Day 4 - Friday 8 October, 2010 Tabletop Mountain

Up in the morning to a clearer day. The Apartment folks went through our usual shower ritual and had breakfast at another small cafe. The coffee was much better. We were ready to meet the others that were staying at Hugo's home by 9:30AM. Naude picked us up and we proceed to meet with the others for our trip up Tabletop Mountain.

  
The mountain is 1097 Meters high and is reached with a very impressive cable car. It looks like it will smash into the cliff as it nears the top but it actually makes a very steep ascent at that point, going nearly straight up.

 What a beautiful view. From the top we were able to see that road that we traveled the previous day to Cape Point. The first Dassie, a small furry critter similar to a groundhog, was spotted at the top.
 

We also had a great view of the massive stadium that was built for the worlds cup competitions as well as all of Capetown. To the south are twelve peaks called the 12 disciples. There was a restaurant on top of the mountain where lunch was paid for by weight. We then returned to the parking area by the Cable Car and proceeded to "the Castle".

The castle was a wooden structure built within a pentagonal defensive wall. There were displays of weapons and military uniforms as they appeared throughout the history of the castle. We  proceeded to Landskroon, our first winery in South African wine country. We tasted 6 wines and had a pleasant conversation with the owners daughter. Many of us bought some wines that we will share during our stay. Our second winery was DuLeuwen Jagt.

This was a bit different as we sat as a group outside at a picnic table and the winery employee brought the sample wines to the table and described each as we tasted. We also purchased a couple of cheese trays to go along with the wines.We then drove to the town of Paarl where we picked up Anel and visited with their two pet Marmosets. Cute little primates, a bit shy, but tolerated the group of strangers oggling them.


We were off to dinner at the Magos Restaurant where we met more of the family. This was a buffet style dinner although we were in a gigantic tent with various stages where we were entertained with African folk songs and dance, each on a different stage and at differing times.

The buffet was a different arrangement than what might be thought of as standard in the US. There were cooking "Modules" - separate sections cooking types of foods. Some dedicated to meat dishes Antelope stew, Chops, ribs and whatever accompaniments complimented the dish; Fish modules with a fabulous calimari wherein the entire mantle was sauteed whole. Other modules were salads, desserts, potatoes. The group managed to eat more than our share and guzzled some wine in the process. Reaching the end of the entertainment and our evening an order of Sjweto Toilets was ordered. The shots consisted of banana liquor, a cream float and a dollop of Chocolate liquor which, viewed from the side looks like a turd floating in a toilet.  Novel idea but tasted pretty good.

 A few photos were mandatory then we went to Hugo's daughters home (Mare and husband Dirk) to enjoy a drink and conversation before returning to the apartment and bed.