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South Africa - January 2024

January - February 2024
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  • Tim's TravelsSouth Africa - January 2024
    1
    Day 8

    Day 8 - Pt 2 : Pot Luck

    January 26 in South Africa ⋅ ⛅ 19 °C

    Dinner tonight is at one of our favourite Cape Town restaurants - The Pot Luck Club. We had dinner here when we were last in town, and it was sensational. We’ve been struggling to spend our daily spend budget so far. The £ to ZAR exchange rate is so favourable at the moment, and South Africa has always offered outstanding value to Brit travellers. That might all change tonight though.

    It’s still warm when we head out, and we’re glad of the air-conditioning in our Uber. Arriving at The Pot Luck Club, it immediately feels familiar and welcoming. We kick off with some pre-prandials - an Inverroche Amber and tonic for me, and a kiwi and strawberry Daiquiri for Vicki. Yum.

    It’s a sharing plate kinda place - and we’re encouraged to order between 6 and 8 dishes to share. We go for 7, figuring that average doesn’t always have to be average. What follows is a succession of show-stoppers. Some really imaginative cookery on display, but brilliantly executed. The Chef Patron is a guy called Luke Roberts - Brit by birth, traveller by nature. The geographically diverse nature of his life is evident in his food - hints of southern Europe here, a dollop of South East Asia there. There are a couple of fish dishes in particular that are as good as any we’ve eaten anywhere. Just sublime…

    While we eat, the sun starts to track to the horizon. Behind us is Table Mountain, shrouded in mist and cloud. Over towards Lion’s Head though, the clouds are dispersing, and the sun’s rays are starting to push through. By the time we’re finishing our savoury dishes, there’s a spectacular sunset on display, and diners are queuing at the fire exit door to take pics. We don’t need, but very much want to share a dessert - a peanut butter bombe, with a banana mousse and a Frangelico sabayon. Neither Vicki nor I have a particularly sweet tooth, but this dish straddles the line between sweet and savoury perfectly. It’s big - big enough to share very happily. We wash it down with a glass each of the Joostenberg estate’s noble rot Chenin Blanc dessert wine - a wine I first tried way back in 2003. It’s a brilliant partner.

    We’re not full to bursting, but we both know we’ve had a good feed. The bill is incredibly reasonable for the experience we’ve had. Whilst it’s pricey by South African standards, in London, it would cost several times as much. We’re forklifted into the back of an Uber, and head back to our hotel. We stop in at the rooftop bar for a glass of wine before we fall into bed...    Read more

  • Tim's TravelsSouth Africa - January 2024
    Day 9

    Day 9 - A sobering truth

    January 27 in South Africa ⋅ ☁️ 18 °C

    I have another somewhat sketchy night’s sleep, waking at 06:00, when I don’t need to be up until 08:00. No such worries for my beloved. We agreed our 08:00 alarm call last night, and I’m enthused when she seems properly awake not long after. The hotel driver drops us over to the V&A Waterfront at 10:15 - up and out quite a lot earlier than either of us thought would be necessary on this trip. We’re heading over to Robben Island. I’m fully prepared to be part angered and part heart-broken by this place, based on what little knowledge about it I’ve accumulated.

    We start badly. We’re corralled into an airless room to wait for our ferry. We’ve previously been told we must be there by 10:15 for an 11:00 departure. The reality is that the boat docks at 10:55, moments before our departure time. We board. It’s hot and stuffy. There is no bar. Mutiny festers. We are both hot and bothered. As the boat finally gets underway, some breeze finds us. The ferry owners have missed a massive trick - we’re in an enclosed deck, when windows and open air would have made the journey far more memorable, and massively more enjoyable experience. Some 90 minutes after we rocked up for our ferry, we finally land on Robben Island. We board a bus to tour the island, and our hugely enigmatic guide tells us about the various buildings that were a part of the apartheid management of the prison facility. My blood very quickly begins simmer, soon after it boils. Some of the stories she tells are both unbelievable, but utterly credible.

