Stuff I missed - our stop in Capetown

Towering over Cape Town, Table Mountain is a flat-topped promonitory with a spectacular view of the entire Cape - that is, when it isn't shrouded in mist. Sigh - it's been socked in since we arrived and is still under cover as we leave. A 2-hour hike will take you to the top, or you can ride the cable car both up and down. Wonderful picnic spot if a bit windy; last time we were there we had lunch next to a beautiful young man who proposed then and there to his girl there on the mountaintop. One can see the top of table mountain, along with much of the seaport, from the roof of our lodge - i now think that a rooftop deck is pretty much a must in any future home we may someday own!

The Village Lodge is the place to stay, but practice your steep slope parking skills! The railing of the Lodge porch gives you an idea of how far from level we were - being kinda top heavy, we parked it and didn't dare touch it again until it was time to leave!

If it's great Turkish food you want, you can't do better than Andiamo, located one half block from the Village Lodge. Dinner there last night was a series of mezzas - did you ever wish you could photograph your dinner in a restaurant and go home with the recipe? i'd love to recreate this at home! We've dined there every time we've been in cape town, but last night we were treated to a special belly dancing event. The music suddenly got loud, and in shimmied a lovely young, dark-haired woman in dark blue silk and sequins who comes pretty close to Shakira in the hips-moving department.

She was really lovely - now the interesting part is that she was accompanied by a rather gender neutral individual, who sat enraptured to an almost zealous degree watching her dance, and then slipped out the moment she was done. Stalker? Bodyguard? no - turns out its a rather feminine young man who wants with all his heart to be a belly dancer as well! Not content with dancing at the Bronx, what he wants is to dance at Andiamo every night! NOT GONNA HAPPEN!! It's a strange world!

So, today we are off to the Namibian desert, where apparently one eats the most devine oysters (don't ask me how - oasis?, but that's the goal!)

More pics will be added again when i get a computer i can plug into! Cheers! Julie

Bits and Pieces

OBTW - if you're looking for an amazing coastline, you could do worse than to check out the South African coast. Neighborhoods are embraced by mountains to the back and ocean to the front. HUGH crashing waves on rocks make for a dramatic backdrop for the annually migrating whales that breach and spout just off show, and out your porch door you can go with your mountain bike or your hiking stick and your dog and stay wonderfully fit year round! It rarely if ever snows at beach level along this coast but there's often snow on the peaks in winter if you really miss it.

I ADORE Cape Town. Maybe it's not "PC" to say, but for my money the best neighborhoods to live in are almost always the gay neighborhoods! Die Waterkant is no exception with a wonderful "San Fransisco-esque" area of lovely flats painted in beautiful earth tones, coffee houses, a spectacular Turkish restaurant and even "The Bronze" - oops, sorry, Buffy moment - The BRONX dance bar (vampire slayer flashback - LOVED Angel!) You can own a flat or even a full row house here for about $400 Grand - couldn't touch THAT in San Fran for anything less than $something in the millions!!

Franschoek

Another day in paradise! Of course, it takes us half the day to travel 20 km because the boys stop every 10' for photos! Jeff even takes pictures while driving - something we call the Sharp Drive-By Shooting!

(Sharp Drive-By)

Less well known than Stellenbosch, Franchoek is home to some of the best wineries in South Africa, including a lovely place called Boekenhoetskloof that makes award winning reds and the very accessible "Chocolate Block" which, while not their highest RATED wine, is an absolutely luscious mouthful of fruit, dark chocolate, spice and a hint of the earth (maybe licorice?) - YUM!!

(The view from the Boekenhoetskloof tasting deck)

Finally had a break in the heavy rain, just long enough for a quick tasting and walk through the vines! Just setting their fruit, the fields haven't reached the peak of their photogenic best, when the fruit hangs in heavy purple bunches on a backdrop of turning leaves.

Dined at Topsi's place. If you are ever in Franschoek you must eat here before the mother-daughter team retires. There is no other staff, only a young man they've sort of adopted who was born with fetal alcohol syndrome to an unemployed African mom no longer in the picture - a very sweet young man who served us very carefully! Mom started the place and is now probably in her late 70's with a fantastic chef as a daughter. This is another place without an extensive menu - only 3-4 dishes that change daily that they do absolutely divinely. We couldn't decide what we wanted, so after she gave us a taste of each and every dish she decided to just bring us a sampler and then sat down to chat with us for most of the meal. What a gold mine of information about the history of Franschoek and South Africa, as well as a marvel of cooking knowledge and an all around cool person to talk with! We did eventually taste about 80% of the menu! We really HAVE to stop eating so much - oh, what am i saying?! Isn't that why we came?

This morning we drove out under heavy cloud cover which cleared when we once again hit the coast. Stopped for a quick tasting (before noon - aren't we scandalous?) at a place with one of the nicest chardonnay's in South (not really known for chards here, but this one is a keeper) and then on to one of Steve's friends from the old work days to have a marvelous Cape Salmon lunch on his smoker grill. sigh - more food! 

We've reached Cape Town and are staying at our fave place "The Village Lodge" in a neighborhood called de Waterkant - nice place, good value, great service! Cape Town has an eye openingly massive "township" - a carry over from apartheid when blacks couldn't live with whites so they were put in "villages" outside of town. These have become giant squatters camps and it's a wonder that there hasn't been wholesale armed revolt, as these are breeding grounds for poverty, AIDS and discontent. The current and recent past governments are struggling to provide government subsidized housing that is safer, but many people actually don't want to leave their compound home because, in a sense, it's "theirs".  Interesting problems this country has to deal with.

