A WEEKEND IN MONTAGU - TRAVELBUCKET\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"With its picturesque setting Montagu is famous for the mineral springs nestled on the verge of the town, impressive rock formation as you drive westwards on the R62 towards Robertson, outdoor activities such as hiking, biking and rock climbing,\u00a0 good food and local wines and of course the Montagu Dried Fruit Company.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"http:\/\/travelbucket.co.za\/montagu\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"TRAVELBUCKET\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/travelbucket.co.za\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-03-01T13:14:27+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2019-02-26T07:58:56+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/travelbucket.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/22.01.2012-067.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2048\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1536\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"TravelBucket\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"TravelBucket\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/travelbucket.co.za\/montagu\/\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/travelbucket.co.za\/montagu\/\",\"name\":\"A WEEKEND IN MONTAGU - TRAVELBUCKET\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"http:\/\/travelbucket.co.za\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2013-03-01T13:14:27+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2019-02-26T07:58:56+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"http:\/\/travelbucket.co.za\/#\/schema\/person\/cc04253df164c722665885283479f0fa\"},\"description\":\"With its picturesque setting Montagu is famous for the mineral springs nestled on the verge of the town, impressive rock formation as you drive westwards on the R62 towards Robertson, outdoor activities such as hiking, biking and rock climbing,\u00a0 good food and local wines and of course the Montagu Dried Fruit Company.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"http:\/\/travelbucket.co.za\/montagu\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-ZA\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"http:\/\/travelbucket.co.za\/montagu\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/travelbucket.co.za\/montagu\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"http:\/\/travelbucket.co.za\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"A WEEKEND IN MONTAGU\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/travelbucket.co.za\/#website\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/travelbucket.co.za\/\",\"name\":\"TRAVELBUCKET\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"http:\/\/travelbucket.co.za\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-ZA\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/travelbucket.co.za\/#\/schema\/person\/cc04253df164c722665885283479f0fa\",\"name\":\"TravelBucket\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-ZA\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/travelbucket.co.za\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/2.gravatar.com\/avatar\/236600677697d0405083fc3bae2b4831?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"http:\/\/2.gravatar.com\/avatar\/236600677697d0405083fc3bae2b4831?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"caption\":\"TravelBucket\"},\"sameAs\":[\"http:\/\/www.travelbucket.co.za\"],\"url\":\"http:\/\/travelbucket.co.za\/author\/admin\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"A WEEKEND IN MONTAGU - TRAVELBUCKET","description":"With its picturesque setting Montagu is famous for the mineral springs nestled on the verge of the town, impressive rock formation as you drive westwards on the R62 towards Robertson, outdoor activities such as hiking, biking and rock climbing,\u00a0 good food and local wines and of course the Montagu Dried Fruit Company.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"http:\/\/travelbucket.co.za\/montagu\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"A WEEKEND IN MONTAGU - TRAVELBUCKET","og_description":"With its picturesque setting Montagu is famous for the mineral springs nestled on the verge of the town, impressive rock formation as you drive westwards on the R62 towards Robertson, outdoor activities such as hiking, biking and rock climbing,\u00a0 good food and local wines and of course the Montagu Dried Fruit Company.","og_url":"http:\/\/travelbucket.co.za\/montagu\/","og_site_name":"TRAVELBUCKET","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/travelbucket.co.za\/","article_published_time":"2013-03-01T13:14:27+00:00","article_modified_time":"2019-02-26T07:58:56+00:00","og_image":[{"width":2048,"height":1536,"url":"http:\/\/travelbucket.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/22.01.2012-067.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"TravelBucket","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"TravelBucket","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"http:\/\/travelbucket.co.za\/montagu\/","url":"http:\/\/travelbucket.co.za\/montagu\/","name":"A WEEKEND IN MONTAGU - TRAVELBUCKET","isPartOf":{"@id":"http:\/\/travelbucket.co.za\/#website"},"datePublished":"2013-03-01T13:14:27+00:00","dateModified":"2019-02-26T07:58:56+00:00","author":{"@id":"http:\/\/travelbucket.co.za\/#\/schema\/person\/cc04253df164c722665885283479f0fa"},"description":"With its picturesque setting Montagu is famous for the mineral springs nestled on the verge of the town, impressive rock formation as you drive westwards on the R62 towards Robertson, outdoor activities such as hiking, biking and rock climbing,\u00a0 good food and local wines and of course the Montagu Dried Fruit Company.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"http:\/\/travelbucket.co.za\/montagu\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-ZA","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["http:\/\/travelbucket.co.za\/montagu\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"http:\/\/travelbucket.co.za\/montagu\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"http:\/\/travelbucket.co.za\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"A WEEKEND IN MONTAGU"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"http:\/\/travelbucket.co.za\/#website","url":"http:\/\/travelbucket.co.za\/","name":"TRAVELBUCKET","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"http:\/\/travelbucket.co.za\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-ZA"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"http:\/\/travelbucket.co.za\/#\/schema\/person\/cc04253df164c722665885283479f0fa","name":"TravelBucket","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-ZA","@id":"http:\/\/travelbucket.co.za\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"http:\/\/2.gravatar.com\/avatar\/236600677697d0405083fc3bae2b4831?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","contentUrl":"http:\/\/2.gravatar.com\/avatar\/236600677697d0405083fc3bae2b4831?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","caption":"TravelBucket"},"sameAs":["http:\/\/www.travelbucket.co.za"],"url":"http:\/\/travelbucket.co.za\/author\/admin\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/travelbucket.co.za\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/837"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/travelbucket.co.za\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/travelbucket.co.za\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/travelbucket.co.za\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/travelbucket.co.za\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=837"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"http:\/\/travelbucket.co.za\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/837\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4205,"href":"http:\/\/travelbucket.co.za\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/837\/revisions\/4205"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/travelbucket.co.za\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/859"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/travelbucket.co.za\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=837"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/travelbucket.co.za\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=837"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/travelbucket.co.za\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=837"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}