    Most of what you’ll hear about modern South African history, and the overturning of apartheid is about Mandela - and let’s not fuck around, the guy’s a saint. BUT - there are so many other stories that should be told as well. The guy that shows us around the prison complex itself was imprisoned for seven years for sabotage - a pretty beige crime at the best of times. When he tells us his personal story, I’m torn between anger and sorrow. He was imprisoned on Robben Island at the age of 18. He admits to his crime - arson of an administrative office that charged unmanageable rents to people of colour, in houses they never wanted to live in at all. His parents defaulted, and were instantly evicted. They couldn’t find anywhere else to live. It’s unsurprising that this young man found cause to fight back. When he did, he and his friends targeted an administrative office, with a desire to stop the white managed office from executing its racist policies. They set the fire after hours, making sure no-one could be hurt. Two of the five were caught, and jailed for 7 years - for trying to make sure their country had an identity and a future. What beguiles me the most is Derek’s calm - he is not angry, and he is not bitter. He is assured that his country is becoming something better, albeit slowly. I adore listening to him speak. I could spend hours hearing stories of his experiences, no matter how dark and dangerous.

    We’re shortly back at the dock waiting for our ferry back to the mainland. It’s a clusterfuck. We’ve spent a lot longer in the sun today than we’d planned or hoped. No one can tell us what time the boat is actually supposed to leave. We briefly consider swimming the 13km back to Cape Town. We finally board the boat. By the time we land back at the Cape Town Waterfront, we’ve been the go for 5 hours. Only 90 minutes of these have actually been hearing about and learning about Robben Island. Those 90 minutes are incredibly powerful, and hugely heartbreaking - but we both end up feeling that the day is both organisationally and informationally challenged.

    We’re both parched and ravenous. We agree on the ferry back to Cape Town that our first drinks order will be sizeable - a beer each, and a glass of wine/Savanna for follow up. We find a very cool Belgian restaurant. The server looks a touch confused at our drinks order, but does the decent thing and brings it anyway. We eat fish - mussels and kingklip. We have a fabulous bottle of Chardonnay. We move seats several times to avoid the sun, as we’re starting to feel a touch crispy.

    The V&A Waterfront is the shopping centre of Cape Town. I buy a 3rd ostrich egg to complete my collection. Vicki finds a couple of hats that really suit her. We demand 1/2 kilo of really good biltong. It’s pushing 19:00, and we’ve been out for most of the day, so we grab a cab back to our hotel. Not quite ready to call it a night, we hit the Sky Bar. The sommelier instantly asks if we want to do a wine tasting. We accidentally agree. In the background, there’s a guy doing very passable acoustic covers of Tom Petty, Dave Matthews Band, even Cher. We spend a great 1/2 hour chatting to Akonwe about his wines, watching an achingly beautiful sunset, and then decide it’s maybe time to call it a night. Back in our apartment, we throw on a movie (admittedly after spending 20 minutes trying to figure out lighting), and relax a touch….    Read more

  • Tim's TravelsSouth Africa - January 2024
    1
    Day 10

    Day 10 - A little more wine than planned

    January 28 in South Africa ⋅ ☁️ 18 °C

    We wake up with vim and vigour. We’ve planned a late breakfast/brunch, followed by an improving walk through Tokai Forest. We *might* stop at a Constantia wine farm on the way back to Sea Point. Showering, I discover yesterday’s sun-based queueing has left me with a hell of a t-shirt tan.

    Arriving to our brunch booking, we discover that Blockhouse Kitchen is located ON a wine farm - Constantia Uitsig. We have a lovely feed, and decide that since we’re here already, we might as well have a wine tasting. Our host is a jaunty chap from Zimbabwe. He is generous with his pours. Some of the wines are stellar. We both love the Chardonnay Reserve, and the Estate Red is sensational. We’re going to try and be well behaved, and not buy tons of wine along our travels. It’s tempting to cast these good intentions to one side.

    We quickly abandon plans of a walk, and take a lovely little drive to Buitenverwachting - brilliant name. Correctly pronounced, it’s ‘Bay-ten-vare-vack-ting’ We visited back in 2019, and had a sublime oaked Sauvignon Blanc. I’m very excited to try it again. We are, however, foiled. The estate is closed on a Sunday… Not to be deterred, we head onwards to Groot Constantia, where we have a tasting of the estate’s red wines. Again, we could buy several. We’re going to head up and over Constantia Nek to get back to our hotel, and accidentally stumble across an estate with which I’m unfamiliar - Beau Constantia. Reasoning that it would be rude not to, we stop in for a quick glass of wine, and some pretty good Dim Sum. The views across to Muizenberg are stunning. We sit back, and ease our way through a happy half-hour of watching the world go by.

