Saturday 5th January - Wine Route

Left at 9.30 to visit the Woodstock Saturday market and the section Neighbourgoods Market selling fresh local produce, clothing and foods. It was very crowded and not Ed's sort of thing although the samosas stall was right up his street. We bought a picnic of ciabatta, amazing rocket & walnut pesto, ginger, halva and forest raw honeys (what is 'raw' honey?), cheese and a pot of basil.

We then drove up the N1 turning off at the R304 towards Stellenbosch. The views of the vineyards and mountains were stunning. Our first stop was Simonsig as we needed to replenish our supply of bubbly. Although we knew what we wanted, we decided to have a wine tasting, Mike was the designated driver, so Ed, Nic and I paid for the tasting. We were each allowed to taste 5 wines so we each chose a different 5 meaning we got to try 15! Bought our case of Kaapse Vonkel.

As we were walking back to the car, my sandal broke so I had to do the rest of the tour barefoot. This being SA, though, I did not get any funny looks walking into the posh tasting rooms with no shoes.

Mike decided our picnic could be eaten for supper as he wanted us to try the best burgers ever. We drove to Beyerskloof vineyard on the R304 and sat on the verandah of their Red Leaf restaurant. It was a baking hot day but they had cold mist sprays which kept the air cool. The views, as you can see from the photo, were stunning. We all had the pinotage soaked burgers. Mike was right, they are the best.

Two more vineyards were visited en route - Alto where we bought delicious red wines and Avontuur for an amazing 10 year old brandy.

The day ended perfectly with our picnic on the balcony - accompanied by wine, of course.