Well
today we finally managed to break away from the lure of Skinkikofi
and Paarl and head on. We had only planned to stay here for one
night but ended up staying for four, the result of a combination of
a great place to stay and very friendly hosts who opened our eyes to
the local attractions and really put us in a position where there
was no motivation to go somewhere else in wine country. It has been
an absolutely fabulous stay and I can well and truly recommend Paarl,
and Skinkikofi, above Franshoek and Stellenbosch as a great place to
stay and a convenient base for exploring wine land.
Before we left we headed into town to take a look at the
Afrikaanse Taal museum, a museum devoted to the origins and
development of the Afrikaans language. It’s not the form of
childlike Dutch that we had both expected but a language that is
much more complex. It really reflects the multicultural place that
Cape Town and South Africa were in the 1800’s. Dutch is definitely
the root language and Dutch people and Afrikaaners can quite easily
understand each other but the language has also been shaped by
traders from other European countries as well as from Asia and
Africa.
People passing through the Cape as early as the 1670’s
commented on how different a language Afrikaans had become. In the
late 1800’s, a local man Arnoldus Pannevis, who was deeply religious
wanted to see the bible translated into Afrikaans. His dream
resulted in the founding of the Association for True Afrikaaners
whose purpose was to formalise and standardise Afrikaans, see it
recognised as an official language and ultimately to get the bible
translated. Ironically some of the earliest written Afrikaans has
been traced back to school children copying various Islamic holy
texts.
The museum is based in a house that
has now been restored to the state it would have been in in the last
quarter of the nineteenth
century when the Malherbe family lived there. They were key players
in the Association for True Afrikaaners and the printing presses
used to publish their Afrikaans language newspaper are still there.
Upstairs is a more modern section of the museum, geared primarily to
school children. There are lots of interactive exhibits for the kids
(young and young at heart!) to play with but if you don’t understand
Afrikaans they are a bit lost on you.
From the museum we headed back through Paarl and out the other
side and finally made it to the Fairview vineyard, somewhere we had
been aiming to get to for the last few days. It was another Marius
recommendation, not only for their wines but also for their cheese,
primarily goat’s cheese and it is well and truly worth while going
to. As we walked from the car park to the tasting rooms I couldn’t
understand why Stef had stopped and got his camera out. There was a
circular tower with a staircase leading around the outside but I had
to look twice before I realised that the goats around the outside
were real and not models.
And so we found ourselves back to more wine tasting. At
Fairview you can opt for either the standard tasting of six wines or
the master tasting of eight wines including their more expensive
varieties. The temptation was too great and we went for the master
tasting, which also meant you got a very big glass to swirl the wine
around in and smell it rather than a titchy tiny little one. As
usual we liked some but didn’t like others. For me the best was
their Solitude Shiraz, not a cheap wine but one that is definitely
worth the money. We obviously made all the right noises because the
chap organising our tasting, who had spent 3 months last year
working in London as a sommelier for Jamie Olivier, kindly gave us
their international shipping costs. I think he was a bit peeved when
we only bought one bottle but we did create the impression we would
buy more when we got back to the UK!
After tasting their wines we moved round the corner to where
Fairview has their cheese out and available for you to taste. They
had a really tasty goat’s cheese, cream cheese rolled in a coating
of chakalaka (an African spicy vegetables dish which is just
moreishly tasty), brie’s and blue cheese. I think I was in seventh
heaven with the wine but Stef was in his element with the cheese.
They had lovely home made bread on sale too so as well as the wine
some bread and a few bits of cheese slipped their way into our bag.
From Fairview we finally set off towards our final destination
– Cape Town. For us it comes with mixed emotions. It’s somewhere we
(me in particular) have been looking forward to coming to for a long
time so it’s exciting to finally get here but it also marks the end
of our trip as from here we head back home to London. All of a
sudden it doesn’t feel as if we’ve been away from home for a year
and yet now we’re heading back.
It is only a short hop from wine land to Cape Town and in
under an hour Table Mountain loomed into view. It dominates the
skyline from a long way away and somehow looked mysterious and
daunting shrouded in deep cloud, a view of it that we were to see
again and again over the next few days. The motorway led straight
into the heart of the city and before long we found ourselves down
at the V&A Waterfront. Like many other cities and towns based on the
water Cape Town has turned its harbour into an entertainment and
shopping complex with just a few traces still remaining of the
shipping trade which prompted its founding all those years ago.
As usual we had nowhere pre-booked to stay and having now lost
confidence in the accommodation guides we had with us we had decided
to just head straight to tourist information. The chap there was
friendly and quickly advised us against staying somewhere with a sea
view because the weather at this time of year makes it not really
worthwhile. Instead, he booked us in to a self catering loft
apartment slap bang in the centre of town. There was a strike in
town today from the local security guards, an ongoing dispute as
they are not happy with their proposed 8% pay rise (!), so he
advised us to wait for an hour or so before going to check in. We
had a coffee on the waterfront, and then found the local Pick’nPay
supermarket before finding our home for the next 6 nights.
Our apartment in the Adderley Terraces was a loft style
maisonette which is part of a brand new development. It looks like
it has been built on top of an old office building but as the flats
are on top of a car park I think another building has been
demolished and this one put up in its place. It is a very smart
development with all mod cons, a small gym, pool and secure parking.
It’s been kitted out with modern furniture and fixtures and looks
like a really comfy place to base ourselves for our last week.
Goats at Fairview
We emptied out the car, amazed at how much extra stuff we had
acquired over the last few weeks. A complete unpack soon revealed
that some of the bits we had been carrying around with us were well
and truly surplus to requirements and they quickly found their way
into the bin. As I worked out how to use what has to be the most
space age washing machine I have ever come across (it played tunes
and had lots of coloured lights as well as an LCD display telling
you what it was doing!) Stef found out that the internet connection
and satellite TV we should have had were not connected. He phoned
Maryke, the contact we have for the flat, a very friendly but very
chatty and very loud lady who lives in Paarl. She confirmed that as
tourist information had asked for their cheapest price it was not
included but could be for a bit of extra dosh.
Our initial plan had been to have a quiet night in, have the
bread and cheese we’d bought this morning at Fairview for dinner,
catch up on diaries and gradually switch back into city mode. That
quickly got thrown out the window though as we both, Stef more than
me, were itching to go out and have a look at Cape Town. We’d had a
look at the cinema at the V&A Waterfront and decided to head back,
see Mission Impossible 3 and then go for cheap and cheerful fish and
chips in the harbour.
For me the film was pretty poor, enjoyable enough but not as
good as its predecessors. We’d checked that it was showing on the
big screen in the cinema which it was but big here is small compared
to what we’re used to in London. It was comfy enough though although
not a patch on the Gold Star cinema we had been to in Singapore. The
other disappointment was that the chippy was shut by the time the
film had finished.
We headed back to our loft apartment, amazed at how quiet the
city centre was at 9:30 at night. It’s a far cry from London where
there would still have been people milling about. Had we not gone
past the train station and a branch of McDonalds I doubt we would
have seen anyone at all. Our bread and cheese was suitable munched
with us both savouring the flavours of these and the accompanying
bottle of wine. We watched out of the window hoping for the skies to
clear but no stars were in sight and we suspected we were in for
another cloudy day tomorrow.
