Trip Report:
Two Weeks in South Africa, January 1999
Richard's Version



Day 6
Wednesday 1/13-
Had to get up early and catch the WAC bus to UCT for our day tour to the winelands. Our tour was half WAC folks, including Robert Hoover and his wife (very nice people, and he loved my symposium, even though we hadn't invited him), and half German women. Our bilingual tour guide was Britt (her father had fancied Britt Ekland. Our Britt wasn't fond of her 'unusual' name, but I pointed out that her father could have liked Tuesday Weld instead, and that would have been worse!).
Our first stop was in Somerset West at the Vergelegen vineyard, which has a beautiful old manor house (formerly the VOC governor's) and gardens, with 300 year old camphor trees. It also has a spanking new modern winery/cellar which we toured. We then had a nice wine tasting (including a 'picnic' wine- a cross between Thunderbird and Sutter Home white zinfandel, with a picture of a teetotalling former owner of the vineyard who had ripped out all of the vines a century ago). Our drinking buddies on this trip turned out to be John, a Norwegian linguist, and Kylie, and Aussie travelling with her aunt. Both were great fun. Camphor Tree
Vergelegen GardenVergelegen Manor House

The group was already getting noisy when we headed for Spier for lunch. No wine this time please! We all swapped stories while eating (a good fish, steenbrus?, for Alison, and mushroom pasta for me). Then into Stellenbosch, the second oldest (white) city in South Africa, for a quick look around. My lunch had been richer than I could handle, so I toured facilities while others walked around. The town is very pretty and deserves more than the 25 minutes we had (mostly looking at tiles for me), so we'll try and come back on our own.
L'Ormarins Winery
After a pretty and winding drive through the hills we came to the L'Ormarins winery for another tasting. Though the winery is highly rated, none of the wines I tried impressed me much, despite the slick tasting room. I guess I liked the pseudo-intellectual claptrap that went with the first tasting. We were all pretty woozy by the time we swung through Franschoek and the Huegenot memorial. Most people nodded off on the drive back to Cape Town. Alison and I barely had time for a quick shower before we had to run for the bus to the 'Intshona Koloni fun evening', the $30 event we had signed up for in advance, and now should have skipped.

The first tip off was the giant tent in the rugby field and the row of porta potties. Second was the 'welcome' drink at the door, which meant that our ~180 rands each (which would have bought us a gourmet dinner and wine) did not even cover soft drinks. When we entered we were assaulted by music that was so loud we couldn't talk (so much for a potential schmooze fest). There were buffets set up, but they didn't open for nearly an hour, letting the mediocre food congeal to cold gruel. We sat at a table with Claire and Alessandra (her Italian roommate) and tried to shout some small talk, to no avail. Alessandra was hating it too. By the time the cheerleader girls were dragging people up to dance, the enclosed lawn and cigarette smoke had Alison's allergies flaring, and the overly loud music had given me a headache. So, with Alessandra in tow we bailed. Luckily they had taxis waiting, so we got back to the hotel fast. Bedtime followed as soon as aspirin and sudafed were consumed.

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Last Updated 19 February, 1999
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