Saturday Nov 15, Back in Capetown

Finally catching up on my blog…sorry to those who have been waiting for the next installment.

Well, we are back in Capetown, Mike and I are ensconced in luxury in the Imperial Suite, and good thing too, cause Mikey is sick as a dog (a touch of stomach flu or food poisoning) and at least he gets to be miserable in a comfy, opulent suite. Scott and I make sure he is ok to be left alone and feel a little guilty as we shovel in another fabulous breakfast buffet at the Commodore. They know how to put on a spread too…made to order omelettes, all the fixings for an English breakfast – bacon, tomatoes, mushrooms (my fav, of course) bacon and sausages. Then as a nod to the rest of Europe there is cheese, pastries (they have the best croissants), cereals, yogurts and every kind of fresh fruit. No one goes hungry around this place and I can already tell that I am packing on the pounds. What are vacations for, if not to eat?

Kevin arrives promptly at 9 for some time in the city. We find a parking place on the street outside the company gardens (their large garden in the center of the city) and magically the parking person shows to get paid. Kevin teases him about how much he will pocket directly and I marvel at a country that pays people to watch each block or two in place of parking meters. It’s a strange system, but it works. We wander past several government buildings, the high courts, the Center for the Book (or as Kevin says it the ‘buke” so I have to ask him twice what he is really trying to say and therefore become fascinated by the whole concept). I think it is like a library of congress, but not open to the public. Anyway, it’s a beautiful building. This area looks

remarkably like governments buildings anywhere. That is a picture of Kevin and Scott lounging against the High Courts building at the top of the page, and this is the gorgeous City Hall building.

We wander into Green Market Square to shop among the stalls for a bit with two warnings from Kevin. First, we should plan to do some bargaining for items, as it is expected, and second, not to get mugged! I hope he is just joking and believe that he is.
We wander up and down the not-too-well-defined aisles looking at beaded goods, masks, carvings, a lot of jewelry and clothing. Kevin shows us some wild t-shirts that rip off the local advertising and make some bold political statements. They are spectacular. Still, for all our choices, I buy nothing and Scott does not buy a lot either. I keep thinking I will still have plenty of time to shop.

Next we wander Long Street, starting at the Pan-African building. Amazingly it’s the old YWCA but now it houses 3 floors of crafts people and artist showing and selling their wares. It makes me a little claustrophobic, frankly and I am pretty fast walking through and walking out. Again, I am empty handed.

Long Street reminds me a lot of the French Quarter in New Orleans. Long street is full of stores and restaurants and Kevin points out a few restaurants from his “recommended” list, including Bukhara and Mama Africa so we can find them again later in the week. We wander through a bead shop that makes me drool for Brenda and Sandy and what they could make of it. I try to figure what they might want but the selection is overwhelming and they have a website, so I figure I will let them shop for themselves.

Once we have wandered enough through the shops, we head back toward the Company Gardens where the squirrels walk right up to me, get on the back legs and beg for food! Its like nothing I have ever experienced and I lag behind the boys feeding them from whatever snacks I can find in my purse. They are so cute. Kevin points out various buildings, the parliament building (2, since the first is in the capital, Pretoria but the representatives don’t like traveling that much and most of them live in Capetown). It is open the public when in session, but the session has just ended so we don’t go in. After pointing out various museums for us to visit another day we enjoy the sunshine by having lunch under the trees in the company garden.

We pass on an afternoon at the beach so we can provide some moral support to poor Mikey and Kevin goes off to do some shopping of his own. We check on our sick boy and then Scott and I lay by the pool for a while until Kevin returns to take us out to the airport to get Kate, who is arriving at long last!!

Kevin has been buying books. I had been looking for a copy of “The Alchemist” for Mike. If you have not read it, I recommend it. It is a brilliant fable for adults. He brings a copy of The Alchemist for Mike, a book he thinks Scott will enjoy and two things for me. First a book called “My Year of Meat”…strange title indeed but I am reading it now and enjoying it immensely. Kevin has learned a lot about each of us this week. The second thing he has brought is the newspaper, with photos of a flood- ravaged Montague on the front page! Places we were only a few days ago are now wiped out. Its horrifying.

