Day 3 and 4, Cape Town, South Africa

Day 3: Wine Route

We had breakfast at home. We ate blueberries and strawberries on our Wheatabix cereal. Bob made coffee. Around noon, we gathered up our maps and headed down the mountain to drive to Stellenbosch, a small town near all the wineries. We managed to get on the right expressway to the Stellenbosch Wine Route! It was about a 45 min. drive out of the city. Before we got to the actual town of S, we stopped at Spier Winery. We had read about their conservation and educational efforts to save the cheetahs through breeding. They also have many species of owls and eagles being rehabilitated on site. Wine and wild animals! What more could one ask for? ~!(:  )

Mountains outside of Stellenbosch and Spier Winery. 

Nice old house in Stellenbosch

Cheetah at Spier Winery

I have stopped buying giraffes for my collection, but this fellow makes them out of old coke cans. I could not resist. Notice the one near my right elbow. I bought it!

May I offer you some wine? Notice the winebottle lighting above her head!

Artwork in the winetasting room.

The Spier Winery dating back to 1677 is located in a beautiful setting with dramatic steep-spired mountains in the background and lush, lush gardens all around a river. We bought a picnic lunch at an organic restaurant and had lunch at a picnic table in one of the gardens. Then, we went to the wine tasting room and sampled some reds and whites. The wine-tasting of 5 wines was about $11. 

Later, we drove to the town of Stellenbosch, went to the bank to use the ATM, got some stamps at the Post Office and walked down the oak-line streets to view some examples of Cape Dutch, Georgian and Victorian architecture. Stellenbosch, in the heart of the wine route dates back to 1679, is the second oldest town in South Africa after Cape Town. 

Day 4: Robbin Island 

Today, we hurried down toward the wharf area to get to the ferry before 9am to go over to visit Robbin Island. It’s located about 11k from Cape Town. Having read about Nelson Mandela’s imprisonment on Robbin Island for 18 years (in the book  “A Long Walk to Freedom”), we were interested in visiting the island that now has become a symbol of the triumph of democracy and freedom over oppression. It was declared a World Heritage site in 1999. 

After getting lost and going around in circles (literally! traffic circles can be very confusing), we got there a few minutes after 9 to find out that ferry tickets were sold out until January 4, 2012! Good grief. The girl at the window told us to try back for the 11:00am ferry as sometimes there are cancellations. Just as she said that, a man walked up to us and offered us 1 ticket for the 1pm ferry. The girl behind the counter told us that she had 1 ticket available at 1pm too! How lucky are we? We bought both tickets, went for a walk around the wharf, had lunch at noon and got on the ferry at 1pm. Nothing like being in the right place at the right time.  

Our ferry ride and tour around Robbin Island and back to CT took up the rest of the afternoon. We were very glad to have the opportunity to see it and to experience where the anti-apartheid activists were jailed. Mandela was imprisoned for 18 of his 27 years in prison on the island. While there, in a small austere cell with bare concrete floor and heavily barred windows, Mandela formulated his principle of forgiveness. It was humbling to walk where he walked. The squat grey prison building is a stark reminder of human oppression. The last prisoners left Robbin Island in 1996. Today, the 5K square island is a peaceful place with natural beauty and an African penguin breeding colony.