South Africa

Franschhoek Hotel
View from our hotel room in Franschhoek

Miranda arrived through arrivals around 8 am on Thursday and we went back to my Stellenbosch Hotel for a coffee before going on to the next hotel in Franschhoek for a generally quiet day so that Miranda could recover from a rather sleepless overnight flight.

 

The highlights of Friday were a visit to the Huguenot Museum in Franschhoek where the history of the Huguenots cast out from France, by Louis XIV in particular, was vividly recounted as was how they established themselves here.

Huguenot memorial
The Huguenot Memorial in Franschhoek
Miranda's pud
Miranda enjoying her pud!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In the evening, a little wine tasting on the hotel’s own estate was a delight. In between, we got to know about Stellenbosch’s traffic jams as we went to and from the airfield to pay for Juliet Bravo’s 50 hour check.

Saturday’s delight was a visit to the Franschhoek Motor Museum. There, in four buildings beautifully laid out, were around a hundred vintage cars from the earliest days of motoring to the 1980’ties, many of them racing winners of their day. Some pictures of these are included below.

AC
Early AC in the museum
Early RR
I wouldn’t mind one of these!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fuel pump
Pump for barrel fuel; rather smarter (and heavier) than the one I use for Juliet B
MG
MG at the motor museum

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On Sunday, we went off to Camp Bay. As we left, there was a couple of sharp busts of rain but this soon cleared up as we drove past the main Cape Town Airport.

Camp Bay
Miranda at Camp Bay

 

Being Sunday, Camp Bay was crowded; we topped up on lunch supplies for the way back at a local supermarket before going to the Codfather for lunch, an excellent fish spot recommended by Georgina and Bertie; they were here in November.

 

Table Mountain
Table Mountain (with cloud table cloth) from Camp Bay

 

Following lunch, a walk along the beach, paddle (cold sea!) and then reading books under a shady tree before returning to our hotel in the late afternoon. There was a fair amount of paragliding going on off Table Mountain.

 

South from Camp Bay
Looking southwards towards the Cape of Good Hope

 

 

 

Tomorrow we start our return journey home.