31. Day 11 (Aug 27) – Wine

As a wine aficionado (or at least as one who enjoys drinking wine), when forced to admit that there may be wine from some place other than France or the Napa-Sonoma Valleys, one of the first places that comes to mind is South Africa.  

The wine industry dates from 1690 when some Hugenots settled in the area and planted wine grapes.  The wine area is located just a bit north of Stellenbosch and the route there is very picturesque.

Route to Boschendal

The winery we were visiting is called Boschendal from the Dutch words for “wood” and “dale.”  It claims to be one of the oldest wineries (or wine estates) in South Africa and while it most certainly is old, it is not quite as old as it is commonly claimed.

Boschendal Sign

There are definitely vineyards at Boschendal, covering about 2.5 km².  

Boschendal Vineyards

The winery is best known for its Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc wines although recently there have been plantings and bottlings of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, and Shiraz.  We also had their dessert wine, Vin d’Or, which is described as a “natural sweet wine” and a blend of Syrah, Chenin Blanc, Viognier, Roussanne, and Grenache Blanc.

Earlier I mentioned that Boschendal is a wine estate.  It consists of vineyards, tasting rooms, cottages where you can stay overnight, and houses that can host receptions.  The full extent of the estate can be seen in the following map.

Map of Boschendal

Our visit was to the main tasting area (item #4 on the map above).  

Main Tasting Area

As you can see, we were there in winter.  The clouds were low and it did rain off and on.  If it had been warmer and drier, we might have had our wine tasting outside using the tables and serving area set up for that.

Outdoor Tasting Area

Instead we were happy to be served inside and given a wine and chocolate tasting, using chocolate which they get from Knysna.  

Tasting Setup Inlcuding Chocolate

We got four glasses of wine and 4 pieces of chocolate, and each of the chocolates was matched to a particular wine.  It was an interesting concept but I’m not sure I’d care generally to match wine and chocolate.  And it distracted from what the wines would be like for other purposes.  Still, it was enjoyable.

Boschendal claims to have its origin in 1685 and proudly proclaims that on its bottles.

The front label notes that it was founded in 1685.

Front Label

The slogan on the back of the bottle a bit more accurately states that “The legend of Boschendal’s wines goes as far back as 1685.”  Well, according to the source of all knowledge (Wikipeida) – not quite.

Rear Label

A brief history notes that the title deeds for the farm are dated 1685 “but this is likely to be a clerical mistake.”  The first owner, a Jean le Long, a French Huguenot refugee, was granted the land by the Dutch East India Company in 1688 although the title deed wasn’t written until 1713.  In 1887 the estate was bought by Cecil Rhodes – a very well known figure in South African history, who founded Rhodesia (now Zambia and Zimbabwe), was prime minister of the Cape Colony, and established the international educational scholarships that bear his name. The property is now owned by some consortium of investors.  So, not quite 1685 probably, but are we really going to quibble about 3 years of 330?  They make very nice wine and have a very nice piece of property.

One of the houses on the property, just around the corner from the wine tasting center, is the Cape Vernacular Manor House, which dates from 1812.  It is both a museum about the family that developed Boschendal and a location that you can rent for a meeting or a wedding reception.

Cape Vernacular Manor House

One of the things to know about South African wines is something they have in common with French wines, susceptibility to phylloxera, which is closely related to the aphid.  Phylloxera feed on roots of the vines, which eventually girdles the root and prevents any nutrients and water from getting from the ground to the vine.  The vine dies.  

Phylloxera is a North American pest which came to both Europe and Africa probably by steamship transporting some grape vines.  By 1863 some vines in the Rhône Valley of France began to die due to this infestation, although the reason wasn’t discovered until somewhat later.  Some estimates state the between two-thirds and nine-tenths of all European vineyards were destroyed.  In the Cape region, the blight occurred in the 1880 and 1890s and effectively destroyed the vineyards before a cure was found.