    The drive back along the coast is beautiful - even moreso heading North than it is when driving South towards Hout Baai. Camps Bay is packed - an actual traffic jam. Back at our apartment, we’re not 100% sure what to do with ourselves. We have some biltong, and I decide a nap is probably gonna work for me. An hour later, I wake up feeling refreshed, but a little less than fresh. A Savanna and some Drowoers later, I’m ready to go out.

    We go to the Codfather - not our first time, but maybe our last. They do fish, really REALLY well. They seem to both of us to have become a little greedy since our last visit. The tables are packed SO tightly that we basically share a conversation with our next door table. Anyone gets up, and they have to run the gauntlet past our table, and invariably bump into us. The concept is brilliant - you choose your fish of choice from a beautiful, market style array. There is a host from which to choose. There is some confusion when I ask for a crayfish, and what turns up is clearly a lobster. The food is really well cooked, but there’s just a sense that we both have that the restaurant is now more about profit than enjoyment. I recently recommended it to some friends visiting Camps Bay - I’m not sure I would do so again.

    We walk down the Camps Bay beachfront as the sun sets, and are struck by the beauty of the place. We stop in at Tiger’s Milk - half way between a pub and a bar. There’s a DJ banging out some pretty decent progressive house. We both comment that we’d love to see a DJ playing this kind of music in the UK, but it’s SO tough to find these days. What was going to be a quick post prandial turns into something quite a lot longer. We finally pour ourselves into an Uber just after 23:00, which based on our trip so far, is VERY late. Arriving back to our apartment, we crack open the bottle of Amarula sitting in the bottom of the fridge. We have nothing to wake up for tomorrow, so will deal with Monday when it arrives.    Read more

  • Tim's TravelsSouth Africa - January 2024
    11
    Day 11

    Day 11 : Cow, cabernet, clouds

    January 29 in South Africa ⋅ ☁️ 19 °C

    We’re both a little groggy this morning. Last night was comfortably the latest and booziest night we’ve had while we’ve been here. We’ve nothing much planned today. After being pretty hectic for the past 5 days, we thought a slightly slower day before we head over to the winelands was deserved. We’ve a late lunch booking, and the formings of a plan to head up Table Mountain for sunset.

    Lunch is at a steakhouse called Bo-vine, over in Camps Bay. It’s just over the road from the beach, and the views are stunning. The beef is great - rib-eye for me, and sirloin for Vicki. Incredibly simple food, but sourced well, accurately seasoned, and perfectly chargrilled. A bottle of Warwick Cabernet Sauvignon is a great accompaniment.

    We walk down the beach back to Tiger’s Milk for a post-prandial. Vicki locates a Pina Colada, I bathe in Savanna. The clouds are gathering over Table Mountain. High winds are forecast later this evening, and our planned visit to the top of the mountain is looking increasingly unlikely. While we’re at Tiger’s Milk, we decide to sack it off, and head back to the hotel. Checking the Table Mountain website, we discover that the cableway service has been suspended.

    Back at the Hyde Hotel, we head to the Skye Bar for a glass of Shiraz. It starts to rain. The cloud draping itself over Table Mountain is spectacular to watch. We decide to have a chilled evening, and have some dinner at the hotel. The clouds continue to amaze us. There’s a heavy shroud over Lion’s head now, but out to the coastline the cloud is lifting, and there are some amazing views of the sunset. We’re pretty tuckered, so end up having an early night, and cross fingers for a long and deep sleep…    Read more

  • Tim's TravelsSouth Africa - January 2024
    Day 12

    Day 12 : The temperature's rising...

    January 30 in South Africa ⋅ 🌙 34 °C

    We both sleep pretty well. Today is moving day - we’re heading up to Paarl in the Vineland’s, then on to Franschhoek tomorrow. It’s been great to spend 6 days in and around Cape Town - one of our very favourite cities, but we’re ready to move on. Neither of us is particularly hungry, so we skip breakfast, and get on the road in decent time. Traffic is a little clunky in places, but we still manage to get out towards Stellenbosch a little after 11:00.

    Our first port of call is a winery called Joostenberg, who produce (amongst others) a sensational dessert wine from noble rot Chenin Blanc grapes, a process where fungus is sprayed over the grapes to encourage intentionally a form of rot that sweetens and intensifies the flavour of the juice. I’d not tried the wine since 2003 until we each had a glass with our dinner at The Pot Luck Club last Friday. We want to grab a bottle, and see what else the estate has to offer. We are foiled however - the tasting room is only open Friday to Sunday.

