From Creation to Leaving Paradise

When we fell asleep last night the wind was howling outside our window. The forecast for this day was a 100% chance of rain. We woke up to the sound of rain. We did our cliff walk on the right day! 

I got up and went down to the lobby and sat in front of the fireplace. I drank French Press coffee and called my boyfriend. He will pick us up at LAX in few days. It has been a magical experience but I will be glad to be home again.

We decided that since it is raining today we will drive north to wine country. People travel from around the world to go wine tasting in South Africa. We are so close we thought we should see what all the fuss is about. We met a couple from Canada while on safari and they highly recommended a winery that is less than a half hour from our hotel. So we left for Creation Wines in the rain.

Creation Wines is on the Hemel-en-Aarde Ridge. We drove down a dirt road to get to the tasting room. There are incredible statues and flowers on the path up. 

When we arrived there was hardly anyone else there. We assumed all the other tourists were avoiding the rain but the place filled up quickly. We had made a noon reservation for small plates with wine pairings. Since I'm not knowledgeable about wine tasting I wasn't sure what to expect. It was a two and a half hour event with eight different wine pairings. I was glad I knew that I could taste the wine and then dump the rest in the container on the table. We started with magnificent bread, butter with dried meat, sour fig jam and goat cheese with edible flowers.

Each course came with an explanation of the wine. Before this one pairing we were given a shell and told that drinking this particular wine would remind us of walking beside the ocean.

Our next course was abalone with samphire.

I loved the hake with coconut milk, almonds and apricot salsa

Lamb loin with polenta, poached pears and rhubarb puree.

Springbok with waterblommetjie and samp

Malva pudding with apricot and oranges, custard and popcorn crumble.

We paced ourselves and managed to leave without overeating but we now understood what all the fuss is about. We drove home in the rain and stopped at a Pick n Pay (a grocery store) where we bought baobab powder to bring home. By the time we got back to the car we were soaked through from the rain. It has been steadily coming down since the wee hours of the morning.

Back in our room we took naps to the sound of falling rain. It was very peaceful. Then we got up and began to organize our packing. We fly home out of Cape Town tomorrow. 

We had dinner at a wine bar....and didn’t order any wine.  We got a couple small plates and felt satisfied. Back to our room to finish packing. The rain is supposed to stop in the night. I hope to get up early and take one more cliff walk before we leave this paradise.