Worcester Wine Route

Slanghoek Wines

Being a bit of a self-proclaimed wine con­nois­seur, I jumped at the chance to drive along the Worcester Wine Route with a friend. Situated in the beau­ti­ful Breede River Valley, the Worcester Wine Route pro­duces close to 25% of South Africa’s total volume of wine and spir­its, mak­ing it one of the most invalu­able wine mak­ing areas in the country.

The Worcester Wine Route stretches from the Worcester District, going as far as Wolseley, Slanghoek, Hex River Valley along to Villiersdorp in the south. Taking the scenic route, we savoured the spec­tac­u­lar val­leys and majestic mountains.

Be sure to visit the fol­low­ing wine estates on your travels Continued

In South Africa but got to do it in 9 days? Here are the 'must see' spots

Cape Town Aerial

You've hit the shores of our rugged, gor­geous, riddled with con­tra­dic­tions, big on diversity land, and have but 9 days in which to say you've done it all? A tall order at the best of times, but not impossible. South Africa is huge by anyone's stand­ards, with unfor­get­table scenery, and memory-making places to visit, whether it's moun­tains, beaches, deserts or cit­ies you're after.

You will already have heard of the 'big­gies', the 'must do's' when on our soil. And they've been selec­ted because they truly are incred­ible places to visit and sights to see. For those of you who haven't been here EVER, we've tried to squash as many of these into the 9 days as pos­sible (it isn't easy). Whilst you could safely spend a life­time on our shores, and not have to visit the same place twice, these guidelines on what to see when will safely give you a taste of South Africa, a cam­era full of pic­tures, and the urge to return ... Continued

Sipping organic wine at Waverley Hills

Waverley Hills

Lying at the foot of the Witzenberg Mountains on the R46 between Tulbagh and Ceres, Waverley Hills pro­duces organic wines that are def­in­itely worth sampling. The Du Toit fam­ily entered the rather tough organic mar­ket in 2000 when they planted 21 hec­tares of vine­yard, and we popped in to visit the estate recently.

Waverley Hills Estate lies on a nat­ural water­shed area — both the Breede and Berg River ori­gin­ated here before con­tinu­ing on to enter two com­pletely dif­fer­ent oceans — which more than accounts for the myriad wild flowers and the effort­less expanse of grasses at Waverley Hills. It was offi­cially spring Continued

Butterflies, anyone?

Butterfly World is a hive of activ­ity over week­ends, which is only to be expec­ted if you con­sider that it's vir­tu­ally designed with chil­dren in mind, or cer­tainly the young at heart.

Butterfly World

But the sur­prise came, des­pite our hav­ing read up on Butterfly World before head­ing out, when we entered the covered garden (after musc­ling our way through the gift shop filled to the brim with but­ter­fly mem­or­ab­ilia, sweets and such like) to dis­cover a trop­ical para­dise filled not only with but­ter­flies but a whole heap of other won­der­ful anim­als too — like mar­moset mon­keys, incred­ible iguanas, other liz­ards, huge spiders (good thing that they're in locked glass boxes), scor­pi­ons, snakes and a vari­ety of very vocal birds!

The 1 000 square metre green­house – the largest but­ter­fly park in South Africa — is a feast for sore eyes. In fact, the but­ter­flies play second fiddle to all the other activ­ity both at knee level (vari­ous fish ponds) and eye level (see pre­vi­ous para but add a won­der­ful selec­tion of foliage, exotic plants and con­veni­ently placed benches for tired moms) ... Continued

Franschhoek Sunset Drive

Winelands Drive

The fam­ous gour­met cap­ital of the Western Cape is the wine val­ley of Franschhoek. As a val­ley it is cradled between moun­tain ranges that dis­play a spec­tac­u­lar view over the lus­cious vine­yard region. Pack a pic­nic with your favour­ite bottle of wine and take a drive to watch the sun set over this beau­ti­ful val­ley. Its so romantic and beau­ti­ful, it makes a per­fect spot for pop­ping sig­ni­fic­ant questions!

As you drive into Franschhoek on the R45, the Main Road namely Huguenot Rd (named after the village's French set­tlers) leads you to a T-Junction at the the land­mark Hugenot Monument. At the T-Junction turn left onto Lambrecht Road (which is still clas­si­fied on a map as the R45) and scoop your way along the moun­tain road wind­ing up moun­tain curves singing 'We'll be com­ing round the moun­tain, when we come ...'. Continued

Franschhoek Photographs

Todays "photo of the day" is in fact 3 pho­to­graphs taken in Franschhoek in the Cape Winelands. The French corner of the Cape, Franshoek lies in one of the most beau­ti­ful wine val­leys in the world, just 45 minutes’ from Cape Town ... Continued

Inaugural Wines2Whales Mountain Bike Race in November

Every Cyclists Dream — This is a spec­tac­u­lar three day route to show­case the best of the Cape Winelands — The inaug­ural Wines2Whales moun­tain bike race will take place from 13 to 15 November this year (2009). Over the course of 3 days, teams con­sist­ing of two cyc­lists each will cross approx­im­ately 230 km of the most beau­ti­ful and unspoilt ter­rain in the Western Cape ... Continued

Heads we take the N1, Tails the N2

Franschhoek

One sunny morn­ing, two national high­ways that lead you to Franschhoek and three reas­ons to visit; in order of appear­ance scenery, wine and food. Be warned though what starts as a happy break­fast in a little town whose name trans­lates to “French Corner” will evolve into an even hap­pier lunch and a bor­der­line ecstatic din­ner. All accom­pan­ied by the con­tinu­ous reappear­ance of the very same three reas­ons you decided to visit; the view of the Gods, the juice of the Gods and the food... oh my God!

