Sundays

Sorry to worry everyone for the delay in posting. Work has been quite busy the past few weeks as I'm working to get everything ready for the upcoming conference in April. Well, this week will have better and more frequent updates!

So the past two Sundays have been busy days for me. The Sunday before last (March 6) I went wine tasting with a few friends I've made here. We went to Uva Mira which is one of the highest elevation vineyards in the Stellenbosch area and sits on the slope of Helderburg mountain.

Here are the main vines at Uva Mira. The beautiful house on the hill is not a part of the winery, but it is still gorgeous. You can also see Helderburg behind it.

Wine tasting is a pretty good deal, as we got to taste 7 different wines (4 whites and 3 reds) for R40, or about $5.60 CAD. And these wines are fantastic! Uva Mira has an award winning Chardonnay which is amazing. I usually prefer red wine to white, but the whites here are very nice. Also, one of my friends is doing her MSc in Viticulture and Enology which is the study of vine growing and wine production, so she is an expert when it comes to wines. I'm learning from her all about the different wine making processes and flavors which is really cool. So it was a very nice, relaxing Sunday afternoon.

Here are the casks at Uva Mira. Apparently different wood gives different flavours to wine (for those, who like me, know very little about the process).

This past Sunday was the Cape Argus which is a giant bike race around the Cape of Good Hope which ends in Cape Town. It's a 109 km race and over 45,000 people participated this year. My friend's brother and his brother's girlfriend were biking and so we got up early Saturday morning to go and watch, hoping for a chance to cheer them on.

We picked a spot about 40 minutes from the end of the race along the pass. From this view, you can see False Bay but when I turn around I can see the Atlantic. A very beautiful spot. The Argus is staggered so the elite cyclists (whose past times were fast enough to qualify them for this tier) start first in the morning and then the start times after that vary with the latest start times starting around noon. Another neat thing about the Argus is that you see people of all different fitness levels biking and everyone has a really positive attitude. I even saw one guy biking in the famous Borat mankini. I really hope he remembered his sunscreen!

Turning around, the Atlantic is ahead and the tired cyclists have reached the top of the hill to head back down towards Cape Town. Unfortunately my friend's started later in the day so we didn't get a chance to see them but I cheered on lots of other people, including some Canadians in Canada jerseys! The route for the race is supposed to be really beautiful. I think someday I might have to come back and race it!

After the Argus, we went to Century City Canal Walk which is this giant shopping mall just outside Cape Town. It's themed to look like Venice and was very cool, much like the V&A Waterfront. After lunch, I did some quick shopping for things I can't get in Stellenbosch. The mall is really beautiful though.

There are even canal's and boat tours that run through the canal's surrounding the mall. It was a nice stop and a good chance to have lunch.

I think later this week I'll be posting pictures of my second plantation visit to Grabouw which was on Wednesday. Sorry again for the delay!

West Coast National Park

Whew! Busy week so far but an update from the weekend. It was a busy weekend with two braais, but the highlight was Sunday when I went with a few friends who are also international students/visitors to West Coast National Park.

The park is about 2 hours north of Cape Town (about 2.5 hours from Stellenbosch) and on the west coast (which here means the Atlantic Ocean, not the Pacific as I always think!). We got up early and drove to the park, arriving around 9 am. The park surrounds a lagoon and has wetlands, sand dunes as well as the general fynbos vegetation. Apparently the wetlands and shorelines are a big draw for lots of different bird species and many migratory birds from Europe will stop here for the winter.

After a quick cappuccino break, we went and checked out the wetlands. There are bird hides set up all around the lagoon. These are essentially huts with slits to allow bird viewing without disturbing the birds. We didn't see much, but I did get to see flamingos in the wild which was pretty cool.

Then we decided to go on a hike out to the sand dunes. On the way we walked through the fynbos and saw lots of wild ostriches and Bonteboks, which are a type of antelope with a striking white blaze on their face.

It was really cool to be out in the wild with ostriches running around. They're hilarious to watch run too because they extend their necks out front and push with their legs. They're also huge, their feathers are above my head and the neck much higher.I've been told that ostriches are very common, but being Canadian and not used to seeing ostriches running around, it was very cool for me.

And here are the sand dunes. I've never been anywhere that was so sandy and desert-like before. The sand felt like sugar it was so smooth! It was also amazing because there were no other people nearby so we made footprints in the sand. We also slid down the dunes which was a lot of fun too. The one downside was we decided to hike right around lunch time so it was quite hot, but we brought lots of water and sunscreen so it was alright.

After the dunes we had lunch at the park's only restaurant, Geelbek, which is held on the patio of an old, Cape-Dutch style farmhouse. The food was really good authentic Cape Malay style and it has a very relaxing environment.

Here is the Langebaan lagoon. We went swimming after lunch here at the beach. The water is very warm and the beach is so sandy with almost no rocks at all. The Atlantic tends to be too chilly to really swim for a long time, but the lagoon was heaven

On the drive back out of the park, we saw more Bontebok. Their horns are really beautiful and curved and the white blaze is very striking.

Once we left the park, we went to the actual town of Langebaan and watched the sun set. The beach at Langebaan is also very nice but unlike West Coast National Park, there are many more people. We had dinner here and then drove back to Stellenbosch.

It was really a fabulous day and I have to say, if you are ever in South Africa, I highly recommend West Coast National Park because it's stunning and the crazy part is there are very few other people. Also, you can walk around the park which isn't really possible at many of the other parks because of lions, leopards and etc. so I really had a chance to feel close to the animals. Definitely worth it!