 Don't know if you can quite see the absolutely endless rows of cardboard and tin shacks lined up along the roadside. This goes on for absolutely 5 miles on both sides of the N2 main divided interstate. In anticipation of soccer 2010 they've put up a sight-break fence along most of it so that it can't be seen from the highway, as this is the entry point to the Stellenbosch winery area and thus a very busy tourist pathway. Out of sight, out of...?

I'll try to get some pics of our current abode on line tomorrow! Cheers!

South African Wine Country

Say "South Africa" and what comes to mind? Kruger National Park and cheetahs? Johannesburg and Soweto slums? Apartheid? Probably not fine wine, eh? The Stellenbosch-Franschoek valley area of South Africa's Western Cape produces some wonderfully drinkable wines! 

(A classic Cape Dutch style house)

Calitzdorp - a tiny town just outside the Swarzberg pass, is known for internationally award winning port. Now, I've never been a port fan before - but apparently i never had a good one - delicious!! This lovely town produces some heady, fruity (think raisins plus hazelnuts plus the smell of incoming rain and a hint of chocolate all layered on top of a little alcohol) liquor that is hard to put down. Indeed, after tasting about 6 ports, concluding with the 2006 vintage reserve, i decided NOT to! Asked the tasting manager if i could buy the glass so i could take the "dregs" with me, and she not only gave me the glass, but filled it up first! Port is very nice to sip while looking out truck windows along winding roads!! The Winery at Calitzdorp afforded me an opportunity to photograph a classic Cape Malay face. Cape Malay is a blend of native Africans with the various explorers and exploiters that reached here over the years - Dutch, Portuguese and Malasian. It is considered the height of sexiness for the women to knock out all of their front teeth!! Some people keep a set of dentures for work, some don't. She didn't! Sexy, eh?

Along the way we stopped at Ronnie's Sex Shop - a famous by-way on the way into Barrydale! Ronnie opened his little shop and some joker thoughtfully added the word "sex".

After Calitzdorp we headed over to Barrydale to meet up with the really great folks we met in Mozambique on the beach. Barrydale is an up-and-coming artsy little town on the edge of wine country - home to turn-of-the-century Cape Dutch architecture, fruit trees, grape arbors, and a brand new restaurant called Mez that not only has terrific food but is beautifully decorated by the artist-turned-chef owner Michelle.

Stop in for dinner if you're ever there - she only serves 2-3 mains per evening but they're different every week, along a Mediterranean theme. Last night was Provence night - cassoulette to die for!

 Tonight we're in Franschoek - home of the best restaurants in South Africa! Pics tomorrow when my camera is recharged!!


Eating our way around the cape! Julie, Jeff and Steve

Swarzberg Pass

Clinging precariously to the deep cut, redrock cliffs of the Swarzberg Pass, the scrub brush looks at first glance to be a desolate, lifeless mountain desert. Look closer. In wind so strong it threatens to tear off the truck doors, masses of wild pink geraniums, waxy pink and spiky king protea, and other wild flowers in masses of red, pink, yellow, purple, silver and green cling to the ragged mountainside. The flowers attract insects, which bring the birds - colorful sunbirds, canaries and finches by the dozens. The thorny acacia lives in harsh contrast to the soft purple asters that mass along the roadside. 

The road is a one lane, washboard twisting challenge that climbs a grade of more than 20 degrees in some places - the car coming up hill has the right of way! There are no guard rails between you and the 1000' sheer drop offs which run along side the roadway! If the gale would stop it would be a great place for base jumping! As it is, the ostrich looks right at home here in this wind-blasted area! 

Ostriches

The ostrich is a prehistoric looking fellow - massive bulky body, strong but naked legs, and utterly fay Charles Nelson Riley wings that flap like a frantic hairdresser! Stupid, aggressive, curious and greedy  (strangely like some humans, eh?) - if seagulls say "mine, mine, mine! (see "Finding Nemo") the ostrich says "What?! What?! What?!" The valley between the southern coast of South Africa and the area known as wine country is filled with these birds and it's a local delicacy. 


The first farm we came across had us so excited that we jumped out to photograph the 3 birds we saw in the distance. Turns out that there were HUNDREDS, and as soon as Steve started to photograph, they ALL had to come see what was going on! Hundreds of periscope heads squinting suspiciously to see what the other birds were looking at! Suddenly cows seem exotic!

 here they come!!

The bird party!

 Don't they live in a lovely valley?

The Garden Route

The waves along the southern coast of South Africa break at the foot of lush mountains. It rained hard all the last night and most of the day! Great day for sipping beer and eating oysters!So we headed for Knysna and tucked ourselves in!

Can't beat a place with a giant bottle of tobasco on the roof!! Later than evening we found a treehouse campgrounds with platforms in the trees where you pitch your tent. Our neighbors were vervet monkeys and hydida ibis.

Today we blasted through the Schwarzberg Pass - the breathtaking route between the Garden Route and the Wine Route. Craggy, wild mountains scattered with ostrich farms, birds and wild flowers of all kinds. 

 

The green lichen-covered sheer red rocks tower straight up from sea level to about 6000 feet. Along the way are lovely wild lupines, geraniums, proteas and lots of things i can't name!

So, we're off to a supper of ostrich, kudu and local shiraz! Peace, out! J