Our first glitch

We have been in South Africa since February 5th and everything has gone off without even a minor issue – even the weather has been fantastic.

Well we had a minor setback when we arrived back from Nelspruit. First there were no rental cars available – only “people movers” from the Cape Town airport car rental companies. Then our Uber account wouldn’t let us book a transfer from the airport to Franschhoek because the Visa associated with our account had been closed down. Thank goodness we had cash to pay for a transfer to our Mongoose Manor cottage rental in Franschhoek. The short version of the Visa story is both Larry’s RBC Visa and my RBC Visa were hacked so Visa shutdown both. Larry’s card is still in Huntsville so it must have been hacked before we left (or through Uber) and mine was our back-up card for the trip which we hadn’t used yet.

Needless to say when we arrived at Mongoose Manor we were a bit frazzled. We spent over an hour on the phone with Visa going through charges to determine which were legitimate – the hacker tried Larry’s account first with 1 cent amounts – the 1 cent charges actually alerted Visa security and Visa subsequently denied over $10,000 in charges on Larry’s card. Visa security said my card had even larger amounts denied as the hacker kept trying different expiry dates. We have no idea how my card was hacked since it had not been used on our trip.

It was after 7:00 p.m. when we finally got off of the phone with Visa – we were hungry by this time so we decided to order a pizza to be delivered. That didn’t go well as Larry’s SA phone went dead in the middle of the order (we ran out of airtime on our SA Sim card). At that point Caro (the owner of Mongoose Manor) arrived at our door to see if we were settled in. When she heard our story (which we now laugh about), she immediately jumped in – ordered the pizza for us, picked it up and wouldn’t let us pay for it….so it all worked out in the end. We will deal with the credit card issues re payments that come out automatically when we get home.

Mongoose Manor is our first of three cottage/house rentals in Franschhoek – we rented 3 different ones as we couldn’t find one that was available for the 3 weeks we are here. Mongoose is an eclectic, small cottage on a horse farm – the back patio/lanai, where I am currently sipping my wine, and writing this post, is where we eat all of our meals. There is a pool and a view of the mountains – a perfect setting. As you can tell from the story above, the owners are wonderful – there when you need them but otherwise nowhere to be seen (they live next door).

The rental car issue also was resolved – we rented a Volkswagen Polo from Stellenbosch, which is much closer than the airport.

Our friend Jan described our trip perfectly “it’s almost as if you’re having 4 or 5 separate vacations.  That’s the great thing about SA – so much variety within a remarkably close accessible area”. So true Jan!

Now for the pictures of Mongoose Manor and our vineyard visits thus far. Even though we have visited this area numerous times we are still in awe of the scenery.

We enjoy visiting the wineries as most have amazing views and many have sculptures or lovely gardens.

Delaire Graff has views over the rugged Simonsberg mountain range. Two restaurants, wine tasting, accommodations and a spa – lovely but expensive.

Tokara vineyard is on the southern slopes of the Simonsberg Mountain. As with Delaire, it has interesting sculptures and wonderful views. Takara has two restaurants, a formal restaurant in the main building, and also a delicatessen higher up the mountain (we ate at the deli).

Thelema Stellenbosch is a small vineyard next door to Tokara. We first visited Thelema in the 1990s (can’t remember the exact year) and we purchased a red to open in 2000 – it was a wonderful wine and memory. The vineyard has expanded since then and also has introduced a new selection of wines, Sutherland Wines, which are grown in Elgin’s cool-climate.

La Motte Wine Estate is located in Franschhoek Valley – only a 5 minute drive from where we are staying. Relaxing spot for lunch.