Saturday 7 November 2020, Day 48 of Level 1, Day 226 of Lockdown 😷

Corona Gratitude 🙏

#Grateful for starting our day with the first sign of the sun in two days, and the luck of being able to do our walking sections throughout the day without any rain; for a lovely breakfast at Dunstone Restaurant; for being shuttled to VillaMar at the other end of Wellington, for an informative coffee tasting; for a winetasting at Doolhof Wines, at the end of Bovlei; for a sunny walk alongside the Kromme River to Welvanpas Family Vineyards for lunch and a winetasting; for a walk to close to Bosman Family Vineyards, a wine producer, and the largest producer of ‘stokkies’ (new vines created by grafting onto Rootstock) in Africa; for being shuttled back to our car at Diemersfontein, picking up our purchases made at our different stops in the past two days; for safely returning to Cape Town; and for being happy and healthy. 🙏💙

VillaMar is an Italian family restaurant and business in Wellington, one of the best in the town we were told, for a coffee tasting. They roast Arabica (nicer taste) and Robusta (more caffeine) beans at the restaurant. They regularly do quality control, via cupping, showing us how it is done. One should not add water at a temperature higher than 85C when making coffee. We were shown a beautiful German siphon, for making filter coffee. We were also shown a Brewspoon, into which one places ground coffee, closes it, and lets it stand for up to 5 minutes in hot water, a quick and easy way of making filter coffee. I tried some of their Berry ice cream, delicious. Sadly they do not have an outlet selling it in Cape Town. 😊☕️

We were shuttled to Doolhof, located in a cul de sac in Bovlei, a beautiful wine estate dating back to 1712, with new British owners. They had lovely preserves, of which I bought a few. Doolhof is the Afrikaans translation of ‘labyrinth’, of which there is one on the farm. The luxury boutique hotel on the property is called Grand Dedale, the French name for labyrinth. We tasted five Doolhof Wines, and then the surprise of a Malbec Gin, a lovely cocktail made with tonic. I messaged Angelo Casu, the GM of Grand Dedale, and he came to say hello, giving us permission to see his beautiful accommodation.

Our first walk on the Wellington Wine Walk was between Doolhof and Welvanpas, alongside the Kromme River. Having grown up in Wellington, I knew that it is famous for having been the home of Piet Retief. His descendant Dan Retief and his wife Retha now own the farm, she preparing our lovely lunch, and he introducing his wines, but also lots of historical information about the property, about Wellington, and the Cape. Jenny Stephens received praise from Dan that she is a former Miss World …. 😂

We walked from Welvanpas to Bosman Wines along the Kromme River, and through vineyards. The rain held off all day.

The shuttle bus met us on the road, and dropped us off at Bosman Wines. It stopped making wines at one stage, concentrating on vine grating only for a while, but since 2007 they have been producing wines again. The wine estate has the most active empowerment project in our country, called Adamo, a part of the sales of certain wines going to the empowerment project. 500 families benefit from it, with schools built, a retirement home, transport offered for doctor visits, and accommodation. We were spoilt with a tasting of ten wines, including the Nero, made from the Sicilian grape cultivar Nero d’Avola, the wine I liked best of those we tasted. They own 9 wine farms in Wellington and one in the Hemel en Aarde Valley.

Each wine estate had delivered our purchases to Diemersfontein, for us to pick up there at the end of our Walk, a fantastic service.

Wellington Wine Walk Partners Elaine Wegelin, Carol-Ann Jeffries, and Katrien looked after us over the two and a half days, nothing being too much trouble, and showing great flexibility in rearranging our program when it poured all day yesterday, not being walkable. 👏👏👏❤️❤️❤️❤️

A day that will go into history: Joe Biden wins the American Presidential election. 💙💙💙❤️❤️❤️

SA Corona Status 735906 cases 19789 deaths 😷😥

FitBit 14000 steps 10 km 👣

Lovemylife❤️

 

The Corona Virus Lockdown (Level 5), announced by our President Cyril Ramaphosa earlier to commence on 27 March and to continue until 16 April, subsequently extended to 30 April, lowered to Level 4 from 1 May, lowered to Level 3 from 1 June, lowered to Level 2 from 18 August, and lowered to Level 1 from 21 September, is an unprecedented event in my lifetime. I am posting my daily Facebook post to journal this Corona Lockdown Journey, perhaps to serve as material for a future Book.

Chris von Ulmenstein, WhaleTales Blog: www.chrisvonulmenstein.com/blog Tel +27 082 55 11 323 Twitter:@Ulmenstein Facebook: Chris von Ulmenstein, My Cape Town Guide/Mein Kapstadt Guide Instagram: @Chrissy_Ulmenstein @MyCapeTownGuide

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