OK, back to the point (heh, get it...), the day after we arrived in Simon's Town my dad, my cousin David, his son, and I went on a Game Fishing charter. Now this is my dad's thing, he loves it and is very good at it, it was just luck that we were able to get all four of us together for it. I was more into the idea of a day on a boat than actually catching fish, but to my horror, for the first time in my life, I was sea sick. Not just ill, full on SICK! It was terrible, I've never been any kind of travel sick before, and it seriously brought into question my ability to follow through on the goal of one-day owning a sailing yacht. But in spite of my illness, we were able to haul in seven BIG long-fin tuna, over 120kg's worth!
The catch was (c'mon, get it...), once we got back to port the charter operators just gave us the fish, no filleting, nothing! Now I ask you, what tourist is EVER prepared to fillet 120kg's of their own tuna? We suspect it was a scam so we would leave the fish behing and they could sell them. Needless to say we were less than impressed... But being the stubborn Matthee's we are, we took as many tuna as could fit in the car (four) to Kalk Bay, a 30min drive towards Cape Town, where we were able to get the fish filleted for us. Our master fish craftsmen (pictured) were possibly the roughest folk in the Western Cape, and we had to have a constant look-out to ensure they did not auction off our tuna to the highest bidder! One hour & two beers later, we had 80kg's of tuna filleted and on its way to our bellies!
After returning to solid ground and my stomach punching itself to spite me for putting it through that hell, we had a nice dinner and a good rest for the next day's adventure: Cape Point!
Our day at the point was great, we had no wind (which is unheard of there) and we saw everything. The Cape of Good Hope is one of the most historically important places in South Africa. Dias was the first to land here, discovering the "end" of Africa, and then Vasco DaGama navigated from here to India which not only laid the foundations for the Dutch East India Trading Co, but it also established the Cape as one of the most important peices of colonial real estate in the world until the Suez Canal. Simon's Town was actually established as a British Naval base to protect the Cape for British interests, and remained so until the 1950's when it was handed over to South Africa. Without this strategic importance its unlikely Britain would have colonised the Cape.
On our return to Cape Town I took my folks via my other favourite wine region: Constantia. Avid followers of this blog will recall my afternoon there, so I will not go into great detail. Basically, Constanstantia was a farm founded by Simon Van der Stel in 1685. Since then it has been split into X wine farms: Groot Constantia (Big Constantia, pictured), Klein Constantia (Small Constantia), Buitenverwachting (???), and Constantia Uitsig (Constantia Outpost). Each farm has its own claim to fame, most notably Groot Constantia with its Gouvernuers Reserve red wine and Klein Constantia for the Vin de Constance, arguably the most famous sweet wine ever made.
Our first stop was Groot Constantia, where we feasted on traditional cape cuisine at their restaurant Jonkerhuis. I had Bobotie, a very Cape style mince curry... mmm... Followed by wine tasting there, then we moved on to Buitenverwachting for more tastes, and on to Klein Constantia for tastes of their all important Vin de Constance topped off with a visit to Steenberg Winery (pictured below). Steenberg was not part of the original Constantia farm, but it is part of the Constantia wine region. It is a housing estate with a golf course AND a stunning winery. Sorry, I need a moment. Wow. And if its not awesome enough that its all together, the winery is stunning in its own right! With views of vines and mountains we were seated in lovely couches outside overlooking a great water feature, and served their entire wine selection by great waiters. I am a bit concerned though, we paid R50 for the complete tasting, which is great value with all the wine you can taste (15 wines), but you can taste a limited range (7 wines) and sit there for as long as you like for FREE! The reason I'm concerned is, I love this place, and I want them to make some money so they stay there and don't change anything!
Returning to Cape Town it was about time for my Dad to head back to Seoul, and for me to head back to work. But as one last hurrah we went to Balducci's for sushi & Champagne to celebrate a holiday we will all never forget and my birthday of course! And to top it off, on my actual birthday we went for dinner at my cousin David's place, a stunning place overlooking the sea, and David made a Potjie and I met my second cousin Tamryn for the first time. A truly memorable couple of weeks!
The end.
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