Le Quartier Francais Hotel Franschhoek

... you have the Moola Magic card. The tour consists of visiting 4 wine farms and having lunch and a full glass of wine in a lovely local restaurant / pub. The first farm also offered cheese tasting - Wine and cheese, my idea of heaven - Add a few women to it of course!!

I must be honest, the tour is excellent value for money - Each wine tasting would cost about 60 Rand, the cheese tasting was 12 Rand, the lunch with ...

... and is very similar to New Zealand in this area. I'm sure the next few days will offer sights you won't see anywhere down under however. More than the scenery so far what impressed me the most is the wonderfully natural happy nature of the people I've met here. They just seem to radiate happiness and love to have a joke. This started on the plane ride over and has been the case everywhere. Great stuff. Until then adios from this very tired but happy traveler. Ian

... friends) Stores close by 4 or 5... so if you don't buy your booze before then, you're screwed (and sober) Wine is cheap.... Cheaaaaaaap..... cheaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaap! (Ahl family, eat your heart out! ? ) For a decent bottle of wine it's between two to seven dollars. Over seven dollars and you can't get a really nice bottle of wine. NOTHING is free in South Africa (I'm having huuuuge withdrawals from coffee shops with FREE wireless... people ...

... of this cavalier stuff you see in films with people bouncing off the rockface very rapidly. No bouncing for me, I just fed a bit, put out my feet, fed a bit more, so I was almost lowering myself vertically down the mountain, although I was supposed to be at a 45 degree angle from the rockface I felt almost as though I was just standing in front of it in a vertical position, standing I found footholds. I even felt brave enough to stop and rest in my harness, with my feet perching ...

... find someone skillfully racking a glowing bed of coals in preparation for a quick braai even though the weather isn't good enough for an evening outdoors, thy can't help themselves here. On this evening however the weather was fine and everyone drifted out into the courtyard at the prospect of a free meal. You see this braai had been organized by our head students at Concordia and if you signed up for it the week before hand they ordered in a braai pack for you and you got a drink ...

... 19 out of 25 hand picked Huguenot estates into present day Boschendal, which had now been split into two, but still uses the name for trading. There are so many estates in this area, hundreds and hundreds, and it takes 5 years before the vines are established and a good few years before they produce good fruit and a reliable crop. They must then be ripped out after about 15, maybe 20 years. So it is very expensive and time consuming to make wine and yet there are so many ...

... when I was younger, there is no danger of me catching anything. Malishwa had no such health care, and TB is highly contagious and very easy to catch in the townships. TB is a killer, but the clinic does turn people around most of the time, but not always. Between new year and when we all arrived, 3 people had died in the clinic. At the end of the day, Vicky said she wanted Lauren and myself to start in Grabouw, with the other 2 girls (Sarah & ...

... short, we ended up back at the backpackers at 3am....bus was arriving at 7am to pick us up for Stellenbosch! so yes i've been surviving on 3 HOURS of sleep today..but it's been every bit worth it. We arrived at the Stumble Inn...obviously our room's aren't ready and we're met with horrid weather..raining all day, but it did clear up in the late afternoon. Temperatures not pleasant though! Rachit and myself decided against a film with the rest and instead got in touch with Nienke ...

... from quite a distance. Apparently they had a horrible fire this past December. The worst one in decades. The surrounding hillsides were all on fire, they could have lost the entire town. Speaking of fires we have been continually hearing about fires on Table Mountain in Capetown ...