Franschhoek wine country

It’s time for the wine country of Franschhoek.

But first, it’s a bit of mayhem again getting off the ship as we are not at a proper passenger terminal.

From the top deck of the ship we can see all of the baggage lined up row by row on the pier. Luckily, it’s bright skies and no rain or else this would be a total disaster.

Thankfully, we get a porter that helps us bring our bags to the security gate past the bow of the ship as our transfer driver cannot drive in.

We wait in the shade of a building with many others like us trying to find our drivers in the traffic mess that’s occurring.

Driver found and bags loaded, we shoot away to our new destination—Franschhoek, Afrikaans for “French Corner”. Situated about 45 minutes from Cape Town, it’s an old town in the famous wine region of which Stellenbosch is also part of. There are so many French names here because of the Huguenots settlers (French Protestants).

As we arrive in the small quaint town, we see restaurants, shops and so many vineyards. Miles and miles of grape wines soaking in the hot mid-30s Celsius heat.

Just outside the town, we wind our way to Mont Rochelle , our home for the next 3 days. It’s a Richard Branson property and an amazing place to stay.

From the moment we arrive, we are separated from our bags (they will be taken care of) and shown to nice chairs with a spectacular view of the valley below. Mimosas are served while we fill out the check-in forms.

They even have a pomelo tree on the property!

Hubby has been battling a sore throat more than I since we were both sick on the ship and asks where we could find a doctor the next day.

Just like that, they arrange an appointment for him early morning before our wine tram experience.

As it nears lunchtime, we walk down the road in 37 Celsius to their lunchtime restaurant called The Country Kitchen. On the way, we see bright blue and purple plums growing not far from the grapevines. The plums belong to another farmer and have politely asked Mont Rochelle to tell their guests to stop plucking them!

We arrive at the restaurant and since our room included a wine tasting, we partake a sampling of six wines with a charcuterie board.

Next we board Mont Rochelle’s complimentary shuttle (this is a high-end Toyota minivan with reclining leather back seats) for a ride to town where we need to mail some cruise wear back home to free up some space in our luggage.

Six hundred dollars lighter in the pocket (will never do that again!), DHL will expedite our box of clothes home. Note: a week later we get a custom notice from DHL asking $215 for duties, taxes and admin fee. I fume and fire off an email to DHL saying I will self-clear with customs. This means that someone has to go to the destination customs office and clear the items. Since these were used clothing bought at home and returning home, there should have been no duties or taxes. Plus we are not paying DHL for doing this for us. Many thanks to our daughter who went to bat for us and got everything cleared for zero dollars.

Back to our trip. After DHL, we grab a wine or two at a local and then have the restaurant call our shuttle to pick us up. Aah, the life.

Waiting in our room is a bottle of red from La Rochelle, a sparkling wine and a large basket of fruits and nuts.

But we save these for later as tonight we are dining downstairs at Miko their restaurant.

The vista is incomparable. The mountains painted orange by the setting sun serve as a backdrop to the valley below.

It gets even better as the mouth watering food is brought out. Beef carpaccio to start, ash-cured venison loin steaks, salmon and of course more wine. Malva pudding is also on the menu so we need to compare it to the other one.

The next morning, we take the shuttle to the doctor’s office to get that sore throat looked after. Thirty minutes and forty-seven dollars for the visit and a bag of medication, hubby is out and we have peace of mind for our next African adventure that will start in a few days.

Across the street, (so convenient), we check-in for our Franschhoek wine tram tour. It’s a mixture of a train ride and a tram ride to various wineries in Franschhoek.

Our curated tour takes us to three wineries. First up is by tram to Lynx. Francis makes us try six different wines. It’s only about 10:30am and we are all wondering if we will make it to the rest of the day!

Our next stop is Rickety Bridge where we board our train this time. As we board we are handed a glass of wine for the short journey.
Again, we can see vineyards after vineyards on our way to our next stop.

At Rickety Bridge, we will taste more wine but also take our lunch there. It’s a three course meal and we are now not sure how we will cope with the last winery!