Saturday afternoon -Nathan

NOTE: First let me notify readers of this blog that there is intermittent email access here in South Africa thus I could be delayed a day from posting.

On Saturday March 14th after the visit to the township, we took a bus trip out to the wine country. Wine is one of the largest exports of South Africa. Many various kinds of grapes are grown in South Africa. A special grape unique to South Africa was developed called Pinotage. The grape is a hybrid of the Pinot and Hermitage grape. It is full bodied red with a very slight smoky taste but no lingering aftertaste. A very nice wine.
The first winery we went to was M'ehudi. This winery is the only black fully owned and operated winery in South Africa (out of some 200 total wineries). The wines we tasted were very nice which included a Chardonnay, a Merlot and a Pinotage.
The next stop was to a monument to the Afrikkan language. The monument, on top of an overlook is made up of two very tall cylindrical concrete pieces and a tower that uses light to represent steps (the development of the language). There are several other sculptures made to represent the development and maturation of the language. Afrikkans is one of the 10 or so official languages in South Africa. Afrikkans is a mix of languages created by slave owners so they could talk to their slaves who came from various parts of Africa and Europe. The language includes Dutch, German and mostly resembles Flemish.
After the side trip we went to another winery and then on to a last winery were we met up with the other groups on the trip for entertainment and a food fest buffet (oxtail soup, venison, curried chicken, mashed pumpkin and squash, bootie -a mix of various meets ground up, delicious fresh fruit, etc).
A strong contingent of students and guests went out on the town upon returning from the hotel. I could nothing but go right to sleep for I agreed to get up at 5am to hike Table Mountain.