Day 2, 6 July 2012, Stellenbosch Winelands Tour - Today we were up bright & early at 6 am (hey hey - 2 pm on the Sydney body clocks!) Whilst we are most definitely the party-hard Hardies, we decided the room right next door to the Lodge Bar was perhaps not quite the best spot for our next 3 nights - so packed up and moved to a room next to the swimming pool (ah ha - I hear your say - surely that would be rowdy too! but no - surprise, surprise they do have Winter in South Africa and it is cold here - even by Sydney standards - about 10 Degrees Celsius and raining - no partying around the pool at all. Today's big adventure is a wine tour with Wine Flies (www.wineflies.co.za) - our most excellent guide was Lawrence - a certified tour guide with much more than a passing knowledge of wine and full of fascinating facts about the areas we went through on the way to the Stellenbosch and Paarl wine regions. We even passed Zebras in people's paddocks - keeping the giant Ostriches company (anyone under 75 kg can ride an Ostrich - counted out most of our bus!) We visited 5 different wine farms (unusual term to our ear... but wine is definitely what they are growing). Had a superb lunch and even tasted a maturing wine straight out of the barrel - the winemaker used a nifty tool called a wine thief - so much more dignified than lying on the ground with one's head under a tap. A highlight from a wine perspective was visiting Annandale Farm where the winemaker Hempies is a former Springbok - and tasting Chalbert (no... not "Chal-bear" all French like) - Actually Chalbert - for Charlene and Albert's wedding in Monaco! The weather lasted til the end of the day and then it poured - but by this point the seven of us (4 Australians, 2 Irish and 1 Scot) were pleasantly happy to one degree or another and returned to our various accommodations. The rest probably did grown up things like dinner, clubbing etc. We found that 6 pm felt more like 2 am and shut our eyes for a brief 8 hour nap. Which is why I am awake and blogging at 3 in the morning. Aiming to sit up til 8 pm tomorrow night - though after hiking and biking in and around the Cape of Good Hope - that could well be wishful dreaming - Bye for now... Vivienne & James "Not being Grownups" Hardie