on to Stellenbosch

I know I just made a superlative claim about Cape Town, and how many superlatives can one blog handle... but if there were a beauty contest for towns, I really think Stellenbosch, South Africa, would win. It has verdant valleys of neat rows of grape vines beneath towering mountains, it has picturesque white Cape Dutch architecture, it has trees and flowers and blue skies, and like a beauty contest contestant it is almost too beautiful to be real. I am trying not to dwell on the possibility that we might actually get to live in this town (if Joel does a PhD there), because it might not happen and I don't want to set myself up for disappointment, if we end up in some other town that is perfectly nice but yet can't compete with Stellenbosch. I am trying not to dwell on the possibility of living there. I didn't say I was succeeding.

On the way to Stellenbosch from Cape Town, we took a long detour down to Cape Point, a cape that separates the Atlantic from the Indian Ocean. The drive along the coast was spectacular, with the fancy neighborhoods perched on cliffs in Cape Town's outskirts giving way to wild, rugged, and mostly empty coast.

another bad through the windshield picture- but what a road!

I'm mad about fynbos, the weird and gorgeous flowers that grow only in this part of the world  

The early sea explorers erected tall white monuments like this, to help them navigate. This is a reproduction.

 Now, let's get to Stellenbosch.

We tried to visit a winery, but it was inexplicably closed. We still got to enjoy the gorgeous grounds and views.

We visited the lovely Stellenbosch Botanical Gardens.

give a boy a stick and a pond and he will amuse himself for a very long time

the ethereal purple blossoms of the jacaranda tree can be spotted all over this part of Africa in the spring 

We ended up at a posh winery/hotel/spa, for dinner and a sunset.

Joel was right about Cape Town

Joel and I have been having this multi-year, very repetitive conversation, the way married couples do. About Cape Town. Start a conversation with Joel about cities, or travel, or Africa, and without fail he will state, very passionately, that Cape Town is the most beautiful city in the world. And I will roll my eyes, and talk about Rome or Marrakech or Vancouver, because I have a long list of beautiful cities and I was in Cape Town three years ago and wasn't that impressed.

But perhaps Cape Town was having a bad week that week (I vaguely remember that the weather wasn't great), because after this trip?

After taking the cable car to the top of Table Mountain (something which the weather prevented my last visit), and those spectacular views of the city nestled between green hills and the deep blue bay?

waiting for the cable car

too bad the sickly green color of our stroller makes Cassia look a little sickly green

you can see Robben Island in the center of the picture

After watching the sun sink into the sea from that vantage point at the top of the world?

After seeing the city lying like a field of jewels, sparkling in the night, on the way down?

And after walking down to the waterfront on a perfect summer afternoon?

taken from the window of a Ferris Wheel, which really let us see the city

they were so great we bought their CD

After a week spent in the shadow of those glorious mountains?

I am willing to concede that Joel may be right, just like he was about G2 pens and Pepsodent. (If you are using any other brand of pen or toothpaste, you are missing out.)

My only regret is that I was so tied up with conference goings-on that we didn't get to spend nearly as much time seeing the city as it deserved. Cape Town, we'll be back.

Finally, I would be remiss if I didn't acknowledge the event that rocked South Africa 15 days ago. We had our chance to pay respects to Mandela while at the Victoria & Albert Waterfront. Someday we'll have to tell William about him.

across the Karoo

Between spotty internet access and attending conferences (my presentation is over! it went well!), I'm a week late in posting these.

If you were wondering about our route, here it is (the letters are the overnight stops):

Our trip across the Karoo is better told in pictures than words, I think.

Karoo (kəˈruː): a semi-desert natural region of South Africa 

[from Afrikaans karo,  probably from Khoikhoi garo  desert]

But first, some pictures of our morning in magical Clarens. It was a raining and overcast morning, so we opted to hang around town and save exploration of the beautiful mountains around Clarens for our next visit (which I hope is soon).

William loves anything with a steering wheel.

Curing biltong, the South African version of jerky (and something of a national obsession).

 Clarens was a fun town for a foodie like me.

And also a fun town for a shopper like me.

As we drove away from the mountains and into the vast dry expanse of the Karoo, the colors changed from green to brown.

We spent our second night on the road in a dusty, middle-of-nowhere town that seemed to exist for the sole purpose of catering to travelers like us who were driving across the vast middle of the country. Before we hit the road our second morning, we let William play at being a blind driver.

I won't lie, those 700 km straight down the N1 highway got a little dull. But the last 100 km or so before we got to Cape Town, with fertile valleys and vineyards nestled between majestic mountains, were so spectacularly beautiful that I forgave the N1 for its previous monotony. Please ignore the fact that some photos that are obviously taken through a dirty windshield; we don't stop for pictures on these South African roads. 

 Next stop: Cape Town!