"There is no place like this place anywhere near this place: so this must be the place".
T shirt philosophy


March 30, 2008
Ceres, South Africa
Aquila Game Reserve

After driving to Stellenboech, we spent a nice evening walking the town square near the University. Although it is a nice wine country city, it lacks the charm of Franschoek, where we stayed the previous day.
On Saturday Morning, we had a lovely breakfast at the Avenue Inn B&B where we stayed and which is run by Neville and his wife, along with their 2 dogs Chippie and Charlie with whom I spent time throwing tennis balls. We had a candid discussion regarding politics (Neville and I; Chippie and Charlie had no opinion) and personalities as they relate to different nationalities.
The topic arose as we have had extremely different responses when people discover that we are American. The other day a group of German tourist heard us talking (regarding the beauty of the area, it was nothing negative) and immediately began berating us in German (the term dumbkoff Americans came up several times) for some perceived slight. We finally just moved away. This is ironic as the day before, we met a German gentleman who thanked us (USA) for protecting the world from terrorists. He feels that his Government is either reluctant to get involved, or does not realize the danger presented. Neville said he gets very few Americans and asked us if it is true that most Americans only get two weeks of vacation??? Most Europeans get at least a month. What are we doing wrong?

After buying some gifts at the Saturday morning market, we drove for two hours to the Aquila game reserve. We will write much more on the safari later as we are preparing right now to go on a trip into the bush of deepest, darkest Africa (not that deep or dark here really).
As far as the exchange rate goes; we have been getting around 8 Rand to the dollar. Of course the Euro exchange is 16 Euros to the Rand - again what are we doing wrong?

We had lunch yesterday at an exclusive restaurant (La Petite Ferme) which is comparable to The Spiced Pear in Newport. Donna now is saying this is the best chicken she ever had in her life. With a bottle of wine, plus 2 glasses of wine, 2 appetizers, 4 entrees (Ostrich fillet, Steak, Duck and Lemon Grass Chicken) plus desserts it came to under 1,000 Rand or approximately $125 dollars with a generous tip. A comparable lunch at home would have been at least $600.00.

Despite all of the research we did, I am shocked at how beautiful it is here, how modern the conveniences are and how good the food. The wine flows easy and we are getting used to having some with all meals.

We are really enjoying ourselves, so this must be the place.