South
Africa - Day 17
Saturday 7th February 2026
Participants: Kev & Tam
We're up at 7.15 am as today is our first trip on the wine tram. This is one of the main reasons we booked our holiday in South Africa in the first place. We go grape picking in our local vineyard every autumn and the owners visit South Africa every year. They told us about how wonderful the Cape is and one of the first things I looked at on Youtube was a video of the Franschhoek wine tram. To be honest the holiday was as good as booked from that moment.
The wine tram is a mixture of the old tram and a fleet of buses that covers 5 different routes and over 30 wine farms. Today we are going on the Orange line. We walk just down the road from Bleu Cobalt Cottage to the Franschhoek terminal where we pick up our pre-booked tickets and board the bus to the Groot Drakenstein terminal where our journey will start. It takes about 20 minutes and is quite chilly this morning on the open sided bus. We board the tram and are immediately given a free glass of Chardonnay - Tam says 9.00 clock, wine o'clock.
These are some of the buses waiting at the Franschhoek terminal.
This appears to be the only photo we have of the old tram! Lord knows why.
Our first stop is at Plaisir. You get off the tram at the station and a bus picks you up for the brief drive to the wine farm. It's overcast, but warm so we sit in the garden with half a dozen other people and Tam and I share the wine and fudge tasting. It's all very nice and costs about £9. We make a note of the wines we enjoy the most.
The inside tasting room is every bit as nice as the outside one.
You get information on all the wines and told which fudge to pair with which wine.
I'm not sure I could eat one of those big grey marshmellows at a single sitting.
We have a wander round and enjoy the beautiful gardens before the bus returns an hour later to take us back to the tram station. Everything is timed very well and just a couple of minutes later a tram appears to take us to our next stop - Vrede en Lust. We sit outside and enjoy the view along the valley as the weather slowly clears and the sun starts to appear. We both have the 3 wine pairing tailored to our requirements - heavier reds for Tam and lighter for me. The total for the 2 of us is £10.
Our next stop is at Babylonstoren this time using the wine bus. This place is much bigger and we have booked lunch here. It is preferable to book if you want to eat at the wine farms, especially at peak times. We go to the tasting room, which is much more modern than the other places. We both have the 6 wine tasting along with the Deli and Dairy Platter. Unfortunately I didn't make a note of the cost, probably because of the 6 glass wine tasting, but we enjoyed it all very much. In total we spend 2 hours and 45 minutes here looking around the massive and immaculate gardens. You could easily spend the best part of a day here alone.
I do love a charcuterie although it was a bit of a squeeze on the small table.
Told you I love a charcuterie (and a wine).
I think this is the desert section of the gardens.
Back on the bus we ride to the tram collection point and then on to our last stop for the day, Boschendal. This is a huge and very beautiful estate. The bus stops at the restaurant and cellars first but we stay on to the tasting rooms. It's not really a room so much as an outside area under a huge tree by the side of a beautiful lawn and garden. In the late afternoon sunshine it's glorious, probably the best tasting experience we've had to date. We both have the 4 wine tasting - £10 in total.
I think this was our favourite stop of the day. Probably a combination of a beautiful place, glorious sunshine and the fact that we're pretty sozzled by this time.
I know there are a lot of photos, but you just can't stop snapping away in the Franschhoek valley, it's just so beautiful everywhere.
I buy a golf cap in the shop before we get the bus back to the tram. After dropping off back at Groot Drakenstein the bus takes us back to Franschhoek. The whole thing is faultlessly run. Everything leaves on time and there are people everwhere to guide you and ensure you get to where you want to go.
We are back at the cottage at 6.00 pm and I go down the road to the Station Bar to watch the England v Wales 6 Nations match. There's music in the courtyard at the back so it's pretty busy and it takes ages for me to get a beer. Tam joins later and has a G&T (I think we're wined out for the day!) and we decide we just want something small to eat in tonight, so Tam heads off to the supermarket and comes back with sushi. Back at the cottage we eat in the courtyard with a glass of Chardonnay from the free bottle provided (it appears we aren't totally wined out). Needless to say it's another early night at 10.00 pm.
By the way, you know I said that Jan is an amazing host? Well when we arrived he knew that we'd been moving between places and asked if we wanted any washing done. He told us to leave a bag full outside the door. When we returned from our day on the wine tram we found our clothes freshly washed, folded and laid out on the bed. I don't think I've ever had anything like that anywhere we've been, at least not for free.