Tag: South Africa

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Travel

Wine Tasting in Franschhoek South Africa

Stellenbosch gets most of the attention for wine regions in South Africa, known especially for their Pinotage wines. There is a lesser-known region just a half-hour away from Stellenbosch called Franschhoek (French Corner). We set out from Cape Town for a weekend of wine tasting in Franschhoek with friends. Along the way, we stopped in Stellenbosch at the Stellenbosch Slow Market which is open on Saturday mornings. This market is full of vendors selling coffee, beer, baked goods, all kinds of different food, as well as crafts and some really wonderful art. There are picnic style tables in the center so you can eat whatever you decide on. We picked up some biltong and droëwors to snack (inspired this recipe!) on during the day and ate at a Turkish food stall for breakfast/lunch before heading out.

Wine Tram in Franschhoek:

In Franschhoek, there is a wine tram that you can purchase tickets and take for the day. The tram has several lines so you can choose which line you want and that will determine which wineries you can stop at. You can hop on and off the tram depending on which wineries you want to go to. The mountains around the wineries are beautiful and the tram has an open-air area which was great for taking pictures along the way. One thing to be mindful of is that the tram is on a schedule so it drops you off and comes back to pick you up approximately 45 minutes later.  If the winery is full or a large group gets off the tram with you if may take a while to get through your tasting. The wineries do tend to pour one wine at a time vs pouring all your tastings out for you when you arrive. It normally wouldn’t be a big deal, but for us, it meant rushing the last few to make sure we didn’t miss the tram. The tasting portions were generous at all the stops we made.  There are eight hop on, hop off lines you can choose from. Here is the link for the website for more information: https://winetram.co.za/tours/

We chose the orange line and stopped at the following wineries:

Noble Hill: This was our first stop of the day. We were one of the only small groups there during our tasting. we sat outside on the patio for our tasting. This is a great place to relax, enjoy your tasting or a glass of wine and take in the views of the surrounding Simonsberg mountains. The winery also has two Rhodesian Ridgeback winery dogs. These dogs are very friendly but also very large. they won’t bother you if you aren’t a dog lover but if you are they are more than happy to let you pet them!

Babylonstoren: This winery is a traditional Cape Dutch farm. The winery and restaurant are a combination of Cape Dutch architecture and more contemporary features. The restaurant has large floor to ceiling glass windows all around it which show off the views of the surrounding vines and mountains. We took more time at this stop so we could have a small lunch as well as our tasting. We particularly enjoyed the Shiraz and the Viognier.

Plaisir de Merle: This wine tasting was in a beautiful old farmhouse. The wine was good, but the service wasn’t awesome – we waited a while to be served and then we were very rushed in order to make the tram. The server also didn’t give any details about the wine, just poured and left. I would go back, but it wasn’t the best one we went to.

Allee Bleue: Our last stop of the day. We particularly loved their Brut Rose and all of their reds were also very good. This was also the only winery we went to that had Pinotage believe it or not. It is apparently more of a Stellenbosch varietal. We really liked their Pinotage and actually left with a bottle.

We spent the night at a hostel in town and then in the morning we went to one more winery before heading back to Cape Town. We stopped at the Rupert & Rothschild Vignerons Winery which had wonderful reds and was fun for us since we had been to the Rothschild family-owned winery in Chile so we now have a bottle from each trip in our cellar at home. We left with a bottle of Baron Edmond which is a Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot blend. The winery has a nice patio area as well as a very large and beautifully decorated, modern tasting room. We also got to taste the Flechas De Los Andes Gran Corte 2011 which is a Malbec, Syrah (Shiraz if your one of THOSE people :-)), Cabernet Sauvignon blend from the Rothschild winery in Argentina. This wine was not for sale at the winery in Franschhoek but we would definitely recommend it or if you can find it for sale in the U.S.

Here are links to our other South Africa posts:

Tell us your favorite places to wine taste in South Africa, leave us a comment below!

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Travel

Road Trip – Cape Peninsula South Africa

These places were some of our favorites during our trip to South Africa. We would highly recommend all of these stops. This part of the trip you would need a car for. We rented a car to do the Chapman’s peak drive and kept it for the day. We had a driver through our volunteer program who drove us to Boulder’s beach and Cape Point/Cape of Good Hope. Due to our schedule, we split it into two days, but you could do everything below in one full day.

Cape Point and Cape of Good Hope:
This was the highlight of the trip for both of us. We had a driver through our volunteer program that drove us and stayed while we explored, but if you have a rental car you can go at your own pace. Cell service there is not that great so having an Uber or taxi driver drop you off and then planning to get another ride back will probably not work out (it also costs money to enter the park, so taxis don’t sit around in there). As you drive through the park you can see several different types of animals. We saw baboons, bontebok, and elands.