We meet Kate’s plane, she is tired but happy to finally be here, and Kevin has bought her a Safari book that is gorgeous, to make up for what she has missed (at least a little bit).
Almost immediately we are heading to our sunset champagne cruise. You did not think we would do a day without drinking now did you???

We board a sailboat with several sails ready to be lifted and have champagne in our hands while the skipper motors us out of the harbour. The sails go up quickly and Kate calls my mom who sounds delighted to hear from us although its noisy from the wind.
With a glass in one hand, the phone is the other, I am totally unprepared when the boat suddenly heels sharply and I quickly slide off the seat and onto my butt. Its funny if not graceful. I hold on tight for the rest of the ride though, which was wet and wonderful.
We sail back as the sun sets behind the mountains and head to dinner at Belthazar restaurant and wine bar (oh good, more wine, they have over 600 bottles to choose from!). Mike has come out for the sailing, but dinner is more than he can stomach (love the pun, don’t you?) and so Scott, Kate and I enjoy a feast and then head back to our hotel for the night.

Whale Watching....and what a show!

I would say that Kevin picked us up bright and early on Friday to head toward Hermanus, but, in all fairness, I can only say early. We are living under an enormous rain cloud that will not go away. The sky is totally black. Still, we are heading right into the clouds to drive over the mountain pass to Hermanus and the whales. We will drive through the Drackenstein (dragon’s something?) and Hottentot Holland mountains today, through huge orchards of apples and pears to arrive at the coast in the small town of Hermanus, famous for its whales.

The Southern Right whale migrates from Antarctica to Hermanus annually, either to mate or to give birth after a 13 month gestation period. The spend months here, not eating a thing ( I cannot even imagine!) and providing unbelievable entertainment to people like us. You do not need a boat or even binoculars to see these whales, they frolic right along the shore, in droves. We sat on the rocks for about an hour watching them and trying to snap photos of them jumping out of the water. I have a lot of shots of the splash, right after they returned to the water, but the boys got some good shots that I will steal later to add to the blog.

I will also add a photo of the Whale Crier, the only one in the world, who blows his long horn to let folks know when the whales are out in the harbor and visible. He was quite a piece of work. There were loads of Dassies here too, they may be my favorite animal now. Perhaps I could take one home to keep my Cheetah company?

We lunched at Bientang’s Cave, a cave overlooking the sea and the whales. Scott had a curry he said was the best meal he had the whole trip, I had a huge plate of calamari and shrimp, for all of $18.00 with drinks and tip. Did I mention how great the prices are here? Then we indulged in some amazing gelato before heading back toward Capetown along the coast.

One last wine tasting at Hamilton Russell (what a beautiful setting) and their newest spinoff, Southern Right, where I sipped an excellent Pinotage. We drove up over the town for some great views and them we were off on our journey back to the big city.

We stopped to watch dozens of seals playing near the rocks and practicing their synchronized swimming. They made me laugh, and I got credit for spotting them unlike all the rocks I thought were animals when we were on safari. I will never live that one down.

We passed through a few small towns, Betty’s Bay where we did a short walk through a lovely botantical garden called Porters Garden. I think Porter and Betty might have been related. Certainly, Betty was related to someone in this area who made his fortune developing these vacation towns. Beautiful towns like Rooiels (named for the red tree), Gordon’s Bay and Bikini Beach (really).

By the time we arrive back in Capetown, Mike is feeling really lousy and so we agree to stay in for the evening. Its no hardship for me though, since they have upgraded us to the best room in the house, the Imperial Suite that normally sells for 5 times the price of our usual room. We have views of the harbor and table mountain from our huge balcony, a full bar and a cappuccino maker in the dining room, a comfy sofa in the living room, and as Mike says a “fainting couch”. Lots of room to spread out and enjoy ourselves. We put Mike to bed, and Scott and I start on the wines we bought, opening the Kanonkop “Paul Sauer” which is even better than I remembered and have a wonderful dinner from room
Service and an early night.

