11 Spectacular Views in Stellenbosch

2Summers | 16 May 2017
wine Cape Town nature luxury travel stellenbosch

I recently received an invitation to participate in a blogging campaign called #Stellenblog. #Stellenblog is an annual weeklong event in which bloggers/social media influencers from around South Africa and the world go to Stellenbosch – a university town outside Cape Town that is the center of South Africa’s wine industry – and hang around eating/drinking/having fun.

Stellenblog crew
The #Stellenblog crew, clockwise from top left: Fhatuwani, Trudy, Samuel (doing his best to hide), Lauren, Becki, Vuyo, me, and Audrey. Not shown: Ongama, Dawid, and Mark.

Sounds like a tough job, right?

Okay, I lie. Drinking/eating/having fun is not tough at all, especially not in Stellenbosch. If you go to Stellenbosch, on someone else’s dime, and don’t drink/eat/fun yourself to within an inch of your life, then there is probably something seriously wrong with you. Like maybe you don’t have taste buds. Or your heart is made of stone.

So last week wasn’t hard. But the hard part of this job comes now, as I wade through more than 3000 photos and try to figure out how to tell the story of #Stellenblog.

I will start with the view. Stellenbosch is drop-dead gorgeous, especially in the fall when the grape vines and grass and leaves and mountains all take on various shades of red and gold and orange and pink. So here are my 11 favorite shots of the Stellenbosch landscape.

11 Views of Stellenbosch

View and wine glasses at Jordan Wines in Stellenbosch
Wine tasting on a mountaintop at Jordan Wine Estate.
View of Jordan Wine Estate
Morning view from the deck at Jordan Wine Estate. Our group stayed at Jordan for four nights so I saw a lot of spectacular views there.
Sunset reflections at Jordan Wine Estate
Sunset reflections at Jordan.
Grape vines at Jordan
Grape vines at Jordan with Cape Town in the distance.

Hiking in the Jonkerhoek Nature Reserve in Stellenbosch
Photographer Alfred Thorpe during our hike through the Jonkershoek Nature Reserve with Adventureshop Stellenbosch. Just a little side note: Alfred once walked 160 kilometers (100 miles) in seven days through the Drakensberg Mountains, BAREFOOT. I
know it’s true because I saw photos of his feet.

Mountains from Delaire Graff
Nightfall at the opulent Delaire Graff Estate. Unfortunately we arrived too late to catch the really spectacular evening light, but the dinner we had (which I’ll write about in a future post) made up for it.
Sunset at Delaire Graff
The final moments of sunset at Delaire Graff, which sits right at the top of the Stellenbosch Valley.
Fine art at Tokara in Stellenbosch
Fine art in the gardens of the Tokara Wine and Olive Farm, with a distant view of Table Mountain.
Sculpture at Tokara
Another sculpture at Tokara.

And finally, one of the best sunsets I’ve ever seen in my life.

Sunset at Middelvlei
Sunset at Middelvlei Wines, one of my favorite stops of the week.
Sunset at Middelvlei part 2
This sunset was so good, I had to shoot it with two different lenses.

I’ll have a few more posts to come about Stellenbosch and also about Cape Town, where we spent some of our time during #Stellenblog.

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Heather in the vineyard
Vineyard glamor shot courtesy of Lauren Manuel McShane.

I wrote this post in partnership with #Stellenblog. Opinions expressed are mine.