Our driver was great at pointing these animals out to us as we drove. You can also see a wild ostrich in the park which we did not but our driver did drive us by an ostrich farm just outside the park so we could at least see them up close.
We walked up to the lighthouse at Cape Point where you have a great view of where the Indian and the Atlantic Ocean meet. You can see the currents in the water, as they mix it looks like a perpetual wave way out in the water. The day we visited it was sunny in Cape Town when we left but as you get closer to Cape Point the breeze off the oceans hit land and it gets cloudier and more humid.

From Cape Point, you can take a path that leads you along the coast to the Cape of Good Hope. This walk was beautiful and only takes about 30-45 minutes. if you have the time we would highly recommend this trail. It is a well-marked and well-maintained trail the entire way. It takes you along the mountain with views of secluded beaches below and waves crashing on the rocks. You walk up a small hill to get a panoramic view of the Cape of Good Hope before finally heading down to the beach where there is a parking lot so our driver was able to pick us up from here after our walk. This is where the iconic sign marking the Southwestern most point of Africa is located so you can take your photo before heading out.

Boulders Beach:

This is where the penguin colony is and there are penguins everywhere! You do need to pay an admissions fee to enter. Once you are in there are several lookout decks where you can watch the penguins swim and walk along the beach. Outside of the park, there is public beach access that you can sunbathe and swim. It is known because you can swim with the penguins (and it’s completely free. We did not swim but stood on the rocks in the water and stood in the shallow water near the shore and had penguins swim around our feet.

Chapman’s Peak Drive:

This is one of the most scenic drives in the world. It is a toll road that goes between Noordhoek and Hout Bay on the Atlantic Coast. You do need to make sure the road is open as it may close due to weather conditions. Along the way, there are multiple places you can pull over and stop to take in the view and take pictures. The views along the way are spectacular, we stopped at just about every place we could pull over to take pictures. Definitely worth the drive as you work your way around the peninsula.

Here are links to our other South Africa posts:

Tell us your favorite places on the Cape Peninsula, leave us a comment below!

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Travel

Cape Town Essentials

These are our recommended must-see and do items within Cape Town. This post focuses on the City itself. You could see/do all of these things without having to rent a car if you are staying in the city or nearby. We used Uber throughout our trip. It was inexpensive and we never had a problem, all the drivers were friendly and very knowledgeable about the area.

Table Mountain:

Table Mountain is a major presence from anywhere within Cape Town. It towers over the city and offers incredible views of the city and surrounding ocean. If you want to take in the views from the top there are a few options. There is a cable car you can take, or you can go up one of the many paths to the top. There was only one day that worked with our volunteering schedule, so I decided to hike up then take the cable car down. One of the other volunteers we were staying with started the hike but quickly turned around due to the heat and pace in order to make it in time. She turned around and decided to take the cable car up to meet me at the top. The hike is steep and it was an extremely hot day (unusually hot for December). I decided on the Platteklip Gorge hike as it seemed to be the most direct and fastest to the top. If you are going to climb Table mountain be prepared that it is quite a hike, be prepared with sun protection, water, and enough time. The Platteklip Gorge hike took me just under 2 hours, but I was moving pretty quickly. The sign said 2.5 hours from the start to the cable car so make sure you plan accordingly. The climb itself was not too technical, it was basically like walking upstairs for 2 hours. I went up in the late afternoon so the final 1/3 of the hike was in the shade which was an incredible relief. At the top, it feels like you are on a different planet, to the South you see the Twelve Apostles – the mountain range parallel to the Atlantic, and directly below you are the Clifton beaches (there are 4 of them). If you walk towards the cable car, you will get some of the best views of Cape town and Lions Head with the Atlantic and Robben Island in the distance. You can get a one-way ticket down the cable car in the gift shop if you don’t want to climb back down. There is also a cafe at the top and drinking fountains.

V & A Waterfront:

The waterfront area is a great place to walk around. This is where the V & A Food Market is located where you can find lots of different food options. We would highly recommend trying some biltong and droëwors. Biltong is similar to jerky, it is a cured meat (usually game of some kind) sliced very thin. Droëwors is a dried sausage. Both are great snacks. The watershed market is also worth walking through. It is full of stalls selling art, clothing, and jewelry. There are several restaurants in this area as well, it is a more touristy area but it does offer great views of the water and of table mountain. We ate dinner here the last night of our trip and got a table with a great view of the water and of Table Mountain. We were able to watch the tablecloth (the clouds) flowing over the mountain as we ate.

