The Wine Dash

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This was to be the first day that we had no accommodation booked and also no decision made as to where we end up. We knew we needed to be near the wine region in 2 days but decided that we should get there early to at least give us a chance of tasting some. Jill got on the phone at our first petrol stop and booked the first B&B we thought we could reach in a day.
The petrol stops were great fun; imagine 4 or 5 lads all dressed like formula 1 pit crews all vying for your attention to drive up to their pump arms waving and all smiling like mad men. They went around the car cleaning all the windows whilst the fuel at about 40p a litre filled up.
The 550 mile drive across the Southern Cape was pretty hassle free, the roads in SA are as good as if not better than the UK plus slower drivers and trucks pull over to the side allowing you to overtake easily with a click of your hazard warning lights to say ‘thanks’ everyone trundles along happy as Larry.
So 7 and a half hours after leaving Shamwari we pull into a rainy Franschhoek the poshest wine town in Southern Africa. Picture a small piece of France with fancy restaurants and wine tasting bars, a small piece of tranquillity in the wine valleys of Southern Africa.
We headed straight out to a random restaurant for dinner which turned out to be the poshest meal we have had throughout the trip, blimey, even the chef came out and chatted to us after the meal.
Getting back to the B&B we saw a note pinned to our door saying “sorry about your car” …. What was this?
I went outside only to find that, for us, the peaceful, quiet and quaint Franschhoek had become car crime capital of South Africa. A gang of lads had smashed the passenger window and made off with Jill’s hat and sunglasses. The B&B owner drove me round to the corner to the Police station where I was informed that they had already rounded up the lads, one of whom was even wearing Jill’s cap!! I had to give a statement and hold my right hand up and swear an oath of truth, the fingerprint team would arrive in the morning and a replacement car was arranged all in all not a nice ending to our night.
Even our B&B owner was amazed when the replacement car and fingerprint team turned up on time and we managed to get away to our next stop on time.
We thought it best that we get a driver/guide to take us out wine tasting even after being positively encouraged to drink and drive by people we had met along the way - even the police said it would be OK for us to drive our damaged car after half bottle of wine!!
So 6 wineries and about 30 tastings later - hic! Laden down with bottle purchases we arrived back at our next B&B in Stellenbosch; South Africa’s wine capital.
Stellenbosch is a university town so a night out watching the champions league final with 100’s of pretend Man Utd student fans going mad was the order of the day -tut.

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