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Seven of the best experiences in South Africa’s Winelands

The valley floors around the Cape Winelands have been cross-stitched with vineyards since the Dutch East India Company put down roots here in South Africa’s Cape Colony in 1652.

Three and a half centuries later, the sun-splashed landscape where herds of wild elephants once roamed has become a site of pilgrimage for gourmands. Here are seven of the best ways to experience South Africa’s Cape Winelands.

Enjoy a whistle-stop tour on board a wine tram

While the colours of the pretty patchwork quilt laid over the Winelands’ landscape changes throughout the seasons, many of the folds of the valley remain smudged green year-round. Map out must-visit spots along the five rail routes and then board the Franschhoek Wine Tram, the hop-on-hop-off double-decker tram-bus that rattles through the vineyards and deposits visitors at some of South Africa’s oldest and most distinguished wine estates.

Learn how to appreciate SA’s signature wine

Pinotage is South Africa’s signature wine and, like its native homeland, is in equal parts complex and charming. One of the best spots to try this drop –­­ which is rich with peppery spice and dark berry fruits – is at Beyerskloof, which overlooks the spiky peaks of grand Simonsberg mountain. Follow the signs for wynproe and verkope (tasting and sales) to try the wine that pairs well with venison and spicy curries.

Take a hike to God’s Window

The hills around the famous vineyards of Stellenbosch and Franschhoek are home to baboons, antelopes and leopards. Take a half-day Panorama Route tour with Ilios Travel to the top of the Drakensberg escarpment where you can look out over the bluff from ‘God’s Window’. Here, the play of light over this painterly landscape of sky and rock highlights the flower-studded fynbos and drifts of native grasses.

Sunday lunch at Miko, Mont Rochelle

The view of the Drakensberg Mountains looks so deceptively close from Mont Rochelle that it will make you feel positively Lilliputian. Owned by Sir Richard Branson, the property’s tranquil isolation is definitely part of its appeal. After a pre-dinner negroni, order rooibos-smoked kudu and a house salad with pea mousse, foraged leaves and pickled red onion. Partake in a post-prandial stroll around the 39-hectare gardens where the wild backdrop contrasts beautifully with Mont Rochelle’s manicured estate.

To experience destination dining at its best

Fill your travel bucket list for destination dining to overflowing at Franschhoek, in the French corner of the Cape Province. Here, in the tip of the continent, the Gallic traditions introduced by the French Huguenot pioneers remain evident when musing over the menu at Monneaux Restaurant at Franschhoek Country House, where you can sample springbok steak with bilton-spiced root veg and a red wine jus paired with a peppery pinotage.

 To eat and drink your way around Franschhoek

Reuben Riffel is a South African celebrity chef and he’s part of the reason Franschhoek has a reputation for being a food and wine hub. Start your extravaganza at Reuben’s Restaurant & Bar with West Coast Oysters followed by bobotie-spiced lamb shank and crispy fried polenta. You can also get a feel for the neighbourhood culture at Franschhoek Village Market, held on Saturday mornings in the centre of the village or by simply joining the dots between cafes and restaurants.

Giddy up: wine tasting on horseback

What better way to appreciate a drop of pinotage or silky pinot noir than by arriving at a cellar door on horseback. Paradise Cottage & Stables offers visitors horse-riding tours through vineyards and forests and over mountains, stopping at the Rickety Bridge Winery and Mont Rochelle along the way. The tours are led by national endurance team member, Pieter Hugo, who has a stable of pure-bred Arabian horses, which will suit everyone from rank beginners to experienced riders.

