WESTERN CAPE: CAPE WINELANDS’S TURN TO DAZZLE US
We’ve been on the move for a while now. We started at the Garden Route, spent a few days in Malgas, and just left Hermanus. We were starting to get spoiled with the diversity and beauty we’ve seen thus far. The Cape Winelands now had big shoes to fill to impress us at this stage.
Denneboom
The accommodation at Denneboom was the first booking we made for the trip. I have a guilty pleasure of “browsing” on Airbnb for future accommodation possibilities. I would then favourite them, and when the day comes, I’ll have a few choices to choose from if we decide on a specific location.
This spot skipped past the favourite phase and went straight to the booking phase (a good cancellation policy made this possible). We didn’t know how the trip would look but knew this would have to be part of it.
It’s an old horse stable that was converted into a stunning cottage. About five cottages are situated on a wine-, olive- and wildlife farm.
The cottage was beautiful, well equipped and spacious. But the main attraction to Denneboom had to be the farm and surroundings. The cottages are far away from each other, and there are a few zebra, kudus, springbuck and blue wildebeest roaming the enclosed area to keep them away from the vineyards.
We had a 180-degree view of mountains and spectacular trees. Due to the limited accommodation and people, it’s super quiet and peaceful.
The worms and the guineafowl
Denneboom is the dream location, except for two minor nocturnal issues:
***Both T and myself has a superpower when it comes to sleep and no matter where or when we can sleep through ALMOST anything.
First night in the cottage I jumped out of bed, frantically waving the linen.
There were these small little worms, that went everywhere. I’m not screamish of bugs, but if it’s crawling on my face on its way to my ear in the middle of the night then I’m not a fan.During the second night we were slowling woken by some repedative, distressed, neverending, brain-frying sound or cry. We’re still not sure what the reason for the cry was, but it managed to get T out of bed (and dressed) at 1:30am to go have a look.
Me being the slower one of us two, eventually realized it’s a freaking guinefowl.
T stormed out, on a mission to chase this bird, but it’s so dark he doesn’t know where to chase.
Storming back in, grabs his phone to try and light in the direction, only to be none the wiser. Storming back in a second time, he is now looking for something to throw at it. Obviously not thinking entierly straight, he grabs a rusk on the kitchen counter and throws it in the general direction of the still ongoing call or cry.
The rusk probably landed a mere meter or two away from his feet. I’m sure some animal was greatfull for the snack a bit later.
While he’s busy combating this sleep interrupting monster, I’m busy being the supportive wife and laughing myself into a state.
Finally he manages to find a stick close by, and a bit more luck it reached the bird, branch or tree the guinefowl was sitting in.
The guinefowl flew away to reconcile or harras someone or something els, but at last we were left to sleep in peace.
Sunrises & Sunsets.
I want to say and think that we had the best sunrises and sunsets during our stay in the Cape Winelands, but it’s not entirely true. We won the sunrise and sunset lotto and had loads of magical encounters throughout the trip.
Please note that although I edit my photos, I dialled down the saturation most of the time, and it really was that magical.
Day Trips
Franschhoek
Franschhoek is the type of place that you would think is made up and put in a romance novel. Big majestic mountains, clouds hanging over the mountain like a fluffy comfy blanket, stunning manicured gardens, pristine wine farms, and small speciality shops on the main road.
Sadly our time here was only part of a daily trip out and once again way too short. I know we always say, “next time, we will do this different”. But this would probably be THE one thing that we would change. We would stay a night or two, so we could fully enjoy the charm of this town. It will also allow us to do the tram wine tour and a route entirely dedicated to MCC.
Le Petit Manoir
Le Petit Manoir started as a bit of a disagreement between T and myself. It’s so easy to fall into the trap of visiting the same restaurant/brand/franchise repeatedly and never trying something new. I’m so glad we managed to change it up and stumble upon Le Petit Manoir.
Peppermint crisp tart is a traditional South African desert. If it’s not made well (which is the case most of the time), it can taste like plastic. It is, however, one of T’s favourites, so we had to give it a try.
MY GOODNESS!!!
It’s the best peppermint crisp tart we’ve ever tasted. I’m not just saying that; we actually took the time and wrecked our brains to confirm it before making that statement.
Spice Route & Fairview Wine farm
Spice Route and Fairview are some of the Cape’s big attractions.
Usually, Big attraction = Touristy = Crouded and busy = We’re not intrested.
But what a great time we had at Spice route. Actually, it’s nothing that it sounds like. It’s a combination of outdoor spaces with speciality shops, galleries, restaurants and tasting destinations.
We spent most of the afternoon drinking, eating and chattering away underneath the oak trees while overlooking a vineyard.
Fairview is just down the road (about 800m) and famous for their goats on the towers and their cheese (mostly goats cheese) and wine pairing. We’d had such a good time at the spice route that we couldn’t eat or drink anything else.
We thus just had a quick look around and made our way back home.
Lanzerac Wine farm
Lanzerac is situated in the Jonkershoek valley in Stellenbosch. It’s one of the oldest estates in the area dating back to 1692. We’ve seen our fair share of wine farms by now, but this had to have been the one with the most beautiful and impressive entrance. I can’t actually single the entrance out, as the entire farm was stunning.
We sat outside under the oak trees again, listening to the birds and sipping our way through the wine tasting.
Cape Point National Park
I know what you must be thinking by now… They only ate and drank the entire time. I’m not gonna deny it; we did spend a lot of time enjoying the Cape hospitality.
But, we also took all the time we could to enjoy our time in the epic landscapes and nature on our doorstep.
Cape point was another wow for us.
I’m not sure if it’s because we really don’t care, have the best weather fairies, or were handed weather luck in abundance, but we scored another dazzling, gorgeous day.
This went hand in hand with our L’Agullas experience. The clouds and mist were gliding over the hills, and the ocean was a blend of topaz, aquamarine and sapphire blue. Even the wind was quiet and tame, allowing us to enjoy the lighthouse view.
At that moment, I told T… “This should be Cape Town’s most epic view”, and I wanted to bottle that feeling up.
This is why we travel, that feeling of seeing something that no movie, book, or photo can ever do justice to.
This cannot be the end.
The Cape Winelands really stood their ground in dazzling us. This was the last spot of our trip, and we weren’t ready for it to be all over.
Those who have read our Malgas blog might remember one of our “challenges” we’ve put a pin in…
The borders between SA and the UAE were closed due to Omnicron, and we won’t be able to get back any time soon.
So when life throughs a lockdown at us, we make a holiday extension of it. T still had some leave which we were planning on spending with our family, but since we would do that in any case, we’ve decided to extend our trip a bit more.
The trip thus continues, and in our next post, we’ll revisit some of our honeymoon tracks.
Wandering off now…
T & Me
