The Western Cape, South Africa
Nov 15 to Dec 15, 2001

From Thursday, November 15 to Thursday, December 6, we enjoyed a wonderful and relaxing stay at Bird Cottage, a small cottage on Graham and Paddy Howes's farm just out of the town of Franschhoek. We rented a car from Avis, a cell phone, and relaxed for 3 weeks at the cottage. Most days we ate breakfast and lunch at the cottage, then drove the 4 miles to town for dinner. We made a few day-trips to to places like Cape Algulhas (Africa's southern-most point) and the spectacular city of Cape Town, and made several visits to the nearby town of Stellenbosch. Franschhoek is in the heart of South Africa's wine country, and the restaurants of Franschhoek are some of the best restaurants in the country.

After 3 weeks in Franschhoek, we moved to an apartment in the beach town of Hermanus, on the southern coast. Here we watched the large Southern Right Whales in the bay outside our deck and listened to music (thanks to Paul & Shirley Martens's MP3 music system), read more books, shopped a little, ate too much, and lived like kings for one week, before heading back home.