    Undeterred, we move on to Glen Carlou, which IS open. We’ve had a couple of glasses of their estate Chardonnay during our trip, and want to see what’s up with the rest of their range. Between us, we try 10 different wines - some good, some great, and a couple that are spectacular. We’re stopping here for lunch, and grab a bottle of the awesome Estate Cabernet Sauvignon to go with our roasted pork belly (Vicks) and ostrich fillet (me). Both dishes are sensational. The views accompanying our lunch aren’t bad either…

    From here, it’s a short drive to Vrede en Lust, a winery with which neither of us is familiar. The enigmatic Abbey looks after us brilliantly, and takes us through a tasting of some 12 wines - again, some are better than others, and there are some real gems in there. We buy a bottle of their flagship red, a Bordeaux style blend called Boet Erasmus. We’re braaiing tonight, and it’ll be a fab companion to whatever we end up cooking. The views, again, are stunning. We enjoy them from inside the lovely, air-conditioned tasting room. The temperature is pushing into the mid 30s, and it is HOT. Thursday and Friday this week promise heat of 40C and above, which is the kind of temperature at which we both melt.

    We stop in Paarl at a fab butcher’s shop for some steak, kebabs and boerewors, and grab some simple salad ingredients from the supermarket. We arrive at Mooi Bly a little before 16:00. The estate is a little slice of peaceful heaven. Surrounded by mountains on three sides, the only noises audible are the dogs, geese, chickens and insects that occupy the lush, green surroundings. I was last here in 2005, and have been wanting to come back ever since. Our cottage is fab - everything we need, nothing we don’t. Liesbeth, the Belgian-born owner stops by to say hi, and we catch up over a glass of wine while Vicks has a well deserved afternoon nap.

    By 19:00, it’s cooled enough to stand at the braai pit in the sunshine, tending to my fire. I’ve not lit a braai fire this organically in quite some time… I do a half decent job of it. Vicks has decided she’s not all that hungry, so I’m left with a chunky t-bone steak to myself. Again, I do a half decent job of it. It’s accompanied by a simple greek salad, and a glass of the Cabernet Sauvignon left over from our lunch at Glen Carlou. We eat outside, under the vines that cover the patio trellis, and amongst the beautiful surrounds of Mooi Bly, as the sun sets to the West of us. It's a sensational way to spend an evening.

    Vicki is in bed shortly after 21:00, and I’m not a million miles behind her.    Read more

  • Tim's TravelsSouth Africa - January 2024
    Day 13

    Day 13 : The Franschhoek Valley

    January 31 in South Africa ⋅ ☁️ 20 °C

    We’ve not really talked about load-shedding. The electricity grid in South Africa is not fit for purpose. It’s decades old, hasn’t been maintained effectively, and South Africa has a booming population. The electricity companies are run by mates of the folks in Government, and they cream off billions of rand each year, which should be spent on the power grid. As a result, the grid can’t cope with the everyday power demands of the South African population. Load shedding is a nationwide policy that sees the power cut off to businesses and homes alike, for around 4-6 hours each day. The timing varies by day and by region, and there’s a calendar maintained by the Government so you can plan around when load shedding is going to take place. A lot of businesses have back-up generators so there’s no interruption to power supplies during shedding. Mooi Bly does not.

    Vicks and I fell asleep last night with fans blowing on us. There’s no A/C at Mooi Bly, but the floor-standing fans do a good enough job of cooling us. Load shedding starts at 02:00, and is due to run for a couple of hours. I wake up at 02:35, conscious that the fan is no longer blowing, and I am no longer cool. I toss and turn for a good 45 minutes, but struggle to fall back to sleep. Around 03:15, I get up and a have a cold shower. Properly cold. Squeal out loud cold. I towel off the worst of the moisture and back into bed. I feel cool for perhaps 5 minutes - certainly not long enough for me to drift off. All too quickly, I’m feeling hot again. I’m about to give up/get up, when the fan suddenly kicks back to life. Rejoice! A few minutes later, I’m comfortable enough to sleep, and drift off into a dreamless, deep sleep.

