The Dorpshuis Country House Hotel Stellenbosch

... by many wineries. We thought this would be a perfect way to spend 2 days before our tour officially started in Cape Town. The drive out was pretty easy and 30 minutes later we decided to stop at a winery before checking into the hotel. Our first stop was Ken Forrester. We walked in and there were a few tables set up with glasses already on them. We decided to take the closest table to the door as we were enjoying ...

... of his beer. I told him he had to have beer with his lunch because wine just wouldn't go. Ha. By this point everyone was relaxed and enjoying the day, but at the same time the day seemed to be nearly over, which I guess it was. We stopped at Dieu Donne, where we met a pair of Alaskans, except that the man was actually from Mankato, Minnesota. Jeezy peets. When the world gets small it gets really, really small. (For those not in the ...

... ignored by the beautiful girls on the campus. Ah, the memories! I also put my dirty clothes to soak. Normally I wouldn't wash them in a place where I have only one more night to stay as that usually wouldn't give them enough time to dry. But this time I have a secret weapon: The heater in my room! It works well enough that I'm sure I'll have my clothes dried up in no time - in spite of the cold weather. Sometimes I'm too smart for my own good. Ha! In the late ...

... the only one in South Africa allowed to teach courses in both English and Africaans. Apparently after the apartheid, the government required all universities to teach in English as a way of setting apart this "new era" of the government (they associate Africaans with the old government). To me, I think that's terrible. South Africa has 11 official languages, so obviously not everyone going to know English. It just creates ...

... into SA and we spent another night in Nelspruit, the Capital of the beautiful region Mpumalanga (place where the sun rises). We spent the afternoon there shopping and went to a pretty botanical garden for a long walk. The next morning we were picked up by a transfer-car/taxi which took us 2 and a half hours further north for our three night safari. I CANNOT explain or describe just how wonderful it was! Being a private one, everything was just to the ...

... Franschoek enjoying lots of hot sunshine and milkshakes by the high street. A drive later through the wine region and beautiful hills and fields after fields of vines will hopefully take us back home later. We can't seem to get the camera to commincate with this computer so we'll try and upload photos later. Hope all are well. Love Claire and Chris x

... lift them out of the cycle they are stuck in. Sarah has Jaydene who is a little 3rd grader... smartest little girl, she won an award for a poem she wrote we have it on video it's so cute. Anyways Sarah looks after her while I try to give my man Rowanne the positive attention he needs. He is a little pistol as my dad would say... (I think in the states 90% of these kids would be on riddilin). Rowanne the little punk wants to be the gangster that he is... always on the spot with a wise ...

... few days of walking around to get my feet on the ground, a few lunches with Mary, and it was the first weekend. Mary, her boyfriend, her friend Noah (from Stanford as well, now studying journalism at USC), and I all went waterfall hunting along the eastern slopes of Table Mountain. The weather had been very wet for my first few days, besides a very clear Friday on which I climbed Lion's Head and determined that Cape Town is probably the most beautiful city in the world ...

... by them. However, there was a part of me that felt the experience was slightly voyeuristic and somewhat disrespectful to the people (driving around their homes, like we were going to a zoo or something). However, when I expressed my concerns to the tour guide (who himself lives in the township areas, and seemed to be very well know amongst the township people), he ensured us not to feel this way because they don't feel that way ...

... blacks and coloureds from whites) was in force. the people live in tin huts but are very positive thinking given the very poor conditions they live in. also went to robben island where mandela was kept imprisoned, went to the beautiful waterfront area with its nice restaurants, cafes and shopping areas. we hired ourselves a wee rust bucket and zoomed out to cape point(southernmost point of africa where the indian and atlantic oceans meet and the wind so strong ...