GETTING THERE

Franschhoek is one hour’s drive from Cape Town. Africa travel specialist Bench Africa can organise your trip to Franschhoek and a ticket for the wine tram, and can book accommodation as part of its 13-day safari, which features four nights in Cape Town, three nights in Franschhoek and five nights on a luxury safari. Visit benchafrica.com

There is a SAA Flight daily from Perth to Johannesburg operating an A340-300 and A340-600 (connecting with codeshare partner Virgin Australia from Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Adelaide.) Visit flysaa.com

 

 

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At the foot of the pyramids, Egypt finally tells its own story

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    Ancient Egyptian history has been scattered across the globe for decades, admired, preserved, and studied, but it’s rarely seen where it actually belongs. The newly opened Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM) brings it home.

    From a viewing platform inside the Grand Egyptian Museum, the Great Pyramids of Giza rise from the desert, and for a moment, it feels like modern Egypt and ancient Egypt are shaking hands. The museum, grand in name and reality, has been a long time coming—since 1992, to be exact. Towering pharaohs, relics, and entire chapters of civilisation are on display here, all in full view of the pyramids. And because the GEM is the largest archaeological museum in the world dedicated to a single civilisation, it gets to tell Egypt’s story through its own voice, something many overseas institutions, understandably, haven’t quite managed.

    Reshaping Giza

    GEM entrance and gardens
    The GEM holds its own commanding position. (Image: Natasha Bazika)

    You might expect any building beside the Great Pyramids of Giza to fade into the background, but the GEM doesn’t bow to its famous neighbours. Perfectly aligned on the same axis and vast enough to span 70 football fields, the museum is less of an addition to Giza and more of a marker of the shift from a gateway to a cultural district.

    Inside, hieroglyphs carved from alabaster sweep across the walls and triangles appear everywhere, yet it’s a 3,200-year-old, 11-metre-tall, statue of Ramesses II who commands the room. His scale dictated the soaring atrium ceilings, which pour in natural light, unusual in museums but safe for the stone artefacts displayed.

    Hieroglyphs line the walls of the main entrance of the GEM
    Hieroglyphs line the walls of the main entrance. (Image: Natasha Bazika)

    Unlike many museums, the GEM has really considered how visitors move through it. The six-storey grand staircase leads you chronologically through Egypt’s history, from the Predynastic era to the Coptic period, flanked by statues that grow in scale and complexity as you climb. Elevators and lifts run alongside, keeping the journey accessible to everyone.

    At the top, a viewing wall frames the pyramids before you enter the main gallery to see artefacts rarely seen outside tombs, including the complete contents of Tutankhamun’s tomb, a highlight for many visitors.

    Pharaohs, artefacts and everything in between

    The GEM's showpiece Ramesses II
    The GEM’s showpiece Ramesses II. (Image: Natasha Bazika)

    The GEM holds around 100,000 artefacts across seven millennia, but the experience is entirely modern. Digital panels, QR navigation and clear bilingual signage make self-guided wandering easy, while short, glare-free labels in English, Arabic and braille are colour-coded to move you from broad themes to object-level detail.

    That said, a guide adds context you don’t get from a panel. I was lucky to have Essam Al Ebd Aziz, an Egyptologist, on board a 12-day Uniworld Nile cruise, walk me through some of the museum’s standout pieces.

    Top of the list is, of course, the Tutankhamun exhibit. Almost everything from his tomb, much of it never shown outside the Valley of the Kings, is here, from his golden funerary mask to delicate jewellery and ceremonial objects. But the GEM isn’t just about one boy king.

    GEM entrance is guarded by an 11-metre-tall Ramesses II statue.
    An 11-metre-tall Ramesses II statue guards the entrance. (Image: Natasha Bazika)

    Essam points out the canopic chest of Hetepheres, mother of Khufu, where her organs were stored in alabaster. I loved the forty little marching soldier figurines from the tomb of Mesehti, all lined up and hanging on a wall. And then there’s the statue of Metri, a scribe, with piercing blue eyes carved from lapis lazuli. All these pieces, and thousands more, now sit under one roof. And for the first time, people can see Egypt’s history in one place, told in its own voice, without leaving the shadow of the pyramids. That alone changes everything.