Some of you may have noticed a lengthy silence from me over the Christmas period. Let me start from the beginning. My brother and his girlfriend were invited to a wedding in Stellenbosch (a wine-making university town near Cape Town. Surprisingly, Maties [Stellenbosch University students] have a less raucous reputation than Rhodents [students at/from Rhodes, my alma mater]) that was happening just before Christmas. Given that he lives in the UK and we rarely see each other, the family decided to convene in Cape Town for December. This was also the meet-the-parents trip for my bro and his girlfriend (about which everyone was nervous – well, Mum and bro's GF were).
So, a (tiny) holiday apartment was rented and we all flew down to the Mother City. Now, we've all been to Cape Town before, so many of the touristy activities – taking the cable car up Table Mountain, visiting the V&A Waterfront, etc. – were now old and boring. Well, the V&A is only really fun once; my fear of heights was the main factor in vetoing another trip in the cable car. The car swings from its cables; the floor of the car rotates; the cable car driver objects to people hanging onto his little cage in the centre (what I did last time to avoid the terror of being spun around near the glass walls). Thus, we moved on and did more interesting things.
Noordhoek beach (pictured right) was visited many, many times. It's the least crowded beach in the city, and it's long enough to get a decent exercise walk. The wind on that side of the mountain is rather strong – and the Mother City was having a particularly windy spell in December – so there were a number of picnics with very sandy sandwiches. Incidentlly, sand doesn't negatively affect the taste of wine. It does, however, make sushi a rather off-putting texture (we found a place that did take-out sushi. Unfortunately, they didn't provide dipping bowls with the food, so we sprinkled the soy sauce over the maki. Sacrilege!)
My brother's girlfriend, as her Christmas present to our clan, took us to the Kirstenbosch Carols by Candlelight. It was truly delightful. There were thousands of people in the ampitheatre section of the botannical garden, each with a candle and a little paper bag to act as a wind-protector for the flames. As it happens, Capetonians are very proficient at burning paper bags, so there were a few minor fire incidents (nobody was hurt), but I digress. In the last song, they got us to wave our candles in unison. Imagine three thousand people sitting on the lawn, surrounded by beautiful flowers, waving candles like fourteen year-old girls at a Backstreet Boys concert while singing Silent Night...it gave us goosebumps.
We went to Stellenbosch a few times on wine tasting trips. The first trip was toute ensemble . We started at Waterford Estate (where I'd been in 2007 and seen a formula kit-car, pictured right) for their wine and chocolate tasting, which was lovely (and worth the price tag, if you're going tasting in Stellies). Many photos were taken in the tasting...well, I can't call it a room - it's a Spanish-style courtyard. Thankfully, the high-thirty-something temperatures weren't too bad in the shade.
After that, we went on to Rustenberg Estate (owned by the father of my predecessor as chair of the wine tasting society.). They do an award-winning
Bordeaux blend and a truly spectacular straw wine (tasting room pictured right). Since I last went there, they've sold the Brampton range (it was their second label, with most of the grapes being grown off-site. Now that the recession's hit, they're focusing on the premium wines that earned them their reputation and won them the awards)
Mum was resistant to the idea of the second time around, so they stayed in town while Barns (a friend from uni, and my co-chair of the wine tasting society in 2009) and I went on a little toddle on our own. Mum and Dad went for a walk around the Stellenbosch Village Museum, which I had wandered around when I visited with friends in 2007.
Barns and I started our trip at Zorgfliet (tasting room pictured right), intending to hit a few estates. The pourer finished a bottle on both Barns and I (wine superstision holds that if you finish the bottle on someone, they'll have good relationships for a year), so it was an auspicious start to the first tasting trip of the new year. However, after five wines there – and what lovely wines they were too (I bought the viognier, which is delightfully off-dry. I would have got the pinot noir as well, but I thought it would need to be set down for a few years to reach its full potential and I'm going to be moving countries too often to make that viable) – we moved on to Hillcrest Berry Orchards for a cup of tea. If you ever find yourself in the S
tellenbosch area and in need of a good cuppa, head on out to Hillcrest. Their scones and jam are wondrous – all the jam is made from fruit grown on the farm and their rose geranium lemonade (the temperature was in the mid-thirties, which is far too hot for tea, especially after five wines) is very refreshing. Also, the views from the tea-room (pictured right) are spectacular.
The rest of the holiday was spent hiking and eating. Coming from Zimbabwe, my dad (an ardent foodie) went bananas in the shops. He has developed a passionate love for Woolies food (as has Mum, but that's largely because they have a coffee shop in-store that makes a good brew and serves awesome cakes). The hiking trails around Cape Town are amazing – the fynbos (the natural vegetation of the cape) has been restored across most of it (the colonists, damn them, felt the need to plant thirsty aliens like pine, wattle and gum, which have become invasive and are wiping out the natural beauty of the place). We went to Tokai Forest (where the aliens are allowed controlled reign and there are a number of hiking and biking paths) and tried to find the Giant Redwoods (Sequoia sempirivens) to no avail. It's possible we got lost and gave up before we reached the spot (I had patellar tendonitis, so walking up and down hills ranged between uncomfortable and excruciating).
