South Africa's wine country actually begins inside of Cape Town, but a half hour away from the city center is the lovely town of Stellenbosch, the second oldest in the country. It is a college town with a number of wonderful restaurants, and is surrounded by dozens of wine estates. We started with a little walking tour to the oldest house in South Africa.
The Botanical Gardens were recommended so we checked them out.
Then we went to the Vergenoegd wine estate for lunch and wine, and to see the famous duck parade.
The ducks serve a practical purpose—they eat bugs off the vines—but more importantly they are super cute. These are Indian Runner ducks, which walk like penguins. They parade through the estate three times a day.
And then you get to feed them if you want, which we did.
The rest of the day we just ate and drank our way through town.
© 2026 Hector Gonzalez