Day 187 - Le Pique Nique

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Our first stop on our last full day was the vineyard that makes the wine we'd enjoyed last night - the Rustenburg estate. We weren't up for actually tasting any wine at 10am but we wanted to buy a present for Ted for putting us up in Johannesburg, Gren wanted to get details on importing a few cases and we all just fancied a bit of a nose around another posh wine estate. They really are done out immaculately. Next was a visit to Stellenbosch, the main town in South Africa's wine industry and the name usually seen on most bottles in the UK. We left with a distinctly self-congratulatory feeling for having chosen to stay in Franschhoek rather than Stellenbosch. By far the best thing about Stellenbosch is Oom Samie se Winkel (Uncle Sam’s shop). This famous Stellenbosch institution is a shop set back in time, where a huge variety of interesting products are on sale and it's almost impossible to leave without buying something totally impractical. It's only a small store but it seems to sell pretty much anything and everything, from hats and sacks of dried spices to antique gramaphones and signs.

We had to rush off to yet another wine estate, this time called Boschendal and for a pre-booked picnic lunch in their grounds. This would be a 'must do' recommendation for anyone coming to this part of South Africa. Once we'd found a secluded picnic table under a tree out of the sun, a waiter appeared with 2 wicker hampers containing our 4 course picnic (baguettes, pate, cheeses, meats, pickles) and took our wine order. Being a wine estate they understandably only offer their own wines, but a couple of people on another table still ordered beer. This reminded us of when we were on the Isle of Skye in Scotland and some Americans turned down the landlord's proudly explained selection of 40-odd Scottish whiskies in favour of Jack Daniel's. Some people. Anyway, back to the picnic - it was absolutely magnificent and in modern day parlance exceeded expectations.

In the evening we went for our final dinner to The Cellars restaurant on the Haute Cabriere estate which is on the mountainside overlooking Franschhoek. Although the building resembled a nuclear bunker the wine and especially the food was top notch. With an amazing view they decide to have the restaurant effectively underground, which we thought a strange choice. They suggest a kind of tapas approach so we ordered pretty much everything on the menu and just fought tooth and nail for the best dishes as they arrived. We had a great time but it's not really a good choice for a party of 2.

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