Today was by far one of my favorite days! It started out with a trip to Durbanville, where many of the winelands are! We headed to Altyd Gedacht Wine Estate where we were given a delicious wine tasting of their many varieties. The winery was very quaint because it is family run and the owner kindly told us the history of how it came to be and showed great pride in their wine! After the tasting the owner took us out on a vineyard tour! It was an absolutely gorgeous day out and I could not believe how beautiful the vineyard was! He took us straight into the vineyard and explained where each of the different grapes were grown. Along the tour we came across a wild ostrich in the distance (apparently very common in the area). Needless to say it was awesome!! Still kind of hitting me that I am in South Africa!
We then headed to Stellenbosch, another area filled with vineyards, to the Spier Wine Estate; which is more of a commercial winery. It was gorgeous but very touristy and we had a spectacular lunch at a restaurant called Moyo’s African Cuisine which I highly recommend! It was buffet style and they literally had every kind of amazing food you could imagine! I tried springbok (a sort of antelope type animal) and the other delicacies of African culture that I am in love with. During our meal the chef himself brought out a beautiful cake for Michelle, my lovely roommate, who celebrated her 21st birthday today!!
Me and Vernon (pretty much organized this entire study abroad program for us) with our tribal face paint!
After stuffing ourselves we headed across the winelands to have a CHEETAH ENCOUNTER!!! The estate is the home of 11 cheetahs which for a pretty decent price we could go into their home (with their keepers right next to us) and pet them! Sooo amazing!! Never thought I would be able to say that I pet a cheetah but there you go! It was pretty wild and I have to admit I was a bit nervous but the keepers there did not mess around and made sure that we were all safe and that none of the cheetahs were agitated.
After having hefty leftovers for dinner, the whole group of us went out to celebrate Michelle’s 21st! We went to a restaurant/bar called Cubanas which had very tasty drinks and hookah for a very reasonable price. Had a pretty fun night but didn’t stay out too late because we had to be up and out of the house by 9:30am the next day!
do you have any pictures of you petting cheetahs? thanks for being so detailed in your blogs- I love reading them!
ReplyDelete