Greetings from Le Quartier Francais - one of the most famous hotels in South Africa. It's located in Franshhoek ... and I am in a lovely suite - albeit for just one night.

So checked-out of Table Bay this morning and 45 minutes later I was in Stellenbosch and at Rust en Vrede (Peace & Tranquility) home to an awesome vineyard (founded in 1694) and restaurant (2007). I spent the morning with "birthday boy" Chef John Shuttleworth (& delightful wife) cooking two dishes - the first made of springbok ... awesome and the second, a dessert, with pear, doughnuts infused with maple syrup, pear sorbet, geranium pannacotta (yes, really) ... outrageously good!

I then spent a couple of hours with the estate owner, the flambouyant Jean Engelbrecht, tasting three of his wines. A BIG Shiraz, a BIGGGER Syrah and a delicious Shiraz/Cab blend ...

Rust has won many accolades over the years ... and I am so pleased that we got in on the show.

From there, it was a 45 minute zoooom to Franschhoek ... looking forward to tomorrow.

Me injecting syrup into a doughnut! What fun!

Last night's Cape Town skyline

John with springbok

Dessert

My ride - a BMW 640i convertible - vrooooooom

A drink problem I wish I had!

My wee pool at Le Quartier Francais

Whooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooosh! That’s the hurricane-like wind that has been blowing a hoolie all day here in Cape Town. While it has made filming a wee tough, watching the clouds tumble over Table Mountain is breathtaking.

Awoke early and zoomed off to The Old Biscuit Mill – around 20 minutes from the hotel. Here I met with Cameron Munroe who runs the “Fresh Produce and Design” section of this old mill now market ... on a Saturday, this is THE place to come and shop ... meet friends and eat delicious food ...

I tried some fabulous South African port, stunning sausage and wonderful LOCAL buffalo mozzarella ... where the producers imported Australian buffaloes to make this wonderful, fresh and tasty cheese! Yum!

It was a lovely way to spend a morning and The Mill is a must-visit – at least on a Saturday morning.

Back to the hotel – 329 bedrooms, pool, spa (I had a mani/pedi this evening!), restaurants and amazing views!

I cooked a couple of dishes with the Chef de Cuisine – the affable & talented Donavin Dodds ... we cooked a lamb dish with a fresh local vegetable ragout and a king-prawn with Marie-Rose ... I know, I know ... a 1970’s dish ... but Donavin added some brandy to give it a different oomph!

The day ended in a delightful way – seeing dear friends ... I love this part of my travels ... thank you for visiting me guys ...

 The mist-covered Table Mountain

 Terry - the meat man!

 Donavin Dodds

The Table Bay PR lady ... of 14 years!!!! ... lovely Sarah Prins

Greetings from Cape Town.

Arrived mid-morning after a long flight ... I would like to say that the service on SAA was superb, the cuisine tasty, the wines delicious and the in-flight entertainment exciting but I can’t as I slept for over NINE hours (in a nice comfy bed it has to be added)... missing meals, movies, champagne and hot towels! The boys – however – did enjoy their flight! I will try and stay awake on the way home ...

We picked up our rather smart BMWs at the airport and zipped for 30 minutes to the Table Bay Hotel ... which looks up at the mountain and out to the Ocean. It’s quite an enormous sight!

First up, the boys picked up some footage of the hotel ... then we met up with “tea sommelier” Mingwei Tsai ... he gave me a masterclass on tea – did you know that – for instance – green tea should ONLY be drunk at 80 degrees or the properties are not properly released? Bergamot is a type of lemon? The teas were paired with pastries – expertly put together by the wonderful pastry chef here at the hotel – Anita Van Tonder ... cherries and dark chocolate “work” with green tea ... tiramisu with Early Grey ... !

Early dinner and some sleep is in order!

The weather is glorious – although rather windy.

I can tell I am not 100% - I missed packing at least a dozen items in my luggage including jeans, a razor and spare hankies! I am using tissue paper (albeit man-size!) – UGH!

p.s. I can see seals sitting in the sun from my balcony ... and up-close "hello/ork" is in order!

"HELLO CAPE TOWN"!

Mingwei

Anita

View from my Presidential Suite ... :)

We are all preparing to fly to South Africa ... goodness, a couple of us need some urgent grooming!

Tomorrow morning I will be in Cape Town! I do love this city so I can't wait ...

Still have a wee bit of flu ...

Thankfully we are all in the 1st lounge at Terminal 1 (courtesy of my dear buddy Gary at SAA) ... so we can relax and I can watch the boys drink premium malt whisky while I sip herbal tea. I need sleep ...

I have a touch of flu! That's according to the nice lady at the pharmacy. She has sold me several boxes of pills & potions so hopefully I will be raring to go tomorrow ... for South Africa! Yay!

Sadly, I did have to work today ... looking at "fun" edits ... ah well ...

Still smiling ... although in my joggy bots, I look a wee chavish ... "who you gonna call"?

Movember Oli

Chef Tak in Hong Kong

Somewhere in Madeira

Sadly awoke this morning feeling rather ill - every bone in my body hurt. Have spent the day in bed ... feel much better now but what a waste of a day ... tomorrow, back in the edit with Oli. 

Countdown to Cape Town!

Currently outside my home, it's dark, cold and raining ... it's positively wintry ... in CT it's a balmy 24 degrees, clear and no rain ... tomorrow it will be 29 degrees there! Whoo-hoo!

