a: Wine Oh Wine

This past Saturday a random assortment of old and new friends loaded up with Rodney (a cab driver we met the previous Saturday) and set out on a fun filled day. The first stop on our adventure was Groot Constantia. It is one of the oldest wineries in Cape Town. Out first tasting was at 9:00 a.m. ... ha, know the taste when you drink orange juice right after you brush your teeth ... it’s worse with wine!!! A few crackers fixed that and I was able to enjoy the scrumptious array of red and whites that they had offer! After the tasting, we went on a tour of how the grapes are harvested, sorted, fermented, blended and bottled. This was really fascinating and I learned quite a lot.

On our way to the Cheetah Outreach program we drove past Khayelitsha. It is the biggest township in Cape Town. Wrap your mind around this: there are 3 million people that live in Cape Town and 1 million of those live in Khayelitsha. Excuse me, WHAT?! It was absolutely NUTZ, the shacks pieced together went on for as far as you could see. I was mind blown. The cheetahs were honestly very anticlimactic. On the Garden Route we did the “wildcat experience” and looked a leopard in the eye and stood next to an adult cheetah in its “natural” habitat. This wasn’t as cool. We opted for the 2 cubs. The more the better right? ... They were on leashes like dogs, which I wasn’t expecting. It was still fascinating to get to touch the wild creature though. You think their fur would be fluffy and soft. Negative. It is rough and course.

Next up was lunch. We stopped in Mooiberge at a local strawberry farm. They are famous for their crazy, bright scarecrow creations! It was a great meal and a fun atmosphere.

Feeling as if I should never eat again, we were off to Spier for a wine and chocolate pairing. The chocolate makers make the chocolate to compliment the wine and it was very interesting how each really did bring out the best in the other. The first was a red wine that you took a sip of, then took another sip, because the second “is always better.” Then you take a bite of the dark chocolate and VAWHLA! It is like you are all the sudden eating chocolate covered cherries. It was pretty cool, but I was not too keen any one in particular.

Around the corner, there was an “Eagle Encounter”. Haley really wanted to do it, so I joined in. The first thing we witnessed was a porcupine. The little guy was named Sonic and was as tame as a house cat. Contrary to popular myths, the spiky creatures do not shoot quills when they are defending themselves! ... That was interesting. We also got to hold owls. As uncool as it sounds those little furby looking creatures were awesome! Their eyes were mesmerizing!!

As if that weren’t enough...We sat off for another tasting at Vredenheim, where they also have a selection of crazy animals. The most noteworthy, the albino lion. However, we were animal’d out by that point and opted out of the photo sesh.

From there we traveled about 45 minutes to Franschoek. It literally means “The French Corner” and it is known as the “food and wine capital of the Cape.” We tasted at the Grand Provence and were able to take in the beautiful scenery. It was such a serene little town and I would love to go back for an over night stay!

The day ended back at Spier. There they have a restaurant called “Moyo” which serves traditional South African cuisine buffet style complete with live performances and face painting. After two rounds of delicious, mouth watering food we moved to the couches to lounge and soak in the environment.

The day was quite the whirlwind, as we left at 8:30 a.m. and arrived back home at 11 p.m. It was such a great, spontaneous adventure and I loved seeing all of the beautiful country side!