Today we’re supposed to go kayaking and bike riding in wine country and so we dress accordingly. On the way there, Ash gets his office to check whether kayaking is on or not because its windy and he thinks it might be cancelled. Driving that distance only to find out it’s closed would be a waste of time. We’re only in the car for a few minutes when we receive word that kayaking is cancelled due to high seas. Onto plan B.
Ash suggests we take in the Art Gallery and visit the town of Stellenbosch and the Cheetah outreach program near Franschhoek, the place where the bike riding is supposed to be. We drive to the Art Gallery and Ash drops us at 9:00 with instructions to come back by 10:00. We find out the art museum doesn’t’ open for another half hour so we go for a walk to see what’s going on. We’re near the dock where we had taken the boat to Robben Island. On our walk we find some outdoor artwork that’s on display. They had price tags on them, so a local gallery must be responsible for this display. We also reach the dock where we spend a bit of time watching the fish mongers and fishermen buying and selling.
The half hour passes quickly and we pay our entry into the Museum of Contemporary Art Africa gallery when it opens. Since we only have 30 minutes they suggest we start at the third floor and work our way down. The gallery is housed in former silos that have been repurposed. The architecture is very cool and is an amazing building especially from the inside. There was a cool display of work for William Kentridge. Kind of oddball/whimsical, and it was highly varied in terms of the media used. I thought it was pretty great. We never did finish the second or third floors as we spent too much time admiring the architecture and now needed to leave.
Our bike riding was scheduled for 2:00 in the afternoon so we proceeded to our next destination at Stellenbosch. This town has established itself as a tourist destination for tourists who like to purchase expensive things. It’s a university town with lovely tree lined streets with lots of retail shops for fashion and accessories, linens, and souvenirs, coffee shops, restaurants, and household furnishings. We did a drive though around the town and Ash suggested we take a walk through the town to have a look. On our walk, we ended up in a fashion district that was just not me (or Judith) and continued on. I saw some table linens through a store window and went inside, but there was no pricing and I guessed that I wouldn’t be able to justify spending that much for yet another set of table linens that would spend most of its time in a cupboard. We did drop into a coffee shop and bought some coffee and pastries for morning snack.
From Stellenbosch we drove through vineyard country. Located in this area is the Cheetah Rescue Centre, set up to help save cheetahs through education and minimizing their contact with farmers who don’t like their animals being preyed upon by cheetahs. They deal with this interaction by shooting the cheetahs.
We talk with the person at the information desk who’s enthusiastic enough to answer Judith’s questions about the program and such. One of the programs for this organization is to get farmers to use Anatolian Shepherd dogs for their herds. The dogs chase away the cheetahs from the herd, reducing the numbers of cheetahs being shot by farmers. Based on his answers, we decide to see if we can get in to meet one of the cheetahs. There was some consultation with the inside cheetah handlers who wanted to make sure the cheetah wasn’t getting too tired of meeting people. The centre has 3 cheetahs who were raised by hand as they were delivered by caesarean. The mother was sick for a long and wasn’t able to nurse.
The handlers select a cheetah that’s receptive to meeting people that day and limit the interactions they have each day. We met up with one of the 3 handlers who gave us a brief overview of their program and a safety lesson about how to behave inside the enclosure. We then sanitized the bottom of our shoes and our hands, put on a tag to indicate we had the safety lesson and entered the enclosure.
The cheetah was laying on a wooden platform beside a shed which I assumed was his covered area when it became hot during the day. We were only permitted to stand to the rear of the cheetah. We took turns petting the cheetah (with the nap – not against) and that was it. The fur was surprisingly coarse. We had some souvenir photos taken and then left.
We drove the rest of the way to Franschhoek to do the wine tour/bike ride. Franschhoek is known as wine country and was started way back in 1688 when the start of many French Huguenots came to resettle in this area after being persecuted in their home country and brought with them wine making skills. We meet up with the bike riding guide at the church in the centre of town. The bikes are decent enough. Due to her shoulder injury (torn muscle AND frozen shoulder) Judith had already arranged to ride a tandem bike. There was some confusion when everyone though I was going to ride with Judith, but that was corrected. Having lived through a frozen shoulder (and mine wasn’t nearly as bad as Judith’s) I thought that leaning forward on handle bars would be an ambitious thing to do. And I didn’t want be on the same bike when it fell over. It turns out Judith was clearly optimistic in thinking she could ride with her injury. After two tries with the guide in the front seat, she finally gave in to the fact that her injury wouldn’t allow her to ride. So it was me and the guide, with us both riding our own bikes.
