Sun, Aug 30 - To Steenberg

False Bay

We left our gracious hosts, Krista & Tusi (sp?) of Francolin Hof Guest House, a most excellent B&B in one of the nicest beach towns I've ever seen with its great cliff top walk, wide beaches, good restaurants, golf, vineyards...and not to be crass, but our B&B cost $100 night, just to encourage our American friends to visit this wonderful country!

On this cloudy, drizzly day, we drove west and then took the R320 north to the N2, the highway to the Garden Route coast.  The R320 passes over low mountains past many vineyards, including Hamilton Russell, one of our favorites, and we thought, since the weather's not good, we could wine taste, but they are closed on Sundays!  Some blue laws still exist around here.

Vineyards

We got on the N2 at Caledon and started back to Cape Town through beautiful rolling farmland.  We eventually got to Sir Lowry's Pass, a very famous birding spot for the Rockjumper that we "dipped on" (didn't see, in birders' lingo) yesterday.  To get to the birding spot, you pull off into a rest area, up on a mountain pass, on the south side of the highway.  Then you wait for a break in the traffic and RUN across the three lanes, and walk a ways to where the bird is supposed to be!  Pretty scary stuff, and, it was raining and blowing a gale.  We sat in the car overlooking what must be an amazing view on a clear day, of all of Cape Town, Table Mountain and False Bay!  We could vaguely see the shape of Table Mountain in the mist and decided that it was really too miserable to get out.  As we left the rest area, we passed a small van with the driver snoozing in his seat, which must have carried a load of birders who, at that very moment were slogging through the damp on the other side of the highway with fogged-up binoculars and the wind tearing at their clothes!

Steenberg Hotel

We descended and drove through the townships on the outskirts of Cape Town, along the beautiful beaches of False Bay, finally turning inland to Constantia, a snazzy suburb, and reached Steenberg Hotel and Vineyard.  The hotel is in a group of old Cape Dutch buildings in an area that was first farmed in the 1600s with very beautiful grounds and setting.  

Egyptian Geese

We took a walk to the golf course which was full of birds and then through the acres of vineyards, up to the winery which, being closer to more liberal Cape Town, was open on a Sunday.  We tasted five wines to get an idea of what we wanted to have for dinner and returned to our room.

Steenberg Tasting Room

We walked next door to Catharina's, the lovely restaurant named for the wild Dutch woman who, with her five husbands, first settled this farm.  Bob had mushroom risotto, a delicious chicken dish and I had goat cheese tortellini and a mushroom platter with a mushroom tart, jellied mushroom salad, mushroom mousse, and a mushroom cappuccino, pureed mushrooms covered with cream in a little coffee cup!  

My mushroom platter

For dessert we split a milk tart brulee.  We then returned to our room and found our humble PJs artfully folded and placed on top of bathrobes with candies!   We watched TV, instead of packing for tomorrow!