Last time I was there, I flew in a jet-fighter at Thunder City ... drove cars at great speed ... and went on safari that featured the "Small Five". This time, thanks to BMW South Africa, I will be travelling around in comfort and visiting wineries like Rust en Vrede and Constantia Uitsig and cooking with some of the greatest chefs in Africa... how excited am I?

To compound my stress of today, I had that "once a year" need for a cold beer ... and in my refrigerator ... there was just one beer BUT it was non-alcoholic! Yuk! Really?

 The memories!

Today I went to the zoo! Why? Because the sun was shining, the sky blue, it was chilly and after writing all night, I needed to go on safari to take my mind off things ... and erm - the nearest game reserve is too far!

The zoo I visited is home ONLY to monkeys & apes that have been rescued from homes where they were pets or orphans who cannot be released back into the wild. Yes - some would say that zoos should not exist - but to them I say, ok - do we let these monkeys die or do we look after them the best we can? Easy answer ...

Anyway - I had fun ... and occasionally it was like looking into the mirror ... or talking to Tim!

Squirrel monkey

Chimp

A cheeky looking 10-ring long-tailed lemur

It's a Saturday evening and I am chained to my desk! The Pooch is sitting beside me asleep (as usual) and I have a feeling, it's going to be a long night.

While all the travelling IS fun, I do need to catch up with paperwork when I am home. I believe that Oli the Editor is working tonight too ... brothers in arms etc.

We are designing two new websites for the shows and newsletters need writing! Grrrr!

ALSO I am hungry!

Hello & welcome to an Indian safari

Starring Chief Naturalist - Ratna Singh

Grrrrrrrr! Here puss puss!

Proof that my Leica camera never lies!!

A long day ... a very long day ... a very, very long day ...

Had a fun time will Oli and Ed in the edit suite ... India is looking great!

Looking forward to the first weekend home in ... a long time! What to do?

Had quite a late "whisky" night with dear Dougie at the bar at St. Ermins' ... rather too late for me ...

Next week - SOUTH AFRICA! I just home the airport strikes don't affect us too much.

Dancing at The Four Seasons Mumbai ... I am dreadful!

Oli - Movember

Ed - Movember?

Hello & Welcome - Taj Mahal Palace & Tower Hotel

Suite review at the Four Seasons

With the delightful Raymond Bickson - CEO of Taj Hotels

Tea in bed in the Tata Suite

Thank you & goodbye

Happy Thanksgiving to all my friends across the pond (& around the world) ... I wish much food, wine, happiness, Peace and prosperity to you all ...

Greetings from my St Ermin's in London ... early edit tomorrow so am here working and watching the world go by ...

I am - once again - amazed at people's sheer cruelty. A woman here in England was found guilty today of "murdering" a kitten by putting it in a microwave in revenge/spite over a domestic dispute. She can only face a maximum of 6 months in jail ... I didn't know that such people existed in this world. She will certainly find it hard for even Hell to want her in its community ...

Is it just me or is the world getting darker and colder (I am actually talking about the weather now!) sooner in the day? I can't wait to get to Cape Town!

 Dougie

Hus - the fabulous Exec Chef ... with a "growth" ...

It's been a weirdly cathartic day ... by doing the chores I hate - washing the cars, sweeping the drive, putting out all those empty bottles of wine, deleting all the "you have won $15,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 emails and shredding the equivalent letters - I feel rather loose & free!

Tomorrow I have to write all my scripts for the Mumbai and Indian safari shows ... I am actually quite excited by the latter ... especially the "Ratna & Varun chase scene" where Ratna drives like the devil to get the best views of a female Royal Bengal Tiger while I ramble on like an over-excited, deranged monkey. Photos to come on Friday, I promise!

Musically, my day has been dominated by James Brown and Chuck Berry ... I wish I could dance like them ... note to self ...

First - Leica Part 2 – of course I was in Madeira ... but here are some more photographs and a wee story of how Madeira wine was discovered – by accident!

http://bit.ly/s7ZEtn

It’s been a long day ... but quite fun ... cigars, pineapple juice, Darjeeling tea, trains, meetings, rain, sunshine, London ...

We are currently editing the Mumbai show and I have to say that my review of the Tata Suite at the Tal Mahal Palace is the best suite review I have ever done! It’s just awesome ...! Next – the safari show ... can’t wait to see the tiger sighting! So excited ...

I have a hankering to revisit Nashville, Tennessee ... (could be the Roy Orbison I am listening to as I write this!) ...

That was the life ... memories!

The curse of the long-haul flight strikes again! Yes, I did sleep but I also was so teary - at one stage - that a very kind member of the crew had to stop, bring me water and a box of (man-sized) tissues! What set this latest bout of emotion off? Not much! Actually it was a strange movie about the harvesting of body-parts ... not sure what got me into such a state! Hmmmm ...

Anyway - home at last!

The flight was long ... an overnight ... but I had a comfy bed ... a new BA aircraft ... weeks old apparently and EVERYTHING worked! I have become greedy of late and ask for two cocooned seats in the centre of the plane ... one bed for me and the other for imaginary "friend".

I landed at Heathrow at 0440 ... and was in my car by 0500 - HOW COOL IS THAT?

I have a few days at home with a small trip in there before CAPE TOWN (whoo-hoo) next week!!!!!!!!!

Oh by the way: my Leica for this fortnight: http://bit.ly/tBOnYE

With a bear!

With THE Bear