Day number two of our weekend in Cape Town and we had a flight back to Joberg to catch in the afternoon, so we decided to devote our morning to doing some sophisticated wine tasting at the local vineyards. Our first stop was Groot Constantia- one of the largest and oldest vineyards of the area. This vineyard, while pretty, was the large, quick service, globalised version of a vineyard – a stark contrast to some of the small family run businesses of the more Eastern wine tasting regions.
And of course this time you had to pay for your wine tasting. The good thing about this wine tasting was that we got a very friendly server, and with a little bit of that Milosavljevic feminine charm he made sure we got a reeeeeeal good taste of each of those wines. To be quite honest with you, we didn’t spend that long in there but after a few glasses we were already a bit jolly on the way out. We had received a present from the vineyard of these nice little wine glasses with the Groot Constantia name on them- a memory for life you would think, and you would be right. We took those glasses, with a final bit of wine and went for a walk around the vineyard to check out the grounds.
At one point I began to question just how much wine I had had, as we walked towards what looked like some very casually dressed young men with beanie hats holding machine guns. As they approached us it became clear these were paint-balling guns. I mean there was something seriously weird going on- this clearly wasn’t a birthday party. They took a rest in the shade and I saw an opportunity and approached them. “Howzit brus?” I had spent enough time in South Africa now to know how to mingle with the locals. They all replied with a much less enthusiastic looking blank stare so I got straight to the point and enquired as to what they were doing in the middle of Cape Town’s biggest vineyard with a bunch of paint-ball guns. Obviously they were using them to shoot at the baboons who were eating the local grapes. Yes, of course they were. Welcome to Africa. Just when you think you’ve seen it all, you go to the country’s largest vineyard and meet a small gang of baboon shooting paintballers. This blew Josh’s mind; for a moment he believed he had found his true calling in life. It took promises of even more wine to drag him away mid enquiring about vacancies.
And as I am a woman of my word, “even more wine” is what young Joshua got. We were short on time but we were determined to squeeze one more vineyard in so we bused it up to “Eagles Nest”. Eagles Nest was a much smaller, more secluded vineyard, with a beautiful garden with a little river passing through it. It has an equally impressive selection of wines; something about the fertile lands on the mountain and the precipitation of the Table Mountain clouds. We enjoyed the surroundings with another five glasses to taste and then jumped in an uber and scrambled for the airport.
All the time we were moving around that day I had been looking after my special wine glasses from Groot Constantia (remember, a memory for life). Well, as we were walking in to security Josh kindly offered to look after them. I was sceptical, but he insisted so I handed them over and turned to walk through security. Literally 10 seconds later I hear a crash and the breaking of glass behind me. I turn around to see a sheepish looking Josh and on the floor around him millions of pieces of glass that had formerly formed my special glasses. 10 seconds. Now I’m aware this isn’t particularly funny nor interesting for my readership but I just felt the need to share a) how much of a lightweight Josh is, and b) I want him to read this and know he owes me 2 glasses of wine from Groot Constantia (preferably not empty)
A fun weekend in Cape Town showed us a different part of South Africa which made it even harder to get back to Pretoria and back to work the next day
