When we got back to South Africa after The First Step it was difficult to keep our minds from drifting back to the great time we had during the four months that we cycled through South East Asia. With our next long trip (Japan, South Korea, China) only planned for May 2017, we needed something shorter and closer to home to fill the gap.

In the introduction to The First Step I wrote that it would have been great to have started cycle touring with a food and wine fueled trip through the winelands of France. That's not going to happen soon so we are doing the alternative booze cruise – a trip through the winelands of the Western Cape.

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We plan to leave from Cape Town and spend about three weeks wandering through the winelands and surrounding areas tasting wine and having a few meals at some of the great restaurants along the way. Of course, we will do some bird watching along the way – there are a few Western Cape specials that we have yet to see - and enjoy the great scenery on offer.

Weather wise, February and March in the Western cape can be very hot with the average maximum temperatures expected to be in the mid thirties with the potential for days of over 40 degrees C. Wind, especially the dreaded south-easterly or Cape Doctor, might also be an issue.

Although we have three weeks in mind, we have no idea how long this trip will actually take, the only time constraints being my mother's 85th birthday in the middle of February and our first grand-daughter's second birthday at the beginning of April.

This will be a fully independent trip so we will be using camp sites instead of guesthouses etc. Rough camping is not legal in South Africa but there are sufficient camp sites spread throughout the Western Cape that will allow us to keep the daily distances within the compass of our abilities and there are a number of WarmShower options as well. We also plan to have quite a few rest days – we might need them.

In many ways it is a dry run for the Far East trip that we start in May. We can't afford too many nights in Japanese hotels or hostels so we will have to camp most of the time. The Booze Cruise will hopefully allow us to get accustomed to this.