Franschhoek tram touring - Out to Africa - Cape Town 2025

All aboard the Wine Tram

All aboard for the wine tram - but not before a bit of a drive in our little car. We were off on the scenic route to Franschhoek. Franschhoek means Franch Quarter and it was originally settled by the Huguenots back in the 1600's. They were escaping persecution in Europe and brought their wine making skills with them.  So, after leaving Somerset west we took a long climb on a well graded slope up over the mountains. On the other side of the mountain its quite arid and our fellow travellers seemed to be in a massive hurry to get through it. We had driven that way before but on the weekend when it was quieter and much more relaxed. We were very pleased when we turned off onto country roads and past huge fruit farms. The final section of the route was particularly scenic apart from a huge area by the dams that has been burned. There were some sections of the road reduced to single track but happily we didn't meet anyone charging in the opposite direction. As we mounted the ridge  there were stunning views of the valley below. We arrived in Franschhoek just in time to buy our tickets for the 11am departure. The tramline was originally a branch line to carry produce to Paarl. We were give Pink Line tickets and given a little pink badge to wear. Besides Pink, other people had red or blue sticky badges. 

All aboard

Something to do with the routes and how many vineries but too complicated for us to understand. We were pretty in pink. Our little double-decker tram took us to the Rickety Bridge Winery. 

A tractor and its passenger trailer were at Rickety Bridge Station to greet us and carry us across a very narrow bridge to our lunch. We had a nice table and decent lunch served by a trainee waitress. She was quite sweet and jolly and enjoying her new job. Of course the wine tasting, and getting a bit merry as a result, is the norm for the wine tram punters. I just had a glass of wine, I could have had more as TW was driving us home but lunchtime drinking would put me to sleep. 

The tram runs to a timetable so we had to be back to the trailer on-time for the ride back. Passenger jollity had stepped up a notch. Next stop was La Provence and on to another, very bumpy, tractor  to the very smart Grande Provence. We had a wander round this very pretty and commercial winery and walked back to the Station past the orderly ranks of vines and waited for the tram.

 

Tractor Shuttle

Tractor Travel

Our last stop

Not sure we got full value from our Tram Tour but it was fun to have a look. The 'tasters' certainly seemed to be enjoying it and were well loaded, and had a lot of bottles with them to take home. We could have gone to more wineries with our pink ticket on the Tram Bus but three was sufficient for
these tourists.

Franschhoek is a pretty little town and is celebrated as South Africa's wine and food capital. We had a leisurely stroll up its attractive main street. At the top end is a massive Huguenot Monument. It seemed pretty safe in Franschoek but we are a bit wary. There are a number of Cafes and Restaurants along the street. We popped into Franks for a local beer and a Ginger Ale, it would be rude not to. It appeared to be fully booked for Dinner and we wondered how easy it would be to get a table for Dinner in Town despite the number of Restaurants. For us it was time to head home on our circular route. TW drove us back through the busy streets of Stellenbosch. We seemed to always get stuck in a traffic queue in this busy University town?

Huguenot Monument