Getting sloshed in Stellenbosch

Stellenbosch is about 30k east of Cape Town and in the middle of South Africa’s famous Winelands.  We had made arrangements to meet up with our cyclist pals once more to sample some of South Africa’s best booze.  We all stayed at a place called The Stumble Inn (how could you not stay at a place with that name in an area famous for winemaking?)  There are literally hundreds of vineyards and wineries in and around Stellenbosch and you couldn’t possibly hope to hit them all, especially if you only had one day to do it like us.  Our plan was to try and visit and do a tasting at at least four of them, a goal we were told was very doable.

To make things interesting, and as we were with some experienced cyclists, we thought it would be fun to ride bicycles to the wineries.  We set off at about 11am and headed for our first winery.  Now, Stellenbosch is not mountainous but it’s not exactly flat either.  After around 5 kilometers of cycling we rolled into our first port of call, the Kleine Zalze Country Wine Estate.  As we arrive, Courtney pulled up next to Lee and, after catching her breath, says, “That…was…INTENSE!”  As you can imagine, our friends who were on the back end of an 8,000 mile ride from Cairo found this quite funny.

In the end we only made it to two wineries!  Not on account of our lack of cycling endurance but more due to the huge amounts of wine we consumed throughout the afternoon.  The ride back was, er, a bit wobbly.

Court and cyclist Lindsey (right) showing their support for the Black Stars

Come on Ghana!

Later that same night we dropped the bikes back at Stumble Inn and proceeded on foot to the nearest pub to watch Ghana, Africa's only remaining team, take on Uruguay.