World Cup #14 – Wine Country and Penguins

The break between matches in Cape Town have afforded me the chance to get out and see little of the area around the city. Spent Thursday in the Stellenbosch wine country area on Warwick Estate vineyards, a winery established by a Canadian who moved to South Africa in the 1970s.

Norma Ratcliffe has been producing wines here since the 1980s and will be the subject of an upcoming feature story I’m working on for the University of Alberta alumni magazine.

Friday meant a trip to Simon’s Town, a sleepy little Victorian colonial town on the coast. There are a colony of African penguins who call the nearby beaches home, giving the excuse for the visit. Caught the second half of the Brazil/Holland match at the Admiral Nelson Hotel. Took a bus and train back to Cape Town to see Ghana come agonizingly close to getting passed Uruguay in the other match of the day. Went to a local student pub to watch it just down the road from my hostel near the University of Cape Town.

The pub’s 200 or so patrons, students from various African nations, were on there knees in grief and disbelief after Gyan’s extra-time penalty miss and Ghana’s subsequent penalty shootout defeat. This was Africa’s last chance and the pub’s clientelle’s reaction was probably shared by the entire continent.

Have to say my voice was a little raspy this morning having used it at full blast the night before trying to help will the Black Stars to a victory. So close.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *