Today we get to sleep in!  Well, not really, but we sort of do, because we aren’t leaving until 9:30 for the Stellenbosch tour.  This is a luxury we will not have again until we off the tour – let me tell you!  Nonetheless, we are all up and ready for the excursion.  Since the Shark tank diving was canceled due to rough seas, everyone except Michelle is coming on the wine tour.  She doesn’t drink wine, so she is staying in Cape Town today and just wandering around or relaxing at the hotel.  That leaves 11 intrepid souls ready to eat and drink our way through Stellenbosch!  This is the day we all jell.  As we move from winery to winery, chatting and sipping, we get to know each other better and begin to really enjoy each others’ company so much more.  It is a wonderful day!

We start off with a wine and cheese pairing at Fairview winery.  The winery has traditional French style wines, but because the French are so protective of their DOC and naming, the owner decided to make fun of them through his naming conventions.  Thus, he produced “Goats do “ – a play on Coats du Rhone – and the Goatfather!  So funny and cute!  And the wine itself is excellent.  We try the Sauv Blanc (so good I buy a bottle), the rose, and a bunch of other different varietals that eh sommelier keeps mixing up – so that we are not following the menu as printed.  It is all very fun and light hearted, andmixed with the cheeses, an excellent way to start our day.

On our way to our next winery, we stop at the Victor Verster prison at the Drakenstein Correctional Center – the prison from which Nelson Mandela was finally released in 1988.  Never even knew it was here – not from our first tour. It was a great stop, the memorial for Mandela a great photo opp, and we loved the logo/symbol for the Centenary celebration.

All along the way, Charl keeps us informed on all sorts of interesting facts and factoids – for example this is the irst time we learned that roses were originally placed at the end of the rows of grapes to keep the horses plowing the field from cutting the corners to close.  To avoid the prickly rose thorns, the horses had to turn wide, and int his way avoided plowing down vines at every turn.

Our second stop was Allee Bleue, a new winery for the tour.  It was the first time Charl was visiting and wanted our input.  It was lovely – we all sat outside in the sun on their beautiful patio overlooking the vineyard and tried whites and reds…and Sam (sister) ended up with 2 whole flights!  We all figured she did it on purpose – or they just knew she was coming! At any rate, it was a lovely stop, and we were all getting a bit tipsy as we headed out for a quick drive through of Franschoek, which was packed with people, then onto Stellenbosch where we took a quick drive through the town and the university there (where Charl went to school), before being deposited on the streets for lunch on our own.

It was a great place to have lunch – much  more quiet than Franschoek and still tons of great restaurants.  Ed had looked up a place around the corner from where the van dropped us, but unfortunately, as it was Easter Sunday, they were fully booked.  Bummer.  But we ended up eating at the restaurant directly across from the Van – The Wine Glass!  Yep, perfect for me!  We had a great meal of Cape Malay spring rolls, filled with beef mince, salt and pepper squid, hake croquettes and ostrich meatballs.  Phew!   A lot of food, but oh, all so good!  Particularly those spring rolls and squid. 

To walk off our meal, we made our way over to the little University botanical garden and spent an enjoyable 30 minutes or so just meandering around the little paths. Lovely way to break up the day.

Back on the van for our last vineyard stop, Neethlingshof, where again we tasted a ton of excellent wine and I bought a bottle of their Sauv blanc to bring along as we moved through the different towns and game reserves included in our tour.  A totally fun day, made even more enjoyable by our group of merry tour partners!

Tonight, while a few of the group go out to the traditional S. African dinner and folk dance show, we stayed behind and had dinner at the hotel bar where I had the best (and cheapest) sushi platter I’ve had in a long time!  And Ed had a huge fish and chips plate.  We chose to stay in tonight because we have an NC Stage play streaming at 7:45pm.  Lifespan of a Fact is a play that has been planned since 2020 and we have been so looking forward to seeing it.  We were ever so excited to be able to stream it here – and it was all it lived up to!  At least Ed said it was – I of course fell asleep in the middle and woke up for the end.  But the beginning and end were quite good!

Then it was time to go to bed for our….gasp…3am walk up call!  We are flying out to Durban tomorrow and need to be at the airport really, really, really early.  We can sleep when we get home…..haven’t we heard that somewhere before?