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Published: March 6th 2006
Liquid Bling
Sarah enjoys a Spier Pinotage.We can't believe we've already been in South Africa for 3 weeks. It's flown by, thanks to what we like to call "Brown Ease".
But let's rewind. Last blog many of you read about our parking ticket and said to yourselves "it's just Nick raving again"....but Nick was vindicated the very next day, when we awoke to find that the car next to ours had been broken into. And so we'd like to send a great big thanks to the Stellenbosch Traffic Authority, whose motto should be "Making the curbside safer for car thieves". Anyways, from Stellenbosch we drove literally 20 minutes down the N2 highway to a little winery/flea market/animal refuge called Spier....and this is where we began to feel like our trip to South Africa was going to end up being called Animal Planet. We had anticipated that it would take longer to get there, and so when we arrived at around 11 AM we realized that it was too early to go wine tasting. Despite the fact that we've been vigorously exploiting the old adage that "it's noon SOMEWHERE in the world", this time we chose to play it straight. And so we headed to lunch (okay
Spier Falconry
Hey, what's this glove for? we had a glass of wine with lunch) to bide our time.
We had smiles on our faces this day, not only because we couldn't wait to see a familiar face, but also after having realized that after some seven months of travel we made it on the front page of TravelBlog! Nick thought we were immediate superstars, and even wanted to get a full set of gold teeth to celebrate....but we settled for some "liquid bling" at Spier. We've really enjoyed being introduced to the Pinotage varietal that is unique to South Africa (we believe)...some genius way back in 1925 decided to twist a Pinot Noir vine around an Hermitage vine, and five years later voila: Pinotage. Brilliant. We can't get enough.
After a nice conversation with the wine server, we made our way (slightly stumbling) through the rest of the complex, over to the cheetah enclosure. Sarah yawned, as these animals are old hat for her. NOT. What a beautiful creature! Designed perfectly for speed, they are long and extremely thin, and move with perfect grace. Their top speed was easily faster than our little Kaar. It's a little strange that they apparently have weak jaws,
and so while they can easily catch their prey they have real problems when it comes to "sealing the deal". Not so with our next sights, the birds of prey. Spier rehabilitates falcons, hawks, owls and other birds until they can be released back into the wild. Unfortunately, the birds must be at 100% efficiency otherwise there's a large chance they won't survive. And so at the moment there's quite a varying display of them - even some that have been raised domestically and so cannot be released (these are used for education). We were fortunate enough to be at Spier in time for a falconry display - yet another impressive set of animals!
In order to avoid much of the traffic heading into Cape Town, we opted for the R310 that runs west along the south coast towards Simons Town. Our first images of Cape Town were of mountain peaks in the distance, the ocean along our left, and sand dunes all around, even spilling out onto the road. Much like Vancouver, Cape Town has mountains and ocean all around it. But unlike Vancouver, which is built in front of a mountain vista, Cape Town feels like it
winds through and around the mountains, and since it is situated almost on a peninsula, the ocean nearly surrounds it. Table Mountain is the dominating feature in the city, with its distinctive flat top.
We headed past all this down the R310 into Simons Town, a little south of the city centre and our home in Cape Town. Past a little town called Fish Hoek lies historic Simons Town and Boulders Beach, home to thousands of African penguins! (Animal Planet, remember) The beach is a penguin refuge, and they've cleverly created a boardwalk in and around the refuge, which manages to prevent humans from feeding and petting these cute little guys. What a setting, with rocky cliffs on the ocean, beaches filled with penguins, and the city represented by large houses with many windows. After an hour here we took the nearest mountain pass overlooking the whole city towards the Brown residence.
Allison lives in Constantia, right in the shadow of Table Mountain, next to the gardens of Kirstenbosch. It was sooo great to visit family for the first time in months! Allison's dad Peter was on the tail-end of his visit and so he joined in the
Cecilia Forest Hike
Guide leader Brown points to Muizenberg and the coast. festivities - we were officially welcomed with Allison "Cape Town" Brown's family-famous brownies....two batches in fact!!! What with chocolate, family, mountains and ocean all in one place, Nick dubbed the city "not too frickin' shabby"....kind of makes you want to give the thumbs up and yell "Beauty, eh?".