    Waking again at 06:30, I’m struck by the peaceful silence around Mooi Bly. I can hear a chicken somewhere, and some insect calls, but that’s it. I sit on the verandah as the sun rises, and feel completely at peace. Vicks has not slept well, largely due to the heat / load shedding during the night. We check the details of our Franschhoek accommodation, and find that:

    a) There is no air-conditioning, and
    b) There is no back-up generator

    Given the anticipated 40C temps over the next few days, we make a snap decision to book an alternative. The options are pretty thin on the ground at this late stage, but we find a guesthouse a couple of clicks outside of Franschhoek town centre which should meet our needs. What it doesn’t have is a braai. Having already bought supplies for an evening braai, and not wanting the food to go to waste, we have a breakfast braai - boerewors, and some sosaties. Cooking even at 10:00 is sweltering. Max temp today is expected to be 35C. We find a load-shedding schedule. The power is off between 10:00 and 12:00, and the temperature inside our cottage quickly begins to rise, at just the time we want to shower, pack etc. It’s uncomfortable at best. We get the car packed, and get ourselves into its air-conditioned cocoon of coolness as quickly as possible. I’m sad to leave Mooi Bly - it’s been wonderful to come back and see Liesbeth. We’ll be back for sure.

    We’ve a 40 minute drive over to Franschhoek, and will see where the road takes us. Perhaps unsurprisingly, it takes us past about 20 wineries, one of which we decide to stop at - Plaisir De Merle. Turning off the road, we’re unsure if we’ve been here before. Arriving at the tasting room, we conclude we have not. We plan to taste 4 wines each, but our host decides that we shall taste about 8. We’re there for nearly 90 minutes. There are some absolute belters - a mature, oaked Chardonnay that we both love, a couple of reds that are just brilliant, and a rosé sparkling wine that I could happily drink all afternoon. Some of the pours are a little generous, so we decide not to stop again.

    Arriving to our guesthouse around 15:00, we’re delighted to find the room frosty. The air-con is kicking out, and we congratulate ourselves on a choice well made. Around 16:00, I decide a nap is in order, and am quickly snoozing. Vicki wakes me around 17:00, and does not appear best pleased. The room feels warm. The power has been off since 16:00 - taking the air-conditioning with it. Load shedding strikes again. It transpires that our guesthouse has back-up generators for hot water, and for WiFi, but NOT for power to run the air-conditioning, or other appliances. We feel semi jipped. We head out to avoid the worst of the heat, and have drinks and some food at Tuk Tuk Brewery, a craft brewery in downtown Franschhoek. It’s noticeably cooler than earlier, and the wind is getting up. Checking the load-shedding schedule, we determine that we shouldn’t have too many problems from this point onwards. There’s a power outage due at 06:00 - 08:30 in the morning which we can manage. There’s then one in the afternoon when we’ll be out with Eon anyway, and then nothing till Friday morning.

    Back at the room, the A/C purrs. We cool down quickly, and decide an early night is called for. Vicks is asleep just after 21:00. I manage to read by book until nearly 22:00 before my eyes get heavy, and I follow her into slumberland.

    As a form of load-shedding protest, I appear to have taken no photos through the day. I'll rectify this tomorrow...    Read more

  • Tim's TravelsSouth Africa - January 2024
    Day 14

    Day 14 : Stellen-BOSH

    February 1 in South Africa ⋅ 🌙 21 °C

    An early night predictably means an early waking. Load-shedding is in effect from 06:30 and 08:30, and the room is already warming up. Happily, we’re not heading out till 09:30, so have time for a shower after the A/C is back on.

    We’re spending a day with Eon - our good friend who drove us around the winelands on our last visit. He commented then that he’d wished he wasn’t driving, as it would’ve been much more fun to be tasting with us. 5 years later, here we are - and he’s planned a fabulous day of behind the scenes wine experiences for us. We start at the Anthonij Rupert estate, producers of a high-end range of wines on the outskirts of Franschhoek. The estate is stunning - lush green gardens, a Cape Dutch manor house, and a beautiful terrace where we’ll taste our wines. We start with a glass of a rosé MCC sparking wine to freshen our palates. MCC is Methode Cap Classique, and means the wine has been made in the traditional Champagne method - consisting of Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. For our tasting, we have 4 different sparklers, and 3 different reds. A couple of the sparkling wines are sensational - the reds, perhaps even better. They’re at an excellent range of price points as well. As a special treat, we’re poured a couple of extra red wines - their Cabernet Franc, and their flagship red blend. Both are eye-poppingly good. The red blend retails at £60 in South Africa, making it a seriously premium bottle. In the UK, you’ll pay North of £100.