Many of you might know what the cure is.  It turns out that since phylloxera is an American pest, our grape vines which are of vitis berlandieri, riparia, and rupestris types, are naturally resistant to phylloxera while the European vines (vitis vinifera) are not.  Solution – graft grape vines used for making wine onto the American rootstock.  The only problem to this solution was where to get good grape vines for grafting, since much of those in Europe had been killed.  So American grape vines, particularly those from the Napa and Sonoma Valleys, were shipped back to Europe and South Africa where they are still in use.  So, when you’re drinking French or South African wine, you’re drinking wine made from grapes grown on American grape vines (although originally from Europe) grafted onto American rootstocks.  It certainly does make the debate about which country produces the best wine a bit more complex, or maybe nuanced.  We’re more of a global village than we might think.

Coming up: A bit of France in South Africa, an appropriate town for the wine country.

Link to Full Resolution Photos

30. Day 11 (Aug 27) – Charm Overcomes an Important Part of History

Okay – the title is a bit bitter, but I believe it is correct.  It was one of the many big problems I found with our guide and all of which I have shared with Road Scholar (the operators of the tour we took).  I do not think he should be retained as a guide and I’m happy to note that in looking at the personnel listed for this tour in the future, he is not listed.  Today’s events show one of the reasons for the complaints I made.

(Not as interesting, I’m sure, as the photos and perhaps even the commentary but in the interests of a complete description of the trip, you’re going to get this.)

As you get close to leaving on the tour, you are sent (by email in electronic form if you wish) a document called the Final Information Packet for the tour.  Included in that document is a day-by-day summary, and today’s entry  read:

“Head through the scenic Winelands countryside to Stellenbosch. A short city tour orients you to Stellenbosch and its history, after which you have time to explore this small town on your own. Many of the town's historical landmarks are within easy walking distance of the town center. An interesting stop is the Village Museum, where four restored historical houses trace the history of Stellenbosch and its famous architecture. Discover some of the region’s tasty products during a wine tasting at a local winery. Hear a lecture on the area’s architecture, history and viniculture.”

After lunch at a local winery, we would be departing for Cape Town, where our afternoon itinerary was described as follows:

“En-route to the hotel, you have a city orientation tour which takes you to the historic Company Gardens, the colorful Bo Kaap community, and the District 6 area which remains a poignant example of the forced-removal era of apartheid. Continue on to your hotel in the heart of the Victoria & Alfred Waterfront.”

I was looking forward to the morning as you know I like my wine, and then the afternoon was going to be more political where we would hear more of the history of another part of the country under Apartheid.

But this is not exactly what occurred.  Instead, after the Stellenbosch experience, our guide made a unilateral decision to take a detour from our trip west to Cape Town for the scheduled afternoon activities, first heading east to spend some time in a charming little village called Franschhoek, a little bit of France here in South Africa.  I did love the town.  It was charming and fun, as the photos will show.  But what that detour cost us was the elimination of the District 6 area visit, which is a terribly important part of recent South African history.  We were never told why our guide made the apparently unilateral decision to change the trip for today. My own (admittedly prejudiced and possibly unfair) surmise – it provided a way to avoid discussing another difficult part (for a former member of the Apartheid regime) of the recent history of South Africa.  (This post will cover the trip to Stellenbosch while subsequent posts will look at the winery visit, the town of Franschhoek, 

With that background out of our way, let’s get to wine country.  First stop – the city of Stellenbosch, which is the second oldest European settlement in the Western Cape Province (after Cape Town).  It was founded in 1679 by Cape Dutch and has a strong Afrikaner sensibility to it, feeling more European than African.  For example, this tree-lined street.  Note the open storm sewers (and yes, it was a drizzly and sometimes rainy day).

Stellenbosch Street

This guest lodge is also typical of the architecture in Stellenbosch.

Guest Lodge in Stellenbosch

In the town itself is Stellenbosch University.  It is not on a separately defined campus, but consists of various buildings around the town, although concentrated in one area, such as this building.

