Position: 33°19’34.1″S 25°32’41.2″E

Between muggings, flat tyres, wine tasting, and elephants it’s been a heckuva week. Telling the entire story would take days, so instead here are a few highlights.

Stellenbosch

By the time we paid our gas pump attendant to change our flat tyre, drove out to the airport, swapped cars and were back on the road, we only had time for one winery visit. Boohoo! Poor us. We chose wisely. Jordan – no relation to the Jordan winery in Sonoma County California – makes an excellent chardonnay and a finely blended red. Given the hour, we sat down for a tray of cheeses and meats and enjoyed a taste of four wines each. With our limited budget, we might have bought a couple of cases – so ferocious is the competition in the area. But we settled on a Nine Yards Chardonnay 2022 and a Cobblers Hill 2021. The Cobblers, we were promised by our young and very handsome guide, would lay down and continue improving for the next five years. Both bottles were gone by the end of the week.

Having booked a room at the Remhoogte Wine Estate, we had every intention of sampling their wares, too. The tasting room had closed by the time we arrived. Boohoo! Three dogs greeted us for an evening amble through the vineyards and raised our spirits. Nothing like a bit of doggo energy as compensation for almost anything.

Franschhoek

Franschhoek is where those in the know go to taste wine. Everyone else goes to Stellenbosch, which, truth be told, also has amazing wines. What Stellenbosch lacks is the cozy ‘Napa Valley Vibe’ of Franschhoek. Probably something to do with the Huguenot’s influence on the town.

Carol had packed the day with activities. The first involved semi-real exercise in the form of an e-bike. Neither of us had ridden an e-bike and being a cyclist I was sceptical. Gary, the owner of Franschhoek Cycles, warned us that renting a bike could be expensive. Because after you try it, he said, you’ll want to buy one.

On the plus side, you can do as much work as you like. Given the bike weighs close to fifty pounds, my self-powered enthusiasm wore thin after the first 10 miles or so. Cycling around the nearby reservoir I relented and turned on full e-assist up the steep, muddy trails. Coasting back down recharged the battery and the game was on. The challenge now was to return the bike to the shop fully charged without breaking a sweat. It can be done! And if you find yourself in the area, the Glenwood Winery has a nice sushi plate and, despite its tagline, a very tasty Sauvignon Blanc.

This one goes to 11

Next up was checking into our bed and breakfast, the comfortable Plumwood Inn. Almost as soon as we dropped our bags we hopped in the shower in anticipation of a 90-minute couple’s massage. That (very competently) done, we had just enough time to relax for a few minutes before dinner for two at seven-thirty at Eleven.

If I am ever convicted of a heinous crime, I want to come back to Eleven for my last meal. They served up one of the best meals we’d had in absolutely ages. It was delicious, creative, and beautifully presented and served. When the bill came, I almost called the manager over to suggest a different marketing strategy. Instead of competing on quality and price with his peers in town, cater to American customers who would happily pay 5X their prices for such impressive cuisine. I didn’t. Now you know. Go. Enjoy. See Eleven’s gallery of goodies here.

Much Addo About Elephants

Named for the temperate climate and variety of vegetation it passes through, the Garden Route stretches for 360 kilometres across the southern tip of Africa. Dozens of lodges and chalets dot the route. We skipped all of them in order to reach the Addo Elephant National Park as quickly as we could. Established in 1931 for the last 11 elephants in the area, the park is now home to over 600 elephants. Zebras, warthogs, lions, leopards, eland, meerkats, mongooses, hartebeests, and dung beetles also call the park home.

The day was unusually hot. Perhaps that’s why the herd gathered around the big, muddy watering hole for a wallow. Warthogs showed none of the zebra’s circumspection. Darting in and out of the legs of the elephants, they took full advantage of the gooey mud. The zebras, meanwhile, stood off to the side like wallflowers at a high school dance. Parked between the two herds, we enjoyed a moment or two of stress as the elephants crossed directly in front of the car, coming close enough for us to touch them.

Our park map included a full page of critter photos with scores for rarity. Lions were worth 8 points. We saw zero lions, but we did see meerkats (6 points), elephants (4), Red Hartebeest (2), and a rare-as-a-leopard Secretary Bird (10). Even from a distance, the Secretary Bird looks like a gigantic eagle. It strutted through the brush a hillock away, pausing now and then to stretch its wings wide.

Here are a few photos and a video from our day with the elephants. BTW – that slow motion effect you’re seeing is elephant life in real time:



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