Day 11: Winelands

This was our first full day in Franschhoek, so it was time to go wine-tasting. Thank you to Andrew and Liang for getting us the night at the Corner House Guesthouse -- being about 10 minutes away from all the restaurants and vineyards was crucial. :)

We initially thought we had a guided tour of a few wineries set up for 9:30am, so we woke up early, had a little breakfast, and waited for our guide. Around 10:00 we realized there must have been a mix-up. A quick call, and we figured out that “The Wine Desk” had mixed up our reservation, and it was actually at 1:00pm. No problem. We decided to head to Stellenbosch to explore the first winery on our own: Simonsig.

OK, so it's winter-turning-to-spring here in South Africa, so the vines aren't at their prettiest... but we figured the wine would still be good... and at $5.00 per tasting who can really complain. We sat outside, had 5 wines, and let the morning glide by while we enjoyed the view.

Ming liked the “super-quaffable” Chenin Blanc. “Super-quaffable” apparently means easy-drinking, though a wine-snob beside us was quick to provide his translation: terrible. The clientele of these tastings seem to come in two forms. The first, the wine-snob, knows everything about the subject, always uses a spitoon when tasting, speaks in a hoity-toity British accent, and scoffs at the second type of patron: the backpacker. The first might be spotted at an upscale restaurant, enjoying a $150 meal (wine-pairings and all), debating the merits of the free-market economy with his 13 year old son. The latter might be seen with a group of fellow backpackers hiring out a van for a low-budget wine tour. Ming and I are somewhere in between.

Eventually one of the backpacker tour groups crashed our spot at Simonsig. It was entertaining watching the guide give his spiel. He even opened a bottle of champagne (oops... can't call it that 'cause it wasn't from France) with a sword. Can you spot the cork?

For lunch, we headed up the road to Simonsberg cafe to get a Simonsburger. Yummm. There was a friendly dog there. Ming taught it to beg. I'm sure the owner was thrilled. (whoa there -- Ian embellishment alert -- the dog clearly came over and started begging on its own, it was sooo cute and I had no choice but to feed it -- I admit, I did not help the situation, but I certainly did not instigate the begging!)

We finally caught up with our tour guide and dropped off our car in the town center. I was glad to give up the driving given the wine we were about to have. I can barely drive sober given the left-side-of-the-road thing they have going on here. Actually, it's not so bad after a while. The hardest thing to remember is that people pass you on your right. I got my fair share of honks for going too slow in the passing lane.

The first winery the guide took us to was called Spier. Nothing special in terms of the wine, but it had a cheetah farm... (does that count as another one of the big 7?)

The next winery was Uva Mira. The wine was definitely better here.

They definitely cater to the hoity-toity crowd here.

The server joked that they like their relatively high elevation because the backpacker vans can't make it up the hill. She had an English accent. She assured us she wasn't being “cheeky”.

The Uva Mira winery is owned by an old lady who lives in a mansion up on the hill. She has one of the most spectacular scenic vistas a house could have. Behind her, the craggy mountains that are pervasive in and around Capetown.

The day we went it was relatively hazy, but we could still make out the bay just beyond the valley which her balconies overlooked.

Our last winery of the day was Blaauwklippen.

I think we were both pretty tipsy by that point, so everything was tasting pretty good. We even bought a bottle of the Shiraz. Hope it tastes as good with a fresh palate. Sidenote: big thank you to Beth and Jesse for getting this tour for us. We can't say that we'll always remember all the details...but from what we do remember in our alcoholic-haze, it was definitely a blast.

With that, our guide drove us back into town. We walked around town a little, bought a few essentials, and then headed towards our dinner reservations. We had dinner at La Courtier Frances. This was one of our splurge-nights at one of the top 100 restaurants in the world... according to the in-flight magazine anyway. I had the 8-course set menu (wine pairings and all)... it was all I could do to refrain from speaking with a British accent and using words like “musn't” and “ghastly”. Still, I was able to forgo my manners long enough to take out my camera and get a shot of my food. Here's the third course: foie gras, prociutto, cranberry and smoked whisky dressing.

