I spent four days last week touring in and around Cape Town. Middle of July is mid-winter and is supposed to be one of the wettest months. We did experience a bit of rain on the last couple of days but in the main it was just stunning!
On Tuesday on my way to collect Elspeth and Ian for a day on the Peninsular, I just had to stop and take this picture at the Harbour….
Hout Bay was just lovely and I took a couple of pics of the yachts, here is my favourite…
Ian and Elspeth had a great day and saw, Eland, Ostrich, Seals, Penguins, a great deal of bird life and some stunning scenery.
One of the interesting things we witnessed was two Penguin Chicks at Boulders, trying to get what we thought was their mother to feed them, they were making their presence very felt, but what is unusual is that Penguins normally lay one egg at a time and therefore normally only have one chick!
The next day I took Joseph and Evan up Table Mountain, around the City and to Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens and Buitenverwachting. There was a bit of cloud around which made Table Mountain all magical and mystical.
The Dassies were in fine form…
We walked along the ‘Boom Slang’ or the Canopy Walk at Kirstenbosch Gardens and enjoyed it thoroughly!
The next day it was off on the Winelands and Joe had alerted me to an article written by Jancis Robinson which highlighted certain wines so I routed our day to include these. Joe is an executive Chef at Beau Rivage in Biloxi which is an MGM resort. Our first stop was Glen Carlou where the Wine maker Arco was kind enough to give us an impromptu Cellar Tour and spent some time chatting to Joe and Evan.
In the picture below, Arco is showing Joe the concrete eggs which are used to mature some of the wines, it was really fascinating!
From there we went on to Backsberg where our experience was not a touch of the one at Glen Carlou. My request for a bit of the wine maker’s time was denied and the owner walked right past us without bothering to greeting us. The lady conducting the wine tasting however was quite knowledgeable but it was sad that there was absolutely no interest shown by management.
We popped into Babylostoren for a quick look at their cured meats, cheeses and bakery which was fun and from there went on to Delaire Graff where we were met by Johann Conradie, the GM who took us on a tour of the property in a golf cart, right up to the top for the stupendous views, he showed us the green house, worm farm and hotel. He then gave us a lovely tour of the Cellar which included tastings from the tanks and then a private tasting by the fire in the tasting room, it was just stunning! This was followed by a superb meal in the Delaire Graff restaurant.
The weather on Friday was not brilliant but allowed some lovely scenery at Hout Bay which never seems to disappoint!
Joe and Evan managed to get lovely views and stay dry at Cape Point and Cape of Good Hope. They got a little wet at the Penguins but dried out by the time we got to Kalk Bay, where we enjoyed the Kalkies famous fish and chips. When fish and chips gets the thumbs up by an International Chef, you know it must be very good!
Joe and Evan loved the V & A hotel, 95 Keerom and the Round House as well as the Cape Malay dishes at Jonkershuis. All in all I think they were both blown away by the lovely scenery, great hospitality (with one exception) and really good cuisine, I think they may be back!