A trip to Elgin with the Ceres Rail Company today as a birthday treat.
Lots of fun, but bumpier than an Eastern Cape road and later than someone who has long since died.
We’ve still got a couple of hours for lunch in Elgin before we head back down the mountain. And there are beers and burgers.
And yes, I will be removing that forearm as soon as I get near a Photoshop.
Discovery have just sent me a “Spotify Wrapped” type thing for my exercise last year.
I did quite a lot of exercise last year.
That’s nearly one workout every day. And sure, some probably weren’t exhaustingly hectic, but then again some definitely were. And even the ones that weren’t too much of a struggle required more effort than sitting on the couch.
I did enough kms to get from SA to Ghana, but mysteriously, I never went to Ghana. [X-Files Music]
I don’t think that this number involves driving or flying. I think that this number is walking and running (I don’t do cycling).
I hit my weekly exercise goal on 43 occasions. That puts me in the top 5% of active Discovery members.
Which seems a bit much. Surely we can all do collectively better this year.
My most active month was June: probably because I enjoy exercising in the cold weather, and I did a lot of walking around Ireland and the UK.
Apparently, I really didn’t do much in September, given that I did more in November, when I was down with Covid. Again.
Not much to add. I’ve hit all my goals so far this year.
Apparently, across South Africa last year, January 17th was the most active day. Which just shows how long those New Years Resolutions last. October 28th was the least active.
Today is January 19th. And I’m still going.
Just.
Birthday breakfast at Kirstenbosch and then a quick wander around the gardens before it got too hot.
Crickets, Agamae(?), Agamas(?), Agamasses(?) eish…
An Agama – and then another one – and some pretty flowers (obviously), but not too many birds on show. We did get what we could, though.
I do really like the detail on this sunbird shot
And it even stands the zoom test:
…but the shadows really ruin the image.
And thus we were about to leave disappointed (as far as ‘togging birds went, at least), but then our old friend the inquisitive African Dusky Flycatcher (Muscicapa adusta) popped by.
Absolute bread and butter stuff, but such a willing and dependable subject: and just so cute.
More celebrations planned for this lunchtime, so I’ll have to love you and leave you for the moment, but the great news (T&Cs apply) is that there will almost certainly be more here tomorrow.
We were lucky enough to enjoy a couple of wine farms on the Helshoogte Pass yesterday afternoon. It was a stunning day and the surrounding mountains gave us a magnificent backdrop.
And at Oldenburg, the wines were pretty good too. Just good though, not “wow”. And with prices starting at R350 and finishing at R1500 a bottle, they really needed to be “wow”.
Ok. That R1500 was an outlier, but there were several wines in each of the 500s, 700s and 800s. And that seemed really excessive. I’m not claiming to be a big wine expert, but I’ve drunk enough and learned enough to know how good a local wine needs to be to command those sorts of pricces. And these really weren’t.
And that does raise the question of what’s going on with asking that much at the cellar door for very decent – but not exceptional – SA wine.
Is it for the tourists? Or is it for the Gautengaleng posers? The tasting was expensive, but it was exceptional: it felt like a premium experience, with a passionate and very knowledgeable host and Argon injected bottles so as to preserve the integrity of the wine. Ooh!
And, as mentioned above, the setting is incredible.
And while any wine (or any thing) is, of course, worth whatever anyone is willing to pay for it, I just don’t see why anyone would pay that for it and how they can justify changing that much for their wares.
And then Zorgvliet, where the wine was nowhere near as good, the setting nowhere near as dramatic, and the service rather hurried and impersonal. Least said, soonest forgotten.
But the prices still utterly ridiculous.
Is this the way we’re going now? Chancing our arm on the favourable exchange rate and some gullible and slightly pissed tour groups? The tasting experience is one thing, sure: make it exceptional, make it memorable. Maybe charge a bit more. Make them want to come back.
But we don’t need to be charging that much for not “wow” wine.
For me, that’s not a good look. And it’s even worse when you’re just gullible and slightly pissed, but on the local end of the exchange rate. So let’s not be another country ripping tourists (and as a bycatch, locals) off. There are plenty of very good wineries producing very good wines for which they are not charging outrageous prices. Neethlingshof and even Spier are good examples off the top of my head if you happen to be out that way. (And if Spier is ripping tourists off less than you, something is up.)
And if they can do it, why can’t everywhere else?
Busy morning, and we’re off to Stellies for some wine tasting this afternoon, so herewith a very quick denoised sunset shot from the weekend in Agulhas.
I’ve been doing some rudimentary calculations, and I’ve worked out that the image above isn’t going to win any awards. What is is going to do is serve as a quota photo for today’s blog post – just in case things get messy later.
Which, given the amount of wine involved, they may well do.