The Garden Route, South Africa - February 23, 2014

Destination: Stellenbosch, the place to be for South African stellar wines.

We found our way to the N1, the northwesterly route from Cape Town to wine country. We went south on route R44 into rolling hills lined with contrasting colors and shades of green and brown as rows of vines went crosswise across the land.

There were big round hills with deep green fields crossed with mild yellow-colored rows circumventing shades of green and earthy brown. This is a beautiful place, perhaps one of the most beautiful we have ever seen! We stopped at the Morgenhof Winery to sample. The oldest building on the property dates back to the 1600's but the newest was built in 1990. The property has a personality of old farm elegance. It is a spacious collection of whitewashed buildings set among planned and dutifully laid out gardens on a hilltop specifically selected to provide a wonderful and heavenly view. The owner of the winery is French. She insists that her wines be cured only in French Oak casks. No American Oak for her wines. The five wines we sampled were very nice. We especially liked was the Estate Reserve Blended Red Wine.

We varied our route a bit to the M12 and stopped at the next winery for lunch and how lucky we were to find the Asara Winery. We were shown a table in the open-air restaurant set atop a hillside overlooking more fields of green and yellow with mountains in the backdrop. We had salads and sandwiches and relaxed and enjoyed the rare moment. The view was so very, very beautiful. It makes me wonder why we all don't live in a place like this.

Get this . . . we arrived back in Cape Town in time to take the exit to the Kirstenbosch National Botanical Gardens to try to attend the Summer Sunset Concert in the park that we had heard about. We found a place to park our car along one of the streets and began walking with others in the crowd to the lawn in the famous park. How similar this was to times we attended concerts in Chastain Park in Atlanta, parking in the Chastain neighborhood and walking to the venue. The evening was nice, the Cape Town Philharmonic Orchestra was performing and many, many people were attending. We had no tickets. The ticket counter had no more; they were sold out. The person at the ticket counter pointed us to a lady in jeans who had two extra tickets for sale. By the time we found her, she only had one ticket but she gave it to us. I began holding up one finger, appealing to any seller who might have one additional ticket for sale. Stan heard about a fellow who had tickets for sale near the gate and away he went. Long story, much shorter version, we finally got two tickets. The lawn and the atmosphere was so very, very pleasant, with green grass to sit on, good dry, breezy air and clear sky to enjoy. There were throngs of people, old folks, young moms and dads with toddlers, middle age folks, and young cool twenty- and thirty-something people. They all were in the garden to enjoy the evening and incredible music. I was envious that many could recognize the piece of music by Rossini, Chopin, or others by ear. Some of the music, such as the Barber of Seville was familiar; most, however, was not but we loved the concert just the same. The night was purely magical.

We thought our evening was done. Late in the evening, we noticed that the sky was particularly clear and since we still had the car, we decided to look for a spot not polluted with light to find those stars I have been hoping to see. We drove out along the coast to a viewing pull-out aside the road. We peeked through the window of the car and yes, there were stars, a complete river of them along with all the big bright ones too. We looked forward to trying to identify constellations. Along the drive we had noticed that it had become quite windy but when we opened the doors to the car we were nearly swept away with gale-force winds!!! The winds whipped our clothes and even blew my new animal-print headband completely off my head and away into the dark!! We could hardly stand!!! As much as I wanted to sit below the stars, we had to give up. I had to accept that my wish as wished was granted. I asked to see stars in the African sky. That I did but from the seat of our car.

Tomorrow we prepare to go home. I'm really inclined to post a sad face. Our flight to Amsterdam leaves Cape Town at 12:25 AM on 2/26. That is bad. But we plan to make the most of our long 2/25 day before time to go to the airport. We calculate a total of about 30 hours before we arrive home. Sad, sad face indeed.