Visit Paarl Valley and Franschhoek: 2/26

We started with a visit to the Afrikaans Language Monument, developed in 1975 to honor the 50th year of Afrikaans being adopted as the official South African Language. It is influenced by European languages, African languages, and Malay. The site is quite lovely and the architecture is dramatic. It sits on a hill top and the structure itself rises above the plain and is visible for miles. Each element is symbolic, down to the materials it was made of.

The home we visited yesterday had a fabulous
view of the hills on the left

Above and below: Highveld
Cabbage Tree

Our next stop was a memorial to Nelson Mandela outside a prison where he was held his last 14 months in prison. The most impressive thing to me was the plaque of his statement. 

When Mandela was here, it was called the 
Victor Verster Maximum Security Prison

Our next stop was the village of Franschhoek a majority French settlement founded by Huguenots fleeing religious persecution for becoming Protestant in the 17th and 18th centuries. They were invited by the Dutch Protestants and contributed their knowledge of wine-making. 

 

Then we visited the Huguenot Museum with a tour guide who was unfortunately way more into his topic than we were. I am surprised he didn't adjust his presentation as more of us kept drifting away.  We finally got to wander the village, which was quite charming and had lots of lovely shops. 

We got our wires crossed on where and what time we were supposed to reconnect and lunch ended up being quite late. The service plan was a bit odd too -- two big platters of roasted veggies and one of sausage were brought to the table, and given how long they were the only things to eat, we finished them off, feeling like it was an unusually light lunch.  In reality, it was an unusually large appetizer and then the real food arrived, a South African barbeque. It was really good, but seriously too much to eat.

We got back to the hotel late, but I was finally able to connect with medical staff to help and prescribe meds for me, but one was not in stock, so I hoped to find it in Cape Town the next day. 

We skipped dinner and packed for an early departure at 6:30am

Fly to Stellenbosch, Explore Stellenbosch, Winery Visit, 2/24 & 25

 Tuesday was primarily spent flying to Stellenbosch, just north of Cape Town. It is the second oldest city in South Africa and has a variety of wineries on the outskirts. It is an old city that has preserved a lot of its heritage and our hotel was an example of that. It was nicely made up, but the room was smaller than expected, the bathroom larger than expected, but a bit storage challenged. We had a walk around the area to get the lay of the land and I attempted to get the medicine I needed. This turned out to be an ongoing challenge, but temporary fixes worked well enough.

Wednesday,  we drove north to L'Avenir Winery for a tour and extensive tasting with lunch. 

Protea -- the point on the plant matches
the size and shape of a wine bottle punt.

Two versions of Chenin Blanc, a favorite white
in the area. The left is very light in taste. I preferred
the right one with a silkier mouth feel.

Back at the hotel, we got ready for a dinner with local people. Our group of 16 traveler's was split into 3 groups and Sandy and I met Faith and Reggie. Unfortunately, I needed to leave early, but the rest of the group enjoyed their time there.

Hosts Reggie and Faith at each end. Fellow
travelers from left:
Ari, Ilana, Mary, Mike, Sandy

Early Morning Game Drive - 2/23

I apologize for the posting delay. I didn't think it would take so long to get back on track.

Rumor has it that the best chance of seeing big cats is at dawn, so we were up before 4:30am and on the road at 5. As luck would have it, the park's computers had issues and so we sat in the truck waiting until about the time we arrived yesterday. The only advantage was that we were near the front of the line to get in. Mostly we saw birds in addition to the zebras, impalas, and occasional giraffe or elephant. We did finally see lions as we were about to exit the park. (Google Gemini automatically inserted these links and I don't know how to get rid of them. Ain't AI great???)

I also had to skip the afternoon drive for a minor health problem, but will download photos from Sandy (better camera, more prolific photographer) when they get back this afternoon. 

I suspect these are another version of Bee eaters.
We encountered yellow and green ones in 2016.

Sandy's photos

Kingfisher

Dung Beetle

Two hippos arguing. They make lots of noise.