Chapter 11 - Capetown 3

So after our visit to Cape Point and the Cape of Good Hope, we were headed back up the west coast of the peninsula.  The drive itself took approximately an hour but we would pass some of the most beautiful beaches I have seen in my life. 



The haze takes away from this one a little but the beach in the distance looked like a glacier coming down the mountains. 

  Of course there are ostriches on the Cape Peninsula.

This has to be the biggest beach front I have ever seen.  It's very wide and goes on forever.  We could see people on horseback from where we were standing but they looked tiny. 

This is a look back at the road we've been travelling on.  Mareli told us about the Cape Argus bicycle race they do around the peninsula on an annual basis.  The race involves about 30,000 cyclists ranging in talent from none at all to the very best.  It is a very hilly race that would be challenging regardless of ability.  Lance Armstrong raced in it for his frist time last year and came in ninth.

Hout Bay

Hout Bay is another classic South African example of the very rich and very poor living very close together.  It is a fishing community which supports the poor and a gorgeous place to live which draws the wealthy that work in Capetown.  This area is also home to some very large waves (as high as 45 ft!) which makes it a great setting for their annual surf contest. 



12 Apostles






This series of peaks is part of the Twelve Apostles.  It seems like every continent has a geographical foration that has been given this popular name.  I was only able to get half of the peaks in the photo considered to be in the range .





We were soon back at WH and enjoying some port and cookies.  We decided dinner would be had in Camps' Bay that evening.  It was just on the other side of Table Mountain from where we were staying (map) and it faced the west.  We were told it was the perfect place to watch the sunset and have some sundowners and food...



Camps' Bay

They were right.  We had a great time. 

We ended the night with a cab ride home in the worst looking and smelling cab in existence.  Coupled with a driver that had no idea where anything is, we weren't sure if he was going to be able to get us back to Welgelegen.  He didn't look like he was more than 110 lbs soaking wet so are only real concern was his car's ability to make it over the mountain.  We ended up stopping four blocks from our place and jumping out just to ensure he didn't have the chance to make a wrong turn.

Wednesday, January 19th

Ahhhh...our last day in Capetown.  We really have enjoyed the time here immensely.  We've planned a pretty cool way to kickoff the last day in town...

Platteklip Gorge is on the west end of Table Mountain.  Patrick Mulvehill had mentioned to Kate and I that we should really hike up to the top and walk back down.  We loved the sound of that idea. 

You can see the gorge as well as the cable car line we took two days previous on the map below.


We decided to do it on our final morning.  We were told by Mareli (our guide for those of you not keeping up on your reading) it would take us two and a half to three hours.  We really had no time frame or expectation but packed very light and grabbed a couple bottles of water.  We took a (much nicer than our last) cab to the trail entrance and arrived there at 6 am.

Platteklip Gorge

Here you can see the best view of the gorge from the road you take to the gate.  Fortunately the driver we had this morning had done the hike four times so he knew exactly where he was going.

I found this nice little image on google which shows the path back and forth you take up to the top.  It's a solid workout and we stopped a couple of times to take water and briefly rest.

We reached the top at 7:47 am.
Not bad for a couple of yanks.

Love that view...

A quick trip down in the cable car.  Another cab, shower, breakfast, and a pick up from Mareli and now I can tell you why we felt the need to get a little exercise this morning. 

Today is Cape Winelands tour day!!!

Three wineries with some nice little towns interspursed.  Towns that will provide time between wineries ensuring we don't ruin the flawless reputation we americans have abroad.  And we have the luxury of a driver just in case we enjoy ourselves a little.

Mareli spent a year working at a winery in the same area we were visiting and had intimate knowledge of the vicinity.  We deferred to her for the decision on which of the three many wineries in the Capetown region we should stop.  First would be   Boekenhoutskloof.







How long did it take you to sound it out?  You can thank the dutch for that one.  Boekhoutskloof, meaning "ravine of beach tree" is located in Franschoek.  They have wonderful security guards that patrol the estate.

Puff Adder

This my friends is an African Puff Adder.  This species is responsible for more deaths in Africa than any other.  It has enough venom on its own to kill four to five healthy adults.  It was sitting in the middle of the driveway when we pulled in and moved as we got close.

Yeah, that picture was taken from the car.