Franschhoek is known as the gour­met cap­ital of the Cape and even has its own three sources of nat­ural spring water that is bottled in the val­ley. It is not unusual when din­ing at any of Franschhoek’s world class res­taur­ants to see framed accol­ades and reviews tak­ing res­id­ence on the walls as a mark of inter­na­tional recog­ni­tion of cuisine excel­lence. Four courses in and phrases like ‘I couldn’t pos­sibly fit another bite in’ morph them­selves along­side a bottle of deli­cious local vin­tage into ‘well you only live once’. Savour local game dishes glazed with a French sig­na­ture from eight of South Africa’s Top 100 res­taur­ants (some loc­ated on wine farms and some on the Main Street). Continued

The French Charm of Franschhoek

Franschhoek

Meaning French Corner, Franschhoek, was first col­on­ized by the French Huguenots in 1692. One of the most fam­ous attrac­tions in the town remains the Huguenot Memorial, with its dis­tinct­ive three arches, rep­res­ent­ing the Holy Trinity and the woman, hold­ing a bible and broken chain, sym­bol­iz­ing these early set­tlers escape from reli­gious oppres­sion, which is loc­ated at the end of the main road. When enter­ing Franschhoek, one is imme­di­ately aware of an air of relax­a­tion and eleg­ance, and on any given day, the streets are lined with hol­i­day makers and leis­ure seekers.

A cul­tured and refined little town, the French influ­ence on the cul­ture and archi­tec­ture is vis­ible almost any­where, and many of the Franschhoek attrac­tions reflect this his­tory. The town hosts a large array of annual fest­ivals, ran­ging from the Bastille Festival, com­mem­or­at­ing the towns his­tory, to the Franschhoek lit­er­ary fest­ival, wine, cham­pagne and cheese fest­ivals to name a few, all dis­play­ing the same air of refine­ment that the town itself is renowned for. Continued

Spectacular Stellenbosch

Stellenbosch

Stellenbosch is one of those unique places in South Africa. Known for its wine pro­duc­tion, as well as for the Stellenbosch University, one of the premier ter­tiary edu­ca­tion insti­tu­tions in Cape Town, Stellenbosch is in a class of its own. Stellenbosch offers many attrac­tions for leis­ure seekers and tour­ists. The his­tor­ical town is also known as Eikestad, lit­er­ally trans­lated as Oak City, and for good reason. Many of the streets are lined with Oak trees planted by early set­tlers to the area, com­pli­ment­ing the numer­ous his­tor­ical build­ings dot­ted through­out the town centre.

The Jonkershoek val­ley offers many hik­ing trails and nature reserve areas to explore, as well as pic­nic spots, some of which allow that typ­ic­ally South African past time. Quite unique among animal view­ing exper­i­ences in the area are the cro­codile park, but­ter­fly world, and the gir­affe house. Continued

Featured Cape Wine Routes

Cape Wine Routes

Traditionally, when refer­ring to the Cape Winelands, one called to mind the cel­lars around Stellenbosch, Paarl, Wellington and Franschhoek. However, South African wine has under­gone a whole new momentum.

An emer­ging ethos has taken the local wine industry into the global arena. South African wine has come of age and is now com­pet­ing on the world wine stage. A whole new gen­er­a­tion of wine­makers has appeared and there has been a shift from grape farm­ing to wine growing.

The Cape wine­lands stretch from the coast to the plains of the Little Karoo, where grapes are also grown in the riv­er­ine val­leys. There are cur­rently some 560 winer­ies and 4 400 primary pro­du­cers of vine­yards in the Cape, divided by the Wine of Origin Scheme into 4 main regions namely the Breede River Valley, Little Karoo, Coastal and Olifants River. Continued

The Dreamcatcher in Tulbagh — a wonderful retreat from the city

Dreamcatcher

If you are look­ing for very private Bed & Breakfast or Self Catering accom­mod­a­tion in the Cape, about an hour and a half drive out of Cape Town, The Dreamcatcher is a won­der­ful retreat. You will enjoy an extremely tran­quil stay at this upmar­ket house, away from the hustle and bustle of the City.

Tulbagh lies about 140 kilo­metres north-east of Cape Town in the Breede River val­ley, sur­roun­ded by the pic­tur­esque Witsenberg moun­tain range. Dreamcatcher has 3 double bed­rooms and 3 bath­rooms (2 en-suite).

The bed­rooms are beau­ti­fully fur­nished and are all air-conditioned. The bath­rooms are spa­cious, mod­ern with all the best fit­tings — as good as (if not bet­ter) than any 4 star hotel I've ever stayed at. The finer touches such as the com­pli­ment­ary toi­letries and beau­ti­fully presen­ted tow­els, sea shell arrange­ments and candles do a lot to make you feel very pampered and wel­come in this beau­ti­ful house. Continued