I can't tell you how great it was to have an air conditioner that was quiet in our hotel room!! We didn't use it the night before, but tonight the wind was so great that our balcony door would shut, even with a huge weight in front of it. We had to shut the balcony doors because it made too much noise slamming in the wind. We held our breath as we turned on the AC = magic - it was just a whisper! Sounds like a weird thing to be excited about, but after 2 months of horrible noises when using the AC, a good nights sleep is very valuable :). We awoke at 7:15 am, as we had a busy day ahead of us. The rental car agent picked me up and drove me the 5 minutes to the office - where I picked up a car. The bad news was that the person that booked it for us (staff at our B&B) had "forgotten" to tell us about the fact that we couldn't drop the car off at the airport and they wanted to charge and extra $20 for a Sunday drop off. I worked it out so we didn't have to pay the fee, but we still have to come into the Cape town to meet someone early Sunday - oh well - it's only an hour roundtrip.
We ate breakfast, then packed the car. It was getting very hot already, about 90 degrees F. I turned the air on and didn't notice an AC symbol. Ouch - no AC and it was 90 at 10 am! We settled in for a hot one :) We took off towards Stellenbosch. Along the way, we stopped at Spier winery for a treat better than wine. On the premises, they have a Cheetah conservatory. For $27pp, you can pet a group of baby cheetahs (1 year old) for 10-15 minutes! We went into their cage, where there was three Cheetahs, including one King Cheetah (a different spot pattern designates the King Cheetah). They were beautiful - one was a bit restless and walked around for the last few minutes, while 2 were awake, but resting in the shade - they knew how to handle the heat :). 
We loved it so much, that we also paid $10pp to pet an adult Cheetah. While it's supposed to be for only 2-5 minutes, we ended up in there for 15 minutes, as I figured out if I just kept askings questions about the Cheetah, they just let you stay :0. It was great - and you didn't even have to sign a waiver :)
Cheetahs are very much in danger in Africa - with only 400 remaining in South Africa. Many have been illegally killed off by farmers as the Cheetahs feed on their livestock. The conservatory is trying to stop this by giving sheppard dogs to the farmers, which grow up with and protect the heard from the Cheetahs. Its a slow process to breed the dogs, so the success is limited. The cheetah is the fastest land animal - being able to accellerate from 0-60 mph in 3 seconds (as fast as the 1999 Porsche)!
After the Cheetahs, we took off to the Spier wine tasting room where we had 3 tastings and some cheese for a light snack. 2 of the wines, a Chardonnay and a desert Riesling were ok - I wasn't a big fan. But the 2005 Merlot was pretty good, so we picked one up for about $10 US. From there, we headed into Stellenbosch town to find lodging for the night (as we had heard it was the high season). We stopped at the information center, where they had a great amount of information on all the local lodging. They even made the calls for us. Call after call, everyone was solidly booked. The beautiful thing about the area is that there are a lot of B&Bs run by the wineries - so they have beautiful landscaping, a nice pool, nice rooms (from the pictures), etc. After about 45 minutes of calling around, we found one, the Groenvlei guest farm. It wasn't as nice (or expensive) as the others, but it was on a vineyard, and it was the only thing available, so we took it!
Once we had that squared away, we ran off for lunch at the Delheim winery. We were starving, as it was getting late - about 2:15pm, and the heat killing us. We were so dehydrated, so the meal at the winery was very satiating. After that, we moved into the tasting cellar. We had eaten lunch outside, so we were very happy to be in the chilled cellar. The wines here were excellent, we picked up 2 bottles - the 2005 Chardonnay ($10) and the 2002 Cabernet Limited Release ($14). The tasting was only the price of the glass $2.50 for 6 good portioned tastings!!! We were so relieved to have this Napa style tastings for less price and more wine (especially after the Chile fiasco). And if that wasn't enough, we were loving that the national language here is English - and everyone spoke it first! What a treat!
From here, we were off to Simonsig winery - once again - just $2.50 pp including the glass for 5 tastings. The Syrah and Tiara (a bordeaux of Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot with a small amount of Cabernet Franc and Pinot I believe) were our favorites here, and we splurged on an excellent 2002 Merindol Syrah bottle ($28).
It was 4:55pm, and our taste buds hadn't yet had their fill. We raced to the Hartenberg winery which closed at 5:15 pm. We got there at about 5:10pm, and it did appear closed. We walked into the empty tasting room, and we could tell they were packing up to go. However, the server said have a seat, and although she mentioned they closed at 5pm (and we told her the book said 5:15pm), she still gladly, although very rapidly :), served us. We tried a few of their old and new wines of the same variety, which was interesting to taste the difference over a few years of aging and harvests. We liked their 2003 Reserve Chardonnay, and bought one.
We checked into the Groenvlei guest farm ($75). The facilities were definitely not as nice as some of the others we had seen pics of, but by now, we were just happy to have somewhere to stay. Unfortunately, no AC in the room - but we'll survive :). We at least had the satisfaction of having a very nice bed to sleep in (#1 on our list of things needed for a good hotel stay :), We headed out to dinner, and after asking a local at a random downtown Stellenbosch bar where to eat, we followed his advice to Wijnhois in Stellenbosch. I had a steak that was incredible - for only $10, it was about 16 ounces - 2 huge cuts of meat without any fat insight with perfect seasonings! Jaimie had a tuna steak that was also large and very tasty. Glad we got lucky with a great recommendation.
We drove back to the hotel - and called it a night - we have another early wild encounter tomorrow morning :).
View Cape Town (1) Photo Gallery
View Cape Town (2) Photo Gallery
Day 59 - Cape Town < | Index | Photo Galleries | > Day 61 - The Cape and wrapping up SA
