Wine Tasting

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First day in South Africa has already passed. Pretty low key since we're all trying to adjust to the time difference. After yesterday's entry, I went for a walk along the beach just outside the hostel. It was a little windy at first, but warmed up near the end. We saw these huges tentacle like things washed up on the shore of the beach, some of which were almost about 3 inches in diameter and 20 feet in length (I would post pictures, but the computer that I'm on doesn't have a functioning USB port). Turns out they were giant stalks of seaweed. In addition, we saw some jellyfish, some mussels, and an unexpected and sad discovery, a dead baby seal 😞.

Lucinda and her husband cooked a traditional southafrican meal for us called Potkie (pronouced poi-kee ). It's basically a large stew. There was beef, carrots, potatoes, yams, dried apricots, zucchini, etc mixed in a large black pot with some broth and cooked in the fireplace. After dinner, we talked and played some board games before heading to bed.

Woke up early this morning to meet Erica, our tour leader for the next three days. Packed up, said goodbye to Lucinda, and headed on the road towards the winelands in a region called Robertson's to taste some authentic South African wines. First stop was Graham Beck which is famous for it's sparkling white wines. I haven't developed the palette for red wines yet so I enjoyed this stop thoroughly. I also bought a couple of bottles of wine since they were really inexpensive (70 Rand ~ $10 per bottle). After the first winery, we drove to this farm and had a huge South African meal served on a little boat as we drifted down the river. We hit up three more wineries after lunch (Springfield Estates, Bon Courage, and Von Loveren). There were several bottles of wine that cost only 20-30 Rand which is less then $5 per bottle!

We got on the road again to head to Swellendam where we are going to stay for the night at a backpacker. Today was a pretty chill day. Tomorrow will be a more active day hopefully involve abseiling, canoeing, and quadbiking.

Will hopefully upload pictures soon.

Also trying to learn some Afrikaans while I'm here, so I will include an Afrikaan's lesson next time.

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