Ok, we took the early flight from Joburg to Cape Town for the last leg of our trip. This leg includes wine tasting, potentially whale watching, and the great white shark dive.
After the 1 hour 40 minute flight, we tried to take advantage ofthe warm weather to hike up Table Mountain. Apparently, we weren’t the only ones with that idea- as about 5,000 other people were trying the same thing, so we headed to our hotel in the wine region, about 30 minutes outside of town, Stellenbosch. Our friend, a local South African, was givng us a tour of the wineries…and driving.
He picked us up and promptly took us to a great winery overlooking the wine valley and wine farms. After our tasting, we grabbed lunch and headed to the next winery. The wine valley is spectacular- similar to Yosemite and Napa mixed together…
The next winery was a Dutch/Cape winery built in the 1600′s and we sat on the lawn and had enjoyed wines in the sun. After that winery we went to an even older winery but wasn’t as nice, and it was similar to a winery in Ercole’s…but with spider webs and dirt. Although the ports were amazing and the old school winery feel was nice.
Makes Ercole's look clean...
After that winery our host drove us around the valley a little more. As he continued to drive, he kept mentioning the properties his family owned. I kept thinking of Four Weddings and a Funeral, when one of the characters asks the other if he is in fact the richest man in England. He replies, matter of factly, that he is 7th. The Queen is 1st and that Richard Branson did quite well…
Our host may have been the richest man in South Africa. After the tour, we headed back to his estate and winery for dinner. He provided us winery’s wine and we had a proper South African braai, or BBQ.
After sampling all of their wines by the bottle, we headed back to our hotel in order to drive to Hermanus for our white shark dive.
Greg, not in here...
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- View from Tocara winery
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- Wine farms…
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- Greg, not in here…
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- Felt like wine tasting in Yosemite
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- Makes Ercole’s look clean…
- Wine farms…
View from Tocara winery
The next day, we hit up two more wineries on the way out. We wet to the next region over- similar to the Napa and Sonoma proximity- and then drove the remaining hour to Hermanus. Hermanus is considered the best land based place in the world to see whales but we are about a month early on their migratory route.
We are in a hostel tonight and off to the dive tomorrow.