In retrospect, I should have opted for the tandem…
We set off with Judith riding in the support vehicle. They follow the guide and I as we ride to the monument to the Huguenots.
We receive a short history lesson from the guide. And then to the chocolate tasting where we each get 3 small pieces of handmade chocolate to taste. My ride goes well for a while until we start to climb a long gentle hill and my lack of riding any bike for over 18 months kicks in and I start developing some stomach cramps. I’m not sure what to make of this but I figure I’m not on this vacation to hurt myself so I call it quits, The bikes are loaded back onto the support vehicle and we ride back to meet up with our guide. By the time we return to the town, the cramps are all gone. Oh well, I don’t second guess my decision to quit and we take the long drive back to Cape Town. We say goodbye to our great guide and driver, Ash because it’s the end of our stay and we will be picked up by someone else to take us to the airport early the next day.
We decide to go out for a final nice dinner at Club Paridisio where I decide to try ostrich. To my surprise the waitress asked me what doneness I wanted it to be. Having never eaten ostrich, I asked the waitress if she had ever eaten it and then what level of done-ness she liked. It turned out to be medium rare so that’s what I ordered. I thought the ostrich steak reminded me of beef. The piece was too large for me so I only ate half of it. At some point the chef walked by (we were seated near the kitchen) and came out to ask if I like the ostrich as he noticed it was only half eaten. I assured him it was delicious but it was too much for me to eat.
After dinner we pack ready for an early morning flight to Maun, Botswana to start our safari portion.
Ash suggests we take in the Art Gallery and visit the town of Stellenbosch and the Cheetah outreach program near Franschhoek, the place where the bike riding is supposed to be. We drive to the Art Gallery and Ash drops us at 9:00 with instructions to come back by 10:00. We find out the art museum doesn’t’ open for another half hour so we go for a walk to see what’s going on. We’re near the dock where we had taken the boat to Robben Island. On our walk we find some outdoor artwork that’s on display. They had price tags on them, so a local gallery must be responsible for this display. We also reach the dock where we spend a bit of time watching the fish mongers and fishermen buying and selling.
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| Animal art. |
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| Steampunk chair |
 |
| Reviewing the fish |
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| Fish coming off the boat. Net fishing is banned as it destroys habitats.. |
The half hour passes quickly and we pay our entry into the Museum of Contemporary Art Africa gallery when it opens. Since we only have 30 minutes they suggest we start at the third floor and work our way down. The gallery is housed in former silos that have been repurposed. The architecture is very cool and is an amazing building especially from the inside. There was a cool display of work for William Kentridge. Kind of oddball/whimsical, and it was highly varied in terms of the media used. I thought it was pretty great. We never did finish the second or third floors as we spent too much time admiring the architecture and now needed to leave.
 |
| Looking down. |
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| Looking up at the ceiling |
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| Looking down towards the entrance. |
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| Stairwell |
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| Original grain chute in the basement of the building. |
Our bike riding was scheduled for 2:00 in the afternoon so we proceeded to our next destination at Stellenbosch. This town has established itself as a tourist destination for tourists who like to purchase expensive things. It’s a university town with lovely tree lined streets with lots of retail shops for fashion and accessories, linens, and souvenirs, coffee shops, restaurants, and household furnishings. We did a drive though around the town and Ash suggested we take a walk through the town to have a look. On our walk, we ended up in a fashion district that was just not me (or Judith) and continued on. I saw some table linens through a store window and went inside, but there was no pricing and I guessed that I wouldn’t be able to justify spending that much for yet another set of table linens that would spend most of its time in a cupboard. We did drop into a coffee shop and bought some coffee and pastries for morning snack.
 |
| Nancy P: A Laundromat in Stellenbosch |
From Stellenbosch we drove through vineyard country. Located in this area is the Cheetah Rescue Centre, set up to help save cheetahs through education and minimizing their contact with farmers who don’t like their animals being preyed upon by cheetahs. They deal with this interaction by shooting the cheetahs.
