Dec 28, Wednesday & Dec 29, Thursday

Dec 29, Thursday

Left Cape Town after my 10 am check-out  and headed out Highway N2.  The plan was to do the Cape Winelands Drive today.   In about ½ an hour I had reached the first turn off at exit 33 on the R310 heading to Stellenbosch.  The directions from the brochure said to look for the Spier Wine Estate on the right side of the road. It was easy to find and I parked the car and went for a long walk on the Estate.  Don’t worry, no wine tasting today since I’m driving.  Unfortunately, there wasn’t a tour available, like many of these estates I’ve seen along the way, they offer wine tasting and picnic areas, but no actual tour of the winery to find out how it is made, and no cellar tours.  The cellar at the Spier Estates dates back to 1767, the oldest one in South Africa.  It is presently being used as an Art Gallery !

 Just on the outskirts of Cape Town, some of the VERY poor housing, or lack thereof, hidden behind high cement walls.

  The Manor House at Spiel, built in 1822.  The house is used to display African Art.  

  What used to be the wine making building

Near the parking lot there was a fenced area with caged leopards.   You can actually go in and pet some, but the line ups are very long and I’m not that brave around animals;  not THAT close.  

Got back in the car and continued my drive to Stellenbosch, taking pictures along the way.  Beautiful town;  I needed to find a bank to get more cash and find a place to have lunch.  No problem finding both;  in fact I could have stayed a week and still had restaurants to try out.  I chose an outdoor café and ate a delicious Moroccan wrap and a blueberry & lemon smoothy.  

 Stellenbosch

  The display of laundry is actually art work !

  One of their busy streets

I continued the drive around the loop, switching to R45.   I was crossing a town called Frankschhoek (another cute tourist town) and as I was looking for my next turn off, I saw this beautiful monument appearing in front of me.

 Vineyards below the mountains

  Grape vines !   Sorry no grapres on these.

 The Huguenot Memorial and Museum 

 This is a "protea" flower.  They are almost as big as sunflowers.

I decided to stretch my legs again and visit the Huguenot museum. That brought back memories of history classes with M. Chauvin and all the “Edicts” restricting religious practice in France, that we had to memorize for our exams.  In a separate building across the road, stilI part of the museum, there were books of French Ancestry.  One of the books had the name Miinard, so I opened it up and ….  Guess what ?   It was originally spelled MESNARD ! ! !    The book was written in Afrikaans, so I brought it to the two ladies at the desk and asked them if they could see where this first Mesnard had come from in France.  Turns out it was the Luberon region in southern France, nowhere near Poitou.

I walked around the grounds for awhile then headed back to the car.  The wine valleys were just beautiful, surrounded by high mountains.   As I drove up the mountain range to leave the wine area I was able to stop at viewing areas to look over this vast valley.   (These are VERY rare.  Normally you can’t stop at the side of any of the roads.)  And I was also able to take a photo of a wild baboon just slowly crossing the road!  There was another group just around the curb, but no possibility of stopping there, so no pics.

  Surrounded by green valleys full of vineyards

 A baboon on the road up the mountain

 The view from half way up

 The view from the top

On the other side of the Franschhoek Pass the vegetation was completely different and it was another winding drive down the mountain along R321 to return to N2.  I drove on for a few hours and as I approached the town of George, I had my first view of the Indian Ocean.  Yes, this time it really is the Indian Ocean. 

 Lots of lakes on the other side of the mountain

 and the greenery has completely changed.

 And it changes yet again into these beautiful rolling hills

 The fields are ready for picking, or already harvested.  Looks like wheat, but it could be other types of grains.

 Those are ostriches !  I saw lots of them in many fields, sometimes alone, sometimes with sheep.

 How is that for a view.  You can see for ever

 My first view of the Indian Ocean !

  A town along the way

I saw a sign for a hotel and took an exit that led down to the beach.  Tried a few places but they were all full.  Finally one of the owners said he would call around to see what was available.  Turns out I had to drive back up to the highway where I had exited.  Unfortunately I missed the turn off and ended up back on the highway, headed in the wrong direction.  Another tourist detour.  I drove on to the next exit and was able to make the loop back onto the highway and return to that first exit.  The hotel was actually hidden behind the gas station !  It wasn’t the best, it wasn’t the cleanest, I did NOT use the shower, but the bed linens were clean.  There was a TV in the room, but it did not work.  It was dark by then so I just stayed put.  And obviously, no Internet connection.  Tomorrow is another day.  

Dec 28, Wednesday

No possibility of getting to Robben Island and I’m actually quite tired, so I decided to just stay in today and rest.  Caught up on my blog and emails.   Yesterday was just too much sun and too much wine on an empty stomach.  It felt good to just relax before my long drive back to Johannesburg.