33.09 Franschhoek, Western Cape: Mont Rochelle Nature Reserve, an outstanding gem.
We come over the mountain and lo and behold we are in...Fransh...or a little above it. Now we understand what they mean by the beauty of the Cape Coloreds. We left the coast and headed inland to the beautiful town of Franschhoek. It was settled, inter alia, by French Huguenots after fleeing from religious persecution in France, during the 17th century. Seems a lot of that still going around. What a world! The more we profess tolerance the less of it we have. We'll return to the coast via unpublished blogs later. Franschhoek is a beautiful town, centered around the wine industry, with a strong French flavor. It emits a wonderful atmosphere generally and for us, provides opportunity to view it from height because it's surrounded by multi-mountain ranges. The downside up in those mountains is the awfully strong winds. On both occasions that we reached Du Toitskop and Perdekop respectively, we dealt with gusting winds that were chilly, too. Nevertheless, the hiking h...