    The sun is starting to beat down. The temperature is predicted to hit 39C/40C later today. The van we’re being driven in is beautifully chilled. We take a drive over into the Stellenbosch valley. We arrive at Kanonkop, one of the oldest vineyards in South Africa. They are masters of the Pinotage grape, the incredibly South African hybrid of the Pinot Noir and Cinsault grapes created in the early 20th century. Bad Pinotage is BAD. Good Pinotage can be great. We’re hopeful of the latter during our tasting… We’re having a private tasting in the winery’s art gallery with the lovely Heidi. She’s a story-teller, and we spend a fantastic hour listening and learning, all the while tasting the estate’s greatest hits. There’s a rosé that retails for all of about £3.50, all the way through to an ultra premium Pinotage made from the very oldest Pinotage grapes on the farm. As vines get older, they produce less fruit, but that fruit is super concentrated, and can make wines that are stellar, as in this case. We have a vertical tasting of the estate Kanonkop Pinotage - from the 2014 and 2021 vintages, allowing us to see how the wine matures over time. It’s such a treat. As we go to leave the tasting room, I comment that I’ve tried their Paul Sauer blend, so we’re poured a couple of extra glasses of this, and their estate Cabernet Sauvignon. We feel very fortunate.

    About 200m up the road is the Warwick estate, a producer whose wines have started to pop up more regularly in the UK in the past few years. As we park up, Eon recommends we pop on some sunscreen, as we’re heading off on a wine safari (!?). We acquiesce, and climb aboard a Land-Rover safari truck with Jaap, an old friend of Eon’s. He takes us on a tour of the estate, giving us a fascinating insight into the strategy and planning that goes into deciding what wines the estate will produce. We pull to a halt at the highest point of the estate, and stop for a glass of rosé sparkling wine. The views across the valley are stunning. Hazy, due to the countless wildfires in the region, but somehow all the more spell-binding as a result.

    Back at the estate tasting room, Jaap takes us on a jaunt through Warwick’s premium wines. Their range includes a staggeringly good Chardonnay, and some brilliant red blends. We’re vaguely conscious that we’ve had a lot more wine than we normally would have by 13:00, without breakfast. Happily, Eon has arranged for us to have a picnic in the Warwick estate grounds. We pick a bottle of that Chardonnay to accompany our lunch, and dig in. The picnic is amazing - great sandwiches, a range of local pâtés, beautiful salads… It’s a wonderful way to spend time. We struggle to finish our picnic, so it’s packed up for us to take home for dinner later. The heat is crushing, so we elect to head back to our guesthouse and cool down. It’s been a real treat to hang out with Eon. He’s such fun, and so utterly knowledgeable about the winelands. We’ll hopefully see him for a quick beer on Saturday before we head home.

    We’re back at our guesthouse around 17:00. We both decide a nap is in order, and end up sleeping for nearly 2 hours. We’re then awake for a little over 2 hours, before we decide that it’s bedtime. Honestly, we’ve had a very tough day…    Read more

  • Tim's TravelsSouth Africa - January 2024
    Day 15

    Day 15 : Holy shit, it's hot

    February 2 in South Africa ⋅ 🌙 24 °C

    We wake up and compete over who’s had more sleep. We’ve both topped out at 10+ hours. YUM. We’ve got a pretty early start in Franschhoek, so get a hustle on, and an Uber into town. The Franschhoek wine tram is great fun. It leaves at 09:30, and the first wine stop is about fifteen minutes later. Not to be outdone, the guys on the tram give us a snifter to get our day moving. Our first port of call is Rickety Bridge - a winery neither of us have visited before. It’s just before 10:00 when we request some sparkling wines, and some of their flagship estate wines. The sparkling wines are really good. The flagship wines are a little variable, but of a decent standard. The sun is already heating up, so we stay in the shade as long as we can. A tractor drives us back to the tram stop.

    Our next stop is Grande Provence - again, new to both of us. We do a similar sparkling/flagship wine tasting - some crackers in here. We notice they sell both a semi-sweet and dessert wine based on Muscat, and ask if we can try those as well. Good grief - they’re good. Designed for very different purposes, we can quickly imagine ourselves enjoying a bucket load of each of them back home. By now, it’s all of 11:30. We’re both getting properly hungry, having foregone breakfast in the interest of expediency. Our next stop is Mont Rochelle, where we’ve booked a picnic. Arriving just after 12:00, we dive into the air-conditioned tasting room. We taste their flagship Chardonnay and Syrah, as well as their estate white and rosé wines. They ask if we want to eat our picnic outside - we quickly decline. It is just too fucking hot. The mercury is reading 38C, and we’re simply not built for it. We pick a bottle of their high-end Miko Syrah to accompany our lunch. We grab a table inside their heavily air-conditioned dining room, and unwrap our picnic. There is an avalanche of food, We fall upon it - perhaps a little too quickly. We are ravenous, and just perhaps a little drunk.

