Number 5- finally day ONE

Yep I'm excited!!
The weather forecast was gloomy, cloudy and shit! I awoke at about 8, peeked out of the window (straight up at Table Mountain) to see fantastic blue skies. I bugged out, grabbed a super quick shower and went to the small office. I must have shocked the girl working there with my enthusiasm as she positively reeled back as I went in.
Her resposnse to my request and her phone call was "he'll be here in 5 minutes!", I stuck two slices in the communal toaster and ran to the coffee shop next door with a paper cup I found- they don't do take away normally.
6 minutes later I was with a great young Finnish couple and a quiet guy from Singapore in a mini bus loaded up with mountain bikes headed for the wine region as I stuffed toast and supps of coffee into my mouth.
If you know me, you'll know what I like. A day (and a full day at that) of cycling in brilliant sunshine through the mountains from one wine producer to another. The scenery was just brilliant- I mean absoultely beautiful.We stopped off to taste wine and cheese, had guided tours and a picnic in gardens looking across the valley. In the afternoon we were driven to Stellenbosch for a history walk through the town (which is gorgeous by anybody's standards) and then to another vineyard where after the obligatory tasting saw cheetahs and eagles close up. Oh, and this Turkish dog thing which is massive, hard as nails but has been bred to think it's a sheep. They give them to farmers who let them loose to live amongst their flocks in the Savannah, when a predatory cat comes a huntin' the said Turkish dog kicks the cat's arse! Result- cat gets the message, sheep live and farmers have no need to kill big cats- perfect. There were some great lines about the psychological problems this would leave the dogs.

I felt very sorry for Li, the guy from Singapore who didn't like mountain biking much and certainly didn't like wine- bless. I took him under my wing and made sure the wine people were never offended by his untouched glass. At one stage I was explaining to him the 'legs' on a red wine. The serving guy presented a huge glass of Merlot for demonstration purposes which strangely evaporated as soon as the point was made- nice!
All in all a brilliant day- my holiday finally started.If weather holds am hoping to do a township tour in the morning- you would not believe what those places are like. PM, climb Table Mountain. Plan to hire motor bike is in balance because I didn't get chance to call and reserve a bike- we'll see.

Thanks for comments-even if they are anonymous, it's nice to know I'm not the only one reading this. Any questions?
Chris