Today dawned cloudy, so we were afraid that we wouldn’t be able to go to Table Mountain, but reports said that it was clear from the top - so off we went. The ride to the top was fun - the cable car spun around so you could see in every direction - much of which was through the fog.
View of and old cable car and and the current 55 passenger one in action
The top was brilliantly clear and lovely. Although we didn’t see the iconic view of the city, we enjoyed the serenity of looking out over the pillowy clouds below us. We also liked the walk around the top of the mountain which was delightfully rocky with lots of interesting vegetation and a few birds and lizards.
The best part of the view was the 12 apostles advancing south towards the Cape
The drive to Stellenbosch for our South Africa wine experience, was across the wide rolling hills of the plains that surround the city. Stellenbosch is in the foothills, and is known for being the home of one of the best universities in South Africa, as well as being the heart of the wine producing area.
The town itself was charming with many old buildings, most with early 19th century architecture.
We spent the rest of the morning touring the L’Avenir winery, including the production facility, the cellars and the vineyards. As everywhere, the business has adapted to changes in consumer habits, turning some of their land into production of other crops as wine becomes less popular globally. They grow chenin grapes there and make both red and white wines from them.
We had a delicious lunch with a charcuterie board and the best bread we have had in a long time and tasted a total of six L’Avenir wines - pink, white and red It was delightful and relaxing.
For dessert, we headed to another winery about 10 minutes away for muscat and port, paired with chocolate. Yum! We liked the Muratie port especially.
The second vineyard was interesting in part because it was so old…hundreds of years old. The owners emphasized by leaving the uneven floors and walls as they were, displaying old furnishings and household equipment and leaving ages of cobwebs covering the windows.
Back in Capetown, we went back to the V&A waterfront for dinner. We went to a burger place that served 230 different kinds of milkshakes; Cheryl had strawberry Oreo and Ruth had peanut butter brownie. So yummy! Overall a very nice end to our Ultimate Africa Tour!
Table Mountain from the waterfront
No comments:
Post a Comment