Stellenbosch University Building

If you look at the sign on this building you will see that it is in three languages – Afrikaans is the first, English is the second, and a native African language (most likely Xhosa but possibly also Zulu) the third.  Prior to the liberation of South Africa, the University taught classes principally and possibly exclusively in Afrikaans.  To this day a majority of the classes, at least at the undergraduate level, are taught in Afrikaans, the only major university in South Africa to do so.  The university has about 25,000 students and their ethnicity breaks down as 68.5% white, 15.2% coloured, 14.4% black, and 1.9% Indian.  It is one of the three public universities in the Western Cape and one of about 20 in the country.  It is generally rated in the upper 300-400 universities worldwide and second or third in Africa (University of Cape Town is generally reputed to be the best university in South Africa. Of course we can all dispute ranking systems – such as what are the factors, etc., but I add this information here because it is generally and easily available.

The building in the photo below, thatched roof and all, is the Schreuderhuis, built in 1709 by Sebastian Schröder, whose titles included “Free Burgher, Secretary of the Public Mill, and Messenger of the Court at Stellenbosch.”  The street corner on which the house is located is the first street corner in Stellenbosch and the building is the oldest known European town dwelling in South Africa.

Schreuderhuis - 1709

While Stellenbosch is principally Afrikaner, it also has and had a significant British population as well.  And to this day evidence remains such as this tastefully named pub.

The Slug and Lettuce Pub

When we were in Stellenbosch there was an exhibition by SOST (The Stellenbosch Outdoor Sculpture Trust) with the 2014 outdoor art exhibition themed  “Come Sit”.  The curatorial statement for the exhibit stated that it focused on “applied arts – namely, functional art which incorporate design, creative ideals, and utilitarian value.  The artists’ brief was to use a simple concrete bench as a base to create designs that blended function and form.”

One of the pieces of this exhibit was called “Seemingly peaceful” and it stated that is was an old man “seemingly peaceful” who is sitting and reading on a park bench. 

"Seemingly Peaceful" Man on a Bench

The artist questions whether the old man, reflecting on the world, can feel serene given such matters as his contribution to the degeneration of the planet, whether his life was egocentric or soul-centric, whether he cared for mother earth and whether he cares about the legacy he has left behind.

The sculptor has a poem into the book the man is reading:

It’s 3:23 in the morning
and I’m awake
because my great great grandchildren
won’t let me sleep
my great great grandchildren
ask me in dreams
what did you do when the planet was plundered?
what did you do when the earth was unraveling?
surely you did something
when the seasons started failing?

The poem is called Heiroglyphic Stairway by Drew Dellinger and seems especially compelling as we face climate change and such specific effects as our California drought.

Here you can see the poem as part of the sculpture:

Poem in Sculpture

And, in case you’re wondering about the bird sitting on the back of the bench, it’s also part of the sculpture which the artist says represents spiriti, illumination, and the sun.

There are other sculptures that are also part of the exhibit.  There is a somewhat more abstract sculpture of a person sitting on a bench.

Abstract Person Sitting on Bench

And another sculpture which makes the bench itself the subject of the art.

Bench As Art

Now, after Stellenbosch itself, it’s time to visit a winery in the wine district just outside the town.

I seem to have forgotten to post the link to the full resolution photos for Post 29 so here they are, followed by the link to the full resolution photos for Post 30.

Link to Full Resolution Photos for Post 29

Link to Full Resolution Photos for this post (#30)

29. Day 10 (Aug 26) – Grootbos Fynbos

This afternoon we spent some time at a private resort called Grootbos.  The name is Afrikaans for “big forest,” and some of the property consists of an ancient milkwood forest.  When the resort bought the property, there were many plants on the property that were not native fynbos.  Grootbos has steadily removed the non-native plants, so that today the property consists nearly (or possibly entirely) of plants native to the Cape Floristic Kingdom (discussed in a previous post).  The resort property covers over 6,000 acres and contains 765 plant species, 100 of which are endangered.  

I don’t believe I’ve discussed Afrikaans yet.  I’m sure most of you are aware of it as a language.  It is one of the eleven official national languages of South Africa and is spoken by about 13% of the population as a first language.  That makes it third among the 4 most common first languages (Zulu is first with 23%, Xhosa is second with 16%, and English is fourth with 10%).  While English is only the fourth most common first language, it is understand in most cities and is the most common language in government and the media.  

