C&L South African Adventure Oct 2018 - Day 12 - Franschoek Wine Tram

[LN89]

Day 12

We were meeting my colleague to do the Franschoek Wine Tram today. We had booked a transfer included in our ticket.

It was a coincidence we were in SA at the same time, they had visited Cape Town first and were visiting the wine regions, we thought it would be fun to do wine tasting together and we both had separately read about the Wine Tram .

I got up early to go for a run, I am usually VERY active so the lack of gym was getting to me (although i am very glad now I did rest as much as I did on holiday as I am very bad at resting)!





My gorgeous beach views.

I got back and we got ready and then had breakfast.



Our transfer arrived at 9.20am and we were on our way. It took us much longer than anticipated as there had been an accident so we went a longer way around. Our tram tour didn’t start until 11.30 though so we had plenty of time.



We got to Franschoek about 10.45am, we picked up our tickets and went for a wander. We met my colleague and her partner at 11am and went for a coffee.





There were a few different routes, we choose the red route which started at 11.30am and we could make 5 stops, there were 7 and we decided to skip the first two as they were busy and then do the final 5.

The stops were Mont Rochelle, Chamonix, Dieu Donne, Rickety Bridge and Grande Provence. I must apologise in advance as my memories of the stops get hazy as the day goes on !

The first stop at Mont Rochelle was lovely, we thought it was a good idea to go for the 6 wines rather than 3! They were quite generous glasses. We also ordered a cheese board and said we must remember to eat more as the day went on... something we soon forgot!





I can’t recall how much all of the wines were but the wine tasting at each place wasn’t that much.

The first 3 stops were via a bus that looked like this. We had an hour at each stop. We finished our wine, already feeling it and got back on 🙂





I don’t have any notes from the rest of the day except a load of photos!





Another bit of panorama fun



Absolutely incredible views

















Couldn’t help myself!

Unsurprisingly we ended up pretty drunk having stopped at 5 vineyards ! We were also given a sparkling wine on the tram as well (I really don’t think we needed this)!

We finished at 6pm and said goodbye to my colleague and got the transfer back. The journey was a bit of a blur. We hadn't eaten since the cheese board at our first stop, so after we got back we headed straight out to a restaurant to get some food! We went to an Indian restaurant on the waterfront which did a set menu for 290RN. We had a soft drink each (we could have had an alcoholic drink but we thought it wasn’t wise)! We had samosas to start, followed by a curry each and a rice and naan, followed by a brownie each.









The food was lovely and was definitely needed! We walked back and went to bed.

Next - day 13

[Melbatb]

Another fab day! You did well to get to the end with little food to soak up the wine

[Omega1]

Loving your report. Franschhoek is such a beautiful place - we’re having a week there in January (our fourth visit) as part of our road trip. We know the wineries you visited very well but the beauty of staying there is you get the opportunity to eat in their fantastic restaurants. You did well to survive the Wine Tram - we’ve seen some unfortunate sights as folk get off the bus at the end of the day! Grand Provence is beautiful and we plan on having lunch there next month. Thanks again for your excellent report, it brings back many happy memories.