Another day of drinking :)

Thursday morning when Kevin picked us up we learned that less than an hour after crossing the river at Montague, they closed the bridge due to flooding. Several days later, after two more days of rain in the area, we would see photos in the newspaper of our tea spot in Montague, all but washed away! Its horrifying to think that such a lovely spot is gone, but I am sure they will rebuild. I certainly hope so.

And that semi blocking the road as we were heading for Stellenbosch also resulted in a closed road for more than 7 hours! We were so lucky we had been able to get through to get to these tastings. We appreciated our luck enough to raise a toast to it! So tasting we continued.

First stop Thelema, WOW! A modern building with great wines. I added to my collection quickly and we moved next store to Tokara, with its wonderful views of the mountains (well, what you could see behind dense cloud cover) and both Scott and I added bottles to our collections. We had already visited two wineries, bought three bottles and tasted a dozen wines! I should mention, that it was not quite 10 am.

Next we went to Rustenberg, a gorgeous traditional Cape Dutch architecture spot that had clearly once been and still was a dairy farm. We were the first in the world to taste their newest wine, but we all agreed it was still too young to be properly appreciated. They had a magnificent garden (think Duke Gardens or Filoli at a single home). I learned about and walked the labyrinth in that garden, after which I was exhausted. I was now drunk AND exhausted. It was all of 11 am. OUCH! How will I ever keep up at this pace?

Fortunately, we got a small respite as Kevin drove us through the town of Stellenbosch past the University and lovely old buildings on Dorp Street on our way to Meerlust Wineries for our next tasting. Dorp Street has a long row of historical buildings that were so fascinating to see.

Amazingly, we past a field beside the road with Zebras, Wildebeest, Springbok, and more. I suddenly wondered why we had tried so hard to do a safari when all these animals were in a single cow pasture. Meerlust was beautiful, with a drive lined with palms, and a wonderful young man providing our tasting. He was charming and brought out a 1998 Merlot, and again Scott was buying. These wines are so hard to resist, they are delicious. Who needs Sonoma, when you can have Stellenbosch wines for half the price?? Oh yeah, there is that long flight first though and with airport security today they are also a bear to get home. I guess I will just have to drink lots of them while I am here.

From Meerlust we headed to Spier, another winery for a traditional African buffet lunch. I targeted the Poetjies (pronounced Poy-kies) the traditional slow cooked stews, and the desserts (no surprise there) and we ate until we could eat not stuff in one bite more. Then we wandered across the parking lot to see the Cheetah recovery center and the gorgeous, gorgeous Cheetahs. Good thing they do not let you take one home. The babies were adorable. Just cute little kitties, right? How much damage could they really do? I think Emmy would get along with a kitten just fine.

We have been seeing better weather as the day progresses, but continue our afternoon under a significant black cloud. We are all overfed and a little tipsy after trying Spier wines with lunch, but we manage to slip in one last winery for the day, a fairly new one called Waterford. The environment is stunning, a gorgeous new and impressive building build around a courtyard and a tasting room that looks more like a French bistro, with cute round tables scattered about the room. Here we are doing a tasting paired with chocolates. First we try the non-paired wines, then three paired with chocolate, first a white with a rather uninteresting milk chocolate (both the wine and the chocolate left no impression on me), then a red with rock salt dark chocolate (an outstanding combination), and last a sweet wine with the strangest chocolate I have ever have. Actually, perhaps for the first and only time in my life, a chocolate I did not like! It was a milk chocolate infused with roses and geraniums. Yikes. Why ruin a perfectly good mike chocoloate?
BTW, the wine was pretty awful too.

Back to Francschoek at last, tipsy but content. The rain has abated so Mike and I do a quick wander about the small village for a photo or two. Its lovely. The off to dinner at ICI, the bistro attached to La Quartier Francaise, one of SAs premiere restaurants. We had an outstanding dinner, with interesting combinations like Corn and Lime Soup or Asparagus and Strawberry salad. Oh yes, they do a marvelous banana split. Then back to the Rusthof where I tried to update my blog (connection way too slow) and instead had a lovely and lively conversation with a man from Sweden who knew more about every topic we chose than I did, be it US politics or our health care system, or the state of our economy, or theirs and of course, any thing Africa. I learned a great deal in a short time, and enjoyed the process. Time to call it a night after a very very full day.

