We were packed and ready to depart Cape Town by 8.30. Our leader Mike confessed he had never driven the bus before but we headed out of Cape Town north to the Stellenbosch region without incident. The huge townships of corrugated iron shacks were a bit of an eye opener, even though there seems to be lots of building of social housing going on, more and more people are arriving in Cape Town so they are losing a fighting battle.

We arrived at the Stellenbosch wine growing region and parked up and got ready for our biking in the Jonkershoek Reserve, an area of off road biking trails amongst some stunning hills. The weather was cloudy, windy and a bit on the cool side but probably ideal for biking. I was a bit wary about off road downhilling but my new bike with good suspension served me well and it was good fun for the "oldies". The bike centre were we had parked catered well for cyclists with excellent lunches and cakes, and by lunchtime the sun had appeared to make a excellent lazy two hour lunch break in a lovely garden.

The next activity was wine tasting, which was very close by. The vineyard was beautifully set amongst rolling hills with an island on the lake where we sat and sampled our wines in the sun. The wines were OK but not great enough to want us to purchase, (Aldi's best South African is probably just as good) but the setting was beautiful and we enjoyed a restful afternoon.

Our accommodation for tonight was a lodge on a vineyard, which was in the middle of nowhere and a bit of a contrast from the previous night. The Le Goods as always were the only brave ones to try out the swimming pool. It wasn't exactly warm and the strong wind chill factor meant that it was a quick retreat into a hot shower once out of the water, but a swim whilst watching the evening sun on the mountains was a memorable one.

Dinner was at a restaurant in Stellenbosch where we enjoyed another excellent meal with good company.