Ming got a 5-course meal. A lot of her dishes were actually tastier than mine. In particular, she had truffle and sweetcorn soup which was delicious. In any case, we were both stuffed after the meal, and it was getting late, so we headed back to the Corner House and went straight to bed.

Day 10 - Sabi Sand to Capetown

An action packed day today, as we take in the morning game drive before driving the 7 hour trek back down to Jo'burg via the "Panoramic Drive." Woke up to another stunning sunrise. Ian had been holding camera-duty for most of the trip, but every now and then he'd hand it over to me to try a shot or two. Here's my attempt at capturing the sunrise...as I mentioned to Ian right after taking it -- looks an awful lot like sunset to me!

The morning drives always seemed a bit more quiet than the afternoon/evening drives (maybe the animals take after Ian) so we weren't expecting a ton of action. However, not long into the drive, we came upon a new leopard: Mbilo, a young female, just 2 or 3 years old. She was hungry and we caught her as she was on the hunt for breakfast. She let our vehicle follow her around the bush for a good 15 minutes or so as she climbed up rocks to see if there was anything nearby to pounce on. Made for some gorgeous shots:

She finally spotted a steenbuck and started stalking it -- sadly, she was too far into the bush for us to get a good shot of the stalking or attempted kill (the steenbuck got away). But it was still very exciting nonetheless.

We saw a bunch of small animals -- lizards, eagles, squirrel-like furry things -- good opportunity to work on the optical zoom. As we stopped on a overlook for our daily tea and coffee break mid-game drive, for example, we saw another yellow-billed hornbill picking up crumbs from our biscuits along with a pretty wicked lizard. Here's what the shot could've been:

Here's what the zoom let us do: (pretty amazing!)

On the tea stop, we also saw a small group of elephants start to make their way into the open field in front of us. They got about halfway through the field when their matriach apparently smelled our scent coming over the plains. They all stopped and after a moment or so, turned around and went back the way they came! Apparently we smelled or sounded too weird for them to chance being out in the open field like that.

We couldn't leave Elephant Plains without one more close-up encounter with elephants though! Just before we pulled back into the lodge, we literally ran into a herd crossing the road before us.

With that, it was time to end the game drive and leave Elephant Plains. It was an amazing 3 nights there and we would love to come back in the future sometime.


After a quick check-out, we jumped into the waiting minivan for our private 10-hour drive/guided tour through the Panoramic route back to Jo'burg.

In hindsight, we'd have to say that the Panoramic tour may have been our only "this may not have been worth it" activity on the trip thus far. To be fair, this could have been because the sky was a bit hazy throughout the tour, as you will see in some of the pictures below.

The trip started with a stop at the Three Rondavels, a highlight of the Blyde River Canyon viewpoints. It was very hazy, so we couldn't get a really clear shot, so you'll have to take us at our word that it was a pretty spectacular sight. :)

As our guide mentioned, the Blyde River Canyon is the third largest canyon in the world, after the Grand Canyon and the Fish River Canyon in Nairobi. I wish we'd gotton more pictures of the drive up to the Canyon -- as with all trips, you never know that you've passed your best shot until it's too late!

After that, we passed a couple waterfalls (nothing too extraordinary) and arrived at the Bourkes Luck Potholes, where the constant swirling of water over the centuries created these really cool circular holes -- much like potholes -- in the canyon walls:

Here's a shot of Ian posing above the Potholes (I include this shot, even though it's not spectacular, for two reasons: 1, to prove to suspicious blog-readers that we actually did go here and didn't just cut and paste pictures from the internet, and 2, to prove that I did in fact take SOME pictures!)

Finally, we ended at Wunderview -- a viewpoint overlooking the area known as "God''s Window", or, as fans of "The Gods Must Be Crazy" would know it, "the End of the Earth." (rent and watch the movie if you have no idea what I'm talking about -- it's really really good!) Apparently on a clear day, you can see as far as 80 kilometers (some say all the way to Mozambique!):

With that, we completed our official tour stops and proceeded to sit back for six hours of driving until Jo'burg. However, Ian and I both agreed that the tour was made infinitely more worthwhile and interesting because of these next six hours. This is when our guide started talking to us about South Africa and random tidbits on politics, the economy, gender roles, racial tensions, the environment, tourism, and more. For example, he told us that as a coloured person (in South Africa, that is the term for people of black and white mixed race heritage), he was kicked out of the military because he was not black -- he found it quite ironic that the coloureds were previously not-white enough under apartheid were now not-black enough under post-apartheid (apparently the government requires that a lot of companies and organizations maintain a workforce of at least 90 percent black employees).

