April 16 Stellenbosch South Africa

Today was devoted to visiting wineries and especially wineries with gardens that were in the book "Gardens of South Africa" that April gave to Sheila for her birthday.

We rented a car to do this and I experienced again, our maybe more to the point, Sheila experienced the thrill of my driving on the left hand side of the road.

Our first winery was Morgenhof. They have a spectacular underground hexagonal cellar. Sheila tasted and I spat since I didn't want to experience a South African DUI charge. We bought a bottle of their Chardonnay which I am drinking now as I write this post. Below is a photo of the Morgenhof winery with a view of some of their older thatched roof buildings and Simonsberg in the background.

The next winery was one that was in the book, Rustenburg. We bought a red Syrah blend here. The garden was fabulous and Sheila was in her element.

This is the same shot of the arbour in the garden as in the shown in the book.

They have a labyrinth in the same design as the one at Chartres Cathedral in France.

hadeda ibis (Bostrychia hagedash) It has an extremely loud and distinctive "haa-haa-haa-de-dah" call -- hence the name. They are not very welcome because they have a very loud irritating call. I heard a couple of them this morning flying over the town hall.

Our next winery was the Delare Graff at the top of the Helshoogte Pass with spectacular views of the mountains and the Stellenbosch Valley.

This was an over the top extravagant place with a helicopter pad. Sheila said that Granny would have called it 'posh'. Graff is a diamond company. They have a boutique in the winery but I didn't buy Sheila Christmas jewellry there. No piece had a price tag. If you need to ask you can't afford it. There was a lot of art however and I have included two of the most interesting. The first is a bronze sculpture of hands holding burning pass books. These were the documents that defined where in South Africa black and coloured persons could live and work. The poster in the 'KING' poster with words ending in KING.

The gardens were very spectacular here as well with whole beds of birds of paradise. We bought a bottle of their cuvee sauvignon blanc which has 4% wooded semillon. There Bordeau style blend named after one of the mountains "Botmaskop" was very good but it needed 5 years in the cellar and we would have to carry it with us for the next three weeks.

I had noticed the Tokara winery sign on our way up the hill. Sheila remembered the name being in the book. We thought we would only see one (Rustenburg). It was as elegant as the previous winery but in better taste, again lots of art. There was a wedding going on with the spectacular view down the valley as a back drop.

Outside the front door was a sculpture shaped like a tree with the branches with words on them telling a story. The words in the photo were part of the sculpture.

Tokara has a large olive orchard and produces beautiful olive oil. It was the first time in the day I was able to fully take part in tasting. We bought a bottle of their best olive oil to bring home.

The winery's restaurant won best winery restaurant in South Africa. Although we didn't eat there we did follow their Orchard Path through there olive orchard and sculpture garden to their deli which had many delicious things on display. Outside the deli was a playground.

My last picture today is a rainbow we saw at the Tokara. It was actually one of two rainbows we saw today. It rained lightly off and on today. The second one was when we were walking back to the hotel from the car rental.

I forgot the photo we took last night on our way home from the Lebanese restaurant, which was very good but the portions were huge. This is what the well dressed pouch is wearing in Stellenbosch.

Tomorrow, Friday we take the Vine Hopper hop on hop off winery tour and I won't be driving :).