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SOUTH AFRICA
The very mention of South Africa brings to mind, the Kalahari desert, the roar of the lions, Nelson Mandela and most importantly wildlife and safaris. Photographs of South Africa will inadvertently have safaris and khaki-clad rangers, star-spangled skies and foamy oceans! Holidaying in such a country is a once in a lifetime experience.
Delaire Graff
Arrive in Cape Town and your exciting trip begins. Your first stop is at Stellenbosch Delaire Graff Lodges & Spa, a hotel renowned for its wine, its tastefully decorated rooms filled with art and antiques and its hospitality. This is one hotel where one can see Dutch art and architecture joining hands with African culture. Check into one of their rooms and relive an exclusive experience.
Stellenbosch Lodges is set overlooking the Stellenbosch Valley with vineyards and rolling hills giving way to a peaceful sanctuary.
You can breathe in the fresh air of the sanctuary and get yourself acclimatised to its serenity while you make plans for your itinerary. This is a place built to provide luxury, tranquillity and service to those in need of it.
Stellenbosch
After a sumptuous breakfast on the local Afrikaans cuisine, discover a bit of Stellenbosch while you still have the time. Stellenbosch is known the world over for its wine. A place dotted with wine estates does have a rich history. So a tour of the town will reveal its museums, its buildings having an interesting mix of Dutch, Victorian and Georgian architecture, its bars and cafes and most importantly the young eager faces of students and tourists. In short, it has a fresh appeal and lives upto its reputation of an old world in a new bottle!
Its rich soil gave Stellenbosch an early headstart as everything that was planted grew, the vineyards grew and provided weary seafarers to stay longer. Its reputation as a friendly tourist town grew over the ages.
So make the time to visit all the vineyards, sample the vines and wash down the sumptuous meals provided by the local people while enjoying their live entertainment.
There are over 8 must-see places that include Stellenbosch, Spier, Vergelegen, Warwick Estate, Waterkloof, Villiera, Tokkara, Middlevlei, Vergenoegd. Many of these are vineyards, with in-house restaurants and other attractions. Most of them charge a fee to tour their vineyards and to experience their safari.
Franschoek
Your next stop is Franschoek, a valley nestled between two mountains where once again world-class wine is grown. This valley is also renowned for its tasty cuisine and chefs in the restaurants are equipped to cater to international taste-buds. The breathtaking scenery, the beautiful wines and the sumptuous food all create an everlasting memory for the visitors.
Since Franschoek too has many vineyards, you can spend two days visiting all the vineyards, its nature reserves, sporting activities and in interacting with the local people before commencing your trip to Cape Town.
You can stay at the luxurious Leeu Estates for two nights when visiting Franschoek.
Cape Town
Cape Town has many attractions that cannot be viewed in a shorter time. It is a coming together of many cultures, people, cuisines and landscapes and gained fame for its Tabletown National Park.
Tabletown National Park has gained fame for many reasons. Its table-topped mountain offers many sporting activities like paragliding, hiking while the famed Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden, Green Point Urban Park also make for great sightseeing. Take the help of locals to enjoy its rich wonders.
A visit to Capetown can never be fulfilled without a visit to Robben Island, a UNESCO World Heritage site for its prison that housed Noble Peace Prize winner Nelson Mandela and many other freedom fighters who had fought to bring about freedom to the Negro community and establish a democratic form of government in the country.
There is a free museum that showcases the struggle for equality and should be visited as it throws a lot of light on the painful freedom struggle of those incarcerated on the island.
The next interesting place is the Boulders Beach or the Boulders Penguin Colony that has enormous boulders dividing the sandy beach home to its occupants the penguins. This beach is populated by over 3000 African penguins. There are areas earmarked where one can get down and spend some time observing the penguins. These jackass penguins were at one point of time an endangered species, but thanks to the dynamic protection programmes of the South African penguin conservation programmes, the penguins grew from a mere two in 1982 to over 3000 till date.
The next interesting stopover is the Chapman’s Peak Drive, considered to be the most scenic drive in the world. It is a 9 km winding drive that begins from the beautiful Hout Bay to Noordhoek Beach. The beauty and thrill of driving through Chapman’s Peak Drive is that it has been built right into the cliffs giving it a magical thrill or one gets a feeling of vertigo driving scaringly to the edge of the cliffs in the magnificent presence of the blue and white sea below. Built by sandblasting into the mountains, the Drive has now been made concrete proof after a massive reconstruction project was undertaken.
The last leg of the journey should be left to explore the Cape of Good Hope, a 775 sq km section in the Table Mountain National Park which gained fame for its scenery, bird watching, long walks and cycling trips and its many quiet beaches. The Park is home to many species of birds including cormorants and ostriches. One can be adventurous and try cycling or hiking or trekking to take in the beauty of the Park in detail. Do not miss visiting and seeing the old lighthouse that has been there since 1859 or the souvenir kiosk that sells many interesting pieces for one to take home.
When it is time to return home, remember to take a piece of South Africa in your heart because this is a nation that believed in itself, fought to abolish slavery and with its diverse nature has many stories to tell than many other places. Remember to tuck away these stories so that they can be passed down from generation to generation.