Funny looking fire started yesterday afternoon; very weird.   Funnily enough I was alerted to this on my way to a Franschhoek Wine Valley Tourism organised digital marketing strategy presentation.    I was well impressed, interesting points taken away!    Here is Patricks site  http://www.collings.co.za/

Now it seems on the whole topic of yesterdays presentation, Patrick mentioned a lot of folks now rely more on twitter for news and trust blogs more than other forms of media.    So heres a bit of the Franschhoek grape vine for you, Rich was at the meeting and has facebooked photos here.   I was on twitter updating  my loyal followers from my cell phone,  Candice Holgate has been a long term twitterer, she was concerned about us and tweeted me, Dieter from Lynx similarly.   Thanks guys for the concern, luckily no stresses…it wasnt all that hairy as in feeling heat or anything, but the wind carried the sounds of exploding trees, and the flames were pretty impressive.    All in all a very impressive, beautiful, but altogether surreal sunset last night; a few glasses of the good stuff once I realised we were not going to see any action I settled down to photographing this awesome spectacle.

Now for those of you worried about the Three Streams fish, the Boekenhouts Porcupine and Haut Espoir, moenie.  Its now a typical Franschhoek winter day, and the rain has just crept in.       Flames are out, a huge relief to all I am sure.  It did look pretty ominous last night around ten-ish…thanks to an sms update from Gerrit, the chairperson of our Franschhoek Fire Protection Association, it was a nice relaxing sleep.   Gerrit is great for updating us on fire related matters and has the hotline through to the fire guys on the other side of the mountain.

If anyone needs to contact the Fire Protection Association, here are the details :

Gerrit Valentine

Tel: +27(0)21 874 9048

gerrit@rupertwines.com

Offically, the fire started after the forestry clearing team cut a tree down, it fell on  a rock which caused a spark and maar toe…  Cape Nature and the Cape Winelands Fire services were monitoring last night and no major flare ups.

Thanks to all concerned, Dustin and the guys for tomorrows tasting, at least the cellar is still here.

Cant wait!  Viva Franschhoek Viva!