South Africa 2015: Cape Town Day 3 to Franschhoek Valley

Saturday, October 31, 2015

Today is our last day for Cape Town and we drive to the Franschhoek Valley to the east for our biking in that valley. The weather was overcast, which masked some of the beauty of the valley nestled among the Groot Drakenstein Mountains with the road running past many of the region’s wine estates.

This region is the wine and gourmet food capital of So. Africa. Here the wine estates are in the foothills of the mountains that create a beautiful backdrop to the vineyards. The Huguenots who brought with them their French wine skills and food culture settled this region over 300 years ago. After the revocation of the Edict of Nantes in France in 1685, when Protestantism was outlawed, hundreds of so-called Huguenots fled their homeland, 277 of them arriving by ship at the Cape of Good Hope. Many of them were given land by the Dutch government in a valley called Oliphantshoek (Elephant’s Corner) – so named because of the vast herds of elephants that roamed the area. Soon after they settled here, it become known as Franschhoek (French Corner). This heritage lives on today with the Huguenot monument standing in the village of Franschhoek and the annual celebration of Bastille Day. A nearby museum chronicles the history of those pioneers, with each of the original Huguenot farms having its own fascinating story to tell. Our ride stopped at the Huguenot monument for about an hour to give us time to walk around the village. We walked to the village market square, which had a market operating today where villagers were selling their handicrafts, food, and wine from the area.

Waffle on a Stick

Happy Halloween, "I see you."

We then biked a short distance to a very upscale hotel where we had a very large lunch (Caesar salad, steak, and iced berries with white chocolate cream) and a wine tasting.

The guides had called the Table Mountain Cable Car to find out they were operating today. Therefore we chose to cut the day short and drive rapidly back to Cape Town to catch the cable car to the top of Table Mountain. When we arrived they were still open and we took the ride to the top (3,500’) to enjoy the fantastic views of Cape Town and the western coast and the “Twelve Apostles” ridge on the backside of the mountain.

Cape Town

Lion's Head and Signal Hill

Blister Plant

Lion's Head

Camps Bay

Twelve Apostles

After the Table Mountain viewing, we drove back to the hotel, changed clothes, and Louis and I walked the 3 miles to the V&A Waterfront harbor for dinner.