    We briefly consider heading straight back to our guesthouse, before we remember that there’s load-shedding between 14:00 and 16:00, so we may as well stay out. Jumping back on the bus, we head to the next winery. As we drive down the road at 50mph, the wind whipping around the bus is honestly like someone is blowing a hairdryer on us. We spend 5 minutes discussing when we’ve ever felt this hot before. Melbourne on Christmas Day in 2016 was 42C, and we both felt like we were being cooked alive, albeit slowly. This is in the same ballpark. It is ball-bustlingly hot. Arriving at Klein Goederust, we are unenthused to find that we need to sit outside for our tasting. We are both beyond flagging. Happily, we spot an air-conditioned tasting room to one side of the main tasting area, and we occupy it with vigour. It is joyful. The wines are a disappointment - perhaps because we are sooooooo hot. All we can think about is getting back to our room, our A/C, the pool etc etc.

    Dropped back at the tram terminal, we walk a few minutes down to Franschhoek Station Pub, in the hope that a Savannah / Spiced and coke might cool us down. They do not. Sweltering, we appeal for an Uber to take us back to our guesthouse, where the power has just recently kicked back in, and A/C is available to us. I decide the quickest route to coolness is a plunge in the pool, and I’m not disappointed. Air-drying in the shade, I read my book, amidst the stunning surrounds of the Franschhoek valley. It might be fucking hot, but it’s still fucking beautiful.

    We head back into town to grab a bite. We aim for the Franschhoek beer company, only to find it closes at 17:00, and ultimately end up back at the Station pub. We saw someone setting up a sound system earlier, and wondered if we’d see a DJ this evening. No - karaoke. The quality is, let’s try to be kind here, mixed. Couple of drinks and a pizza later, and we’re back in our room, feeling like an early-ish night is in order. We’re both asleep by 22:30…    Read more

  • Tim's TravelsSouth Africa - January 2024
    Day 16

    Day 16 : Northward bound...

    February 3 in South Africa ⋅ 🌙 26 °C

    We’re both woken at 04:00 by a booming electrical storm. Some of the loudest thunder we’ve ever heard, and at times, the lightning strike and thunderclap are all but simultaneous. There’s a brief but heavy downpour to of with it. It lasts for around an hour. The storm has clearly done something to the guesthouse’s power supply, as the A/C unit has shut down. Load-shedding, this is not. I get back to sleep, before waking to a rapidly warming room at 06:30. Vicki is awake just before 08:00, and we’re both miffed, but resigned. We’d planned a lazy morning getting ourselves packed and ready for our trip home. Instead, we’re in a room that rapidly reaches 26C inside, and feels warmer. It’s not pleasant. It also means we can’t charge electric devices for the journey home. Had we known etc etc… At 09:00, I decide enough is enough - and go for a drive. The car is a blissfully cool environs, and I can charge my phone and power bank from the 12V adapter.

    I head up the Franschhoek pass, a narrow and winding road that heads South East from Franschhoek village. I’m surrounded by cyclists doing cycling type things as they ascend the steep incline. The views from the top are staggering. The entire Franschhoek valley is laid out before me. It’s also a couple of degrees cooler up here, with a stout breeze. Back at the guesthouse, Vicks is planning to take a cold shower. Then the water stops. Not the hot water. ALL the water. We cannot shower, cannot brush teeth, we cannot flush the toilet. We hold a quick strategy meeting, and decide to see if we can find a hotel near the airport that rents rooms by the hour. We’d always expected to have quite a bit of time at the airport, so spending a couple of hours nearby in the cool, able to shower etc etc feels like a good trade off. We’ve previously stayed at Hotel Verde, right next to Cape Town International, and they helpfully have a reasonably priced 3 hour option.

    Somewhat relieved, we get packed up and into the car to head over to Stellenbosch. We stop at Jordan wine estate. We’ve previously eaten here, but not had a tasting of their wines. We spend a delightful hour with Leon, who guides us through the estate’s Chardonnay and Cabernet Sauvignon offerings. Some real pearls in their range. By the time we leave a little after midday, the temperatures pushing into the mid 30s, and we need some shade. We continue down the road to Mulderbosch, where we’re having lunch. Their tasting room is inside, and air-conditioned. We get a slightly funny look when we asked if we can sit in there for both our tasting and for lunch. We have a quick tasting of their wines, and are then joined by Eon for lunch. Good pizza work, and I have a couple of beef brisket sliders that are awesome. Eon has very kindly brought me an outstanding bottle of Cabernet Franc to take home. It’s been great to catch up with him. Next time we’re out, we’ll plan a trip with him down the Garden Route for a week so we can spend some proper time together.

