On Sunday the 25th we left Biedouw Valley behind and drove down to
Paarl, but not without stops. First we drove to the coast because I
wanted to see the ocean. From Enjo to Lambert's Bay it was about two
hours (120 km). From Lambert's Bay we took the costal road down to
Elands Bay (45min about 50km) where we stopped to buy something to drink
and do a walk on the beach. It's a nice small place, popular among
surfers.
 |
| Bye, bye Biedouw Valley! |
 |
| Elands Bay: cloudy sky to the north... |
 |
| ...and clear blue to the south. |
 |
| Somewhere between Piketberg and Porterville |
From Elands Bay we drove to the small town of
Tulbagh.
The drive took us something like two and half hours and was about
180km. We went to Tulbagh because I had read that it's a very
picturesque small town with lots of beautiful old houses. The first
thing we wanted when we got there was some lunch. It was already
afternoon so we were getting quite hungry. We found a nice deli on the
main street and stopped there to fill our stomachs. The place is called
Things I love
and it was very nice. The food was tasty and in their store they sell
all kinds of things like clothes and small decoration items and also
delicacies. After lunch we walked around and admired the old houses. If
you are interested you can check them out in Google Street view. Just
search for Tulbagh and Church Street.
 |
| A deli "Things I love" in Tulbagh |
 |
| I had chicken pie with salad |
 |
| Church Street in Tulbagh |
 |
| Church Street in Tulbagh |
 |
| I could live in any of these beautiful houses on the Church Street |
From Tulbagh it was only a short drive to Paarl. We chose narrower and smaller road R301 over the
Bain's Kloof Pass.
If you hate driving narrow streets with lots or curves and steep drop
on one side, you shoud maybe avoid this route. The views were great. The
estimated travel time was about 1 hour 20 minutes, but we needed a bit
longer because there had been an accident on the pass road and we had to
wait while they were clearing the accident site.
In Paarl we had booked us a room at the
Paarl Diamant Equestrian and Guest Farm.
This was the cheapest of all the places we stayed. Two nights cost us
only 1000 ZAR (66 EUR / 72 CHF). The place is not in Paarl so this would
be on option for you only if have a car. The centre of Paarl isn't far
though. The view from the guest house is superb and the people are nice.
This place is more a farm than a guest house. I think they only have
like three rooms to book. All in all, as a farm girl, I really enjoyed
our stay there and Hubby liked it as well with all the animals around:
dogs, cats, horses, cows on the neigbouring farm etc. Also here the
breakfast was included. It was pretty standard with cereals, joghurt,
toast and eggs of choice.
 |
| A fountain in front of the farmhouse |
 |
| Arrived at the Paarl Diamant Equestrian Farm |
 |
| The farm |
 |
| The farm |
 |
| The farm |
In the evening we went to have dinner in Paarl at the
De Kelder Paarl where we could watch rugby while eating
 |
| Funny text on the menu |
On Monday the 26th we had a wine day. We wanted to visit some farms in the
Paarl region to taste wine. Why did we actually chose Paarl and not the other, maybe more famous, regions of
Stellenbosch or
Franschhoek?
Well, this was our third time in South Africa and we had already been
twice to Stellenbosch and Franshoek so we just wanted to go somewhere
else and this is how we ended up in Paarl.
To choose the wine farms to go to is difficult because there are some
many of them. We decided to stay in the Paarl region otherwise the
amount of places to visit would have been endless. I would have liked to
do some research already on the Sunday evening but unfortunately our
guest house didn't have a Wifi. So, we decided to drive to the tourism
information on Monday morning to get some brochures. I really needed
some decent coffee, cappuccino or espresso, so we stopped at the centre
of Paarl, not farm from the tourism information, in the
Bean in Love Coffee House.
Finally good coffee and nice, warm scones as well. The location is
great, right at the main stree, and the tables are under some shady
trees. You can just watch the world passing by or you can plan your wine
trip, as we did :D The tourist information gave us also good tips when
we asked about the smaller farms.
 |
| On the way to the Mellast Vineyards |
Our first stop was the
Mellasat Vineyards. It's one of the smaller places. If I had to choose one favourite red wine sort it would be the
Pinotage.
