South African wines !!

 Saturday, September 24, 2022

Breakfast begins at the Mynt at 9:00, so we have a leisurely morning.  As with all African mealss, breakfast is huge.  I get a wrap with scrambled eggs, mushrooms, and bacon and can only eat half of it!  Marilyn's eggs Benedict is equally huge, so we take the other halves back to the room and on the way ask if there is a microwave we can use later, for dinner.  In fact, there is!

We're off to Stellenbosch, in the Cape Winelands region, considered the best wine region in South Africa. We're looking for Tokara Winery but on the way we see the Stellenbosch Vineyards and pull in there.  What a good choice!  We are the only people there for a tasting and the owner himself, Guy, entertains us with stories about the wines and keeps pouring until we have sampled ELEVEN wines!  We buy several and he doesn't even charge us for the tasting, and he gives me a glass just because I asked if he sells them!  In case you're wondering - that's a heck of a lot of wine!!

Cape Town is quite large and metropolitan; it's a tourist destination.

Apparently they celebrate Halloween!

And there is quite a bit of shipping!

A whole row of acacia trees!

One of the many interesting sights on our drive!

Solar hot water heaters and solar clothes driers!  And I didn't even notice the USA 
Games, Orlando sign!

And so many people live like this.

We think the haze is from the coal-powered electric plant.  I read that the load
shedding was caused by a fire and a broken conveyer belt at the plant.

Guy writing directions for us

it's a numbered bottle!

I'm pretty sure he's laughing at me!

I don't think the kids are wine tasting!  They have art classes here, too.

Marilyn decides I need a cup of coffee and we share what I can only call a s'mores pizza.  I don't know what they call it!!  But is delicious! Oh, and they sell chocolate, too!

Turns out this was dinner, although we didn't know it at the time!

They intentionally keep their grapes low to the ground. 

Guy tells us that when the local tourist board started trying to encourage people to explore their own country of South Africa, they called it "The World in One Country" because there are so many different geographical regions.  He says that he decided to quit drinking and eat better, but that was four hours ago, when he was younger and full of hope!  He calls his Infusions wines "liquid clothing remover"!

Stellenbosch is the oldest vineyard, dating back to 1689 and is even mentioned in some Jane Austin books!  He tells us not to bother with the town, which we had thought to visit, or the other wineries near by, but, instead to go to Franschhoek in the next valley.  We think that will have to be another day!!  He also gives is directions to the southern most point on the continent and says we will only be there long enough to take a picture - butt we have to do it, of course. And he calls his favorite wine the Sophia Loren of wines.  It's the Flagship Petit Verdot, in case you want to order it!

From here we head home.  It's late and we don't want to drive after dark.  Our Garmin is okay, but, still, that's more challenge than we need!  We're playing with our pictures and mapping out a plan of attack for tomorrow when the power goes out.  They call it load shedding;  we call it rolling black outs.  Whatever you call it, it makes life difficult when it's dark outside! There really isn't much to do except go to bed when you have no internet and no lights.  Marilyn hooks up her C-Pap to the battery pack she's been carrying all over and is glad she's got it, even though it's only good for four hours.  The outage is only supposed to last for two or two and half hours, so when her machine switches off she should be able to go back to using the electricity.

She's sound asleep when the power comes back on after only about an hour; but I couldn't get to sleep that early, so I'm up and can write this post! Now I'm ready for bed!