South Africa Day 11 - Coffee Stops, Chocolate and wine, Contemplation

It's our last day (sob) but it's ok, because before we go were off to the Boschendal vineyards to taste some wine. It's the first time we're driving out of the city rather than around it, but the mountain roads are much the same. We stop off at Kalk Bay en route, and enjoy a coffee overlooking the ocean road and seafront railway as trains pass through the little station on their way around the coast. 

Recharged, we continue our journey away from the sea and into wine country. After a little while, we're into the land of the vineyards and we continue past many signposts until we reach Boschendal. The restaurant and vineyards themselves are one way, the wine tasting is another. It's about lunchtime, so we head to the restaurant side first and sit outside, enjoying some freshly made dishes, washed down of course with a glass of wine. The grounds here are truly beautiful, there's a quaint British feel to the structured gardens and tree lined pathways. It's very serene, and another lovely sunny day which certainly helps add to the relaxed atmosphere. 

We finish our lunch and have a brief stroll around the grounds, before we head to the other side of the estate to sample a wine and chocolate tasting experience. First up is a tasty Sauvignon Blanc with a citrus infused chocolate, followed by a part oaked Chardonnay with a white chocolate. The chocolate is nice but the wine isn't to my taste, which isn't surprising since it's rare for me to find a new world Chardonnay that is. We sample a tasty Shiraz and the Vin d'Or, a delicious dessert wine with a golden colour that gives it its name. The chocolates on their own are ok, I'm not sure about the matching with the wines, but the wines themselves are delicious. We sample one more of the selection before buying a bottle of the Vin d'Or to take home, where it will invariably live on a shelf for years before we eventually find a reason to open it! We languish a little longer in the afternoon sun before heading back on the road to make the journey home. (It's worth noting that the non drivers helped the drivers out with their wine samples. Stay safe folks.)

It's been a lovely day, and an amazing holiday, and it's with a little sadness that we return to the cottages for our final night, eating the remainder of our food for dinner and packing up ready to head to the airport in the morning. Cape Town is really one of the most bizarre cities I've visited, with urban districts and built up suburbs separated by a huge mountain. It's normality for the people who live here, but as a visitor it remains unique and unfamiliar to traverse coastal cliff paths or winding mountain roads to get from one area of the city to another. We've packed lots of sightseeing in to the time we've had here and it's been a really great holiday. Erica and Steve are staying for a few more days but we leave in the morning and return our car, picking up some last minute gifts at the airport and returning to rainy Britain where we head straight to work from Heathrow. South Africa was a fantastic holiday destination, parts of it very similar to life at home and parts of it totally different. There are lots of other places in the world I'd like to visit next, but one day it would be lovely to return and see more of this spectacular country.

South Africa Day 1 - Airports, African roads and Addo

Day 1 of my trip to South Africa begins when our plane lands in Johannesburg in the early hours of Sunday morning. Through some bizarre organisational bad luck, my partner Craig and I end up having to queue for 2 hours with hundreds of other people to get through passport control before we can get to our connecting flight to Port Elizabeth. Luckily we make it just in time, and after a brief snooze and the delights of an aeroplane breakfast, we land in Port Elizabeth airport and head outside to find our hire car. We'd booked a VW Polo Sedan but end up with a Ford Ikon Sedan, which feels a little clunky but will do the job. Setting up the Sat Nav, we head towards Addo Elephant National park, which will be our home for the next 2 nights. Not long into the journey we get a bit lost and end up taking the "scenic" route. I soon learn that "scenic" is synonymous with "potholed". We traverse the uneven surface carefully and manage to navigate back to the main road as we head further away from the suburbs and into the beautiful rolling hills in the Addo area.

We arrive safely at the Avoca guest houses, where we are greeted and given a wealth of information about our chalet, breakfast arrangements and nearby places to eat. Craig's sister Erica and her husband Steve arrived the previous day, but they're out on a safari trip on the Scotia reserve and won't be back until later. Our chalet is a wonderful thatched building set just up from a small river.

There are a family of rock rabbits, or dassies, living around the braai area outside our bedroom window. When we arrive they are sunning themselves on the tree branches and playing around the bushes.

After a brief walk around the grounds, discovering the prickly pear plant and meeting some feral but friendly cats, we head out for dinner to the recommended local restaurant Africanos.

I enjoy some delicious game carpaccio to start, followed by kudu schnitzel which is unfortunately a little blander than I was expecting. We have a tasty bottle of Beyerskloof Pinotage with the meal and I have my first experience of a Don Pedro, a wonderful Amarula ice cream drink to finish. Heading back to the chalet, we marvel at how clearly we can see the milky way and stars in the sky without city light pollution, have a quick catch up with Craig's sister and her husband to hear about their trip to the Scotia reserve, then head to bed for my first night under African sky.