Day 5 - Saturday, October 9, 2010

This is a move day so the apartment residents packed all our luggage an met Naude who drove us to Hugo's home where the rest of the troupes gear was loaded and we proceeded to the Paarl "Bazaar in the park". This bazaar is done every weekend and is quite a gathering.  The highlight for the morning is a stupendous breakfast as well as many booths around the perimeter of the tent selling crafts, foods and many fresh meats. This would surely not pass a food inspector in the US but everything looked well packaged and fresh. The breakfast was a traditional meal; fresh home baked bread, sausage, bacon and interesting and tasty dish called PAP and HESHEBEBE, a finely ground meal the size of grits or cream of wheat but made from flour (the PAP). On top was ladled a sauce with tomato, onion and some great seasonings. Then came eggs cooked to order, fresh jams and jellies. The rumor that we starved in Africa is certainly not true.

 We all sat at picnic tables and Hugo brought some extra treats - a variety of sausages and some great grilled lamb chops. I understand that they cook over 2 tons of meat in one morning. After breakfast Anel went ahead to our next base of operations while the rest of us headed out to sample more wineries.

The first stop was at KWV winery where we took a tour of this massive operation. This rivals any winery I have ever seen for it's size and capacity. An interesting sidelight was a box on the side of one building on which was written Owl Pest Control System. It was a nesting box for Barn Owls and would certainly be a great rodent control.

Of particular interest to Doug was a massive vat made of California Redwood, whoda thunk! We ended up in different type of tasting room - it was setup in theater style with the "teacher" at a table in the front of the room.  From there he described the wines while an assistant moved through the room pouring the taste samples. The presentation finished with a nice Brandy and a creamy brandy similar to Baileys.

Next stop was Faarview winery where here the tastings were conducted at one of many semi circular bar-like stations. We sampled the requisite 6 wines then moved to another room where we sampled a variety of goat cheeses. Of course many of us purchases different flavors for cocktail hour that evening. Party animals that we are.

Our next stop was Franschoek where we were dropped off at the Huguenot Monument which is  dedicated to the cultural influences that the Huguenots brought to the Cape Colony during the 17th and 18th centuries.

We walked through the quaint small town and stopped at the many shops along the way with our final destination of the Col Callhio Pizzeria . Pizza's were in store for lunch which were much lighter than some of the American styles. They had light crusts and were topped by vegetables and avocado - some with garlic. Garlic is well liked there as there was a jar of minced garlic on every table.



We were off to Kleinbaai where we will stay for the next few days. Our drive took us cross country and over the mountains much of it on dirt roads. We were treated to our first spotting on African wildlife, Geese, Zebra's, Wildebeast and the Blue Crane which is the national bird of South Africa and many other birds along the way.

Our arrival in Kleinbaai was surprising as most of us expected a beach house to be somewhat Spartan. This home was huge and what a party house. The lower floor had a large entry with bedrooms to the right as well as a bathroom, Garage entry door to the left and large windows to the front, the hallway led to two more bedrooms and a bath.
 
The second floor was party central. It was only two rooms, a master bedroom/bath as you topped the circular stairway then a large room with a kitchen area, bar, couches, dining table and an indoor wood fired grill.

The wall facing the ocean was made up of folding glass doors with a patio area outside. The doors could be moved so that the entire outer wall was open to the sea. There was a set of stairs leading to a roof top observation area and had a grand view of the Atlantic Ocean.

We were all assigned our bedrooms and settled into our new digs. Some of us took the opportunity to stretch out from the long drive in the van. Then the party began starting with a game of "Crocodile". A small plastic croc head that would snap shut when a particular tooth was pressed, other teeth were safe and the naughty tooth was reset each go-round. The person that had the mouth snapped upon had to take a shot of whatever Hugo was pouring at the moment. Some smooth and some more harsh. We settled into a regular cocktail hour when some folks were becoming a bit, shall we say - Dizzy?

Dinner was at home with Hugo grilling some nice Fillet (fillet Mignon) that was tender as butter. We played a new card game of SEVENS then introduced Hugo and Naude to "screw your neighbor". This is sure to become popular in South Africa as we seemed to convert Naude and he had a ball. Finally we shuffled off to the land of nod.