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Sunday, August 27th, La Provence, Stellenbosch, Western Cape, South Africa We have move around the coast, and headed inland to Stellenbosch, one of the major centres of wine making in Africa, even the world..
This is our last day here, and tomorrow, (Monday 28th. August), we head North for Namibia and the rest of the world up there. Our host at the Hermanus guest house, knocked on our door at 7:30AM to tell us the whales had been in the local bay since 2:00AM, and had woken them up. You could hear them snorting from the house "making a hellofanoise!". We are our, yes indeed, piles of them around the harbour, at least 6 within 200 metres, several outside the wall, and two breaching out in the bay! We stay till we are (almost) bored. The trip from Hermanus was slightly interrupted, when I found that the cruiser (is this begining to sound familiar), had a fairly major oil leak - large enough to destroy a lump of the lawn we parked on (This was the first place we have stayed without night security, so we hid the van behind the house on the lawn) . Back to the 4 x 4 guy. We scratch about on the sump, and it looks like a screwdriver has been stuck through it......... Don't ask me, Calvin, the guy in charge had no idea either.
Finally, we head off to Stellenbosch, along the coast road; it's stunning. The tourist accomodation centre in Stellenbosch finds this place. It's EXACTLY what I was looking for. Once again, very cheap at $CAN50 a day; fully self contained, 3 bedroom, two bathroom, braii (of course!) And thrown in, a stunning view of the local mountains and far off, Tablebay. We are at an old winery that, during the "low" season, takes in guests - it's PERFECT!
The missus & kids head off to the Aquarium (haven't they had enough of this yet?), I listen to a group of guys harmonising on the quay while supping my iced coffee. As the sun goes down, I start to plan the trip North & East for the next 2 months. Watch this space for details in future bulletins. From here on, it's all Africa! Finally, Stellenbosch for disposing of our collected films and video tapes, plus shipping out our curios, a few more e-mails, and a trip to a winery for wine tasting, a chance for the kids to keep up their gymnastic and exercises, and dinner. Great wines, but dinner leaves me a little open ended. I only expected to be here for 2 days, but it is just so perfect, that this is now our fourth! All things must end. This is just sooooo perfect that we have to go. Today, our last here, we get the kids to do some more schoolwork, we sort out our laundry etc for the next leap, I catch up (FINALLY!) with this web stuff, and we braii and booze the evening away. Distance travelled this entry: 200 Km. Distance moved on trip this entry: 125 Km |
Today, I'm sitting on 
He glues it up with some epoxy, and I'm off back to the Internet café to finish off the pix and the new diary web files.
Friday, 25th. Off to Cape Town, for a trip up the mountain (Tabletop), but the cable car is shut for maintenance (low season!), we
pick up my Economists from Post Restante at the central PO (Thanks David!), a few bits and pieces like a replacement for the 110V
transformer for the portable compressor I blew up in Winterton, some touristy things (Aiden tries his hand at bargaining for Ostrich
eggs), lots of books including a Lonely Planet for Zambia & Malawi (this will almost certainly be our last book stop until we get
back to Jo'burg in November) and a great frozen coffee at Pier 4 in the harbour.
