Sunday was a gorgeous day in the Western Cape. My friend Marlien and I drove out to Stellenbosch, up the across the mountain via Helshoogte Pass. We stopped at the Tokara wine estate for lunch. (While we were there, a party of six or so people arrived in style in a helicopter, landing at a heli-pad nearby. As if that ruckus was not enough, they took their seats close to us and talked loudly and animatedly while having their lunch!).
Our scenic drive took us from Durbanville to Stellenbosch, to Franschhoek across the Helshoogte Pass, and finally a stop at Paarl, and then we used the N1 highway to get us back to Durbanville.Here’s the French Huguenot Monument in Franschhoek, dedicated to the French Huguenots (French Protestants) that emigrated to South Africa. The largest portion of the Huguenots to settle in the Cape, arrived between 1688 and 1689 in seven ships as part of an organised migration. This monument was only completed in 1945 and dedicated in 1948, though.This is the Huguenot Memorial Museum neighbouring the monument, with exhibits documenting the history of the French Huguenots.Here’s a close-up (hooray for the iPhone panorama mode) of the Afrikaanse Taal (Afrikaans Language) monument on a hill outside of Paarl. Officially opened on 10 October 1975, it commemorates the 50th anniversary of Afrikaans being declared an official language of South Africa separate from Dutch.
