Well Hello There Fellow Travelers And Hivers

In the previous post of my adventure stories we didn't do much besides going to the beach and watching the Christmas lights decorations. Of which both were somewhat planned but still also unplanned, let me put it this way.. We planned on doing the Christmas lights experience but we didn't plan an exact date so we took it as it came.

Now if it's safe for me to say this but the next day after that was also unplanned, yeah most would say why are you planning a holiday and then not doing any planning in what you actually want to do... Well we did it's just that we've exhausted almost everything we wanted to do we were now relying on google to tell us where nice places are that we can actually do some stuff even if it's just strolling about. It is kind of a bummer that we only realized that google can be of help so late on into the holidays!

With that said we still had a very amazing time and still made the best adventures of each day!

It was a somewhat warm day and the Betty's mother suggested that we go to the Hartenbos market day. Well I'm almost certain it's called a market even though they didn't focus mainly on fruits and vegetables being sold it was more a hobbiest market or some place where you can buy weird oddities, you know stuff that you buy in the heat of the moment that you never really use but you think you would because it looks cool and then in two years you throw it out just to replace it with something similar from the same market.

😂

With that said I didn't spend any money on anything BUT I enjoyed walking through it and I saw a few cool things but the things I liked was a but over priced or just expensive, perhaps not really overpriced. But if they were cheaper I'd have probably come home with it! The coolest stuff I saw was a chess set made of lead!

But we shall get to the chess set a bit later on, let's start this market fair from the top!

The Hartenbos Market.

I know this has nothing to do with the market vibes BUT as I was parking the car and noticed this insanely big tree in the distance. It might not seem like much in the photo but witnessing that in real life felt majestic AF!

Okay!

Have you ever got that experience of seeing a house from the outside and then entering it to find out that the place is in fact colossal? Well this is what happened with this market, they had two gigantic tents lined up outside and although it appeared enormous it was even more so on the inside! They had row upon row upon rows of isles with random things scattered over the whole damn place!

I swear if they didn't label the isles I would have went in circles!

If there was ever a time that I needed a game to play it was surely when I was drunk or stoned or stupid... However since I don't really drink anymore this game would not come in handy as much as it would have! I was so keen on buying that, but as I said one tends to buy some crap that you will never use!

It looks cool and it might be fun though!

The Gnome Army!

I know I know! I'm a man what the hell am I doing in the fluffy toy isle!

Well have you ever heard of the Gnome Armies? No you haven't? well that is because they don't keep any prisoners alive that's probably why not!

Laughs Laughs! I know I'm just messing around but this was kind of cool in a weird way!

But they do seem to be a bit racist and divided! Just look at the blackbeards to the left and the white beards to the right, now where are the yellow beards?

Was that too much perhaps? 🤣

When I first set out on this adventure I didn't think that there would be much for me to see, even though I wasn't completely right I wasn't all that wrong as well. There were so much more things for the ladies to look at than there were for the men.

BUT

The stuff that I was interested in did seem way cooler than those of the ladies!

The heavy machinery side of life, tanks, earth moving equipment, war planes now that's the stuff of real men!

Now I've seen similar stuff to these but they weren't quite as detailed as these are, I mean take a look at that earth moving machines they are beyond detailed, the only thing that is missing is the colour of the CAT machines.

Let me tell you something! These are made for the cowboys and crooks of the world! A game I use to play wildly with my uncles when I was a little terror running around!

If I had a son I would have for sure stocked up on some nice rifles and pistols to wage war against the crooks!

Well needless to say they probably put those cool stuff for men and kids infront so that we can be fooled into believing that it's worth our time to slosh along with the ladies because we might see something different that could catch our imaginations!

While I had fun at the start the ladies seem to have enjoyed mostly everything! Laughs why are we so vastly different!

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The Leaded Chess Men

Remember when I spoke about a chess set earlier, well we have finally arrived at that part of the post!

I have some sort of sentimental tie to these lead chess pieces, mainly because my dad bought one when I was younger and me and the sister used to play it a lot more since they were actual men and horses well leaded men and horses of course but it felt like a more exciting game than just staring at the usual dull chess pieces that one gets.

It felt exhilirating to move around the cavalry and the castles, it felt like a proper battlefield! Now one day I would gladly get my self a lead chess piece for my house one day, I doubt that the Betty would actually play chess against me but it's fine it can just be used as an aesthetic vibe as well!

Sorry it was hard getting proper photos with the glass making reflections and I didn't want to remove the top covers!

Now we're talking! A Subaru coffee mug for a Subaru Fnatic! I like that A lot!

Actually I won't mind grabbing any brand that is Japanese, so the Toyota and the Nissan, they can all come home with me! It's a shame that they were so over priced but they are done properly I have to give them that!

