We spent a few days in the wine region near Cape Town, doing lots of tasting, marveling at how good yet how inexpensive all the wine was. We also saw a botanic garden and went to a great restaurant in Cape Town.

A panorama of the bay south of Cape Town.

Our hosts Marg and Pat at the Powerhouse Lodge, where we stayed in Stellenbosch. Stellenbosch is one of the major towns in the Cape Town wine region, and Pat told us which were the best wineries to visit. Like two of the museums we went to in London, the Powerhouse Lodge was previously a power generation station.

A clock in the Kirstenbosch Botanical Garden in Cape Town.

Some proteas at Kirstenbosch.

There was an exhibition of sculpture over much of the gardens.

The Africa Cafe in Cape Town has a fixed menu with tastes of about 14 different things. All of them were really good. It also has very whimsical bright decor.

The bartenders at the Africa cafe.

The wine rack at the Africa Cafe, with a mixed-media painting/sculpture above it.

The wine country east of Cape Town has lots of little mountain ranges, many of which have vines growing on them as well as in the valleys between. The jacarandas were all in bloom when we were there.

The garden at the Vergelegen winery.

Since we had so many wineries to visit, and we had to drive from one to another, we spit out much of the wine we tasted, into spittoons such as this one at the Rusten Vrede winery, one of our favorites.

Here's a machine which puts labels on bottles.

A sculpture outside the Tokara winery (which was closed).

On to South Africa: South Coast and Swaziland