The Cape Winelands

Before starting our safari we decided to spend a few days in wine country. We stayed at Babylonstoren, which is a 500 acre working farm that is one of the Cape’s oldest, and it is beautiful.

All the food served in their restaurants is grown on the farm, and everything served is edible, even the flowers. Bob decided to give one a try and he claims it tastes like celery, and you chew and chew and can never swallow it. Their buffalo milk gelato was served with a fruit relish that included goose berries grown on the farm.

They give tours of their beautiful gardens which include many trees including olive, citrus, and guava, and more veggie varieties than I‘ve ever heard of. This is the head gardener, and he showed us how to make a whistle from a pumpkin leaf.

They raise tilapia and catfish in these tanks and serve the fish in their restaurants. The paths were weed free and paved with dried fruit pits. The trellises for the squash were beautiful, and who can resist seeing and smelling the lavender. At the end of one row they had an insect hotel, and the gardener was very proud to show us the many varieties of squash raised on the farm.

This was an area they called “Spekboom & Secret Spouts” where statues of frogs, toads, lizard, snakes, etc. spit water at you as you pass by!

The day we got there the only restaurant open was the Bakery Restaurant. We looked at the menu that was written on the wall and we all decided on pizza. No! When you order you get ALL the food from the menu: fruit, salad, pasta, pizza, and dessert. It was delicious, but it was far too much food for four people!!

Babylonstoren offers an olive oil and balsamic vinegar tour that was very enjoyable. We were able to blend our own olive oil after tasting the five varieties they press.

Our room here was just beautiful. There was a tray of fresh fruit in the room which included delicious wine grapes, a wood stove that we didn’t need, a refrig stocked with wine and juice from the farm, and this cute little monkey table outside.

Winery tours are always fun and this one, Kanonkop, did not disappoint. Their Pinotage was very nice!

We were lucky enough to be here during harvest and were invited to see the action.

After the wine tour we visited an auto museum which the guys enjoyed. The Franschhoek Motor Museum houses the collection of South African entrepreneur, businessman and conservationist Dr. Anton Rupert. Its four spacious display halls are air-conditioned and de-humidified to preserve the aging machinery and each hold 20 vehicles. The setting now includes a 2.5 kilometer road circuit to exercise the cars!

One more item of note before we move on. There was one of these hand sanitizer gizmos outside every building, and often there was a person posted beside it reminding us to sanitize. I’ve never seen one of these before and thought it was so clever and a great idea. When we got home I showed the picture to our 12 year old Katie, and she told me that they had one in school last year! 🤣

Next post: Our search for lions!