Franshhoek.

Driving to Franshhoek was easy and only an hour from Cape Town. It is a dream driving here.The countryside is spotless , vast broad plains ringed by towering scraggy mountains . The are studd farms and cattle farms with huge amounts of cows. Impeccable gardens and of course the wineries. Yeah! "It's time for lunch , let's just pull into this one here , "Allee  Bleue Winery " a small restaurant in a lodge  , painted white and blue, Dutch style, it was to oneside of the entrance to a long wide driveway bordered with the talest eucalyptus trees . Lunch, Presentation A1 , service A1, 3 salads each one a picture in its own right. A bottle of Rose wine. We paid around £25 for 3!you know it makes sense.We walked around the estate and ended up in the shop. Franco asked which was their most expensive wine. Believe it or not it was a red wine called "True Love" . It was valentines day. He bought a bottle, the price? 167 Rand. About £10 , we cooked steaks at home and the between the three of us we finished the bottle, it was sooooo good.

Franshhoek ( French Corner) is exquisitely pretty. The Dutch style buildings and private houses are  straight out of a Farrow and Ball catalogue, some how even the shrubs around the house seem to be "product placed" and immaculate , that said, it's all very casual. On the outskirts of the town is a township for the work force who do not live in the  Farrow and Ball part of town. The area has become the Des Res area for people from Cape Town, understandably so, who wouldn't want to live one hour from London in an area with some of the countries top vineyards , a standard of restaurants that would make some of the UK eateries look like amatures , the level of service is  incredibly high and honestly pleasant. If you ski there is snow on the mountains in winter to boot.
There is a very large tourist population. Dutch, Germans, English and Chinese.
The Main Street reminded us of Acaroa in the South Island of New Zealand.  The buildings are restaurants , art galleries and craft shops  It would be easy to use too many superlatives.
We stayed for a week, we did justice to all the wineries and restaurants we could manage.It would
have been rude not to. The over weight on our return journey is not going in the hold or the overhead
locker.  5 and 2 as soon as we get back. ( Those in the know will need no explanation)
We stayed in self catering apartments looked after by my new Zimbabwen brother Wellington. He had a white toothed smile that went from here to there and a laugh to match. He fixed everything with
a screw driver and an iron headed mallet. It seemed to work.

Next. We drive for 800 kilometres with a one night stop over to our game reserve.