Jim Waite* cadges a lift on the Franschhoek Wine Tram and finds it hard to get off! | The Month March 2013

“It’s windy!” says the youngster from the Paarl Post, as we enjoy a morning coffee ahead of our trip on the Franschhoek Wine Tram. Above us the clouds remind me of Marius Fransman, there’s a lot of posturing and the threat of rain, but I sense I should have applied sun cream and chide myself for leaving my sunglasses at home. It’s going to be a glorious day in Franschhoek – what a lucky break it is that I have to cover for the Editor, who’s apparently very busy doing some sort of gadget review that involves watching cricket on a portable device on the slopes of yet another local wine farm…

“This isn’t wind,” I say, hoping to impress the youngster with my local knowledge and draw his attention away from the Yashica analogue camera dangling from my neck, “when it blows in Franschhoek even the
soap stone statues of the Zimbabwean vendors at the town hall head indoors!”