Bo-Kaap Neighborhood:

This is a former township within the city. It is traditionally a primarily Muslim neighborhood that is known for its colorful houses. It is worth wandering through as you are walking around the city. There are several streets lined with brightly colored houses that are beautiful to see. There were lots of other tourists walking through taking photos while we were there. Do be mindful when taking photos that these are people’s homes so do be respectful of that.

Clifton Beach:

Clifton is an affluent neighborhood within Cape Town. Clifton beach is a series of four beaches, somewhat separated by large boulders. Clifton Four is the most popular beach, the other three are slightly less crowded. We spend a few hours one afternoon relaxing at the beach. There are vendors selling drinks and snacks and umbrellas along the beach. As you walk to beaches three, two, and one it becomes progressively less crowded. All the beaches are beautiful and offer amazing views. You can see the Twelve Apostles mountains from anywhere on the beach. This area is lined with apartments, hotels and is a very crowded area, if you drive yourself be prepared that parking is difficult to find near the beach. There are parking lots but they fill up fast.

Kirstenbosch National Botanical Gardens:

Kirstenbosch National Botanical Gardens is a beautiful area. There are lots of open spaces where you can have a picnic or just relax and enjoy the park. There are concerts in the park but we did not make it to a concert during our trip. There are two restaurants in the park. One is a tea garden with Mediterranean food, the other serves traditional African food and is more expensive. There is an aerial walkway that winds through the treetops and provides excellent views of the park and of the city surrounding it. The park is at the base of Table Mountain and there is access to the mountain if you want to hike. We hiked up partway through Skeleton’s Gorge. This side of the mountain is forested with large trees, small streams, and waterfalls which you will pass along the way up. This path is also mostly shaded since you are in more of the forest than the other side of the mountain where the cable car is.

Gin and Tonics in Cape Town:

If you are a Gin and Tonic fan (or even if you aren’t) Cape Town will not disappoint! There are multiple gin bars downtown and you can find great gin and tonics at most bars and restaurants downtown. There are some very unique gins in the area because of all to botanicals grown on table mountain. This is something we did not know before our trip but we were very happy with the gin and tonics we had at each place we went downtown!

Long street is the main party street downtown. This street is full of bars and restaurants and lots of people! This is definitely a place to watch your personal belongings and be mindful of pickpockets. While this is not really our scene we did find some awesome street meat on Long street. There are multiple vendors selling homemade sausage similar to a brat in the U. S. We were taken by our friends who were living in Cape Town to find an older man who has been selling on Long Street for years. He was working alone, grilling up sausage and onions, and offered multiple sauces and toppings you could add on. You can smell the onions grilling as you walk towards his stand. This is a great late-night snack after walking around and enjoying your gin and tonics!

Cheetah Outreach:

Just as a warning, you would need a car to get to the Cheetah Outreach. Their primary goal is to promote the survival of the South African Cheetah through environmental education and conservation initiatives. This place is about a half-hour outside the city. One of our friends who was living in Cape Town at the time of our trip was volunteering at the Cheetah Outreach Nature Preserve. As a visitor, you can walk through and see all the animals. They have fox, jackals, meerkats, and several other smaller cats. Also, you can pay an additional fee to enter with a volunteer and handler and pet the Cheetahs while you’re there. You can give them your camera and they will take pictures of you with the animals. Make sure you bring cash for this because credit cards are not accepted.

View our other South Africa posts below:

We know there is a ton to see and do around Cape Town, what did we miss, leave us a comment below!

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Travel

Muizenberg and Kalk Bay – Beach Towns in the Western Cape South Africa

We stayed in Muizenberg for most of our trip to South Africa as we were doing the IVHQ surfing volunteer program (see our IVHQ post for more info on the surfing program). Muizenberg is about 20-30 minutes south of Cape Town and it is known for its surfing. It is a small beach town with a few surf shops and restaurants. The beach is always packed with people surfing at all times of the day. Along the beach, there is a long line of colorful beach huts that are iconic to the town.

Muizenberg has a great, relaxed beach town feel to it. People are always walking into the shops and restaurants right off the beach in wet suits, swimsuits and flip flops. You can see the Muizenberg mountains from the beach and from pretty much wherever you are in the town. Since you are on the coast the weather is much cooler in Muizenberg than in Cape Town and there is always a pretty strong breeze. Although it is a bit of a drive outside of Cape Town it is a nice place to stay for a few days, especially if you are looking to surf.

