Time to get moving on our journey. We woke up to a beautiful sunrise over the harbour from our room at the Quayside Hotel in Simon’s Town. However as we ate our breakfast we could see some storm clouds rolling in. We spent about an hour checking out the shops on the main road. Found one cool shop where the owner sold items he made from hides of various game – mainly the plain game (kudu, Ellen, cows). But we aren’t here for the shopping are we, so we splurged on a couple of leather key chains. Also picked up some more postcards for Bills mother. She looks forward to mail so we are sending her a postcard everyday of our trip.
Just beyond Simon’s Town is Boulders, a national park and a protected beach full of African penguins. The park had a well laid out walkway and viewing platforms. These penguins are the only colony outside of Antarctica and are an endangered species.
We began our drive in earnest, headed up the east coast of the Cape Peninsula the way we came towards the winelands. As we approached Stellenboch there were many wineries. We drove through the town but it wasn’t what we expected. It was a busy small city and not a small village as described in the guide books. Had been studying all the guide books to pick out most interesting wineries but the weather was getting bad and there just wasn’t time to leisurely stroll through winery after winery. We did stop at one between Stellenbosch and Franschoek on the crest of the Helshgoote Pass – it was a Fodors choice with free wine tastings, a restaurant, an art gallery and olive oil tastings. Tokara is in a beautiful setting with a huge fireplace and floor to ceiling windows in the dining room to watch the rain storm come in. The food was amazing – pictured here was a gourmet version of a traditional Cape Malay dish dish called bokotji made with sirloin. Excellent.
I don’t think we’ve had a bad meal in South Africa or even a mediocre one. After lunch we did a quick wine tasting and an olive oil tasting.
We headed towards the town of Francshoek to look for a place to stay. By this time it was late afternoon and raining hard. The tourist info office recommended Cape Vue which is a guest house that turned out to meet all my requirements – a fireplace, reasonable cost, breakfast and wifi. It rained and blew so hard that evening and through the night that it felt like a tropical storm. I worked on the blog and tried to stay warm and wished we had bought some snacks for dinner. But hey we need to miss a meal every now and then to appreciate the bounty in our lives.
