Today was the day to get out of the city and do the wine
country tour. The wine was not
remarkable but the towns and vineyard grounds were totally beautiful. Two towns were especially nice--Stellenbosch
and Franschhoek. The Dutch influence is
pretty obvious by the names of these towns.
I guess I could call them charming little places. They are on the order of Carmel and Monterey,
although they are inland. The Houtentot Mountains
is the range running through this area.
We ate lunch at French Connection, where I had a smoked salmon and chive
cream cheese sandwich along with fresh onion rings and a soft drink called Aqua
Peach. Again, the food was plentiful,
delicious, and inexpensive.
We visited three wineries:
Haute Cabiere, De Lei Wen Jagt (The Lion Hunt) which has been purchased
by a German and is now called Sidleberg, and Saxenberg. They had beautiful gardens and lovely
views. The last one was having a festival
and was pretty crowded. It was nice to
see so many families having fun and enjoying the perfect weather (although it
was a little windy; like a normal day in Kansas). In addition, we stopped by Drakenstein, the
prison that held Mandela after he left Robben Island. Although he was there only 6 weeks, there was
a huge sculpture of him at the entrance.
We had a very interesting guide who told many stories about
living in Capetown during apartheid. I
think she attempted to sugar-coat things a little, in terms of the way things
are now. She said everything is just
perfect now and in just a couple more years, all the shanties will be empty and
torn down. All the people will have new
state-built homes that aren’t great but much better than they had. The shanties stretched for miles and were
worse than anything I have ever seen in Mexico or any European country. It makes our ‘slums’ look inviting.
In regard to the wild life, I mentioned yesterday that we
were flashed by a baboon. Today, I was ‘mooned’
by 3 white springboks. I guess they’re
just sick of the tourists. We also saw
eland, wildebeest, zebra, and brown springboks.
Tomorrow is a 5 a.m. wake up call and then off to the
airport. All the cyclist are biking
around the area and I hear that it’s going to be a nightmare for the locals and
the tours. I have enjoyed my time in
Capetown but I’m ready to get out of the city and see more,