Just the next day we were on the Brown Power Tour, headed to Cape Point (didn't quite make it to Cape of Good Hope, but we think it's all the same) for some more cool scenery. We weren't aware that while the Cape of Good Hope is officially the southwestern-most point in Africa, it is not the southern-most point (where the Atlantic meets the Indian Ocean): that distinction goes to little known Cape Agulhas. Right now you're saying, "what a sham!". Don't worry, Cape Point is still a fantastic sight, and you can pretend. Still aching from this outing, two days later our tour leader Allison (our drill instructor) dragged us out of bed at the ungodly hour of 8 AM to take us on a forced march up through Cecilia forest, which heads up the back side of Table Mountain and provides some amazing views of the city....we guess you
could say it was a beautiful backside. But if you're in the office, don't say this too loud. Peter "The Dynamo" Brown had already ascended to the top of Table Mountain a few days earlier, and so we were spared a couple of hours on the natural stairmaster. Thanks Peter!
Surprise of surprises, Allison had been doing a little firefighting on the side (it's a long story....she's a Jill of all trades) and was awarded with a weekend to spend up at a friend's property near the sleep little town of Stanford, about a couple of hours northeast of Cape Town. So after our Cecilia forest sightseeing trip, we immediately got in the car and headed out to Stanford. WOW! This little guest farm still has much of the original architecture which is about 150 years old. That is, unfired clay bricks covered with lime and then whitewashed. It's the perfect little series of farm-style houses, complete with those split doors that open from the top or the bottom (or both if you're greedy). We were awarded the honeymoon suite and Allison and Peter each got their own little units. The farm had its own vista (you really can't
go anywhere in this country without some sort of vista) of mountains, still slightly charred from the aforementioned fire. Since it's well away from any well-populated cities, the night brought with it about a billion stars (we can see Orion's belt, couldn't find any Dippers). We spent Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday morning at this farm, which is a bit of a time-warp. You'll never believe this, but we did some laying about during a couple of the days --- in fact, during the hot, sunny 35+ degree weather, Peter "I'm all greased up like a Christmas Turkey" Brown did some "power tanning", stopping just short of yelling at the sun for not working fast enough during his precise 10-minute intervals. We also managed to get out to the two-hundred-odd year old Stanford, and also the nearby Birkenhead Brewery. Since it's Nick writing, I'm now going to tell you to go find their website and try to order some of their Birkenhead Malt Stout online. Subtle chocolate and coffee aftertastes await you. Monday morning we actually drove to the brewery at 9:30 AM to buy beer. Sarah stayed in the car. I was only slightly ashamed at walking up to
Power Tanning with Peter Brown
"I'm all greased up like a Christmas Turkey" the counter in the early morning with a case of twelve beers, but after I found a couple of other gentlemen "testing the new batch" as well, it didn't seem so strange.
On the way back from Stanford, we took the coastal route through Hermanus, west all the way back "home". If you've been on the beautiful Sea-to-Sky highway in Vancouver....this drive was even better! We stopped at one of the multitude of beaches (Pringle Bay) for the afternoon for some sun and surf (and secretly, we suspect, to allow Peter a few more power tanning intervals). Sarah is usually quite practical, and so when the fellow to our right decided to go "au naturale", rather than batting an eyelash she commented: "I hope he's put some sunscreen on that thing". Anyways, the rest of the drive was breathtaking, and here we are back in Constantia. We've sent Peter on his way back to springtime in Vancouver, and we're not too sure what's happening in the next few days (well I'm not too sure; Sarah knows perfectly well what's going on). Thursday we are going to the Educo office for some orientation and following that we will be heading
The Way Back to Cape Town
Just one of the many views along the coastal road between Hermanus and Cape Town. to Educo's "Base Camp" for a week of volunteering during an outdoor experiential education course.
We realize that the last couple of sentences might have confused you, so the next blog will explain our volunteering activities, explain Educo and what they do, and hopefully will introduce some South Africans we've met!
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Tobin
non-member comment
ah the Browns
Great special guests you have on this blog! I am sooooooo jelous and wish I was with you. Looking forward to the next episode with the Browns.lots of love to you all. Tobin