Surfing in Muizenberg

We surfed twice per day while we were volunteering with IVHQ, but if you are just there for a visit you can rent boards just across the street from the beach. Multiple surf shops in the town rent for pretty reasonable rates (wetsuits and boards). One thing to note is that there are Great White sharks in the bay and while sightings in the surfing area are rare it can happen. There is an organization called Shark Spotters: https://sharkspotters.org.za that keep a lookout from the mountains and there is a flag and siren warning system to communicate conditions to the surfers/swimmers. There were no warnings the whole week we were there and honestly once you’re in the water you kind of forget about it.

Places to Eat & Drink in Muizenberg:

  • Live Bait for a nice seafood dinner and a view of the beach. This restaurant is on the second story of a building along the beach so it offers great views from the large windows in the dining room.

  • Tiger’s milk for sit down burgers/pub food
  • Easy Tiger for more fast food/quick burgers on the go
  • Bootlegger Coffee Company for the best espresso in the mornings. We walked here every morning and then sat on the beach to watch the waves while drinking our coffee.
  • Lagerchinos – inexpensive drinks and pub food. Nice outdoor seating for a beer after a day on the waves
  • The Striped Horse – Bar with good live music
  • Rolling Wood Surf & Skate – This is a place that was introduced to us by another volunteer the first day. It is a little surf shop that sells really cool boards but also has coffee and some of the best carrot cake we’ve ever had – don’t miss it!
  • Blue Bird Garage & Food Market- we headed to this market with some of the other volunteers on the first day we arrived. It is full of people selling crafts and food/drink vendors selling some amazing food! The market is open every Sunday.

About 10-15 minutes from Muizenberg is Kalk Bay. This is a small beach town with more shops and restaurants- more of a vacation town feel than Muizenberg with a lot more shopping if that’s what you are looking for. The streets are lined with small shops selling clothing, crafts, furniture, and antiques.

Places to Eat & Drink in Kalk Bay:

  • Olympia Cafe- great coffee and great food. We recommend trying the mussels. They were some of the largest mussels we have ever had!
  • The Brass Bell- this place has a wonderful beach view and a small walled-off tidal “pool” area where you can swim in the ocean. This is surrounded by large boulders that you can walk out on when the tide is low. We ate here twice just for the view and the food was also great. On Wednesday nights this restaurant turns into a huge Karaoke bar. We did go to Karaoke night with the other volunteers one night at the Brass Bell (the IVHQ volunteers go every week). Be prepared for a crazy, college bar night experience if you go on Wednesday night.

Links to our other South Africa posts:

Tell us your favorite beach towns, leave us a comment below!

Categories
Travel

IVHQ Surf Outreach: Volunteer Program in Muizenberg South Africa

We were first drawn to Cape Town because we had friends who were living there at the time and wanted to visit before they moved back to the U.S. After doing some research we found a surf outreach volunteer program in the Cape Town area through IVHQ.  As a volunteer, your time is spent teaching and supervising kids as they are participating in an after school surf program. We decided to volunteer for a week and then give ourselves a few days after our volunteer program to visit our friends, explore more of Cape Town and to of course do some wine tasting.

IVHQ/Dreams to Reality Surf Program

The surf program is based in Muizenberg which is about 20-30 minutes south of Cape Town. Muizenberg is a small beach town known for its surfing. The local organization in the Cape Town area is called Dreams to Reality. There are several volunteer programs offered in the Cape Town area; other programs included childcare, teaching, and sports development. We thought Dreams to Reality was a very well run organization that did a good job focusing on the relationships between the kids and volunteers. When we arrived we were picked up at the airport by another volunteer and taken to the house we would be staying at. There are several bedrooms in the volunteer house, each with 4-5 beds. We had people from several of the other volunteer programs in our house. There are several volunteer houses in Muizenberg, all within walking distance of each other so you get a chance to meet a lot of the other volunteers. The other volunteers are awesome. This program was a great way to meet a bunch of people from around the world some of whom we still stay in touch with.

On the first full day we were provided a walking tour of Muizenberg to help familiarize us with the area. We were also given a walking tour of Cape Town and offered several tours through a local tour company- CapeXtreme. We did not book any tours with them so cannot recommend or not recommend them. They did do a nice job of showing us around Cape Town for the afternoon. The tour was more of a brief overview of the city, nothing very in-depth.  We chose to stay after the tour was over and explore more on our own. You can read our Cape Town Essentials post for more details on what to do in the City.

