Animal Kingdom

Only three hours from Johannesburg, often fondly referred to as Joeys or Joburg, there lies a slew of game reserves, or privately owned land that offer game drives, scenic lush landscape, and troves of South African wildlife. I have always called this game drive thing "safari" but I think the word safari is reserved for American lingo. As a devout yoga practitioner, I found this area of South Africa to be more still, more about not just connecting with the incredible Animal Kingdom and landscape that can bring you to tears, but connecting within oneself in a meditative state. There is no TV, no telephone ringing.....just the stillness of the topography where you have to stare with razor sharp dristi to actually see the babboon looking right back at you.

Before getting too philosophical, I can say that the accomodations are sickly laden with ammenities. The staff dotes on each and every person while also keeping you safe, especially walking at night as the lions hunt nightly, and often tourist go missing walking back to their rooms after dinner. Yes, we were told a story from one of the African ladies about some Japanese men that wanted to take pictures with the animals as if they were in Disneyland. These Japanese men went missing.


Game drives are only contrast to Disney. The crowd there are primarily European, many British, and the game drives run every morning at 5am and in the evening at 4pm for three hours. You basically bundle up (even in warm Africa) for the cool mornings and cooler evenings, hop in a open air jeep-like Range Rover, and go bumping through endless unmarked trails that weave all over this privately owned land. The goal of most is to visualize the Big Five---the Big Five was coined by white hunters and refers to the five most difficult animals in Africa to hunt on foot. Having no interest in hunting these spectacular animals, I enjoyed seeing the Big Five minus the Cape water buffalo. The collection consists of the lion, the African elephant, the Cape Buffalo, the leopard and the rhinoceros. The members of the Big Five were chosen for the difficulty in hunting them and the degree of danger involved, rather than their size.

All in all, the game drive experience is amazing. I don't think it is a vacation that all would fall madly in love with as it is NOT for sissies. If you delight in the outdoors, don't mind all the critters, and plentiful bug spray while sipping a nice Castle Lager or a South African pinot noir, you'll love it. You will find peace in the mesmerizing sunsets, indigenous vegetation, and the haunting song sung by the African people.

Champagne Air of Hermanus

90 minutes from Cape Town lies an intoxicating and scenic town stretched along the coastline, hugging the sea, and hemmed in by the steep mountains. Hermanus has 70,000 inhabitants with 18,000 of whom live in the township (underdeveloped slum-like area) of Zwelihle.

Hermanus has a fantastically rich history dating back to the beginning of the 1800’s.
Hermanus Pieters is credited with first finding Hermanus. He arrived in Cape Town in 1815, as a teacher and shepherd, and trekked eastwards with the first ox-wagons to Caledon, where farming was the major industry. During the summer months, he started herding his flocks of sheep and cattle from Caledon in the 1820’s, down the “Elephant Pass”, now known as the Hemel-en-Aarde valley, down to the coast, where he found good grazing and fresh water.

Hermanus Pieters did this each year and word fast got around the farming community that he had discovered good new summer grazing land. Many others started to follow him down the valley to seek lush pastures for their livestock, as well as fishermen, who found that the sea was teaming with fish and the farming families who wished to come to enjoy this new spot during the school summer holidays.

From then on, the area was named Hermanuspietersfontein, which slowly started to grow into a permanent settlement. Today there is a new stairway and walkway that is situated at the exact location where the fresh water waterfall was discovered by Hermanus Pieters.

In 1902 the postmaster decided to shorten the name to just Hermanus and the village received official municipality status in 1904.

Word spread internationally too, with Harley Street doctors in London, prescribing Hermanus as an ideal location for rest and recuperation with its “champagne air”. A sanatorium was erected over-looking Walker Bay to cater for those in need of such natural, holistic medicine.