So Many Wines, so little time

Forgive the delay since I last posted, chalk it up to a massive hangover :(

Wednesday afternoon we drove into Stellenbosch and headed straight to Kanonkop Wineries. The women who assisted us was a little flighty and a bit pretentious, but the wine was good. Their flagship red is called Paul Sauer, after “grandfather” and it was worth buying, so of course, I did. One bottle already in the car and we have been tasting only 20 minutes.

Down the road we stop at Delheim Vineyards to taste their Shiraz, which is Kevin’s absolute favorite. At this point I must explain that most wineries do not charge for tastings, as they do in California, and even more significantly, they have tables and chairs for you to sit at comfortably while tasting their wines. Delheim had many to taste, so I skipped the whites and went straight for the reds, but my companions started with whites so we were there for quite a while.
Mike, our server was quite knowledgeable about the wines, and as the tasting progressed, we were better able to enjoy his dry sense of humor as well. His German accent causes a brief delay between his delivery of a clever line and our catching the humor. This was never more evident than when he described the last wine of the day, a sweet dessert wine named Spatzendreck. He showed us the bottle and said "This wine is called Sparrow Shit". After the five second delay, we all looked at each other as if to say "did I just hear that"? Oh yes, indeed we did, and he never once cracked a smile! Scott bought a bottle here, and we bought a bottle of shiraz for Kevin, since he has been more than outstanding as both guide and sommelier.

Next we headed toward Franschoek, our home for the night, in a driving rainstorm. But, not without a quick stop at Grand Provence Wineries for one more quick tasting. Scott again bought here, and we wandered their art gallery as well. Our guesthouse, the Rustof, was just down the road a bit and lovely. When Kevin had booked it for us, they had one regular and one superior room, so I made myself at home in the superior room (ha ha, take that one boys) and fixed a cup of tea and hot bath to get rid of the chill that was settling in my bones after so much rain and cold.

We ran the ½ block to dinner at Reubens, in a downpour that just would not let up. Dinner was delicious, Karoo lamb (its becoming my favorite dish). Scott’s was not up to snuff though and we had problems with the service. Seems we are the only people in the entire world who ever have had a problem at Reubens. Everyone at the Rustof was astonished when we told them. Then back through puddles and deluge to snuggle under as many blankets as I could find and sleep, which I needed after all that wine!

Slogging our way from Sanbona

Wednesday morning...

There is rain and then there is rain. The first is the lovely rain you listen to from the warmth of your room knowing you can stay inside with a good book, having no where to be anytime soon. The other is the kind you hear pounding your roof and slamming your windows at 3 AM knowing that in 3 hours you are getting in an open car to look for Cheetahs. One is lovely, the other perhaps is my worst nightmare.

Needless to say I fortified myself with some strong English Breakfast tea (another mistake, but more about that in a moment) and wrapped in blankets and poncho climbed into the Land Cruiser for my last game drive. Natasha promised something short (I LOVE this woman) and Scott wisely took the front seat where he still got wet, believe me, but at least there was a windscreen in front of him.

Soon I had the poncho pulled tight so all you could see were my glasses, which were drenched. And off we went searching for Cheetah. There are three in Sanbona, which is not a small thing, since they are fighting extinction and there are only 1000 in all SA. Soon Natasha picked up their signal and we were viewing a magnificent herd of springbok. She guessed that behind the springbok the cheetah was stalking and hopefully we would see it soon. We watched, and watched some more, no Cheetah. So we gave up.

Lucky for us that we did, because as we turned to leave that area, we saw the two white lions lay down right on the edge of the treeline, in plain view. Mike got some gorgeous pictures with his long zoom lens. Perhaps he will post them to whereintheworldaremikeandsteve.blogspot.com (check it out anyway for another perspective on this week’s travels). We watched the lions a few minutes, while they watched us, then started the ride back. We say Gemsbok, springbok, a jackal and a very frightened hare that ran right in front of the truck! So the ride was not for naught.