Before this trip, Erika had never surfed and Ryan had done one lesson. You do not have to know how to surf to join this program but you do need to know how to swim. Both of us swam in college so we figured this program would be a good fit for us. On the first day you are given a quick surfing lesson by the instructor and given time to work on your surfing. Each day consists of two sessions, one AM session where you get to surf with the other volunteers. The afternoon session is when the kids come and they get to surf. Most of the kids in the program while we were there were already very good at surfing. As a volunteer, your job is to help the kids get their wet suits on and walk to the beach. Once everyone is at the beach your job is to help keep an eye on all the kids and help out wherever needed. That may mean you get to help push the kids into the bigger waves, help some of the younger kids learn to surf or just play in the water. After surfing everyone walks back to the surf shop and the kids get a meal. Some of the volunteers will be helping kids clean and hang up the wet suits, others will be serving up a simple meal. After the kids eat the volunteers clean up and the kids are picked up and brought home. The program is working to give kids from a local township a good activity to do after school, to learn social skills and responsibility. The leader of the Surf program did a really nice job of relating to the kids and served as a great role model for the program.

When the kids aren’t in school (during the holiday break for example) the times the kids come in may change and on some days they may go to a local park and play basketball or play beach games pending weather conditions and the conditions of the waves.

Check out the IVHQ website for the most up to date lists of programs they offer as they are always adding new opportunities. We would strongly recommend if you do a volunteer trip that you volunteer for more than one week. We are lucky that one week was the minimum requirement needed so that we could do this trip since our time off was limited but it is really difficult to really get to know the kids when you only volunteer for one week. The first day of the week you do spend all day in an orientation so you actually only get to volunteer 4 days if you are there for a week. At the bare minimum, two weeks would be our recommendation so you can do orientation, get your bearings, and also have some time to actually connect with the kids you are there to help.

Link to the IVHQ website: https://www.volunteerhq.org/volunteer-in-south-africa/

Here are the links to our other South Africa posts

Have you ever done volunteer work while traveling? If so where and what did you do? Leave us a comment below!

Categories
Food

South African Biltong Recipe

Every time we travel there are iconic foods that stick out and define a location for us. Foods that we go back home and try to recreate as closely as possible. Empanadas in Chile, Zucchini balls with Tzatziki sauce in Greece, or Tacos Al Pastor in Mexico. For South Africa, it was dried meats: Droëwors and Biltong specifically. This post is a recipe for Biltong that we have tinkered with a bit and are still refining. Our friends that lived in South Africa for over a year had it last weekend and thought the spice profile was extremely close. We used Venison, but you could use any lean cut of beef or wild game:

Ingredients:

  • 3-5 lbs of lean Beef or Venison (you are looking for a lean roast: top round, eye of round, bottom round, etc.) It should be long enough to slice into nice slabs.
  • 1 cup rock salt or coarse sea salt
  • 1/2 cup – Whole Toasted Coriander seeds – crush w/ mortar and pestle (you can use coriander powder if you are in a pinch)
  • 1 cup of Apple Cider vinegar
  • 1/4 cup brown sugar
  • 1/2 cup Worcestershire sauce
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • 1 tbsp Black pepper

Instructions

  1. Cut the meat into strips. Slice them WITH the grain into roughly 2 x 1.5″ slabs. Ours were Venison and ended up a bit smaller than we would have liked
  2. Add about half the salt to a large bowl or pyrex dish
  3. Lay the slices in the salt, then cover with the rest of the salt- the slices should be well coated. Put in the refrigerator for about 45 minutes
  4. In another large bowl, add the Worcestershire Sauce and Apple Cider Vinegar
  5. Add in the baking soda and brown sugar, mix
  6. Remove the meat from the fridge, remove all the salt. They should have firmed up.
  7. Add the strips of meat to your brine, let them soak for 5-8 minutes. You may need to do this in batches. As you remove them, put them on a paper towel to soak up some of the moisture.
  8. Time to crush your coriander seeds: you can use a mortar & pestle; food processor or just a rolling pin on a cutting board to get the seeds crushed in half with a bit of powder.
  9. Coat each steak strip with copious amounts of coriander. Each piece should be completely covered.
  10. With the pieces encrusted with coriander, crack some black pepper on both sides.
  11. Time to dry: either use a Biltong Box or Umai Dry Bag
  12. Slice THIN. It should be so thin it is slightly translucent. It’s not jerky!
Venison Biltong in the Umai Dry bags
Finished Biltong: slice it thin!

Dry them to your liking: some people prefer Biltong a bit more ‘wet’ while others like it completely dried. Using a biltong box that would range anywhere from 4-8 days. We did try another method while I work on building a biltong box: Umai Dry Bags. These things are awesome, we have dry-aged steaks with them and made a few types of charcuterie. They are basically breathable vacuum seal bags that you leave in your refrigerator. We dried our Venison Biltong for 14 days (it will take a bit longer than a biltong box).

Umai Dry Bags on Amazon

Have you ever had Biltong? If you try this recipe out please let us know how it turned out!