Stories From Our Suitcase

Sunday, September 4th:   We started our Sunday by going to Watoto Church, which was across the street from our hotel.  It was a very welcoming church that felt very much like an American contemporary mega-church.  We enjoyed the worship and preaching!  Afterward, we drove through the wine route to Stellenboch.  Since it was Sunday, there weren't very many shops or restaurants open.  We managed to make it to the visitor center before they closed, and we got a map and list of wineries in the area that did tastings on Sundays.  We walked around town and strolled through a botanical garden.  Before leaving Stellenboch, we mapped out which wineries had Sunday tastings and headed out. The drive was gorgeous and we ended up stopping at Eikendal Wineries.  They had a special tasting that paired different Lindt chocolate flavors with their red and white wines.  The pairings were their Classique (red) with the 80% Cocoa Chocolate, the Cabernet...

Saturday, September 3rd:  We got to sleep in until 8am!!! After getting up most days around sunrise, I was so thankful to have a day to sleep in.  In a bed! We ate breakfast at our hotel and headed to Table Mountain.  It was a clear day, so we were able to see the top of the mountain on our drive over.  You can hike up and down or take the cable car.  Since I am not too keen on 3 hour strenuous hikes, we took the cable car both ways.  The cable car is pretty cool, because the floor spins as you go up and down.  That way everyone gets a good view.  Also, they don't waste any time getting you up there.  There is a certain point when it goes straight up, and that is pretty freaky. Once at the top, we explored the mountain and battled the wind and cold.  It was so beautiful to see different views of Cape Town.  We were up there for a few hours walking around, taking pictures and enjoying the different views of Cape Town. Aft...

Wednesday, August 31st:   We left Sesrium at 7:00am and headed down the gravel road (C19?) to the paved section (Maltahoe) before Mariental.  The gravel roads weren't too bad, but we were glad that we weren't going all the way to Fish River.  We passed by the Mariental split at 10:45am, but we didn't get gas because there were two other places on the map within the next 200km.  The first place with gas was 5km off the road, so we decided to try our luck for the second place.  Well, that was a bad idea, because that gas station was not in operation.  We kept driving until the gas light came on and then put in our 5 liter gas reserve with about 90 km to go.  There was a lot of praying going on, so that we would make it to a gas station in Keetmanshoop.  To save on gas, we didn't turn the A/C on or open the windows (I guess that makes the car less wind resistant and uses gas. Not my idea! ;)  Luckily, we made it to a gas station in time.  A...