Day 7 on the vine

 Time to sample the grape. We're in the middle of the Cape wine region so it has to be done.

We go down the road to Franschhoek - don't forget the double H ! - the name means French corner - 17th and 18th century French Huguenot arrived here and hence a lot of French names for the wineries.

We tried Paserene Estate first of all

Served by Yolande - a lovely girl from Zimbabwe - when I said we first visited SA in 1998 she told me she wasn't born then...... 😬 she's working her way to becoming an accredited sommelier 

The tasting consists of 5 wines - a rosé 2 whites and 2 reds - all for £6

The view wasn't bad either....

Peace and quiet- a gorgeous setting

We moved on  for lunch - a couple of platters of cheese and charcuterie 

This is one for Dexter 😁

The food is one of the nicest things here - you never get a bad meal and it's always beautifully presented.

A lovely day out and nice evening watching a bit of telly with a nice cup of tea - no more wine for me today 

We're off to a place called Matjiesfontein tomorrow 

 

Day 6 on the braai

 It's Sunday so a quiet day is called for. We're going over to Don & Lynda's for an afternoon braai. It's a beautiful 25° blue sky day 

Stellenbosch is surrounded on 3 sides by mountains and nature reserves. This is Jonkershoek in the background behind the robots. Unsurprisingly it's one of the most popular universities in SA. 

I forgot to take some pics of the food but rest assured the steaks were exceptional....🥩

And we enjoyed meeting Don's niece and husband. A great afternoon.

Stellenbosch is the second oldest town SA -  1679 . The oldest buildings are typical Cape Dutch architecture- here's a nice one

Tomorrow we're going to tour some of the wine estates and sample a little produce. 

Chin Chin

Day 5 on to Stelli

 We packed our bags and moved on from CT to Stellenbosch. The route took us past the airport area where there is miles of shanty town - it seems endless. They are called informal settlement pockets...... there are around 400 of these dotted around the Cape - and no one knows the number of people that call it home. Maybe a million..

We met up with Lynda and Don at the Thirsty Scarecrow 

And had a pint of

The waitress said it got it's name because when the bar was busy the customers would be shouting " where's my f.... beer " 

And at £2.50 a pint it was fucking good!

This place is mainly a strawberry farm with a restaurant, bar and store. And a load of scarecrows and whacky figures.

A great lunch and catch up with a couple of our oldest friends

I think a brai is on the cards for tomorrow 

This is our gaff for the next 3 days

We're overlooking a quadrant from our balcony with 3 restaurants so it's going to be noisy (this is a university town) but we won't starve... now the buskers just turned up..... 

.... actually he's really good - were going to crack open a nice white on the balcony and let him serenade us.

Day 4 on the table

 We thought it would be a good idea to go up Table Mountain this morning. Bad idea... mornings are always the busiest time. A 2 hour wait for the cable car made us change our minds. So we went back to the car.

The queue is about 100 yds 

So we went to visit the oldest colonial building in South Africa. It's the Castle of Good Hope. And it was built in 1666 by the Dutch East India company. They wanted to build here to establish a refreshment base for ships en route from Europe to East Asia and to maintain its monopoly over the Spice Trade.

Dining room for 100 guests

The Dutch East India company had its own army to protect its trade business, and was a pretty brutal organisation. We saw the prison cells and the torture chamber.... a different approach to business back in the day.

This was a nice little place we found where we stopped and had a drink and snack. It's the launch ramp for jet skis and small boats.

Even had a swimming pool.

A fabulous backdrop of Table Mountain Signal Hill where the noon cannon is fired and Green Point Stadium built for the 2010 World Cup. England could only manage a 0-0 draw here against Algeria.... oh Sven...

We did get back up to Table Mountain later in the afternoon.Just a 15 min queue. 

Cable car takes 65 people and takes 2 minutes to get up to the top. The floor revolves so everyone gets a 360° view. The first cable car was opened in 1929 and has been upgraded 3 times.

There's the Lions Head, Signal Hill and Green Point Stadium 

Some info on the Rock

We're  off to Stellenboch tomorrow 

Day 3 round the bend

 Today started with a bit of a problem - couldn't unlock the car - when I figured out you can do it the old fashioned I thought we were off and running - but no - battery was completely flat.... some one had parked the the night before and left the lights on. I'll hold my hands to that in case you thought it was Coral.

After a lot of faffing around our concierge Edward came to our rescue - he got his mate Lance to get some jump leads and get us going. I forced a couple of hundred rand on them which they reluctantly accepted. A couple of lovely blokes.

That being done we went down to Hout Bay to sit in the sun over some calamari and hake and some fizz.

View from our lunch 

The thing to do when you're here is to do the Chapmans Peak Drive it is one the world's best ocean drives. 9km and 114 bends it started construction in first world war with prison Labour of course. The first part was opened in the '20s and it has extended and improved over the decades. It has been shut off and on for quite a number years - the rocks are huge and they a habit of freeing themselves from their moorings.... there's been a few law suits apparently

Some views on Chapmans

Chapmans Peak got it's name from a certain chap called John Chapman. His English ship the Consent was becalmed in the bay in  1607 and he was sent ashore to find provisions. He was just the lowly ships pilot but allowed to name the area. His family should be proud.

We went over to the Artscape Theatre to see a chap called Craig Jackson doing his comedy show  (side splitting allegedly) called Defending the Caveman.... it was well trodden path about differences between men and women. Some of it cracked my funny bone  but there weren't many surprises in the show. Unfortunately boys we need to up our game - but I think you already knew that......

It's our last day in CT tomorrow- we're shipping out to Stellenbosch for a few days

Day 2 on the waterfront

 Went down to the Victoria & Alfred waterfront area. A 30 minute walk in pleasant 22°  

The walk took us through some pretty run down streets with hardly a white face in sight - in contrast to the waterfront where it's all white people except for the black people serving you in the shops and bars.... I don't think the tourists getting off the cruise ships get any idea of the country they're visiting. A quick trip up Table Mountain and Robben Island is about all the history and culture they will see.

Anyway we had a lovely lunch and a drink with Table Mountain in the background. And we were served by a lovely black waiter who deserved his tip.

 We drove up to the Lions Head to get some good views of Table Mountain. Fabulous as always

 Carried on down to Camps Bay for dinner and a couple of cocktails. This is the place for the sunset.

Going a bit further afield tomorrow which will be our last day in Cape Town before we move on to our next stop - Stellenbosch 

Day 1

 8.30pm flight out of Gatwick to Cape Town. 

This will be our 8th visit to South Africa 

Full plane load so not much sleep. We both felt a little wrecked when we got here. So by the time we checked in to our apartment - a lot of faffing around there - we just went across the road for a drink and something to eat. A bit of a low key birthday for me - must be an age thing....

We'll be on our best game tomorrow though

Nice balcony