Road Trip!: Mossel Bay to Cape Town: Day 2

Strap yourselves in ... this is the world's longest blog post (and one the most amazing, beautiful, delicious days I can recall in a long, long time ...)

Yesterday I left off with Montagu.  I forgot to mention that we had dinner there in a lovely little pub, but it was so dark all the pictures turned out terrible.

So, the plan for our second day was no plan.  All we had in mind was to find some wineries and find somewhere nice to sleep for the night.

But first breakfast at our self-catered B&B.  We had picked up sourdough bread, rolls, avocados, butter and jam before we left Mossel Bay.  So we fueled up and I made Avocado Sandwiches for the road ...

We woke up to mist in Montagu's vineyards:

 

And look, they have their own little rock-boulder version of the Hollywood sign:

Then we went to the Montagu museum, which reminded me so forcibly of another tiny-town museum (this one in Springfield, Minnesota -- any Laura Ingalls Wilder fans out there?) that I felt quite at home amid the weird animal carcasses, gramophones, old china, antique wedding dresses and freaky old medical implements.  I love these kind of places.  Also, they had a display about -- and sold -- traditional South African remedies.

 Excema?  Epilepsy?  There's a cure here for you.

I particularly loved this San necklace, made of fish vertabrae and seeds -- it looks EXACTLY like Salvadoran necklaces you can still buy to this day on the beach made by local kids ...

Then we said goodbye to Montagu and we were off for a day of wine tasting!  

 

Oh, and at this point I think it's important to say that Aaron and I are complete idiots when it comes to wine.  We have no idea about anything except what we like -- which for me tends to be crisp whites and for Aaron tends to be bold reds.

Our first stop was the Robertson Winery ... and EH ...

  

The wine was good (we bought a bottle) but it was HUGE, industrial feeling and the staff seemed totally distracted (despite the fact that it was the off-season.)  Though they did help us when we said we were interested in going to smaller wineries.  They gave us a map, circled a few recommendations and we were off again.

Now, when I say map ... well, let's just say that between the vague tourist map and South Africa's capricious signage habits ... we got lost ... very lost ... for like an hour.  And it was glorious!

We ended up on a bunch of dirt roads that invariably ended in signs like these:

 

This might be my favorite picture I've taken so far in South Africa, largely because it was taken as Aaron was taking off (way too fast, by the way) down a dirt road ... it's just such a perfect little moment ... and I'd love to hang out at this little house sipping wine all day long ...

Well, eventually, finally, we found what we were looking for:  Fraai Uitzicht:

A small winery, B&B and restaurant (though sadly it was closed for the off-season).  They only produce one wine, an unbelievable Merlot (and only 6,000 liters a year.)

We did the tasting, got some wine and then went walking around ... The whole time we were thinking, we have to come back here and stay!  Thatched roofs, amazing little bungalows, a pond, a swimming pool, sculptures, the views ... I'll shut up now so you can just enjoy how stunningly beautiful this place is:

After that we went down the road to the Kranskop winery:

Another beautiful place, a slightly larger operation with more selections, a couple of which we really liked and bought (we especially liked their Shiraz.)

We got a quick tour of their cellars and then the proprietor told us to go ahead and take a walk around the vineyards.

 She sent us off with these 2 as our guides:

I forget their names (they were in the indeciphrable-to-me vein of Afrikaans) but man were they cute.  Well, the little guy was cute.  The other dude was a frigging horse -- but so sweet!

 

 

Then off we went again ...

I love this picture -- taken from the car, and all the angles are wrong and it makes me dizzy and it makes me laugh!

 The drive was, again, beyond beautiful:

We decided to spend the night in Franschhoek, which means "French corner" in Afrikaans, and has been a French enclave since the time when Huguenot refugees came to South Africa looking for religious freedom.   For sure, this place was kinda chi-chi and foo-foo and more touristy than Montagu (hey, that rhymed!), but it really was gorgeous!

 

 Hilarious name for a store!

It's also known a gastronomic hot spot, and there were a ton of restaurants to choose from.  Aaron and I aren't really down with the uber fancy or the trendy or hipster type restaurants, so we ended up choosing Kalfi's -- and were completely blissed out.  They do typical South African food, and they don't mess with it (making it tall, or swirling a bunch of crap everywhere), they just make it really, really good!

As we waited for our food, we admired their decor:  fun, warm, but still with a bit of polish and unique touches.  I really dug their silver spiral staircase:

 Aaron started with the most delicious split pea and ham soup either one of us have ever tasted (even though I was only going to have a taste, I ended up having half of it.)  It had this mysterious background taste that neither of us could identify.  It was clear, sharp, but not acidic, not lemony ... so good!

 

Then he had a seafood curry and I had a homemade pasta with mushrooms, other veggies and local olives (they sold jars of the olives and I bought some they were so good.)

 

Sometime around 11, we staggered back to our little B&B and collapsed into bed ...