September 20, 2025

September 20, 2025

The Portuguese sailed past Cape Town and South Africa on the Spice Trade mostly without stopping. 150 years later when the Dutch muscled into the lucrative business, they set up a reprovisioning station here. Some Dutch farmers moved here to grow food for the passing ships. Soon so many ships stopped here for supply that Cape Town earned the nickname Tavern of the Seas. Even the British explorer Captain James Cook was forced to stop here several times on his round-the-world voyages.

After breakfast, we set out east to explore the valleys where these farmers (Boers in Dutch) grew the food. On the way we passed the Afrikaans Language Monument. It was sticking out above the trees just off the highway. The Dutch, the imported Malay slaves, and the natives needed to communicate. A simplified Dutch creole language with many adopted words was born called Afrikaans. It is still spoken by many South Africans.

Our first stop is at Fairview Winery outside the town of Paarl. Many of the farms have been converted into more lucrative vineyards. We are signed up for a tasting. It consisted of three white and three reds along with samples of cheese and ginger. Aimee and I are both surprised that we like the South African specialty Sauvignon Blanc better than our standard Chardonnay. I am finding it a little early in the day though to drink my six wine samples plus donations from a non-drinking participant.

Back on the road we come across a Troop of Baboons grazing on grass alongside the roadway. In particular we watch a mother with a baby clinging to her underside. Baboons are essentially monkeys that live mostly on the ground instead of swinging through trees.

Our next stop is the town of Franschhoek. This is Dutch for French Corner. When Protestantism was outlawed in France, many Huguenots emigrated elsewhere. Besides Canada and America, a group came here because they shared the same religion as the Dutch. We walked past a monument to these early Cape Colony French settlers.

We quickly found a local restaurant and ordered three appetizers for lunch. One was Swahili Samosas, but the overwhelming favorite surprisingly was some of the best Guacamole we have ever had. Who knew it would be on the other side of the world from Mexico.

The girls couldn’t pass up the Saturday Market in the park. Aimee quickly found some African fabric she had to add to her collection. I relented so she would continue to follow me around the world.

Our next stop is the Boschendal Winery, started by one of the early French Huguenot immigrants. We have our tasting outside on a picnic table under an enormous and ancient Oak Tree. The weather is delightful compared to Tucson right now. We tasted four more wines. One is a Pinotage, a red wine developed for the South African climate by crossing Pinot Noir with the Hermitage grape.

Aimee and I are not that much into wine tasting, but we definitely liked the scenery. These farming valleys are lined by the tall sheer-cliffed Great Drakenstein Mountains. It is beautiful. No wonder so many Dutch and French farmers chose to emigrate here.

Our last stop was in the quaint town of Stellenbosch (Stel’s woods). It is named after the first governor of the Cape Colony, Simon van der Stel. We stroll the streets shopping. Aimee buys some wooden salad servers with giraffe decorations. I buy an ice cream cone. We watch a bunch of well-dressed Stellenbosch University students posing in front of the local church.

Back at our hotel in Cape Town we eat dinner again in the hotel restaurant.