Wine, cheese and chocolate

My last weekend as an official resident of Cape Town has come and gone. Though I felt a bit like dwelling on the tragedy of my impending departure, I decided to spend my Saturday visiting Franschoek - a town in the wine region just outside of the city.

Our tour guide for the day was Arison, a Zimbabwean man who works in my office, and his adorable son Maka. Arison actually used to work at a winery in the region, so he had many stories for us about the vineyards and their owners. I have also been reading a book about recent years in Zimbabwe (it is kind of a memoir, called Last Resort by Douglas Rogers - I highly recommend it!) so I was able to take this opportunity to talk to him about his perspective on Mugabe, Zanu PF, and basically the state of his home. I am definitely going to miss all of the opportunities to talk to and learn from people with such different backgrounds. It's been one of my favourite things about this trip.

Enough about serious things though, and more about wine! The first winery we went to was called Mont Rochelle and was the first vineyard in South Africa owned by a black man. It was incredibly beautiful and peaceful as well. Sunny tables overlooking the mountains and the valley.

This photo explains why Arison and I get along... ;)




The next stop was a wine cellar on the top of a hill - amazing views again of course. The best part - you get to sample 5 wines for approximately $4. Win.

We then visited a chocolate shop, where the employees are sent to Belgium to be trained. Mmmm.

Last, but certainly not least, we visited Fairview for some serious cheese tasting. Laurin and I learned the hard way that after large volumes of wine, the temptation to go back for another round of cheese is too strong to resist. We also learned later, that if you want to stay awake for the ride home and avoid intense stomach pain, the second (and third) round of cheese tasting is a very bad decision.