DESTINATION FOCUS
Cruise
Cape of Good Hope. We made a few stops along the way, including a few quick looks at some cute but fairly brazen baboons hanging out by the roadside. We also stopped at an ostrich farm and were fascinated not just by the size of them (they are the world’s largest and heavi- est bird and have the biggest eyes of any land animal), but how they can run at high speed. One male in particular seemed to revel in holding his head high while spread- ing his wings wide, which we later learned was how ostriches show dominance.
Sailing Through
The Winelands South Africa’s Winelands, where some of the world’s best wines are produced, are less than an hour from Cape Town. Once there, we headed for Franschhoek, a picture- postcard pretty village, and checked into Le Quartier Français, tucked away in secluded
T
“To get us within SPITTING DISTANCE of the animals, our tracker USED FOOTPRINTS and dung as his ROAD MAP”
gardens at one end of a quaint main street lined with boutiques and restaurants. This 22-room auberge is home to two
beloved restaurants, the Tasting Room and more casual iCi Bistro, both overseen by Relais & Châteaux Grand Chef Margot Janse. Within minutes, we piled into the hotel’s SUV to meet Neil Jewell (a self- taught charcuterie guru from Britain who is the head chef at Bread & Wine restaurant) on the Môreson wine estate. Arranged by Le Quartier’s in-house Concierge, we were indulged with a private wine and charcute- rie tasting with Jewell himself.
he next morning, Le Quartier arranged for a private excursion to Hermanus, a nearby seaport along the
aptly-named Whale Coast. Though known for offering the world’s best shore-based Right whale-watching, we choose to see them by cruising out on a catamaran. And,
while we indeed caught frequent glimpses of cavorting whales breaching, it was a fairly rough trip. My advice? Wear a patch or take medication before setting foot aboard. Since it was only an hour’s drive from Hermanus, we considered “diving” with the great white sharks between Gansbaii and Dyer Island. There, the idea is for two people with a scuba hose to get inside a cage that floats just under the surface for about 30 minutes. Despite the fact we knew it would be an amazing experience, we couldn’t quite reconcile the scare fac- tor and another queasy boat ride. Instead, we stopped at Betty’s Bay so we could visit the penguin colony at Stony Point. What a treat! So close that we could practically pet them, we walked along a boardwalk-like platform that seemed to head out to sea and observed them wad- dling, lazing, dozing, squabbling and even canoodling, down below.
Winter 2010 / 2011 I WORLD OF CRUISING
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