Woke to clear blue skies so took another walk around the vineyards. The clouds have lifted from the mountains and the contours are so clear.
Breakfast in the courtyard – smoked salmon or bacon omelette – a refreshing change from full English! Stephan been busy again with his printed notes – our napkin is wrapped in a paper detailing the weather, wind, sunset for the day.
Booked into Boschendal – the country’s oldest vineyard – for wine tasting and tour.
Groot Drakenstein prison – where Nelson Mandela was freed from after his long incarceration, mainly on Robben Island – is not far off our route. It looks easy on the map and we were doing well, until John asked how far it was. So I concentrated on trying to find the prison on Tom Tom’s database, but it seemed not to be included. In a while we reached the N1, which was far beyond where the prison was supposed to be. So we backtrack to find it not far from the point where I took my eye off the road to look at Tom Tom. Sometimes human ‘Tom Tom’ is preferable?
The statue of Mandela cast by my cousin is awesome – all the more so because of its backdrop against the mountains. I felt very moved.
Off to Boschendal – a commercially owned vineyard – where we tried to match our allocated 7 taster glasses against the descriptions. A bit of fun really – and realistically we can’t buy any to carry back to England, so we’re not serious customers!. Went on the tour which Iain (also called John but only at work) and Margaret were also on, so in between the rapid fire commentary about wine-making, we had more amusing and interesting conversation with them.
Then on to Haute Cabriere – another vineyard, but this time family-owned by Achim – whose party piece is to chop the top of the bottle (complete with cork) off with a sabre rather than the more boring way of using a corkscrew. We didn’t witness that as we just had a light lunch there rather than do the tour. Delicious mussels and tempura prawns with an estate sparkly (his speciality) in the cool cellar. A bit of excitement as helicopters arrived and took off with the more affluent customers ‘dropping in’ for lunch! (takes the meaning of John’s International Lunch Club to a different level!)
The temperature has risen and risen to an alarming 34oC!! The car registered 40oC at one point!.. and then we have a text later from Sarah to say there’s been more snow in England!
A wander through Franschoek – a delightfully well-kept town where every other shop is a restaurant! I browsed round the shops a bit and met John back at Traumerei café where they cool you down with a very fine mist spraying from the umbrellas and surrounding walls – very welcome in this searing heat.
John then led me to the Bordeaux St art gallery where he’d spotted one of Jean’s African native sculptures. We went inside and saw another – a ballet dancing pair called Pas de Deux – priced at a cool 110,000 rand – about £8,000!! Then back for a cool-off at B & B.
Freshen up and then off to Reuben’s which has been highly recommended. We ate in the courtyard and it was a very different and informal affair compared to last night. It was quite noisy with lively music playing and not at all the elegant experience of Grande Provence. My food was delicious, but John wasn’t so taken by the experience. Whitebait/Springbok tartare with oyster fritters and caper sauce and quail stuffed with grapes, and a herb couscous/blesebok.. I had to try the quail having seen so many running around the countryside – it was tender and tasted similar to chicken. John offered to take a photo of a group nearby and later one of the blokes offered to take ours. Turned out he was English and had lived in Mapperley and worked in Nottingham five years ago.
Back to B & B where yet another love poem awaits us – this one a letter from Beethoven to I don’t know who. I asked Stefan in the morning and he said it had been used in two movies – ‘Sex in the City’ and Immortal beloved’ with (I think) Gary Oldman and Isobel Rossellini – haven’t seen either, so must look them out.