We left Graskop very early in the morning as we had a 6 hour drive to Johannesburg and needed to be there for a 3PM flight. Everything went very well and we arrived at the airport several hours before the flight to Cape Town.
In Cape Town, we rented a car and headed North the Frenschhoek, in the heart of the South African Wine Region – the drive took about 2 hours. We had found (through the Lonely Planet) a guest house with ‘self catering’ chalets just outside of the city center and had reserved a three-bedroom bungalow. This is the view from the front porch.
I think we got really lucky with our choice. Since we arrived late, we just went to dinner and directly to sleep afterwards.
The next morning, and every one of the three mornings we were there, we were ‘blessed’ with the most incredible sight I have ever seen. The clouds would build on the back side of the mountains and than cascade over the mountains and create curtains, or (even though this is the ‘the’ table top) table cloths that were constantly changing.
The combination of early morning lighting and spectacular backdrop was just too good to miss – so I took quite a few pictures
In the afternoon, the clouds would become smoother, almost like icing on a very, very large cake
We did manage to steal ourselves away from the spectacle, and on the first day we went to explore the wineries of Paarl and Frenschhoek. We stopped at “Nederburg” which had an excellent wine tasting and a really good tour of the winery itself. We had lunch at “Fairview” where there is a goat tower and an excellent restaurant. Other than wine, they also make their own cheese, dried meats and olives. For lunch, we had one cheese plate and two meat plates, and wine of course…
We drove back to our cottage and enjoyed the view, with more wine and more cheese.
That evening we had dinner at ‘the best’ restaurant in town, and we had an excellent meal, but probably 10 times more expensive than some of the other meals we had. Once in a while, it is good to indulge …
There is a lot of concern, when going to South Africa, about security and personal safety. Rajan, Julie and I had discussed this before departure and we had decided that the highest risk was when we were near Johannesburg. We had discussed loosely ‘back-up’ plans in case we would be ‘car-jacked’ on the way out of town.
In reality, during the whole two weeks we spent in South Africa, I never had a feel of discomfort, or the slightest concern for our safety. I have had such feelings before in New York, Chicago, London and Frankfurt, just to name a few.
However, in Frenschhoek, in the middle of the main street, there was a hired guard patrolling the street in front of the restaurant (and there were others in front of other restaurants) visibly there to ‘re-assure’ patrons and to keep an eye on the parked cars. I was not quite sure if this was an overkill or if it was really necessary.
On the second day, we went to Hermanus, on the Indian Ocean coast East of Cape Town. At this time of year, Hermanus offers the ‘best’ (so they say) whale watching from shore in Africa. They even have a ‘whale crier’ who advises people where the whales are.
We saw the backs of two or three whales in the distance, but nothing to get really excited about. We drove down the coast for lunch and than headed back to our cottage, the view, the wine and the cheeses.
The third day, we needed to head back to Cape Town but on the way stopped at the “Spier” winery, where we visited a ‘cheetah hospital’ with very good-looking guests.
We had lunch in Stellenbosch and visited the town which is the typical Dutch Cape town that most people would recognise immediately as “South Africa”
It is on to Cape Town for the last installment on this fabulous trip.
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I’ve drunk Nederburg wine … although I wonder if they have more types at the winery than we see on the shelf in Toronto.