Afrikaans is the first language of the Afrikaner white population and is the first language of 75% of the coloured population.  (Remember that the term “coloured” in South Africa has specific meaning and refers to mixed race people under the racist policy of the former Apartheid regime – the specific races being white, black (or native), and Asian (principally Indian).)  Afrikaans developed from the language spoken by the Dutch settlers and thus is a daughter language of Dutch and was once referred to as “Cape Dutch.”  Ninety to ninety-five percent of the vocabulary is of Dutch origin.  Because Afrikaners were generally the most extreme racists of the white population, Afrikaans is considered more the language of the oppressor than English.  More on this later when we visit Cape Town and still more when we visit Constitution Hill and the Constitutional Court in Johannesburg.

Part of the property of Grootbos is luxurious resort, although exactly how luxurious I can’t say since our trip did not include our staying there.  We did not visit the resort buildings, except for the dining room where we had a lunch that was supposed to be spectacular but in my view was only good.  But the area right near the dining room (where we had lunch) has a very nice pond in a design that I think is in keeping with the area.

Pond

Pond Close-Up

The area around this pond was also where we found the weaver bird making the nest showing in the previous post.

Grootbos is very scenic with great views of large expanses of fynbos plants.

Fynbos Expanse

More Fynbos Expanse

Still More Fynbos Expanse

At Grootbos, we were very close to the Indian Ocean (the area called Walker Bay).  The southern end of Walker Bay can be seen in the photo below.  Later tonight we will stay in the town of Hermanus, at the northern end of the bay.

Walker Bay from Grottos

After lunch we took  what is called a 4x4 flower safari.  We were all packed into a Land Rover safari vehicle (which I’ll discuss in greater detail when we get to our wild animal safari) to drive around some of the property.  Our guide was wonderfully knowledgeable about the fynbos plant community and was able to tell us many interesting things – much of which I have not managed to retain.

4x4 Flower Safari

But we did get to see a lot of pretty bushes and plants and since it’s hard to take notes while being bounced around in a Land Rover, you’ll just have to put up with what I think are nice photos without further identification except to know that these are all members of the fynbos community.

Fynbos-1

Fynbos-2

Fynbos-3

Fynbos-4

Tomorrow we’ll have some wine tasting, a visit to a French town, and end up in Cape Town.

28. Day 10 (Aug 26) – Back to the Garden Route

As I discussed yesterday, we took a bit of a northern (well actually north-west) detour to get to the Klein Karoo yesterday, so today it’s a south-west jog back to the Garden Route (and beyond as we’ll see in the next post).

Much of the route south through the Klein Karoo was similar to the trip north yesterday.  There was one spot that we pass through that I would have expected were we traveling through the rural west or south of the United States – and it seems that much of the Klein Karoo shares some of this culture.  The place is called Ronnies [no apostrophe] Sex Shop.  There are several stories as to how this place got its name.  Everyone agrees that a man named Ronnie, who still owns and operates the shop, started it in a dilapidated old building on one of the (more or less) main routes south from the Klein Karoo to the southern coast.  The location is easily found in the dictionary under the term “middle of nowhere.”  Ronnie intended to sell fresh fruits and vegetables from the local area.  

Here is where the two stories diverge:

1) The version we heard on the trip notes that Ronnie always intended the place as a pub / general store.  But when the place was suffering from lack of business, Ronnie painted the word “Sex” on the sign and people started coming in.  

2) The “official” version says nothing about the original intent of having a pub, and it was only when some of Ronnie’s friends played a prank on him by adding the word to the sign, that someone suggested he make the place a pub.  

