cape town with jon, mike, jennifer, and jim

These pictures show the house and a grand adventure of a hike up Table Mountain.  We had a blast on the hike and continuously referred to Jon's shorter legs--encouraging him to push it hard.  Around 1 pm we prevailed and reached the summit--a long hike from Constantia Nek.  Jon agreed that Mike's background of being dragged out on 12 mile hikes for every one of his birthdays growing up may have had an impact on his enjoyment level of the hike.  Alas, we all had a grand time exploring and seeing the views.  Sorry this has taken me so long to post!

More posts coming soon about exploration outside of Cape Town!

This is the humble abode in which we stayed in for 3 of the 8 nights.

The view of Table Mountain from Jon's window.

Beginning the hike up Table Mountain--we made it all the way from Constantia Nek to MacLear's Beacon to the Cable Car, then down the Cable car to the city side.  Quite a hike!

Jon realizing for the first time that we're making him hike a huge mountain.  The strong goat legs weren't quite the ideal tool for following a Crowley up the incline.

We made it up to a steep cliff and covered about 1/2 of our elevation or so :)

Beautiful False  Bay.

up, up and away (paarl, south africa)

Jim and I got married about 10 months ago, last June.

For a wedding gift, a bunch of awesome friends pooled together and got us a hot air balloon ride in our new home, South Africa.

Weather finally cooperated last weekend, and we got to head up for our big day. It was amazing! We helped blow up the balloon, then took off just as the sun was beginning to rise above the mountains to the east. My favorite part was floating up into the sky - it was everything you've ever imagined it to be.

We drifted along smoothly, taking photos and enjoying every minute. The sun rose higher, lighting up the fields below us.  We admired the mountains in every direction - we could even see Table Mountain, 50 miles back to the west.

Everything was going swimmingly. We floated past a herd of wildebeest on a small nature reserve, and then I started to notice that we were drifting much lower. Much lower. Udo, our fearless leader (a German man who had been flying in Paarl since the early 1990s) announced that the wind was picking up dangerously, and we'd have to cut the flight a bit short. Some trees reared up ahead, bending in the breeze (it really was just a breeze). Udo had us get into "landing position": squatting on the floor of the basket, wedged against each other, with Jim at the back and me holding a handle at the front. I peered through the wicker watching the ground go past us. It really did feel like we were moving quite fast.

Ka-thunk! Float. Ka-thunkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk! And we're on our backs.

We had safely landed in a dirt field. This was the "fast landing" we had been briefed on. When the wind picks up, often the balloon flyer needs to land the balloon by dragging the basket, behind the balloon, on its side through the dirt. That friction slows the balloon down and it finally comes to a stop, rests on the ground, and the air begins deflating from it.

We got to recount the excitement over a delicious breakfast and a glass of champagne. Some sort of tradition to do with French peasants and dragons and identifying aliens. 

Thanks for a beautiful memory, Seattle friends!! You guys are the best.

Enjoy the photos!

river camping, wyn tasting (bonnievale, south africa)

Jim and I had another stellar weekend, this time in Bonnievale, one of the small towns in the Robertson valley about two and a half hours outside of Cape Town. The valley is full of wine and citrus farms, and ringed with a few pretty mountain ranges, including the Langeberg. We drove up Friday afternoon, and after fighting traffic, battling with wind to set up a tent, and a slow start to our fire-building, we really felt we deserved a drink!

We enjoyed wine tasting on Saturday at some beautiful family-run wine farms, including one that has been making incredible chardonnays since the 17th century. We also got to make our own bubbly! "Methode Cap Classique," or MCC, is the regional term South African winemakers have come up with to identify bottle-fermented sparkling wine made in South Africa - what "champagne" is to the Champagne region of france, "Methode Cap Classique" is to South African wine makers. At one winery, we got to finish the last step of a bottle of MCC: pop off the cap top which has sealed the second fermentation, watch the frozen tip of the bottle fly out, put in some sugar to help the final fermentation (and give it more bubbles), cork it, and package it. Very fun! We also managed to swim a couple of times during the hot day.

Sunday morning we went for a beautiful hike. We got a late start, so I was a little cranky out in the hot sun, but Jim enjoyed looking at some unique geological features - an inclusion from a partial volcanic eruption, and quartzite and sandstone in the rocks. The views were pretty too.

