Stroll Among Vineyards
Spread out like a quilt over Table Mountain’s south-eastern flanks, the pretty Constantia Valley is the heart of the ‘mink and manure’ set of Cape Town. The whole area fairly glows with complacent civility, the Groot Constantia Wine Estate is especially venerable, with Simon Van Der Stel’s restored Manor House adding a patina of posterity. Today, Groot Constantia offers wine tasting, a museum, good dining and a stroll among the vineyards.
Nearby, other wine estates, like the ever-optimistic Buitenverwachting (Beyond Expectation), Klein Constantia, Alphen and Steenberg, can also be visited. And after a heavy day of wine tasting, the mountain walk through Cecilia Forest to the Kirstenbosch Gardens is an enticing way to stroll off the booze.
Drive Around and Explore
Take a few hours to drive around Constantia and explore one of the oldest wine routes in the Cape. When you’ve had enough of all the wining, follow Constantia Road up the mountain, past the shopping centre and the tour busses, to Constantia Nek.
The road climbs quite gently at first, but soon succumbs to the contour lines and starts twisting up the final ascent to the summit of the Nek – a low-lying saddle that joins the back of Table Mountain with the Vlakkenberg and Constantiaberg. Once over the Nek, the road winds in and out of the rumpled mountainside, descending the narrow valley of the Disa River. This delightful vale gradually widens out to reveal the enchanted Hout Bay valley.
Constantia is both an idyllic suburb of modern Cape Town and home to some of the oldest wine estates in the Cape. The sprawling Constantia V...
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