Wine Tour of Stellonbosch!

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Day 319 (23/2/09)
Up and at 'em with bacon and eggs for breaky and finished off the truck clean and headed to Stellenbosch. Everyone was looking forward Stellenbosch it's wine, its atmosphere or just a couple nights in a real bed.
After passing some of South Africa's stunning scenery the excited truck arrived at the quaint town of Stellenbosch around midday. Here we reunited with Jen and Vicky who had decided to join us for the last part of the tour. We headed into town to catch up over lunch, after a couple of wines Jez and Carly headed back to organise our onward journey as our time in the comfort of Barbara was nearly up. We met up with the others for a beer and a swim before heading out for dinner and more wine, but conscious to keep a lid on things prior to the scheduled wine tour the following day.

Day32
After winning the lucky dip for one of the limited double rooms, we were soon starting to question our luck as the room came directly off the bar resulting in a hot and near sleepless night. But with big plans we powered on fixing a hearty eggs on toast for breaky. Jez decided it was time to dig out the blue hot pants just one last time and what a more fitting occasion. Owen arrived without his famous mustache (following the return of Vicky!) and black arm bands were in order for its mourning.
Just as the vans rolled in to take us on our tour Jez quickly changed much to the delight of some and disgust of others. We kicked of the tour at Simonsig where we were given a private tour of the winery, its history of wine production in South Africa. Not a moment to soon we began our tastings following a very informative demonstration on the do's and don't of wine tasting.
Impressed with the wine's quality we purchased a bottle of Chardonnay, took a couple of quick snaps and were rushed back aboard the van to our next winery. Under the encouragement of Mel our Tour Guide Jez made a quick change as we upgraded to the premier tasting section of Fairview winery. Here we were tasted a hand picked medley of 6 wines and complimentary delectable cheeses...aaaahhhhh bliss!
We were given the hurry up again as the rest of the group had finished and were ready to move on, we regretfully rushed through the final tastings but decided to recreate the experience with our merry group of 7 again soon . We each purchased a bottle and cheese and scurried to the bus so not to be left behind.
Next stop was the (I forget) winery and also our lunch stop here we were given the choose of the 5 dishes which was ready and waiting on arrival.
By this time of the day the wine was beginning to taste much the same and there was no time to relax we were back on the road again to the ... winery ( perhaps better off forgotten?) now we are unsure whether it was the wine or the amount of wine we had consumed but the wine was disappointing however the views amazing looking our onto the vineyards in the late afternoon sun. With one stop left we arrived at the elegant Dieu Donne winery for our last six tastings.
Back on the van on the return trip we stupidly decided on trying our bottle and returned to the hostel in desperate need of a nap.
Nap done we headed off for a pizza for dinner and out onto the town however after such a long day this was short lived and returned back to our hot mozzie filled room for a couple hours sleep.


Next stop Cape Town

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