I’m told there is no sex in the shop – unless you are one of those types who consider women’s undergarments hung on walls to be sex.  When we stopped by the shop, our guide, who you may remember we had significant issues with, decided to add sexism to the list of complaints we had.  He mainly addressed the men in our group and suggested they might want to go in.  None of the women went in nor did I, so I can’t say what is inside.  The outside of the building looks like this:

Ronnie's Sex Shop

But the funniest part of what is really a fairly stupid little stop along a road in the middle of nowhere is the advertising sign right next to the building.  My guess is that the Logo Studio is possibly the only printing place within 100 miles of this location.  I wonder if they charge extra for proof-reading.

Proof Reading Not Included

Now, on to the more scenic parts of the trip to the southern coast.  Once you cross the pass out of Klein Karoo, the landscape becomes more lush and there are even small ponds.

Pond in Lush Landscape

In the background of that picture, you can see what appears to be a mustard field.  Let’s look at it a bit closer.

Mustard Field

Another view shows just how scenic acres (or hectares in this case) of mustard can look.

Closeup of Mustard Field

The farming in the area also changes, and we have herds of sheep which require a more lush grazing land as well as more water.

Sheep Grazing

Being back on the Garden Route, we also saw our old friend the Southern Sunbird.

Southern Sunbird

We also had a really good chance to see the weaver finch, which we first saw in Johannesburg.  

(In the first posting, I promised that when the story required it, I would deviate from a strictly chronological series of photos.  This is one case as the photos of the weaver finch now being presented were taken in several different locations over a span of several days.  There are presented here as a story about weaver finches rather that a story about my travels with weaver finches interspersed when we see them.  This will be the norm for a while when we go on safari and see various animals in different locations, but presented together).

In the Klein Karoo, on the ostrich farm, there is one tree that should probably be called the Weaver Finch Condominiums.

Weaver Finch Condos

At Grootbos (which we will visit more generally in the next post) there were also several weaver finches.  One is checking out the door to the nest he built.

Weaver Finch Checking Door to Nest

Another weaver is contemplating the building project awaiting him, having just finished the “foundation” for the nest.

"OK -- Foundation's Done" 

"But so much more to do."

As I noted earlier, the male (he of the more colorful plumage) makes the nest to attract a mate.  And if the woman of his choice rejects the nest, he destroys it and starts over again.  Or at least that’s what the ornithologists tell us – I’ve never seen it.

I was also fortunate to catch a photo of a weaver in flight carrying a long leafy blade back to wherever he is building his nest.

Carrying Building Materials Back to the Nest

Next stop – Grootbos and our final look at fynbos.

Link to Full Resolution Photos

27. Day 9 (Aug 25) – In the Klein Karoo

So we had left the relatively lush and moist Garden Route along the southern coast turning north (the Southern Hemisphere equivalent of turning south) for the more arid and semi-desert area of the Klein Karoo.  And since tomorrow we would be turning south again to head for the coast and Cape Town, why had we done this detour? 

The area doesn’t have wonderful vegetation, but there is something else that is native here:

Ostriches in the Klein Karoo 

Yes, it is the souther ostrich, found natively in much of southern Africa, and farmed extensively in the Klein Karoo.

There are two ostriches in the photo, so let’s zoom in and see what’s what.

Two Ostriches

The brown-feathers are the plumage of the adult female or the young ostrich of either sex – based on size, though, this is almost certainly an adult female.  The female is eating something on the ground.   Ostriches tend to eat seeds, shrubs, grass, fruit, and flowers, as well as the occasional yummy insect.  Ostriches have no teeth so they don’t chew their food.  Instead they will form a ball of their food up to about 1 cup in volume in their gullet and this then passes through their neck into the gizzard.  The ostrich also has swallowed pebbles which reside in the gizzard as well – indeed up to nearly ½ the gizzard is pebbles and sand.  The pebbles and sand grind the food, and the total weight of the gizzard can be just under 3 pounds.  As befitting an animal native to an arid region, an ostrich can avoid drinking for several days, relying on the moisture in ingested plants.  When water is available, though, they do drink.

This brown-plumaged ostrich is also a female. 

Female Ostrich

The black is the plumage of the adult male (and it can have white markings as well).

Male Ostrich

Ostriches are striking looking creatures and their necks and heads are devoid of significant feathers.