Maybe the end of the year I'll be coming home with one of these Subaru mugs!

Typing this post now I realize that there were actually a lot of things in the market meant for men and men only!

You know what, one day when I have my own place I am going to get myself a cleaver like this and use it to chop up everything, from meat to tomatoes! Imagine chopping the fruits for your fruit salad with a frikking cleaver! Seems like the right move, a power move!

And here I thought that this place was huge... when I've not even stepped outside yet!

As big as it was inside it must have been bigger outside although with a few less shops of-course but there was more than we expected to be! However most of the stalls outside was serving food and drink and stuff to snack on so once you've done the tour of the place you can take a breather, relax your legs and fill the tummy and wet the mouth.

Now it wasn't just stalls serving food.

Smack dead in the center of all the food stalls there was this old friendly man selling and displaying his coin collection, now the reason I say selling and displaying is because not all the coins were for sale, keep in mind that this consisted mainly of ZAR currency related coins but he had a few oddities in between the bunch.

I was surprised to see some coins that even I didn't know our country produced, since me and the Betty both fancy coin collections we stood there chatting to the old man for much longer than the whole of the market walk through.

Certainly a very friendly person and helpfull he even told us so join the South African Mint where we can then order the "special" coins so to speak, all the limited edition ones. BTW I've not yet signed up, I don't think I ever will I suppose that's why he told us because he knows it's a bit of a hassle to sign up, I mean it's easy to sign up but if I signed up would I really get the coins?

Stupid me for only getting one photo of the coins, but we had such nice chats I forgot all about it.

Some cool oddities the old man had with the coins!

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The Distillery

After we did the tour of the market we decided to go for a lunch at the nearest restaurant and by this time I was dying of thirst and was in serious need of a beer or else it might have led to a clinical situation. So we went to the Harmony distillery that had a restaurant right next to it or did we go to the restaurant that had a distillery next to it... Either or it doesn't matter all that mattered now was filling the belly!

Now there is nothing! Absolutely nothing as refreshing as a cold craft beer! Let me tell you since craft beer went mainstream I have never drank anything else. A craft beer is always on the top of my list!

And this Fokof was amazing!

If I can be blunt enough Fokof translates to Fuckoff. Laughs Yeah it's a bit brutal but hey life is brutal!

Along with the beer I chose this.... well I don't know what it is, I only know what is inside of it and it was biltong with feta cheese with black pepper and served with a cheesy sauce.

Now was I disappointed when the food arrived, heck yeah I was I expected so much more for the price, but I suppose that's what you get in high end restaurants... And that is why I go to the cheapest sloppiest places 😅 laughs okay probably not the sloppiest but you get the drift!

This was merely going to keep me full until we got back home. 😂

For the price I paid I even ate the grass served with it. 😂

With all the criticism, it was beyond delicious! Beyond!

Sad to say that we didn't drink anything at the distillery but it is on the top of my list of things to do for the end of this year, they have a HUGE range of gin available and which is distilled right there in the little side shop!

I have to say I am not a fan of gin but I am keen on trying it out atleast once.. especially crafted gin that isn't sold on mass.

I told the Betty as well this year on vacation there are three musts that we have to do.

We have to go Gin tasting.
We have to go Wine tasting.
We HAVE to go BEER tasting!

The BEER is an absolute must, above all else we MUST go BEER tasting!

A Little Bonus

Nature At Its Finest

Who said that turtles are slow, look at this guy launching himself.

We tried to feed the little guy some spinach leaves but clearly he had options for better tastier foods!

This is part of a series based adventure, in case you missed some of the previous posts give them a quick scroll through.

The Journey Down And Through The Outeniqua Pass

The Merchant, Beach Adventures And A Pinch Of Madness

Going Down The Road Of Old, Visiting Antique Shops In Bland Street Mossel Bay

The Blue Shed Coffee Roastery Near The Point

The Day Before Christmas Made For Donuts And Beach Vibes

The Failed Light House Adventure With A Beautifull Twisting End

The Adventures Of Christmas Day, Searching For The Missing Caves

Conquering The Hedge Maze And Our Adventures On The Redberry Farm

Drinking Fratella's Between The Mountains! A Brothers Coffee Roastery Adventure!

Trying Our Luck With The Lighthouse Again

The Cape St. Blaze Trail: Going Further Than Ever Before

The Adventures In The Fisherman's Village

Unplanned Adventures: From A Sunny Day To A Colourful Night

The Long Road Home To The Flatlands

To everyone who made it this far into my post Thank you for the read and the support.

If you found this entertaining or educational please consider a re-blog and up-vote.

Most of all please leave a input in the comments below, whether is good or bad critic I would like to know, whether its your opinion or your way of doing things in a different manner I would like.

_{Connecting the people of #HIVE across South Africa. #hive}