South
Africa - Day 3
Saturday 24th January 2026
Participants: Kev & Tam
We have a
fitful nights sleep as we start off without the air conditioning,
but have to put it on half way through the night. I wake up at
7.30 am to find Tam watching The Traitors final on her phone.
We have breakfast included in our package which is served on the
balcony in front of the restaurant. There's a large continental
selection brought to our table and you also choose off the menu.
I have avocado toast with bacon and poached egg. Not sure we've
ever eaten breakfast in a more beautiful setting.
We're doing a few wine farms today and call an Uber to take us to our first one. Ubers are very cheap here and nearly every one we took had a friendly driver, most of them being Manchester United fans! After 20 minutes or so we arrive at Stark Conde.
We'd done a fair bit of research to decide which of the wine farms to do and this one was one of the first I ever looked at and immediately decided this was a must-do. There is a small restuarant, which was very busy, and a tasting room on an island in the middle of a lake. It's a stunningly beautiful setting. We take a walk around the lake first before heading for our tasting.
We're sitting down to enjoy our first wines by 11.00 am. The wines we have are nice enough, but not really to our taste, not that this matters much as our table is by the water and the views across to the mountains are lovely. You could sit here all day and be happy.
Our next stop is going to be Delaire Graff were we have booked for lunch. We call an Uber and get the same driver again (Emerson) and I ask him if he drinks wine. He tells us that he has a friend that works at one of the local wine farms and he gets him a couple of bottles each week at reduced prices. He's going to settle down tomorrow afternoon with a bottle of red to watch Man Utd v Arsenal. Beats a pint of beer.
On arriving at Delaire Graff we have a walk around. Oh my goodness this place is beautiful. Everything is manicured to perfection and the grounds are immaculate with statues and sculptures everywhere.
Inside is even
more mindblowing with a little stream running along the
corridors. We booked the restaurant for lunch many weeks ago as
we knew we would like it. This proved to be a wise choice as we
were shown to a table for two in a prime position looking
straight down the valley with uninterrupted views of the
mountains.
As we had a big breakfast we're only having a light lunch. We
start with an oyster each as we've never had proper oysters
before. They are presented nicely and we both enjoy them. We
follow this with the Seared Tuna Salad. This isn't a cheap venue
(by South African standards) as our salad costs around £17, but
we enjoy it enormously as we sit in the sunshine with a glass of
Chardonnay looking at the scenery. It's highly likely that I am
going to run out of words to describe the beauty of everything we
see on this hoilday.
After lunch we head to the wine tasting area. We have to wait for 20 minutes or so as we ask for a table outside. We get to sample a number of wines and enjoy them more than Stark Conde. Of course we're also fairly tipsy by this time, so quality control might not be at its best. The most expensive wine we get to sample is £150 a bottle.
Now our aim is to walk to Tokara, but Google sends us the wrong way and we end up at the back of Delaire Graff where a nice chap tells us that the road we're trying to get down is closed. He asks if we'd like a lift down to the gate we require and then calls for a golf cart that arrives swiftly to transport us to the place where we can exit the estate and cross the road to Tokara. That's what I call first class service.
We arrive at Tokara at 4.30 pm and wait for a table. We spend the time looking around and once again enjoying the lovely views. The wine tasting is pretty good and we enjoy the Chardonnay so much that we buy a bottle for later in the holiday.
A short walk back to Alluvia and we sit around the pool for a short while enjoying the warm sunshine. The colour of the mountains are stunning as the light changes during the evening
After showering we eat in the restaurant although I can't say it's the best. We both have a chicken burger, but the accompanying onion rings are greasy and the chips rather floppy. Bed shortly afterwards.
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