Water with your wine?
Wow, well where do I start???? Ok so pre event great communication and informed that they can’t collect from my apartment so have to meet at McDonald’s. Be there ready for 2pm. Ok no worries! 14:10, rust bucket of a Nissan safari type motor comes chugging along. A nice greeting from the late driver. Ok things are looking up. 3 ladies already in the car so in the boot we go. No worries as it’s first come first served. Seatbelts, well these seatbelts were truly broken and my belt was stuck so couldn’t use it till our first stop and sorted that out myself. We poodle along with crunching gears and at points I’m shuffling forward in the hope the driver would drop a gear to get up this not so steep hill. I could have walked faster! We travel in silence for 20 mins…. This is shaping up to be a nice tour. We turn off on to a dirt track and some lemon and orange trees are pointed out to us and then we get to see a carab pod which was in the van. A minute later stops grabs some flowers for the ladies and then we’re off. Might need to see a chiropractor as there wasn’t any suspension or shocks to absorb the very bumpy test chattering ride. All good it’s a safari so you know you’ve signed up for some of this. We then travel another 20 mins and a fry river bed is pointed out. Ok cool. We turn up at a micro farm for goji berries and another jeep tour pulls in with us. That driver gave us the talk on what’s happening and talked about the local produce before handing off to the man who tells you all about his products. They look lovely although it’s cash only. Poor guy lost out on at least 10 sales including ours. We got to taste some bits too. We jump back in. Another 20 mins bobbing about in the back of the car, smacking your head against metal where there was once some sort of foam to protect you. Arrive for a cafe pit stop, not sure how long for but you are encouraged to grab a coffee and cake. Oh yeah, no card option either. We had 5e note so played safe and got some water. Thank god we did! More on that in a minute. We get sorted and drive on. No idea where to, not much of a conversation and oh the gears and almost backwards pace up hills. We arrive at the winery. Dismount and go to head in. We’re told nope can’t come in the front entrance as there’s is an event going on so we have to walk around the building. We get to our table and all sit down. 15 people in total. Some stale bread ( which am sure was fresh yesterday before it turned in to croutons) and some slices of cheese and meat are put on the table. 4 glasses are then topped up but just told it’s a white wine rose and 2 reds. I had to ask for more information as apparently this was told at the other end of the table but didn’t want to repeat themselves. Ok no worries. Wines all poured before we tasted them so on a hot day, your wines warming up. Just what you want. The group wanted water and so I go and find the person who was meant to be looking after us and ask for water for the table to be told nope! Not included. Wow you’re joking right? Apparently the tour company didn’t want to include the 2euro bottles for us to have so we have to buy our own. After about an hour we load back up. The drive takes an hour as we had to drop the first group back. We are asked where we would like to be dropped off and got that sorted. Nice one. But get told that we could have been collected and dropped back home so the 10euro taxi was a waste.
All in all it’s not worth the money and if you’re lucky you have a driver that actually talks to you.