Cape Town - September. The month when we all want to head out to see those two elusive things: whales and wild flowers.
They don’t always play along with your plans but at least you get a pretty road trip out of the endeavour.
The nice people from Sideways Tours invited me on one of their jaunts. The company offers a simple, user-friendly and centralised online booking portal that allows users to discover and book wineland tour itineraries according to personal interests. Several pre-arranged packages are available but you can also tweak them to suit yourself. There are categories like connoisseur, adventurer, family, foodie, romantic, and explorer, as well as regions.
The concept of these full-day tours includes activities besides wine tasting. So, for example, a family day out can include a visit to the Eagle Encounters at Spier and grape juice tasting for the children along with an educational activity sheet highlighting the role insects play in the vineyards. After the adults have tasted their wines, this tour then goes to Fairview for cheese and wine (cheese and more juice for the little ones), and to pet the goats in the famous goat tower. At Spice Route, activities include wine, beer, chocolate and grappa tasting while children play on the jungle gyms. There are also artisans and shops which include a glass blowing studio, the brewery, an art gallery, the chocolate factory, the distillery and a deli.
“For people used to the convenience and simplicity of innovative applications such as Airbnb and Uber, it makes sense to have one centralised and streamlined experience booking platform which is accessible and easy to use,” said Sideways chief executive Brittany Hawkins. “It also taps into the trend of experience-driven travel, where people look for unique experiences and unforgettable moments, rather than generic, set itineraries in ‘one-size fits all’ tours”.
I chose the Hemel-en-Aarde and Hermanus tour mainly because of it being whale season and a hopeless sense of optimism that I would get to see these magnificent creatures, but also because there are some superb wines to be had out that way, especially pinot noirs.
We began bright and early with the bus fetching me from my home in the city bowl at 9am. We headed out on the N1 and hooked a right towards Gordon’s Bay. The road winds from there through Betty’s Bay and Pringle Bay to Hermanus. Along the way we stopped to take photographs, and also to visit the very pretty Harold Porter Botanical Garden for a quick 20-minute pit stop.
In Hermanus our driver and guide Peter Farquhar from African Eagle Encounters – who kept up a running commentary throughout, delivering whale facts and other snippets of information about the area – took us to a couple of locations from which we might see whales in Walker Bay. We did get a little bit lucky; there were a couple far out in the bay, blowing and splashing around. Tip: take binoculars.
After that there’s a lunch break, which is for your own account so you can go to any one of the restaurants in Hermanus. I had excellent fish and chips and a glass (or two) of Iona’s Miss Sophie. Interesting story from the website: “Sophie te’ Blanche, the nickname given by those including our workers, who can’t pronounce sauvignon blanc, is the inspiration behind this loved wine, produced from grapes grown by dedicated farmers in Elgin and the Cape South Coast.” It’s delicious.
Thus fortified, we headed into the Hemel-en-Aarde valley to visit Hamilton Russell to taste wines on the bank of the dam while Egyptian geese honked and swooped over the glassy water. Our second tasting was at Whalehaven boutique winery, where Reino Thiart makes an award-winning merlot.
Unfortunately we ran out of time but, if you can, ask the driver if you can pop in at the Wine Village shop just next door to Whalehaven. It has a fabulous selection of wines from all over the country and I’ve often come out of there with a case (or two) of interesting bottles I’ve never seen anywhere else.
The return route is along the N2 so you get the full circular scenic drive. The cost includes pick-up and drop-off from your accommodation or home in and around Cape Town, private guide/driver, drive down Whale Route, Hermanus town orientation, and three wine tastings. The whales are not guaranteed.
See exploresideways.com.
Weekend Argus