Flashback Friday Travel Photo Memories 21 – Honeymoon in Stellenbosch

As private garden spaces go, this verdant spot at a Boutique winery in Cape Town is pretty damn perfect!  This was the garden outside our cottage at Camberley Wines. As you can see the cottage comes with a lovely labrador (the owner’s, but he seemed to like the sunny terrace and the view as much as we did)!  I don’t like dogs much, but this docile fellow was more than welcome to sit and keep us company, he didn’t want to share any of our wine, so he was welcome!  He did wander into the bedroom one morning when we flung open the french-doors to let in the sunshine, quickly being shooed away!

Camberley Vineyard – April 2010

We had visited South Africa for a mini-break a few years before to coincide with a friend’s wedding at Morgenhof and so heading back there for our honeymoon was a dream come true.  Whilst SA sometimes gets a bad rap for tourist safety, we have found it to be very safe (if you are sensible and aware) and the people charming and eager to please.  On our first visit we loved the luxury of a few nights at the 5* Twelve Apostles, but were amazed and pleased that the service, care and luxury at a country bed and breakfast could be just as good for a fraction of the cost (case in point – Rocklands B&B).

We spent three weeks in South Africa for our honeymoon and so the next series of Flashback Friday’s are going to be all about our happy South African memories! I’m also not going to stick to one photo per week either.  2015 is about the photos so I’ll be sharing more than 1 in each FBF post!

We have such happy memories of our time here, we spent the first week of our South African honeymoon based here.  It is happily squirrelled away from any hustle and bustle and other tourists, but is mere moments away from a lovely spa on another wine estate and quite possibly the best dining you will find in Stellenbosch is at Tokara Vineyard which again is just down the road. In fact Tokara remains some of the best dining and wine that I think we have yet to enjoy and with a gorgeous view and for an incredible price.

Vineyard view from the dining terrace at Tokara

The guest cottage is simple, but luxurious.  Breakfast is provided but the rest of the day is self-catering.  The plunge pool is a great addition and the garden space is well kept and gorgeous.  The photo below is the vineyard, which we were free to roam in.  For wine-lovers, I can’t think of a better location!  Such a lot of space to ourselves.  There was a 24-7 store about 10minutes down the road into Stellenbosch as well as ample choice of restaurants and bars in town.  We ate in some nights and had a lovely evening at Wijnhuis later in the week – not as good as Tokara, but it has such a good wine list that I’m glad we returned here (having had a pre-wedding party here on our first trip a number of years earlier).  One highlight to our stay was our wine-tasting (afternoon-session) with the venerable owner.  ‘Tasting’ would suggest we sipped the wine, in fact we enjoyed a great deal more than a taste – learning about politics and the local area all whilst trying the wines, which hadn’t yet got to the labelling stage in the process!

Happy happy days

Stellenbosch has a great choice of accommodation but I wanted somewhere we could be by ourselves – the wedding machine was busy and we’d been running in different directions on errands for weeks, so proper down time in the sunshine far away from business was exactly what we wanted.  Camberley provided that in spade loads.  We had some superb days out wine-tasting, there is just so much choice that I really advice you take local advice before you choose (or my advice here).  Some of our favourites, aside from Tokara and Camberley were:

Diemersfontein – we went because we loved their pinotage and so wanted to see where it came from.  This is quite a commercial spot but just looking at the website today it looks like it has grown since our visit with the possibility to stay.  Their pinotage is something else – close your eyes and enjoy it and you get a wonderful aroma and taste of chocolate and coffee.

Private garden wine tasting at Vergelegen

Vergelegen – one of the oldest vineyards, down towards Somerset West and undoubtedly one of the most beautiful.  The estate is gorgeous and is a day trip in itself.  We had a happy morning exploring the grounds, topped off with a private tasting in a vine covered terrace.

Morgenhof – we had been to a wedding here previously and so stopped in on a rainy afternoon for lunch.  There was a roaring fire and a lovely little restaurant where we had scrumptious roast lamb and a bottle of red.  It’s a really pretty spot and thankfully a wine that Waitrose seem to have a habit of stocking!

The wine area extends well beyond Stellenbosch – there is plenty near to Kirstenbosch and over in Franschoek, but the 4 above were known to us and came recommended, and we would highly recommend too!  Wine-buying in a supermarket is also a different experience – as the quality is outstanding and when converting into £ the value for money is quite incredible, this is an area you can drink fine wine in for far less than £10 a bottle.

We loved our time here. We’d had a taste of the area in our first trip and I am glad we set aside real time to enjoy what the area has to offer.  There’s so much more to see still – my husband has since done a ‘bikes-n-wine’ tour which sounds like a great way to see a set of vineyards actively.  I’d also like to see more of the area beyond the few wine farms that we discovered.

The end of our Camberley wine tasting/drinking…

Tune in for the next FBF, I’ll tell you about the next stop on our honeymoon tour of South Africa!