Cape Town – Betty’s Bay and Stellenbosch

On our last day with Liza we had planned to go to Table Mountain, do the Chapman’s Peak drive and visit a vineyard (which they call a wine farm).  Unfortunately, Table Mountain and Chapman’s Peak were closed due to high winds.  Needing something else to do, we decided to go to Betty’s Bay, home of the other penguin colony.

The rain had stopped and the sun was out, it was a beautiful day for a drive along the coast.

Betty’s Bay is the home of the Stony Point Nature Reserve.  A former whaling station, the penguins arrived here in 1982 from off-shore colonies that were in decline.  It’s now the largest colony on the Western Cape, with 2,000 breeding pairs as of 2014.  Personally, I preferred this colony over Boulder’s Beach; it also has a boardwalk to minimize the impact on the penguins, but it was no where near as busy and overall a more enjoyable experience.

There are many of these little “huts” throughout the colony.  They were put there by the reserve to act as shelter for the penguins.  They seem to use them, but not as they were intended.

This sign says it all…

The workers here were constantly bringing the branches in for the penguins…

This site is also the home to 4 different species of Cormorant, one of the few places in the world they can be seen together.  This is a juvenile White Breasted Cormorant.

This chick was so big, we thought it was a penguin at first.

Some more penguin pictures…

After spending some time with the penguins, it was time to head to Stellenbosch and the vineyards of the Cape Winelands region.

Waterford Estate is located in the Blaauwklippen Valley and consists of 120 hectares of land, only half of which is used for vines (the remainder is left in it’s natural state), and it’s beautiful.  In operation since 1998, they not only make wine but they also make chocolate which pairs beautifully with the wine.

The wine tastings at Waterford are done in the courtyard, a beautiful setting.

First was Masala Chai chocolate (70% dark chocolate) paired with their Kevin Arnold Shiraz.  The 2nd was the Waterford Estate Cabernet Sauvignon with a dark chocolate with rock salt.  Last was a dessert wine, Waterford Heatherleigh, paired with a Rose Geranium milk chocolate.  All very good and the chocolate really did compliment the wine.

After the tasting, our sommelier offered to take us for a tour of the production facility and the cellar.  It was a very pleasant and unexpected tour.  A few shots of the cellars…

A few shots of some vines, not terribly colourful as the grapes had been harvested, but I really liked the symmetry…

The grass is planted to facilitate worker movement, but it also helps to control erosion and adds some colour to the photo!