Stumble Inn Backpackers Lodge Stellenbosch

Yesterday we spent the day on a wine tour in Stellenbosch. Stellenbosch is near Cape Town and is said to have over 160 wineries. We decided to join a tour leaving our hostel - which was a brilliant idea so we could enjoy without having to worry about driving. The tour included 4 wineries in Stellenbosch, Paarl, and Franschoek with 5-6 tastings per winery. Because it was our guide's last day he even added a fifth winery. Our group had a total of nine people - a mother/daughter from North Carol...

We didn't arrive into to Stellenbosch till late on Sunday night. We were a bit hungry so after dropping our bags in the hostel we went for a stroll around the small town to find something to eat. We walked around for a while and found a takeaway pizza place.

Next morning we were up early and good to go for our wine tour. Stellenbosch is in the heart of the wine region here in South Africa and its a very popular place to stay while going to visit the surround wineries. Our original pla...

8th - Crossed the Namibian border at Noordoewer and entered South Africa at Vioolsdrif. We drove down till Springbok and stopped here for lunch. Driving through Bitterfontein and we are staying at Gekko Backpackers around 21km north of Citrusdal. This place is really good to stay, friendly staff and ample room....unless there are more than 1 overland truck here. Of course we ended up bogging the truck in the orchard attached to the backpackers whilst reversing downhill, and it took 3 of their...

With our new camera (a slightly upgraded version of our original camera) we set off to drive from Plett to Stellenbosch. We passed through Knysner and George before stopping for lunch by the sea in Mossel Bay. Jono was hoping to see some Great White sharks and apparently this is the best area to see them, but not today! The N2 freeway then took us away from the coastline and inland back up into the mountains that have been fairly constantly on our right side (when we haven't actually been in ...

Had an excellent day on the Wine Tour. We went to 4 different Vineyards...I can remember the name of the first one! Most of the wines were really great. There is a website SAwinesonline.co.uk that I will be visiting to order my favourites. We visited two vineyards in the morning and then stopped off for a chilled out lunch. They had bags of water hanging up as we were in a pagoda area. Apparently it repels the flies as they don't like the reflection of the water! There's an exhibition on in S...

Lots of fun for a wine tour week-end. Not so bad the South African wines... let's not forget this is all thanks to the French huguenots who emigrated to South Africa at the end of the 17th Century... :) Comme dit Caro, un week-end de filles bien attaquées... Pas trop mauvais le vin Sud Africain. N'oublions pas que c'est grace au protestants francais qui ont émigré en Afrique du Sud. à la fin du 17e.. :)

How hard is it to believe we have already been away from home for a month? ...I simply must write more. Much has happened since our last entry, but we have managed to put a sort of slow-motion feel into our stay in Cape Town. Though the days fly by I have a lovely feeling of saturation, just soaking up every little thing. I am in love with this place... Last week we started making serious use of the public transport and have now become comfortable with using both the trains (there is a statio...

We left Cape Town for a day to visit Stellenbosch, the heart of South Africa's wine region. We spent two days touring the area including a trip to Franschhoek for lunch and wine tastings. We stayed at the "Stumble-Inn" in Stellenbosch and had a wonderful Cape-Malay lunch before our trip home.

I like wine. I'm by no means an expert, but I do like it. I like the way it tastes and the way that it makes me happy. I don't like it's side effects, but you can't win them all. But it was with a jump in my step and a sparkle in my eye that we headed to the wine region for which South Africa is famous. Ground zero for this center of happiness is Stellenbosch, a absolutely beautiful town about 45 minutes from Cape Town. It has, in it's general vicinity, about a million quaint and wonderful wi...