Ostrich Head

Ostrich Heads and Necks

When ostriches mate, the female indicates she is available by dropping her wings.

Female Ostrich Indicating Availability for Mating

I must say that seeing the ostriches on the farm served as a good argument for evolution.  Who would want to argue that the design of these breath-taking (in several different meanings of the word) creatures was done as a conscious act.

On ground (the ostrich is flightless), the ostrich is the fastest bird as well as the largest.   And it lays the largest egg of any currently living bird.

Happy Guide with Ostrich Egg

The man holding the egg was our guide around the ostrich farm.  And if he looks happy, he is.  He loves what he does – being able to work around creatures that he says are “beautiful.”  He is not from an ostrich-producing area, but has a degree in business and was working in a bank when someone requested a loan  to finance an ostrich farm.  So our guide went out to look at what was involved and was smitten.  He says he makes less working on the farm but it doesn’t matter.

The egg he is holding is just one of many such eggs that are laid by the ostriches on the farm.  But they are not left for incubation and hatching by the parents.  They are, instead, collected and handled by very modern machinery.

Ostrich Egg Incubator

The doors to the incubator are normally kept closed, although they were opened so we could take a peek.  And, as they mature, they are moved from one incubator to another from those large racks to wire crates where are left to hatch.

Baby Ostrich Hatched in Incubator

Once hatched, the chicks are placed in a plastic crate in a group so they can provide warmth (and possibly social companionship) to each other.

Newly-Hatched Baby Chicks Outside of Incubator

We’re at the Mooiplaas Guesthouse near Oudtshoorn, the main town of the Klein Karoo.  We’ve toured the ostrich farm, fed some of the ostriches (carefully – they can nip and kick very hard), and seen how they are born and raised.  One question that was not answered was whether the farming of ostriches is done sustainably.  Based on the information we were given, in response to our questions, I would doubt it.  The ostriches each year seem to destroy a certain amount of the “pasture” land.  But I’m not sure that our questions were understood and whether the answers were responsive to what we wanted to know.  

It also seemed that there was a bit of a dustup near where we were staying.  When we first arrived at the farm at around 3:30 in the afternoon, we could see a fire off in the distance.

Fire in the Klein Karoo

Three hours later the fire still burned.

Fire at Sunset

We didn’t get a reliable story about what this was.  It was intimated that it was arson and that it was taken in retribution against some farm for reasons that were not shared with us, if they were known.  They were generally letting the fire burn itself out – water being at a premium in the Klein Karoo.  

So now the question is why do they raise ostriches – and a lot of them as you can see.  In the later part of the 19^th century, the attraction was the feathers.  Fortunes were made on the feathers.  But in the early part of the 20^th century demand dropped dramatically – due to several factors including the Model T Ford (which was not friendly to feathery hats) and the outbreak of World War I.  Some 80% of all ostrich farmers here went bankrupt.

There still is some market for ostrich feathers – but not a huge one and certainly not enough to support the some 800 farm members of the Klein Karoo ostrich producers.  

In 1970, the world discovered ostrich leather; the skin is very smooth and soft and can be used for most things that cow leather can be used for.  It is even sufficiently rare and desirable that there is now a market in fake ostrich leather.  (If you want to know how to see that you’re not getting taken when buying supposed real ostrich leather, go here: http://www.tombarrington.com/How-Can-You-Tell-the-Difference-between-Real-Ostrich-Leather-and-Fake-Ostrich-Leather_b_16.html.)  The skin from an average ostrich gives 14 or so square feet of leather.  

And then there is ostrich meat.  Klein Karoo farmers market ostrich meat world wide under the Blue Ostrich brand which began around 2000.  And dinner at the ranch had as one option (the others being lamb, chicken, or vegetarian) barbecued ostrich fillet served with your choice of sauce (Madagascar green peppercorn, port and cranberry, or mushroom).  The meat is extremely tender and flavorful and very low fat.  It tastes closest to beef. 

Tomorrow we return to the Garden Route to see some more fynbos.  And we draw closer to Cape Town.
Link to Full Resolution Photos