The missing sequoias aside, we had a great time. Next time, we will continue our quest for the Giant Redwoods! Also, I got out-voted on visiting the Jewish Museum (or rather, whenever we had free time and someone said “Shall we go to the Jewish Museum for Brij?” it was Shabbat), and I resolve to see that next time.
So, a (tiny) holiday apartment was rented and we all flew down to the Mother City. Now, we've all been to Cape Town before, so many of the touristy activities – taking the cable car up Table Mountain, visiting the V&A Waterfront, etc. – were now old and boring. Well, the V&A is only really fun once; my fear of heights was the main factor in vetoing another trip in the cable car. The car swings from its cables; the floor of the car rotates; the cable car driver objects to people hanging onto his little cage in the centre (what I did last time to avoid the terror of being spun around near the glass walls). Thus, we moved on and did more interesting things.
Noordhoek beach (pictured right) was visited many, many times. It's the least crowded beach in the city, and it's long enough to get a decent exercise walk. The wind on that side of the mountain is rather strong – and the Mother City was having a particularly windy spell in December – so there were a number of picnics with very sandy sandwiches. Incidentlly, sand doesn't negatively affect the taste of wine. It does, however, make sushi a rather off-putting texture (we found a place that did take-out sushi. Unfortunately, they didn't provide dipping bowls with the food, so we sprinkled the soy sauce over the maki. Sacrilege!)My brother's girlfriend, as her Christmas present to our clan, took us to the Kirstenbosch Carols by Candlelight. It was truly delightful. There were thousands of people in the ampitheatre section of the botannical garden, each with a candle and a little paper bag to act as a wind-protector for the flames. As it happens, Capetonians are very proficient at burning paper bags, so there were a few minor fire incidents (nobody was hurt), but I digress. In the last song, they got us to wave our candles in unison. Imagine three thousand people sitting on the lawn, surrounded by beautiful flowers, waving candles like fourteen year-old girls at a Backstreet Boys concert while singing Silent Night...it gave us goosebumps.
We went to Stellenbosch a few times on wine tasting trips. The first trip was toute ensemble . We started at Waterford Estate (where I'd been in 2007 and seen a formula kit-car, pictured right) for their wine and chocolate tasting, which was lovely (and worth the price tag, if you're going tasting in Stellies). Many photos were taken in the tasting...well, I can't call it a room - it's a Spanish-style courtyard. Thankfully, the high-thirty-something temperatures weren't too bad in the shade.After that, we went on to Rustenberg Estate (owned by the father of my predecessor as chair of the wine tasting society.). They do an award-winning
Bordeaux blend and a truly spectacular straw wine (tasting room pictured right). Since I last went there, they've sold the Brampton range (it was their second label, with most of the grapes being grown off-site. Now that the recession's hit, they're focusing on the premium wines that earned them their reputation and won them the awards)Mum was resistant to the idea of the second time around, so they stayed in town while Barns (a friend from uni, and my co-chair of the wine tasting society in 2009) and I went on a little toddle on our own. Mum and Dad went for a walk around the Stellenbosch Village Museum, which I had wandered around when I visited with friends in 2007.
Barns and I started our trip at Zorgfliet (tasting room pictured right), intending to hit a few estates. The pourer finished a bottle on both Barns and I (wine superstision holds that if you finish the bottle on someone, they'll have good relationships for a year), so it was an auspicious start to the first tasting trip of the new year. However, after five wines there – and what lovely wines they were too (I bought the viognier, which is delightfully off-dry. I would have got the pinot noir as well, but I thought it would need to be set down for a few years to reach its full potential and I'm going to be moving countries too often to make that viable) – we moved on to Hillcrest Berry Orchards for a cup of tea. If you ever find yourself in the S
tellenbosch area and in need of a good cuppa, head on out to Hillcrest. Their scones and jam are wondrous – all the jam is made from fruit grown on the farm and their rose geranium lemonade (the temperature was in the mid-thirties, which is far too hot for tea, especially after five wines) is very refreshing. Also, the views from the tea-room (pictured right) are spectacular.The rest of the holiday was spent hiking and eating. Coming from Zimbabwe, my dad (an ardent foodie) went bananas in the shops. He has developed a passionate love for Woolies food (as has Mum, but that's largely because they have a coffee shop in-store that makes a good brew and serves awesome cakes). The hiking trails around Cape Town are amazing – the fynbos (the natural vegetation of the cape) has been restored across most of it (the colonists, damn them, felt the need to plant thirsty aliens like pine, wattle and gum, which have become invasive and are wiping out the natural beauty of the place). We went to Tokai Forest (where the aliens are allowed controlled reign and there are a number of hiking and biking paths) and tried to find the Giant Redwoods (Sequoia sempirivens) to no avail. It's possible we got lost and gave up before we reached the spot (I had patellar tendonitis, so walking up and down hills ranged between uncomfortable and excruciating).
The missing sequoias aside, we had a great time. Next time, we will continue our quest for the Giant Redwoods! Also, I got out-voted on visiting the Jewish Museum (or rather, whenever we had free time and someone said “Shall we go to the Jewish Museum for Brij?” it was Shabbat), and I resolve to see that next time.
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