Not so wild animals in Cape Town

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Once again we are fast-forwarding through a few days, so please bear with us. First off, happy 4th to all you US readers! Ours has been a quiet one, though CNN International does keep giving us views of Mt. Rushmore with fireworks overhead from last night. Last you heard we were spending our first night in Cape Town. Well, here is what has happened since.

We had come in late on the night of the 1st, so our first real view of the city came on the morning of the 2nd. We were picked up by our guide for the day, a Dutch man named Hans, and headed for the Cape Winelands. The views of Table Mountain and the Waterfront were beautiful on the way out. The city's architecture includes Colonial, Victorian, Cape Dutch, and many others. Our first stop in the winelands was in a town called Paarl (pearl). There a very knowledgeable vineyard expert walked us through the Nelson Estate, where both Nelson's Creek and New Beginnings are grown, processed, matured, and bottled. The visit was nice because we not only tasted a few (5) glasses of wine, but we also learned a bit about the process of making wine. After 5 mini-glasses we couldn't remember what we had learned, but we remember it was fascinating. From Paarl we headed on to Franschoek, a Huguenot outpost in the Cape Winelands. There we stopped at Chamonix, where we had another tasting of a few wines, accompanied by some stiff brandy and some grapefruit liqueur. We also had a nice lunch of quail and venison. Our next visit was at the Solms Delta winery, which specialized in an eclectic mix of blended wines. Also interesting to see was the heritage portion of the grounds, where they had a museum dedicated to showing how the African tribes and people had been involved in wine making and the Cape Town area. We finished up the tour with a trip to Stellenbosch, a university town with a lot of character. We took some time to walk the streets, visit the shops, and, ultimately, take in another muffin at Mugg & Bean. Overall, the tour was beautiful, though we didn't find any wines we couldn't live without. We will return one day, rent a car, and take our time making our way through the area.

Our next day we took a Table Mountain and Cape Point tour. We arose early excited for the day, as we had heard wonderful things about Table Mountain. The mountain had been closed a few times recently due to high winds, so we had our fingers crossed we would make it up. After our guide Ruth picked us up, we got the good news that the mountain was open. Unfortunately, when we got to the top, our guide told us we only had 25 minutes to enjoy the view. Thanks. The view itself was absolutely magnificent. We could have spent hours up there walking around and looking down over the city and the cape. We agreed that the mountain was just peaceful. However, we were forced to leave and head off on a journey for Cape Point. Along the way we stopped in Hout Bay to sea Seal Island (not so wild animal #1), swung by Kirstenbosch for the botanical garden, Fishhoek for lunch on the beach, Simon's Town/Boulders Beach for the colony of African penguins (not so wild animal #2), and a few other very cute, very affluent suburbs, interspersed with a few shanty towns (or informal settlements, as the tourists are forced to call them). When we reached the Cape, the views were breathtaking. We walked up to the lighthouse on Cape Point, then drove down to the Cape of Good Hope (see picture). All in all the day was beautiful, though we again felt like we could have spent more time both at the Cape and on Table Mountain.

Today was a travel day, and we have made our way to the very chilly (12 degrees C at 14:00) Jo'burg. There is no snow on the ground here, though they were said to have received some between our most recent visits. We can't wait to get out to Pilanesberg tomorrow, and to safari once again!

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Comments

[Memoma]

Bearded Wild Man
The wild man looks great with a beard!