And of course, what's a South African day without a picture-worthy sunset -- I took this shot as we were driving on the highway, and even then, pretty spectacular.

We checked in for our flight down to Capetown, which, sadly, was delayed, which meant we arrived in Capetown, hopped into our rental Avis and then drove for an hour, on the left side of the road, on highways with very narrow lines and few streetlamps, at 1AM. Yes, I am indeed very thankful to be alive!

Day 9 - South Africa - Elephant Plains

Up with the sun again. Getting used to this 5:30am wake-up... so long as I have my 11:00am-2:00pm nap.
The sunrises are pretty spectacular here.
As we headed out on our morning drive, we didn't get more than 100 meters from the lodge before finding a few of our old pachyderm pals.A few moments later we spotted some vultures up in the trees.

The phrase "look alive!" ran through my head as we passed the carrion crew.

Eagles were out in full force this morning as well.
We saw some Southern Ground Hornbills jumping around on a log. Apparently there are only a couple thousand left in all of South Africa.
In the morning, monkeys don't mind hanging out up in the trees. The eagles don't start picking them out of trees until they've left their own perches and start soaring about.


Ah, zoom... what would I see without you.

We rounded out the "Big 5" with a rhino sighting (mother and child actually!) midway through the morning.
Here's a close-up of mom. She's got a bird in her ear... looks uncomfortable to me.


We stopped for some tea/coffee near a waterhole and watched some baboons playing on the opposite bank.
When walking around the bush, you have to pay attention or you might find yourself stepping into a large pile of elephant dung... which is pretty much everywhere.
Back on the road again, we saw a herd of impala, which are almost as ubiquitous as the elephant dung... though tastier for a hungry leopard I suppose. Check out the two tussling in the back of this photo:

We stopped by a waterhole full of hippos. Caught one in mid-snort:


Never did see one out of the water. Glad I didn't though, because as it turns out the hippo is the deadliest animal in the bush (to humans anyway.) More humans get trampled and killed by hippos than any other animal related fatality out here.
We saw a few lion tracks, but didn't catch up with the pride.
We got back, had breakfast, went on the bushwalk, and I went straight to bed. Ming went back to the gym again and then had a spa treatment (I still can't believe they had a spa in the middle of nowhere.) Before the afternoon drive Ming took the Land Rover for a spin.

I was the tracker.
OK, not really. Richard just let us take a few shots while it was parked outside the lodge.
The afternoon drive started off with a few lazy buffalo. These poor guys. They just sit around baking in the sun all day with insects buzzing all about them. When they don't have insects in there eyes, it's only because there's a bird perched on there face pecking at them. Seems like a miserable existence to me.

Once again we saw Salayexe, but this time she was sleeping in a tree.
We drove right under her, took a few photos, and she didn't even stir.
We moved on to let her rest (her cubs were probably sleeping nearby.) A waterbuck was posing not far off:
Wildebeest were grazing on the airstrip, a long field where the tiny planes landed for the super-rich folks who wanted to avoid the 1.5 hour drive from Hoedspruit and fly in directly.


When we caught up with Salayexe again, it was dark. She was active... tense in fact. Other predators were starting their nightly rounds.


Three hyenas, truly ugly animals, started making their way towards Salayexe and her cubs. We saw one flee up a tree to safety, and the other one dart off towards the riverbed. Salayexe stood her ground and let out a hiss (as cats do) when the threat came close. When the hyenas were about a meter away, Salayexe slinked away.


We left them like that. One cub up a tree, Salayexe and cub number two escaped on foot. Hyenas can't climb so it's likely that no cats were harmed that night. Richard said that the hyenas were probably looking to steal some food if Salayexe had recently made an impala kill or something like that. Regardless, it made for quite an exciting night.

Another outside dinner around the fire and we hit the sack.