5th August
Greater Cape Town and into the winelands

We were up early to go and collect a rental car from the Avis joint on Strand Street. Avis’s computers seemed to be down so the staff were having to do rental documents manually, adding another 5 minutes to the pick ups which was apparently too much for some people 🙄🙄

The weather was not the greatest but the intention was to head down via Chapman’s peak to the Cape of Good Hope, and then continue along the coast until Pants was too cranky to continue

At Chapman’s peak he was kind enough to help some Asian ladies with their instagram photos






Especially given the bad weather, I don’t know how fussed we were about the Cape of Good Hope, although I suppose it’s one of those places you need to go so you can say you’ve been. With more time it would have been nice to do some hikes around but, given this is pants we’re talking about, we settled for a photo at the sign (there are queues and queues of tourists on bus tours taking a million different group photos so this itself is something of a mission)

of course I also enjoyed watching the cheeky baboons


we continued on to Boulder’s beach for the penguin colony. Of course being as there was a queue and pants doesn’t need an excuse not to spend money at the best of times, I was satisfied with the penguins visible on long lens or near the free board walk




It was also an excellent opportunity to educate Pants about the existence of parking guards, a concept he engaged with enthusiastically for the rest of the trip

We ended up in something of a traffic jam from Fish Hoek onwards, although we were mildly entertained by this restaurant in Muizenberg


I found the cape flats quite fascinating to drive past/through. Of course no stopping so no photos, you’ll have to take my word for it 😉

Pants was getting tired and cranky at this point so we ended up looking for a place to stay and ended up at the Erinvale Estate Resort and Spa (https://erinvale.co.za/). We clearly looked incredibly wind blown on arrival and I’m not sure they knew what to make of us! They very kindly parked us in front of the fire with a pot of tea while our room was made ready



after a nice soak in the bath and freshen up, we headed down to the excellent restaurant for dinner. Not being wine drinkers usually but being in the winelands, we were grateful for the recommendations for wine pairings with our various food choices; all were excellent


A range of sharing plates as starters

Pants went for a steak while I fancied something vegetarian so had the pasta

Dessert- a rose water and Turkish delight creme brûlée