Still by the time we pulled into the garage I could not feel my toes and I was grateful for the hot towel and hot cocoa that Yuan had waiting for us. YUM! His ameretto spiked cocoa was even better. The perks of a ride in the cold and damp at Sanbona. Unfortuately, then it was time to pack up and Kevin awaited us with the Land Rover, for the trip to Franschoek (French Corner) and wine tasting.

The ride was an adventure. First were the large puddles along the road out of Sanbona, then the bridge that was 1/3 covered in Montague (where they later forced evacuations because of the flooding). I may have to rethink my earlier dreams of retiring there.
As if the raging rivers were not enough, the winds were dangerously high as well and a huge semi carrying bottles of water, tipped over on its side! Scary stuff. We got through all of these obstacles, but just behind us they were closing the roads. Talk about timing.

So…we needed to distress at this point, which meant wine and lots of it! How many wineries can one visit in 36 hours? Stay tuned to find out.

Just Chillin' at Sanbona

Chillin, meant both figuratively and literatally I am afraid. I am writing having just completed a Hot Stone Massage in the luxury of my room, complete with fireplace burning and lunch brought on a platter. Chillin also though on these game drives, where I set huddled in a sweatshirt, wrapped in a blanket, feeling the cold winds blowing and wondering to myself where on earth the sun has gone. Isn’t it supposed to be summer in South Africa? We are driving in an open vehicle and depending on the speed at which Natasha is driving, I go from very cold to totally freezing.

At least this morning the game was worth the freeze. We piled into the Land Cruiser promptly at 6:30 and headed out a further distance than yesterday. Almost immediately we saw Hensbok, Zebra and Springbok, and not much later the two male White Lions sauntered away from us to snooze away the day under a tree. They are huge! No wonder they are king of the jungle.

Moving away from the lions we stopped to watch 12 giraffes in a group chowing down on the sweet new green leaves at the tops of the thorn trees. There were several males, females and babies. Lynn, I thought of you!

We followed the giraffes up the road a ways until we found three Rhinoceros. Does anyone know the plural of rhinoceros? Anyway, we saw three sauntering along a ravine and drove a ways trying to get a better view. Finally we decided we would just have to circle back and catch them from the other direction, which was very successful.

We had breakfast outdoors, cooked for us fresh on a clever little gas stove and that fresh air made us all hungry. Muffins, yogurt, eggs, bacon, tomatoes…a traditional English breakfast with extras.

We left breakfast to start the long trek back with stops to view more zebra, kudu, and an adorable little fellow called a klipspringer which means rock jumper and that was just what he was doing. It was a day for a lot of animals but by then we were ready to come back and thaw out. We had been out for more than 5 hours!

Haneen, my wonderful massage therapist awaited, with hot stones and relaxation. I have thawed out just in time to get back in the Land Cruiser for the late afternoon drive and do it all over again. We are still hunting the Cheetah, the lionesses and the hippos, who continue to elude us.

Sorry for describing more pix than you saw yesterday, I am still having massive problems uploading files, and I am going to steal the best photos of animals from Scott and Mike to share later instead.

Hope all of you are doing very well…curiousity about Obama abounds. We have raised our standing in the world dramatically, no doubt about that.

From Capetown to Sanbona…


Its Monday, and frankly after some wonderful wine last night from the region, ok, a little more than ‘some’ (more like lots) this morning came very quickly. Packed and ready to roll, Newton picks us up right on schedule and we leave Capetown behind us quickly, passing through Paarl and headed into the heart of wine country and perhaps the most majestic mountains I have ever seen. Newton explains the flora in more detail than I will ever comprehend, but we certainly saw Eucalyptus trees similar to those I see in CA. They are from Australia, he explains. And beautiful fynbos, roses, vineyards and even a few palm trees. We pass through the towns of Robertson, certainly built around the wine industry, Worcester, home of the largest brandy distillery in the world. We did not stop, after last night we did not need a tasting, and it was not even 10 am! Scott was a little disappointed perhaps, but he recovered quickly. I learn that we are in an area famous too for rasing race horses and we pass a casino! Turns out that there is a casino in Capetown too, perhaps I will get to check it out when we get back there?