As for our visit, it was truly one of the most beautiful places I've seen, filled with lovely people, fantastic restaurants, and heavenly wineries. If you are an adventure seeker, there is also shark cage diving and whale watching. For the oenophiles, grapes grown in the Hemel-en-Aarde Valley are influenced by the cold Atlantic Ocean and the temperate conditions, and the clay-like soil produces wines similar to those of Northern France. And, better yet, tastings are free of charge.
Gesondheid! (Cheers in Afrikaans)

Sausage Master, Neil Jewell

Forget the culinary law of averages that all charcuterie kings or butchers all live in Italy, and speak fluent Italian with sausages on their wall like trophies. We have met Deon's idol, a bloke from the UK named Neil Jewell who is the proclaimed and famous chef of Moreson vineyard's Bread & Wine restaurant. From our first impression, he has a crooked smile with soft eyes, worked at many fancy pants restaurants and really just loves farming and farm-living. Our meeting was a 9:30am breakfast charcuterie/meat and more meat tasting paired with Moreson wine. He is a chef that was delayed (something I know all too well), all due to a water leak somewhere on the premises, friendly, and beyond passionate. I mean really passionate. He detailed the aging process of his meats (4 years on the prosciutto) and even snuck us in his refrigerator or butchery space. You would have thought that Deon had seen a two hundred pound tuna just hooked out of the water. Deon was NCIS in the Moreson farmhouse taking pictures of the cured meats, and even whittled Neil's biltong recipe from him. Deon has been making biltong for quite some time, so it was Barefoot Contessa versus Giada comparing notes, and I was in total amusement.

The best part was tasting the lusty, unpretentiousness of Neil's food, probably the most delightful meals we had in South Africa if I had to rank. We had such meaningful conversations with a UK expat that not only included food, but chats too deep for a morning sausage and wine tasting. The foliage around the old Dutch farmhouse and winery, the animals grazing, the gracefulness of the people...the only downside? I can't think of one. Thank you, Neil.
http://www.spill.co.za/cooking-classes/the-pig-a-charcuterie-course-with-neil-jewell/1162/

Out of Africa

We are back from our journey, traveling through Italy to South Africa, and
I should be blogging on Napa, Sonoma, or even Mexico which all occurred prior,
but I'm blogging as I speak, stream-of-consciousness style.

I'm not sure why I have waited thirty-seven years to go to Africa, but better
late than never seems reasonable. Or, maybe marrying a South African is a better one? Reasoning aside, I could go back to Africa right now, and relive the moments in the wild bushvelt which is their term for safari. I think there are certain people that just melt into the landscape and Deon and I are THESE people. The amenities are there, just know that every other creature and critter is also there.


Our journey started in Cape Town, which is iconically pictured as Table Mountain.
Table Mountain is not merely the iconic symbol of Cape Town - without it's mountain Cape Town would not exist and the south-western tip of Africa would be a dry, windswept and sparsely populated region. Table Mountain is one of the oldest mountains on earth, six times older than the Himalayas and five times older than the Rockies. It is responsible for all human settlement as it provides a rain shadow, providing rain and the streams that flow in its valleys. You have two options getting to the top: hiking or riding in a large cable car. Deon has hiked before, and so as you can imagine, the ladder was the most feasible option to have lunch and a crisp blanc de blanc on top of the mountain. The landscape just swallowed me up, and the beauty of the coastline is indescribable.


The Winelands and coast are phenomenal. If I had to choose from my favorite Napa/Sonoma and the Winelands in South Africa which includes Paarl, Franschoek, and Stellenbosch, hands down, I'd have to say South Africa Winelands. The Winelands are earthy, simplistic, and rival Tuscany's Montepulciano and Montalcino. The winefarm drive-ups are lined with olive and Cypress trees which wind around the mountains, and all the tastings are free of charge....a big bonus. Every morsel in our mouths came from the land, the butter fresh from the cows, the meat from the area. The people support their farms and the word organic is humorous to them because that is all they know. You get a meritage of history with the French Huguenots in Franschoek and the Dutch in the entire Cape area. Deon's last name (Jansen van Vuuren) is always properly pronounced there, and was the favorable last name (to Perkins) for any reservations or perks.

More to come on Franschoek, and the famous sausage king, Neil Jewell...the acclaimed Bread & Wine head chef and charcuterie captain.