Blogs from Franschhoek, Western Cape, South Africa, Africa - page 2

First off I have a correction to make. I quoted gallons for gas which should have been liters. It was still reasonably priced but completely different. Sorry for the error. Today we are headed off to the Winelands, in particular a place called Franschhoek. Along the way we stopped at St James Beach to take a picture of the colorful beach huts located on the beach. We have no idea why there are so many of these huts on the beach, maybe to store items, surf boards, or even rescue gear. There is a huge Surf School that was located across the street, and we saw about a hundred surfers braving the cold shark infested water. After taking a few pictures on St James Beach we headed north on the skirts of what is called the ... read more

About 45 minutes out of Capetown. This is South Africa's Napa Valley. There are no imported wines in South Africa that I have seen. They fulfill their country's consumptive needs plus generate a large export market. Franschhoek is their St. Helena. The commercial area is only 4 blocks long but 1/2 off all businesses are restaurants. Looking at real estate ads in RE office windows the homes here sell from about 300,00 - 3,000,000 USD. All owned by rich Capetonians for weekend use. We are staying about one mile out of town on a working farm/winery. Owned by a young couple (38/41, two toddlers). They have 17 African (Zulu black) employees who work and live on the farm. Their vineyard part is small and they produce 400 cases a year in house. (shiraz, melbec, semillion, unoaked ... read more

Some final photos before we hit Johannesburg... read more

When one mentions South Africa to an English person the responses usually fall into one of the following categories: a) Thoughts and conjectures synonymous with the Oscar Pistorius trial (ongoing at time of writing) b) A family connection, but 9 times out of 10 not able to name the town or place where the said family reside/d. c) Cape Town: either a desire to visit it or having actually visited it (but quite often nowhere else in SA). Thus the Cape (read 'Cape Town') would seem to be the most prominent of South African geographical areas in the minds of English people generally. Why is this? Natural beauty is one likely answer. Cape Town is a beautiful town, surrounded as it is by the clear waters of the Atlantic on one side and the Indian Ocean ... read more

There are only two things about travelling with Pam that give rise to any anxiety. One is a general tendency to be "relaxed" about schedules and the other is packing. Nothing major (I am also not brilliant at timekeeping), nothing to write home about (or blog), but on a motorcycling trip these two characteristics come together in a fresh and exciting way. So as we awake in our room at 6 on the morning of the first day's biking , we know we have to rationalise the stuff we are taking in our overnight bags. And its the first time Pam has worn her kit. And when John says , "breakfast at eight, leave at nine" he means it! Somehow we manage to force the (far too much) clothing into the 50L Ortlieb bags, leaving a ... read more