So where did we leave off. I was having trouble with downloading pictures from the Vine Hopper Tour but that is fixed now. So let's start with our last day in Stellenbosch when we hopped on to the Vine Hopper Bus to visit 6 wineries north of the town.
Our first stop was the winery that produces Two Oceans wine which we see in Canada a lot. They have a wine cellar built into a mountain-side which in now only used for tasting tours. We took the tour with a group of students from a hospitality course, those in black suits in the picture below. Our guide was a young women from the Free State further north in South Africa.
Our guide below with one of the students in the background, they resembled 'men in black' :)
Our next winery used the pinotage grape almost exclusively. It was rather unremarkable except they had wines named 'Faith' and 'Diesel'. The last wine named after the owners' dog. It did have spectacular views of the mountains.
Back in the van and off we go to Simonsig where we ate a fabulous lunch on the terrace under fall coloured grape vines. We started with sparkling wine, very good, I bought two bottles for later.
Next was Delheim where they had a remarkable Gewurztraminer wine. Our driver pointed out the weaver bird nests which were hanging above us and we would probably not have noticed.
Back in the bus and off to Warwick. They have a larger then life size statue of Mandela made from wire and beads.
The last winery was Marianne which is too bad it was so late in the day because we were tired and it was a beautiful spot. There were two jack russell terriers wandering around and looking for hand outs. This vineyard also had a large citrus orchard.
Back to our hotel and another dinner by candlelight.
The next morning (Saturday) we leave the Bonne Esperance for Cape Town.
But first we visit the botanical gardens for a last time to see if the blue water lily has blossomed.
Off to Cape Town with our trusted driver / biologist in training, Mathieu. As we drive into the city we pass the largest township near Cape Town. Shanties mostly with corrugated iron roofs. This one legacy of apartheid that poor blacks still live in these conditions. We also saw some newer houses and apartments that have been built for township residents. Mathieu said that many of the people living there now were migrants from other parts of Africa looking for work.
There has been some violence in the eastern part of the country against migrants and there are now TV and radio spots encouraging tolerance and a pan-African attitude.
Sheila has been the tourist so far but I played hooky yesterday and took a bus tour with her.
I will add more to the blog later today. I have closed with the picture above since Sheila observes that most of the pictures are of her. I am taking a picture of another water lily.
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