Vergelegen

We said goodbye to pretty Franshhoek and drove off to view Stellenbosch, then Vergelegen. Well, Stellenbosch was horrendously busy - Saturday is obviously everyone out on the streets day! So, we drove on to find Vergelegen, which was not as easy as we thought. It certainly lives up to its name and after several false moves, we eventually found ourselves on the right road, drove to the end of said road, took the correct fork at the end of this road and finally found ourselves at Vergelegen! This is the prestigious wine estate owned by Anglo-American. We really needed a coffee before we began our walk around the grounds, and when we got to the restaurant it was hopping - everyone was out to lunch, and all they could offer us was a light snack on the sofas, again. This was fine and coffee and sandwiches arrived and were very welcome.

Thus refreshed, we walked across the estate to the beautifully restored homestead with its lovely walled garden. At the back there is a row of ancient camphor trees. to quote from the website'They are the oldest living, officially documented trees on the sub-continent. Introduced to the Cape from China and Japan around 1670, they were planted at Vergelegen during the van der Stel era (1700 - 1706). The five remaining giants were proclaimed National Monuments in 1942 and are expected to live for another 150 - 200 years. The other camphor trees at Vergelegen are seedlings from these five magnificent species.' After our trip around the estate, we were treated to w small wine tasting of some great wines.
And so, we now had to get back to the main road and the airport for our flight home. This proved no mean feat, but we got there in the end.