Day 7: Paarl

After breakfast, we checked out of Klein Oliphants Hoek and took a stroll around the main street. The bazaar at the Dutch Reformed Church featured a lot of crafts and snacks being sold, and pancakes being flipped inside the building. Outside, there was music and braai and a man selling the coolest little custom-made chairs for kids.

We left Franschhoek and drove in the direction of Paarl without any decent map. I was trying to find the roads to go to Backsberg or Glen Carlou, but couldn't really tell where we were. We ended up stopping at Lindhorst, a small winery with a restaurant. Lunch on their back patio (thankfully, with transparent blinds to block the fierce wind) was nice, but the tasting was even better. They served little snacks (nuts, black pepper shortbread, mozzarella) with the wines, and our tasting guide described the history and composition of each one in detail. Time got away from us again so we got directions to Fairview and hurried off.

With only a half hour before closing, we weren't able to see much at Fairview. The goat tower was something I was really looking forward to, and it didn't disappoint. We spent some time in the cheese shop, purchasing delicious goat cheeses, including one covered in sundried tomato, the other in herb and garlic. Tip: buy the little mini styrofoam cooler for R16. They gave us a tasting of two wines on the house, as there wasn't enough time to do a guiding master tasting which was recommended to us by a wine tour guide we met yesterday. Sadly, they were sold out of a Viognier dessert wine which I had my eye on.

Paarl is definitely more developed than Franschhoek and far less quaint. On the drive into the town, we saw security gates and bars on windows that are common in the Durban area. Even McDonald's has infiltrated this wine town. We stayed at Lemoenkloof, a guest house and conference centre. The rooms are nicely appointed and modern, with a shared sitting room. We only had my Fodor's book to guide us to a restaurant and settled on Marc's Mediterranean Cuisine where we had a ho-hum meal.

Complete set of South Africa pictures in my Flickr set.