    Onwards to our hotel, and the room isn’t quite the icy paradise we were hoping for / expecting. It’s an eco hotel, so they’re very mindful of wasting energy. As a result, the A/C is only turned on when you turn it on - not in anticipation of your arrival. I leave Vicki to shower while I take the car back. This proves to be a little trickier than planned, as I nearly forget to fill the car up before returning it. This initiates a significant detour from the airport, getting pretty lost in a dodgy looking warehouse district, and generally losing my cool with other drivers. Having handed the car back, I end up having to wait 30 minutes for the shuttle back to the hotel. I urgently need a Savanna. My shower at least is hugely refreshing. I get dressed and packed up, and manage to find the England/Italy rugby on the TV. I grab an indecently quick Savanna in the hotel bar, and soon enough we’re jumping on the hotel shuttle back to the airport.

    The airport experience is a little weird. Things run smoothly where you don’t expect (getting a bag shrink-wrapped, security control) and slow where you do. There’s a 30 minute queue for passport control. Even the US doesn’t make you do that shit when you’re leaving. We find ourselves an airport bar and tuck into Savanna (me) and Chardonnay (Vicki). We’re both hoping to catch some significant Zzzzzs on the overnight flight, so we’re just greasing the skids. Arriving at our gate, we discover boarding is already well underway. We’re quickly into our seats, and accepting a glass of Prosecco to tide us over. The flight is a little delayed pushing back. Some cargo is missing, and apparently there’s no tow tractor for us. TIA (this is Africa…)

    In the air, we’re soon fed and watered. We both want to try and get some decent sleep, so I go to recline my seat. Nothing doing. I spend a somewhat frustrating few minutes trying to figure out if the seat is broken, I’m an idiot, or a bit of both. A succession of cabin crew come and try to fix the seat, but it’s just not happening. The flight is full to bursting, but the cabin crew head off to Business and First to see if there’s another seat available for me. There is not. I’ll get some compensation, probably in the form of some air-miles to use on a future booking. We’re also gifted a decent bottle of Champers, and some First class amenity kits. Vicki selflessly offers up her seat. I recline it to the max, and am quickly dozing, as we power over the heart of Africa…    Read more

  • Tim's TravelsSouth Africa - January 2024
    Day 17

    Day 17 : Home. Meh. Reflections...

    February 4 in England ⋅ 🌬 9 °C

    I manage about 5 hours, and then give Vicki back her seat so she can get some more shut-eye. She’s managed a few hours in the upright seat, but looks much more comfortable once reclined. We’re about 3 hours out from landing. I briefly wonder about having a drink, but realise I’m not too fussed. With about 90 minutes to go, the lights come up, and we’re served an almost inedible breakfast. As we land, we come down through thick, low lying cloud. The ground is wet from overnight rain, and the temperature is hovering around 10C. It feels quite nice actually…

    A few reflections:

    1) South Africa remains one of my very favourite places to travel. The food, people, wine, scenery are all brilliant, and for a Brit traveller, represent AMAZING value. We struggled to spend more than £60 for a high quality, slap-up dinner for 2 with a bucketload of wine.
    2) Franschhoek / Stellenbosch in January = a hard no. Climate change is happening, and the likelihood of 40C+ weather there in the peak of Summer is growing quickly.
    3) This was the safest I’ve felt on a trip around South Africa. It feels like change is continuing in this rapidly evolving society. You still don’t wanna act like a dick, but I felt less conscious walking around places than I have done previously.
    4) Society may be evolving, but it continues to face serious challenges. The ANC government is not running the country well. Basic facilities are failing, investment in public services is monumentally low, and corruption in the government is rife. While there’s huge evidence of a burgeoning middle class of people of colour, there remains far too great an indigenous population living in abject poverty.
    5) Load-shedding is a ball-ache, and we would definitely bear it in mind more when planning a revisit to South Africa - assuming it’s still in place (which it will be…)
    6) Well made Biltong is the best snack on the planet.

    Thanks all for reading. That’s all for now - until our trip to Lapland in 9 days time…    Read more

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