Our 4-wheel drive continued through the kloof (pass) between two mountain ranges and I saw for myself the geology Newton has worked so hard to describe up to this point. The rock (sandstone) is striated like our mountains at home, sort of…these run vertical, or in circles! It seems that when the mountains formed they push the rock from below the ocean floor with such force that the striations take unusual shapes and directions. Its stunning. I am sure my pictures cannot do it justice. We stop for Roibus tea at the Avalon Hotel (and timeshares, I did not take a tour J) and I enjoy the mountains close up, and dip my toes in the natural hot springs. The town, Montague, is stunning, famous for 365 days of sunshine each year. The buildings are all white washed stucco, with beautiful, manicured gardens. It is the home of Montague Dried Fruit (Droevrugca – pronounced dru-a- fructa) where we indulge just a little with a small bag of apricots that called my name. Scott is reminding me of the high sugar content in dried fruit, keeping my from indulging too much! Soon the land turns drier and the fynbos turns to more succulents. We see the occasional ostrich in the fields, but it is certainly less fertile and soon we are turning off the road and heading to our gamepark, Sanbona. (see http://sanbona.com/ for a better vision of it than I can every provide). I am getting very excited to be here, after more than 3 hours driving but it turns out we have a 7 km drive just to arrive at the gate and 19 km to the door of our Khanni Lodge, my home for the next two nights. We see no game along the way, but the wide open spaces must rival Montana’s big sky country.

Tanya and Joann meet us when we drive up, one with cool washcloths, the other with cool drinks. There are only 4 rooms in Khanni Lodge and one other couple visiting from Capetown have arrived just before us, Irene and Herman, who turn out to be delightful. The table for lunch in set outside, next to the pool. Scott has the springbok, Mike and I have the chicken. The food is delicious and beautifully presented. The rooms are spacious and inviting, I am in the lap of luxury for the next two nights. I have a very large room with a sitting area, a patio with an outdoor shower, a huge tub, walk in closet, fireplace…but no connectivity to post this blog all afternoon. L



The ranger, Natasha, is picking us up at 4 for our game drive, but we have time to relax, unpack, sit outside and enjoy the breezes, and book our massages for tomorrow. Then it is time to go explore for Big Game. The reserve is over 130,000 acres, so we will have to go exploring indeed. The lions are wearing radio collars which makes them easier to find we are told, but they are very far away and we are not likely to see them today, perhaps tomorrow instead. We bump along in our land rover, the wind whipping at us in the open vehicle and the scenery is magnificent. Soon we see Springbok and after much searching, down near the water a small herd of Zebra. After what feels like driving in a lot of circles, since the roads are all dirt paths and unmarked we see FOUR elephants in the trees, eating away. Three are young and rather playful, Mom just chows down. Turns out that elephants eat 20 hours a day. I sometimes wish, learning that, that I was an elephant, but only if I get to eat like they feed me here. We come back from our ride freezing, to be handed hot towels, and hot cocoa, then head to our rooms where they have cranked up the heat in our absence and run hot bubble baths. I sink in gratefully for all of 15 minutes before I must rush to dinner. It is almost 8 pm already. Dinner is Karoo Lamb, lamb that eats the herbs and vegetation here in Little Karoo and gains an outstanding flavor from it. Yum. Good conversation, lots of exchanges around technology, first Scotts IPhone, then my Flip Video and Kindle…the South Africa’s have not seen these and they are hooked.
Hopefully, we will share video’s later today.

This morning I will try to post pictures from the Cape Peninsula. It takes forever to upload photos, so they will lag a day or two…sorry for any confusion that creates.
Today I am posting photos of Table Mountain and the boys, Scott, Mike and Kevin with a gorgeous view over the water (Mom, that’s the Jewish neighborhood below, looking a bit like Miami Beach, don’t you think?), the Ostrich that tried to eat me, the baboons and penguins are in these photos and some shots from the Cape National Park of the coast.
There is even one from right under the lighthouse of Scott, Mike and I being buffeted by strong winds.