A walk in the Garden

Since the Prof was feeling a bit under the weather, we decided to spend the day (Nov. 8, 2008) at the Kirstenbosch Botanical Garden. We had been there once before when we hiked up Table Mountain via Skeleton Gorge (see blog entry Hiking Table Mountain 2: Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens, Skeleton Gorge, Maclear’s Beacon, and Table Mountain), but we did not get to spend very much time exploring the grounds. Now we had pretty much a whole afternoon to check it out.
Being a garden and all, I will let the pictures do the talking for this blog entry. Enjoy the show:




half rock half plant...it's alive!

No, those designs were not painted on.


Girl inside of the Eastern Cape plants display

"Pink! it's my favorite color"




Girl made a new friend at the park..no, they are not related.


Girl taking a quick break under a tree



This park is huge!

Wait, wait, this isn't Africa.


Traditional Cape hut

The bees decided that it was a good day too

Almost paradise



The guinee fowl were a little photo shy



Weird-ass tree

It's Guy's turn to take a break under a tree

We are in a Grimm's Brothers fairy tale




Nothing beats sun bathing



It split


And they said there's no cure for herpes....

Herpe cure?


One of these plants cure HIV, supposedly

This information would have been more helpful during the wine tasting last weekend





Guy with Table Mountain in the background
We ended the day at a pub for some snacks and suds.


You believe she drank the whole beer?

Watching the Sun Set on Lion's Head

Lion’s Head
Since I only have a few weeks left in Cape Town, Prof. is trying to fit in as many hikes as he can before I leave. Today, after Girl and the rest of the lab finished work at 5:30pm, we hiked up Lion’s Head. It is a prominent rock outcrop on a small hill near the base of Table Mountain.


Looking up at The Lion’s Head from the trail
It was an easy hike compared to the usual mountain adventures. It had a steady grade contour path that wrapped around the hill, as well as a few rock scrambles that were necessary to tackle in order to reach the top.


Where the graded path turns into a rocky trail

View of Camps Bay and the Atlantic coast

The Water Front

Hiking along under blue skies

Girl, Constance, and Paul taking a breather
Some of the rock scrambling required the use of strategically placed ladders and chain ropes to make it up portions of the outcrop. One particular chain rope section was difficult enough that one member of our party could not/would not attempt the climb up and opted to follow a contour path to the top.


Girl making her way up one of the small ladders

Scrambling up the rocks to get to the chain rope section

Final rock scrambling section and ladder ascent before the top
We made it to the top with just enough light to get some pics of Signal Hill, Devil’s Peak, and Table Mountain and to see the sun set over the Atlantic.


Top of Lion’s Head

Signal Hill

Devil’s Peak (left) and Table Mountain (right)

Girl and me at the top of Lion’s Head while the sun is setting

Sunset over the Atlantic Ocean

Girl striking her best Superman pose
Although we were able to see the sun set over the ocean, we still had to make our way back down the hill before it got completely dark. We hurriedly scurried down the rocks as the light faded away and made our way for the trail. Hiking down was somewhat of a challenge because the lack of light affected depth perception. Luckily we were able to get through the worst part of the descent while there was still just enough light to somewhat see. We hit the contour trail as the last rays of light faded away and made our way down the path in the dark.


Cape Town at night

When we reached the bottom of the hill we ran into two Canadian backpackers who had just came down from the top and were waiting to catch a taxi downtown. Someone had incorrectly told them that there were always taxis passing by and now they were left stranded. Lucky for them, Paul and Constance had room in their car (Bob) to give them a lift into town.

We ended our adventure at a restaurant on the Water Front with a cheese burger, coke, fries, and onion rings. Can’t wait for my DP when I get back to the States.

Red, Red, Wine

Today (Nov. 1, 2008) was spent with our mouths and noses buried in wine glasses tasting South African wines in the Franschhoek Valley. The area is called the Winelands and is located under an hour drive from Cape Town. Girl’s Prof. and his wife took us on our adventure where we sampled roughly 30 different types of wines and two brandies. Aside from the occasional glass of wine with dinner, I wouldn’t consider Girl and myself wine connoisseurs. So take our reviews with that in mind.

Our first stop was at the Backsberg winery.


Inside the Backsberg tasting area
With fifteen rand Girl and I were allowed to select five wines and one brandy to taste. Under the assumption that “you get what you pay for,” we decided to allow pricing to determine our selection of wine. We selected five of the more expensive items and waited for our glass to be poured. Unfortunately, this technique did not work out so well because we did not like any of our selections. Most had “a good nose” (i.e., smelled good), but their flavors were disappointing. They all tasted watered down and did not meet the flavorful expectations their aromas had prepared us for. One of the wines was particularly bad and smelled like “a fart in a bottle” (as Prof. put it) and tasted like it had a bit of epoxy resin mixed in.

Making our selections

Sampling the goods

Despite our negative experience with Backsberg wines, we did enjoy their brandy. We decided to taste the brandies that were aged for 5 and 10 years. I expected that there would be little to no difference in taste, but I was very wrong. There was a huge difference: the five year brandy had a taste similar to a weak whiskey while the ten year brandy tasted smooth and sweet. The 10 year old brandy was good enough that Prof. bought himself a bottle.

Our next stop was at La Motte. Happily, it had selections that better appealed to our taste. Unfortunately, I don’t remember the names of all the wines we tasted, but wine numbers one and four were really good. Wine number one was a white wine that had a subtle fruity, apple taste, while wine number four was a deeply colored red that pleased my palette.

La Motte

Guy with his seven samples of wine ready for the tasting

The tasting

A view inside the La Motte wine tasting area
We decided to purchase a bottle of the number 4. It was their 2005 Millennium, a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Malbec, Cabernet Franc and Pertit Verdot. It will go perfect with a slab of steak.

All that alcohol was making us hungry, so we stopped at a restaurant called Dieu Donne for lunch.


It was my first time seeing warthogs and crocodiles on the menu. For about $13 bucks, you can sink your teeth into either. But I decided to pass and instead ordered the calamari, while Girl had lamb curry. Prof. chose line fish and his wife had salmon.

Crocodile or warthog anyone?
After the main courses, a bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon, Cokes, desserts, and coffee, it was time to continue the wine tour. Our last stop was at Rickety Bridge, a winery that sits at the bottom of a hill.

Is this a winery or the International House of Pancakes?



A view of the vineyard
Since we had purchased a bottle of red wine at La Motte and Girl prefers white wines, we thought we would taste only whites at this winery. We didn’t really like any of the five whites that we tried here. These wines didn’t have the best nose but tasted adequate, though not good enough for us to pay for a bottle. We did, however, like a 2008 Rose (a nice fruity blush wine) that Prof. and his wife sampled. So we purchased a bottle of that instead.

After the wine tasting, we did a little sightseeing around the area. After eight hours of adventure, it was time to head home. As usual, Girl passed out during the ride back. Good food, good wines, and good company made for a very good day.