After reading the brochure which tourism information had given us and
finding out that Mellasat Vineyards is the home of the white pinotage, I
just had to go there. To be honest, until that morning I didn't know
that white pinotage exists, so, even more a reason to go there. Our
visit was perfect! We were the only ones there and we ended up staying
for one and half hours or so...tasting their wines and talking about
everything from South African wines to Finnish drinking culture. The
lady (I'm sorry but I have forgotten her name) in the tasting room was
the nicest and the most informative. We ended up buying six bottles of
White Pinotage. If you are anywhere near Paarl you should definitely
have this place on your list to visit. We had great time. She also gave
us couple tips where to go to. I love also sparkling wine, so she
suggested that we could visit the Laborie Wine Farm, which is one of the
oldest in South Africa or the Ridgeback Wine Estate on the other side
of Paarl.
 |
| The entrance to the Mellasat Vineyards |
 |
| True, isn't it? ;D |
After finally leaving the Mellasat Vineyards, it was almost past lunch time so we decided to drive to the
Laborie Wine Farm
because there we would get something to eat and I would get the
sparkling wines to taste. At the Laborie Estate there are two
retaurants: The Taste and The Harvest. The latter is rather a restaurant
when the previous one is an tapas place and a tasting room. The Harvest
is closed on Mondays so we walked straight to the Taste. The terrace
and the view there is great. So, I wanted to taste their sparkling
wines. They offered me a Macaron and Méthode Cap Classique tasting but I
wasn't so in the mood for something sweet so I only took the sparkling
wines. We also ordered different tapas dishes and Hubby had sparkling
grape juice to drink. All in all this is a nice place. The food was very
good and we would like to dry the The Harvest for dinner some time.
From
the sparkling wines I think that Laborie Brut Rosé was my favourite.
The other two were Laborie blanc de blancs and Laborie Brut. Normally
the sparkling wine tasting with macarons is 50 ZAR (3,3 EUR / 3,6 CHF),
but we didn't have to pay anything. Maybe because we also ordered some
food and I didn't take the macarons.
 |
| The entance to the tasting room. |
 |
| Three different sparkling wines to taste |
 |
| The view from the terrace of the tasting room |
 |
| Lamb meatballs - romanesco sauce - rustic garlic croutons |
 |
| Smoked, salted homemade crisps - droëwors - soft beef biltong - olives |
 |
| Pan-fried chiken livers - Portuguese peri peri - toasted baguette |
 |
| Chilli salt squid - cucumber spaghetti - Asian dipping sauce |
 |
| At the Laborie Wine Farm |
After lunch we drove to the
Ridgeback Wine Estate.
They were the second tip which the lady at the Mellasat Vineyards had
given us. Unfortunately, the sparkling wine of the Ridgeback wasn't
availabe for tasting. But no matter, we tasted other wines of theirs:
Sauvignon Blanc 2014, Viognier 2014, Ridgeback Journey 2013, Merlot 2012
and Cabarnet Sauvignon 2013. My favourite was the Sauvignon blanc and I
think Hubby's favourite was the Viognier. Also here we had great time
with our host, who was Namibian/Southafrican and had been for one year
to Norway. We had a lot to talk about. We did buy some wine here as
well: Viognier and Cabarnet Sauvignon and also one bottle of sparkling
wine.
 |
| The Ridgeback Wine Estate |
 |
| Tasting |
 |
| The terrace of the Ridgeback |
 |
| Inside of the tasting room of Ridgeback |
After Ridgeback we thought we had been tasting enough wines so we
decided to head back to home which was right around the corner from the
Ridgeback Wine Estate. Already in the morning we had decided that we
would like to go to have some dinner at
The Spiceroute. Before going there we had some time to relax and chill at the farm.
The Spiceroute
is one of the biggest wine farms in the Paarl region. They offer all
kinds of things and not just wine: grappa, cured meats, atrisan
chocolates etc. We went there to have dinner at La Grapperia because we
had heard that it would be a great place for sundowners with a perfect
view of the winelands and even the Table Mountain. And this was true!
The view was fantastic! And the sunset as well. On top of this the food
was very good. They have rather simple things like pizza and
Flammkuechen on the menu but for that the quality was great. Also the
service worked very well.
Definitely
worth a visit just because of the view. To the other things on the
Spiceroute we can't say much because we only had dinner there.
 |
| Sun is going down |
 |
| The fantastic view from the Spiceroute |
 |
| La Grappaeria on the Spiceroute and that's us as a shadow :D |
 |
| Snails with home-made garlic butter |
 |
| Smoked trout with horseradish, onion rings and capers on a white toast |
 |
| Carpaccio with lemon, olive oil, parmesan, capers and rocket |
 |
| The table mountain on the horizon |
 |
| Chilli and garlic for the Flammkuechen |
 |
| Pizza Giorgio |
 |
| Flammkuechen Traditional |
 |
| The sun is down |
