Cape Town and Environs Part 4 – Whales and Wine

We bid Cape Town farewell as we drove southeast to Hermanus on the whale coast. Southern right whales travel from Antarctic waters to South Africa where from June until November they give birth and raise their young calves in warmer waters. 

Rishi caught this shot of a whale jumping off the coast in Hermanus. 

En route to Hermanus, we stopped at
Betty's Bay to visit the penguin colony there. 

Upon arrival at the guest house where we would be staying, we learned that a mother whale and her calf had been jumping and playing in the inlet right in front of the guest house. Later in the afternoon they were back, as shown above left, though a bit far away. 

These are dassies, lounging on the rocks in Hermanus.  

Still more beautiful coastline and more flowers too.

Hermanus sunset

The last leg of our trip was a visit to Franschhoek, within one of the main wine growing regions of South Africa. The town was hosting a weekend-long festival, Franschhoek Uncorked. We purchased festival tickets for about $10 each that entitled us to tastings at 20 wineries, plus a souvenir glass. 

In two days, we visited 11 of 20 wineries that were participating in the Franschhoek Uncorked festival. Whew!
It's hard work, but someone has to do it. 

La Bri has beautiful labels with sketches of flowers, and I love the way
the bottles were hanging from tress outside the tasting room. 

The wineries are close together, so it’s quick and easy to travel from one to the next. The area is beautiful with mountains rising steeply from the valley, and each winery seeming even more lovely than the one before. 

The aptly named Dieu Donné (God gave) has a beautiful view and a lovely tasting room. 

Rishi is admiring the view from Lynx Wines.

Plaisir de Merle, yet another beautiful winery, looks like a painting. 

We did try a lot of good wine, but given the bargain price for the weekend tastings, most of the wineries weren’t pouring their best products. Or you could try them, but for an added cost. And by the end of the day, our fellow tasters, who seemed to be going for full tastes rather than just sipping and using the spittoons as we were doing, were definitely getting pretty rowdy. One of the folks pouring wine told us that many students from the nearby college town of Stellenbosch were probably enjoying the wines a bit too much. 

Rainbow over Franschhoek

Note the solar panels in the middle of the Vrede En Lust vineyards.

While many of the wines that we tasted while in the Cape Town area were excellent, I have to admit I was a bit disappointed by the food. Maybe my expectations were too high, or maybe I’m just a horribly spoiled food snob. None of the restaurants that we ate at in Cape Town were super fabulous, despite several having high marks on various best of Cape Town lists. The seafood was fine and very fresh, but the way it was prepared and presented wasn’t particularly inventive. 
Franschhoek is billed as the culinary center of South Africa, and we did have a good, but not outstanding meal at Reuben’s, the restaurant of celebrity chef Reuben Riffel. We were only in Franschhoek one night, so didn’t check out the Tasting Table, which is frequently cited as the best restaurant in South Africa. Again, I’m thinking maybe next time. See you in Cape Town!