We camped here, next to the river. A beautiful peaceful setting complete with rope swings for getting in the water!

De Wetshof winery, a family-owned vineyard that has been making wine since the 17th century. There were cannons on either side of this building, modeled after designs by Thiebault (a famous French architect who built the family's Cape Town house), from we guessed the 18th century. They looked well-used too!

The winemaker, Philip Jonker, models how they get yeast sediment out of fermenting sparkling wine. Turn the bottles slowly (over months) a little at a time, until the sediment collects in the cap. Then put the bottle upside-down in a chemical solution that freezes the liquid. Then....

family vacation (cape town)

Just after returning from Namibia, the Petoskey's descended on Cape Town for a visit! We had an awesome two weeks with Betsy, Bill, Cassie & Craig, complete with beaches, wine tastings, lots of card-playing, and a few big seafood meals.

Here are a few photos that I took during the visit.

Our makeshift Christmas tree!

Wine tasting at Groot Constantia

Day at the beach: preparing to bury Cassie.

Looking good!

We took the crew to a Saturday market and ate yummy food; this was a giant batch of paella (it was delicious).

More wine tasting at Eagle's Nest.

happy honeymoon to adam and lindsey

We were honored to have Adam and Lindsey spend a few days of their honeymoon with us in Cape Town and we tried to make the place look as presentable as possible with minimal good weather.  Though, Cape Town can still impress in the rain.

Here are a few pictures from our day spent driving around Cape Point, which was probably the best-weather day.  We learned from Lindsey that the lighter colored ostriches are the females.   This tidbit of information has helped us out a lot with ostrich viewing--we saw a mother with her seven chicks on our spring break trip.

Cheers to our happy honeymooners!!

This is the view from our lunch bench.

The crew eating a little lunch with a beautiful view.

A troop of baboons that was frolicking around at high tide.

This is a sea-pool that holds water during low-tide, but allows new water to come in during high tide.  It is a really cool concept and allows for many easily-maintainable swimming pools to be built in the Cape Town area.  It is interesting that we haven't seen this concept used anywhere else.

Also note, Jim wins the contest of first to jump into the 55 degree ocean water.  

The fight was a draw.

Yet Jim claims victory.  The backdrop for our pool wrestling match was pretty amazing.

Male ostrich with stunning black feathers.

Female ostrich with a serene, light-grey, mono-chromatic look.

This is the picture that makes me think of Cape Point as stormy and forbidding.

More evidence of the storminess with Jennifer and Adam donning full hoods.

Here is the whole crew out at the point.

wine and hiking (franschoek)

A couple of weeks ago, Jim and I took a day trip to Franschoek, about an hour outside of Cape Town. Our friends Nikki and Andre had been there on their honeymoon last winter, and Nikki told me it was one of her favorite places near Cape Town, so we chose it over the closer Stellenbosch for our first day at the wineries.

Nikki was right - the scenery was absolutely stunning. We decided to go hiking while we were there, so we didn't get to try that many wines, but the hike was the highlight of the day.

We started out at Dieux Donne, a winery up on a hill overlooking the valley, and continued up the road to Franschoek Pass. We didn't have a map of hikes, so we were sort of flying by the seat of our pants. After checking out a trail off the side of the road, we spotted a more "official" spot to start a hike - complete with a parking lot - and set off on a beautiful hike up the back side of one of the mountains framing the valley.

Enjoy the views :)

Enjoying our wine at Dieux Donne with pretty great views already.

The panoramic view :)

the local vineyard (constantia)

The highlight of our new home, by far, is the vineyard across the street. It is a rolling-hilled, sweeping-viewed, green and peaceful and majestic place with friendly dogs and neighbors walking through and a winery at the far end. It's really incredible. We've already enjoyed walks and runs in it most evenings, and can't wait for the days to get longer (yes, it's really winter here - gets dark around 6pm!) so we can enjoy it even more.

We had our first wine tasting at the Groot Constantia estate (the winery at the far end) last night, and for R30 apiece (around $3) enjoyed five tastings of their delicious wines (we agreed the Sauvignon Blanc was the winner). Visitors, plan to spend some quality time here.

The road up to the vineyard - it's about 100m away from our front door.