The treadmill or the great outdoors?

Some aspects of winemaking can be quite physical, especially if (like I do) you use as little machinery as possible – during the two-month harvest you get such good workouts that at the end of most days you’re left feeling satisfied but tired and stiff..

Now, as we go into the ‘waiting’ period for wine, I’m looking at other ways of getting exercise. And of course now that I’m ‘pure Adonis’, the pressure is on to remain statue-like. I live in the country so there’s plenty of options to choose from in the great outdoors: a mountain to scale, dams to swim in, farm roads to jog down. So when I mention that I’m thinking of joining a gym, people are a little puzzled. I suppose they wonder why, given my options, I would want to go and sweat in a stuffy, smelly room with a whole span of people, some staring at themselves in the mirror, others perving, others just sitting on equipment and then getting off having done nothing at all other than waste time until they hit the canteen.

“I like to do the cycling or treadmill or rowing thing and I like the little computer gadgets that tell you your heart rate and the energy you are using," I tell them. “And I also quite like to sauna."

I also quite fancy the thought of joining a gym because it’s like destination: you go there and do your thing, have a shower, drink some naartjie Game…

Hm. Decisions, decisions.