Jan 26-29 – Stellenbosch & Franschhoek/Table Mountain/Cape Town

My 2 girls!

Quack! Quack!

Say "Spier"!

Cheeeeese!

All smiles during his 1st flight.

We flew into Cape Town at around 1 pm and drove our rental to Spier Winery, Hotel and Spa where we would be staying for the first two nights. The Spier resort is stunning with its historic Cape Dutch architecture and views of surrounding vineyards and mountains. We explored the complex which has something for everyone: wine tasting, a curio marketplace, several restaurants, a cheetah and bird of prey rescue centre, a quaint deli and a lovely picnic area surrounding a pond. We bought some choice bottles of wine and some fresh bread rolls and deli meat and made up a lovely picnic. The resident ducks were quite friendly, quacking right up to our picnic table for some dropped crumbs. Siya was rather intrigued with these feathered visitors and repeated “Da” after I pointed and said, “Duck.” Maddie had fun on the nearby jungle gym and is becoming quite brave climbing and balancing. She was pretending to do gymnastics, “like a big girl.” That evening we had a delish buffet dinner at the resort’s Moyo restaurant. Courtney had reserved us a table in the lower treehouse and it was outside dining at its best! We all had our faces painted…even the boys and we were also serenaded at our table by three of the restaurants performers. The kids were entranced and Siya banged his hands on the high chair when they concluded their wonderful rendition of, “The Lion Sleeps Tonight.” As is expected at a buffet, we all over indulged on a variety of South Africa delicacies from bush buck and kudu sosaties (kebabs), springbok and ox tail potkjies (stew), putu or mielie pap with sauce, gem squash and koeksisters (donut). We rolled ourselves back to the hotel room stuffed to the brim!

After a full breakfast on the hotel’s verandah, we drove from Stellenbosch to Franschhoek through a gorgeous mountain pass. The vineyards on the mountain sides were remarkable. Franschhoek is a quaint little village with its main street is lined with cafes, bistros, art galleries and a variety of shops. We took our time exploring the shops and stopped for a lovely lunch of bobotjie and seasoned rice with raisins. I’ll have to describe it as having a shepherd’s pie appearance, with a sweet, curry flavour…Delicious! We then took a slow drive back to Spier and after the previous night’s feast for dinner; we kept it easy and just had some local fish (Hake) & chips with a great bottle of Spier Sauvignon Blanc!

The next morning, we took a walk to Spier’s curio market, Moyo’s gift shop and the cheetah rescue centre, before packing up the car and driving to our hotel in Cape Town. Within 20 minutes we were at the foot of Table Mountain…and the front door of our self catering suite. We had a great view of Table Mountain right from our kitchenette window.

We then got some directions to the cable car to get us up to Table Mountain and by 4:30pm we were what seemed to be, on top of the world. The views were spectacular as you looked west and saw all of Cape Town and to the south, the beautiful mountains and cliffs towards the Cape of Good Hope. We did a short trail hike around the top of the mountain taking some great photos along the way. We even captured some Dassies, which inhabit the rocky mountain side.

That evening we took a drive down the beach coast to check out the V & A Waterfront and catch the sun set over the Atlantic…which was absolutely stunning and the BTW…the sun set at 8:54pm on Jan. 28th. Maddie was thrilled to see the sun going to bed and Desi was already fast asleep in the car.

On our last day, we packed up our bags full of new souvenirs from the previous days’ trips and checked out of our hotel. We headed for a drive down the south coast again towards Chapmans Peak. The winding road along the coast embraced by cliffs on both sides was beautiful and relaxing…needless to say…we went a little camera happy. It is really cool to see how many of the homes right along the coast are built right into the cliffs. On the ocean side, your roof is basically at street level and therefore it’s your garage or parking lot. You then would take stairs or an elevator down to your home!!! Very cool! Once we got to Chapmans Peak in Hout Bay, we took in some more beautiful scenery before turning it around and driving back to the airport to catch our flight back to Durban. It was nice to be heading home back to familiar grounds…especially Desi who just hammed it up that night with Auntie Janet after not having seen her in quite some time. He definitely feels a lot more comfortable in familiar surroundings. I wonder how he’ll deal with that cold February weather??? Maddie was also glad to be back in Durban and was chatting up a storm with Courtney.

Earlier that day, we got some unexpected news that we would probably have to delay our return to Canada, as Desi’s citizenship and passport were not yet approved. Apparently the Ministry did not give us and our agency some documents, which we were suppose to bring with us to forward to the Canadian High Commission. It all got sorted in the end, but we will be returning later than Wednesday, Feb. 4th. Could be worse…we don’t mind staying a bit longer in this lovely, warm weather.