We talk with the person at the information desk who’s enthusiastic enough to answer Judith’s questions about the program and such. One of the programs for this organization is to get farmers to use Anatolian Shepherd dogs for their herds. The dogs chase away the cheetahs from the herd, reducing the numbers of cheetahs being shot by farmers. Based on his answers, we decide to see if we can get in to meet one of the cheetahs. There was some consultation with the inside cheetah handlers who wanted to make sure the cheetah wasn’t getting too tired of meeting people. The centre has 3 cheetahs who were raised by hand as they were delivered by caesarean. The mother was sick for a long and wasn’t able to nurse.
The handlers select a cheetah that’s receptive to meeting people that day and limit the interactions they have each day. We met up with one of the 3 handlers who gave us a brief overview of their program and a safety lesson about how to behave inside the enclosure. We then sanitized the bottom of our shoes and our hands, put on a tag to indicate we had the safety lesson and entered the enclosure.
The cheetah was laying on a wooden platform beside a shed which I assumed was his covered area when it became hot during the day. We were only permitted to stand to the rear of the cheetah. We took turns petting the cheetah (with the nap – not against) and that was it. The fur was surprisingly coarse. We had some souvenir photos taken and then left.
 |
| Petting the cheetah with a gimpy right shoulder. |
 |
| Contented Cheetah |
We drove the rest of the way to Franschhoek to do the wine tour/bike ride. Franschhoek is known as wine country and was started way back in 1688 when the start of many French Huguenots came to resettle in this area after being persecuted in their home country and brought with them wine making skills. We meet up with the bike riding guide at the church in the centre of town. The bikes are decent enough. Due to her shoulder injury (torn muscle AND frozen shoulder) Judith had already arranged to ride a tandem bike. There was some confusion when everyone though I was going to ride with Judith, but that was corrected. Having lived through a frozen shoulder (and mine wasn’t nearly as bad as Judith’s) I thought that leaning forward on handle bars would be an ambitious thing to do. And I didn’t want be on the same bike when it fell over. It turns out Judith was clearly optimistic in thinking she could ride with her injury. After two tries with the guide in the front seat, she finally gave in to the fact that her injury wouldn’t allow her to ride. So it was me and the guide, with us both riding our own bikes.
In retrospect, I should have opted for the tandem…
 |
| Test ride. So far so good. |
 |
| Tandem Bike trial. It failed. |
We set off with Judith riding in the support vehicle. They follow the guide and I as we ride to the monument to the Huguenots.
 |
| Huguenot monument in Franschhoek |
We receive a short history lesson from the guide. And then to the chocolate tasting where we each get 3 small pieces of handmade chocolate to taste. My ride goes well for a while until we start to climb a long gentle hill and my lack of riding any bike for over 18 months kicks in and I start developing some stomach cramps. I’m not sure what to make of this but I figure I’m not on this vacation to hurt myself so I call it quits, The bikes are loaded back onto the support vehicle and we ride back to meet up with our guide. By the time we return to the town, the cramps are all gone. Oh well, I don’t second guess my decision to quit and we take the long drive back to Cape Town. We say goodbye to our great guide and driver, Ash because it’s the end of our stay and we will be picked up by someone else to take us to the airport early the next day.
We decide to go out for a final nice dinner at Club Paridisio where I decide to try ostrich. To my surprise the waitress asked me what doneness I wanted it to be. Having never eaten ostrich, I asked the waitress if she had ever eaten it and then what level of done-ness she liked. It turned out to be medium rare so that’s what I ordered. I thought the ostrich steak reminded me of beef. The piece was too large for me so I only ate half of it. At some point the chef walked by (we were seated near the kitchen) and came out to ask if I like the ostrich as he noticed it was only half eaten. I assured him it was delicious but it was too much for me to eat.
After dinner we pack ready for an early morning flight to Maun, Botswana to start our safari portion.
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