Kate at Boekenhoutskloof

So after making safe passage, we arrive to find we are the only ones visiting.  Considering it was a monday afternoon I guess we shouldn't have been surprised.  It was great.  We were able to try five different wines and had the patio to ourselves.

 

Prior to the trip, we read that Capetown and San Francisco were often compared to one another for a variety of reasons.  Their surrounding areas and their potency for growing wine grapes is certainly an obvious commonality between them.  The "microclimates" I was told so much about when visiting San Fran are also noticable.  With the nearby water and surrowunding mountains it isn't hard to understand why growing different grapes comes so easy here. 

So before our next stop we would stop for some ice cream in the town of Franshhoek.  It was a cute little town that looks like they cater to all the half drunk tourists that invariably wander through here between stops.  It contains tons of shops and places to eat.  While in town I decided to pull the memory cards from our camera and have them backed up on CD.  We stopped at and internet cafe to have it made and to send the only communication of any sort for the entire trip.  We had to let our families we hadn't been eaten...yet.

Enough ice cream.  Let's get back to the wine. 

Although even the font of this sign may make you wonder if Neil's brother is Perry,  I can promise you there is no relation...I checked with Wiki...Perry is an only child. 

So here we are at Neil Ellis ready to fight another crowd and wait an hour to get a table and then be rushed through the tasting....

Crickets...

Well, not exactly... We are, once again, the only people here.  It was heavenly.  I think Mondays are made for wine tours.  Not only do you avoid the crowd, your connoisseur often ends up letting you try more than the standard offering...which is nice. 

Directly behind Kate is a glass wall that allows you to look down into the cellar and see all the barrels full of aging wine.  It looks really cool but you'll have to take my word for it.  I haven't mastered the art of taking a picture through glass with little to no light.  Yeah, haven't taken that class yet.

On to Stellenbosch...While we were expecting to see another cutesy town much like the previous one, we were surprised to find a university and college kids walking around...

and some getting hazed...

I don't know how much they appreciated being photographed but it felt like we were back in the States at a Big Ten school.  It was great.  It was fun just to see all the students moving in and people everywhere.  Can't believe how far those days are behind us.

We also had lunch...and really bad service.  Some college girl who passed us off to some other college girl because her shift ended.  They don't make alot of tips over there as 10% is generous.  

I think 10% is generous.  It's been two months and I'm losing some of the detail...

As all good vacations generally end up, we were a little late by the time we arrived at our third and final winery for the day, Clos Malverne.  We lucked out and saved the best for last.

We were used to this by now and expected it.  

More crickets...no people.

Hard to believe we had this beautiful room to ourselves but we lucked out.  The whole wall opens up out into the vineyard and beyond.  It's just gorgeous!  Our final connoisseur for the day was J.P. Quickelberge.  He's the son in law of the owner of the vineyard.  I think he's around the age of twenty-six but his expertise will lead you believe he's been doing this since he was a toddler. 

He spent the better part of an hour describing the wines we tasted and giving us background on the winery.  He and his wife were married right on the property and you can see it makes the perfect landscape for such an occassion.  As it had happened at our two previous wine stops, we would conclude by discussing the distributors of the vineyard's wines.  The previous vineyards shared a distributor out of Birmingham, Alabama suggesting the likelihood of us coming across those brands not to be very high.  We thought otherwise of Clos Malverne when we found out they distribute out of Plymouth, Minnesota. 

I'm not even going to say it.

We had a blast.  It was our fav of the three and J.P.'s an awesome dude.  For those of you who are lucky enough to find their label, the Auret is their flagship and is outstanding.

Clos Malverne Winery

It was time to hop back in the tour bus with Mareli and get back to Welgelegen. 

The sun was setting on our time in Capetown and we would be sad to see it go.  We were leaving for the last leg of our trip early the next morning.  We would be picked up at 4:30 am to head to the airport on our way to Zimbabwe.  We would have one more memorable night in CT before we left. 

Tonight we would be heading to the Cape Grace Hotel  to their Bascule Bar for drinks.  Of over 400 whiskeys, I would try a flight of three while Kate tasted some more wine and we shared some calamari.  We would head to Belthazar for dinner where I would have the most incredible piece of fish I've ever tried in my life: baby kingclip.  Between the bites of her filet I even convinced Kate to try it.  For you seafood lovers if you ever have the chance, don't consider anything else.   

Goodnight Capetown...

Gotta fly!

See you in Zim!!!