We had a super but brief stay at High Season Farm: blazing fire, French Open tennis on the TV, fast, reliable internet and a beautiful sunrise from the lounge window, so it was with a heavy heart that we bade farewell.
Today we were heading for Franschhoek in the cape wine region but rather than go straight there we took the scenic route around the coast on route 44 and what a ride it was. The road hugged the shoreline at the base of the large mountains with the wind throwing waves against the sea rocks and hurling large banks of clouds over the mountain summits. As the sea here is still the whale travelling route, on the way we pulled into several laybys to look for whales but the churning sea made spotting anything difficult.
Once off the coast road we joined the main N2 towards Cape Town and passed the notorious townships of the Cape Flats - Carole and Phillip had clearly labelled the travel map, not a place to stop. After a short while we turned off and climbed into the hills towards the famous wine town of Stellenbosch.
We’d been advised that Stellenbosch was a busy university town and decided to make our way to the smaller town of Franschhoek. En route it was well after lunch so we looked for a vineyard that also had a restaurant and it wasn’t long until we stumbled across Tokara estate. With the clouds thickening we entered the modern and elegant building and to our delight found a fire burning in a huge fireplace.
Muscling our way to the bar (it was quite busy when we arrived) we found a couple of chairs and were soon being plied with some lovely reds and whites by an enthusiastic waiter who gave us a brief talk on each sample before leaving us to sip and mull things over. We were sorely tempted but satisfied ourselves with a couple of glasses with our lunch. And what a lunch. The food was delicious and we spent a long while savouring our meal of lamb shank and watching the rain - the first for weeks - getting progressively heavier outside. Reluctantly we departed and made our way to our B&B, which was just off the main street of Franschhoek in a quiet and safe location: a town clearly geared at wine savouring tourists.
The Ballon Rouge was a pleasant surprise with a warm, comfortable room with a fireplace and where we nestled in for the evening to plan most of our trip to Namibia, which, we are discovering, has nowhere near the amount of accommodation of South Africa and it will be SA school holidays for some of the time we will be there. Already, many of our preferred accommodation selections are fully booked.
With an intermittent internet connection, Glenn called home to catch up successfully with his eldest, Tom, who started a new job today but was unsuccessful in reaching Scott to wish him happy 22nd birthday. He was, of course, out celebrating!
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| Sunrise at High Season Far |
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| Clouds over the mountains |
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| The wild and lovely coastline |
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| Waves blown by a stiff breeze crash over the rocks |
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| The courtyard outside our room at the Ballon Rouge |
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