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| << January30, 2006 - Turtle Essays edition no 162 dated 30th January 2006 |
February13, 2006 - Turtle Essays edition no 163 dated 13th February 2006 >> |
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Turtle Essays Edition no 162 dated 6th February 2006 ** Tours around Cape Town Turtle Essays in conjunction with a local tour operator offers tours to many of the places written about in these ezines. In many instances I will be guiding the tours offered so please contact me to enquire about them. Tours are undertaken in airconditioned mini buses and private tours for you and your party can be arranged. Hotel accommodation and other travel needs can also be arranged if required. We look forward to hearing from you. To enquire email me at tourinfo@freeautobot.com ** Do you enjoy this weekly ezine? Please tell your friends about it and send them to http://www.zinester.com/mpb/ml_fs.cgi?topic=50058 to become regular readers ** In this edition: Editors Blurb Coach tour to the winelands ** Editors Blurb Hi folks. A big welcome to all my readers, new and regular. This past week I have been training with a tour operator and have just completed my first winelands tour with them. The article is about the tour and also tells the story of wine in the Cape. Well, after a hectic week with my daughter leaving for the UK I thought things would quiet down a little. Unfortunately there has been no peace for the wicked and things have hotted up even more. Thankfully all the running around keeps my mind active so have no time to get morbid over my daughter being away. My visit to the winelands took me to the scene of the two large fires that raged in the area a week or two back. The Franschhoek mountains are devastated and are one black mass of ash and burnt out bush and trees. The second fire burnt along the Berg River and came close to some of the farms in the area. Some of the farmers were extremely lucky that there farms were not destroyed as this fire burnt between them. Enough from me for this week. Geoff Fairman ** Coach tour to Cape Winelands Visiting the winelands of the Western Cape is an experience most foreign visitors to our shores love. An early morning pickup (around 8.30 am) from your hotel starts the tour. You might have to tag along in the coach while other visitors are collected from their hotels and in the process have a mini tour of Cape Town. It's all part of the day's fun. Once all the passengers for the day have joined the tour the coach heads out to the winelands which could be in one of many directions. Many people think that a winelands tour only goes to the Paarl /Stellenbosch area when in fact it could go in any direction as every tour route in Cape Town is potentially a wine route. In this instance we take the N1 to Paarl. Before we reach the winelands however let's tell the story of wine in the Cape as there would be no winelands but for the efforts of the Dutch who arrived here in 1652. Jan van Riebeeck who was sent to the Cape by the VOC in 1652 to start a refreshment station thought it would be nice to grow some grapes in the company gardens in the centre of Cape Town so he obtained some cuttings from Europe and on arrival in 1655 he planted them in the gardens. It took about four years for the vines to produce enough grapes for van Riebeeck to make wine and the first wine produced in South Africa happened on the 2nd February 1659. The wine was not of the best quality but van Riebeeck had proved that wine could be made in South Africa. It was however not until 1659 with the appointment of Simon van der Stel as governor at the Cape that the wine industry took a major leap forward. Although wine was produced the quality was not good and van der Stel took it upon himself to improve the quality. On receiving the farm Groot Constantia from his bosses in Holland van der Stel set up a model wine farm along the slopes of what today is known as the Constantiaberg and was soon producing high quality wines. Van der Stel was a busy man and made it his business to explore the Cape and its surrounding areas and on one of his travels towards the east came upon the Stellenbosch valley with the Eerste River (First river) flowing through it. After spending a night on an island in the river he decided the area would be good for farming and especially for the production of grapes. The second oldest town in the Cape was born. Farms were allocated to farmers and soon a bustling little town which eventually became known as Stellenbosch was established. As the farms came into production it became clear to van der Stel that the farmers had no idea of how to produce wine. Most of the farmers were ex company officials of the VOC who had asked to remain in the Cape and to be granted land. As luck would have it the French Huguenots were being tossed out of France for their beliefs and van der Stel knew that they were wine farmers. He soon made contact with some of these destitute families and persuaded them to come to the Cape where they would be given farms on arrival. About two hundred families arrived in the Cape and were allocated farms between the Dutch farmers along the banks of the Berg River in the Drakenstein valley. With the introduction of these farmers into the Cape, wine production increased and there was a marked improvement in the quality of the wines produced. In the mean time the wines produced at Groot Constantia became famous in Europe and were enjoyed by nobility of that era. Unfortunately for the wine industry Phylloxera a root pest attacked the vines of the Cape in 1855 and destroyed the industry. After much research it was discovered that American root stock was immune to phylloxera and so the American rootstock was grafted onto shoots of local variatals of grapes and soon disease free vineyards were once again in production. Today the production of wine has become one of the Cape's biggest money earners. On a tour to the winelands three farms are visited and wine is tasted on all of them. Visitors to the farms are treated to lovely gardens, leafy oak trees, beautiful Cape Dutch houses which have been restored and much much more. On most wine estates a cellar tour can be arranged for those interested in the making of the wines. To make the tours more interesting we visit farms in different areas so that visitors may taste some of the large variety of wines produced.. A visit to the winelands will always include a drive through the Paarl village where various churches of historical interest will be pointed out and an optional visit to the Afrikaans Language monument might be included as well. After a wine tasting in Paarl we then make our way to Franschhoek where we visit the Huguenot Monument, taste wine at one of the many estates in the area and have lunch at a local restaurant. Franschhoek a small village is home to two of South Africa's top 100 restaurants and that takes some doing. After lunch we make our way through Pniel over the Helshoogte pass and do another wine tasting at one of the Stellenbosch estates. A visit to the village museum and a drive through Stellenbosch past the university campuses and the Danie Craven stadium completes the visit to Stellenbosch. As many visitors are interested in wild animals a trip to Spier is a must. There they have a Cheetah breeding programme and for a small fee people can enter the pens and stroke the animals. For those diehards who love their wine and with time permitting another wine tasting can also be undertaken. The return journey down the N2 highway past the many townships and their attendant squatter camps ends the day for the visitor. The price of a typical tour includes the wine tastings and visit to the museum in Stellenbosch. All other expenses and lunch are for the pocket of the visitor. Next time you visit Cape Town contact me to arrange your visit to the winelands. See you her soon. Geoff Fairman ** For my personal details, contact address, and warnings regarding products advertised in this ezine please read the disclaimers which can be found at: http://www.turtlesa.com/Disclaimer.html |
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| << January30, 2006 - Turtle Essays edition no 162 dated 30th January 2006 |
February13, 2006 - Turtle Essays edition no 163 dated 13th February 2006 >> |
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