Devon Valley Hotel Stellenbosch

... name was 'Dieu Donna'. Rachel and I tasted one particular rose that we liked so much we bought a bottle of it. We then went on to our final winery of the day. Most of the wines were starting to taste the same at this stage and it was clear how most people were worse for wear as at least 2 wine glasses were smashed by our group during our last tasting. Boschendal was the name of the winery and it was apparently one of the ...

Stellenbosch is the second oldest European settlement in the Western Cape Province, after Cape Town. The town was founded in 1679 by the Governor of the Cape Colony, Simon van der Stel, who named it after himself - Stellenbosch means "(van der) Stel's forest". Maybe I need to name a town after myself someday! Stellenbosch, Paarl and Franschhoek valleys form the Cape Winelands, the largest of the two main wine ...

... Barely able to get through the first round with our heavy, road-trip lids closing we went back to the backpackers and ad sweet, sweet dreams. Now it must be said, Stumble Inn Backpackers Lodge in Stellenbosch is an incredibly warm, accommodating and clean place to stay. It also has a great staff and a very lively atmosphere conducive to pre-night and post-night chilling. If possible I would give it the highest of ranking and ...

... from my flat drove to Cape town and visited the SA museum where we saw a very good exhibition on cave art and early South african people. In the afternoon we took the cable car to the top of Table mountain and looked down on the city spread out bellow us. What an amazing view, also I wasn't expecting to have such a nice walk around the national park on top of table mountain and see so many beautiful plants and flowers. We went home tired but happy.

... off the mainland, so it didn't take too long to get there. When we got there, we had two tours. All of the guides are former political prisoners, which was really cool. The first tour was a bus tour around the island. Our guide was excellent! He went around the bus asking what countries people were fun, and then when he would talk about different points on the tour, he would tie in stories about the represented countries and how they helped support ...

... us men not to try and be mucho, we have nothing to prove, and you have all heard the rest. Franci and Chris felt that we needed to attempt the climb as this was part and parcel of us understanding our vehicles, and building our confidence. The main distraction to this climb, was the almost cliff-face like drop just at the base of the climb. If we lost control of the vehicle we would fall all the way down the mountain to the bottom. The risks were clear and scary ...

... unadventurous). Lets just say our lesson learned was don't make plans with friends of friend of friends and have a copy of you exit ticket on you when you land in South Africa.... We will explain why: so we didn't sleep on the plane... They had great movies and Sarah's new found game CHESS... jet lagged on a 7 hour flight and 5 hour time change, we walked into a customs ordeal due to our lack of sufficient proof of an exit ticket... but we made it through and our visa is till Jan ...

... at camp 7:30pm Dinner - sometimes inside by the fire if it was cold, other times outside by a huge fire and loads of candles. 10pm Bed...we couldn't stay up much later than this! We were the youngest folks at Nottens by about 20 yrs, but we expected that. And we met the nicest people from all over. There were two couples from Cape Town that were visiting the owners...they had a time-share condo on a golf course about an hours drive away. The golf ...

I woke up too early on Sunday morning. I had a township visit sponsored by SAS that I thought started at 8am, but actually didn't start until 9am. I went to breakfast with the girls at 7:15 and we talked about what we wanted to do that afternoon I got back from my tour. We all wanted to skydive, but you have to be twenty-one or have parental permission, which Becca and Matt didn't have. We'd decided to wait until Mauritius to see if there wasn't an age ...

... few days. Poor old thing is so deaf and blind. I had to keep turning her around to find such things as the door, food, and to stop bumping into the walls when she got disoriented. The night time was a bit interesting as she got up to wander at about 12, 2 and 4. I had set the alarm and had to turn it off so I could let her out. Then I had to go out and shine a flashlight to get her back again.