Gordon’s Bay, a small fishing village on the eastern edge of Cape Town, was our home base for the first month of our South Africa visit. And during that time we adventured to nearby places to learn more about the Western Cape province. One of our first explorations was a day trip to Stellenbosch and Franschhoek.

Stellenbosch is the second oldest European settlement in the province and sits in a valley known for producing abundant grapes and other fruit. Simon van der Stel, who founded the town in 1679, planted many oak trees along the streets and on homesteads. As we explored the old part of town we saw some of the gardens and parks still surrounding homes, churches, businesses, and municipal buildings featuring Cape Dutch architecture from the 18th and 19th centuries.

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Stellenbosch University– Founded in 1859 as a theological seminary and the oldest university in the country, SU is an established research university with 5 campuses and over 30,000 students. Its mascot is a squirrel. During our walk through the Stellenbosch campus we did not go inside any buildings, but we did notice the many large trees, beautiful flowerbeds, and well maintained exteriors of buildings. We took a picture of the very prominent statue of J. I. Marais, professor of theology in 1877-1919 and the first chancellor of SU.

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Franschhoek– The next stop on our day of adventure was Franschhoek, which is Afrikaans for French Corner. In 1688 a group of 176 French Protestants (Huguenots) arrived in this fertile valley on either side of the Berg River after leaving their home country to avoid religious persecution. The Dutch government of the Cape granted them land and many of the farm estates in the area still have the original French names and maintain buildings with the Cape Dutch architecture. Even the town flag displays the area’s French origins. It is a French flag with a grey elephant in the center. Records indicate that herds of elephants roamed the tall surrounding mountains until the mid 1800’s. We found the town to be a delightful tourist destination with its many restaurants, galleries, and shops selling crafts and antiques. We even discovered the De Villiers Chocolate Cafe where we throughly enjoyed scoops of chocolate plus coffee or strawberry ice cream while sitting outside in the warm sunshine. 

Like most Franschhoek visitors, we stopped to see the Huguenot Monument, situated along the R45 highway through the center of town. The large monument was constructed in 1938 to commemorate the 250th anniversary of the Huguenots’ arrival from France. The three arches represent the Holy Trinity and the woman symbolizes the spirit of religious freedom. The broken chain in her left hand is a reminder of liberation from persecution. 

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Franschhoek Pass– When we left Franschhoek we continued south on the R45 highway as the road climbed up to 689 meters at Franschhoek Pass. We stopped at the fantastic viewpoint to see the beautiful African mountains, river, and luscious valley with the French Corner town. After returning to Gordon’s Bay we learned that the highway is South Africa’s first properly engineered road and that on weekends large numbers of cars, as well as bicycles, motorcycles, and skateboards, travel this stretch of road. We drove along the highway in April and just two months later two major landslides closed the highly travelled R45 indefinitely. Fortunately no one was severely injured or killed as the road was smothered by a large mass of dirt and huge rocks. 

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