My Mate Raggy

Wow.

Diving was amazing. Slid off this great big ribbed dinghy, sank and equalized and then the first thing that comes into view before I even saw the bottom was a ragged-toothed shark.

There was about twelve of us in the group so it was a bit more crowded than I'm used to (mind your mask type stuff), but I was glad as there seemed to be more sharks lurking around.

Actually, ragged-toothed sharks are mostly harmless, and the old saying about sharks applies: if you don't act like food...

The visibilty was pretty good (15-20m) and there was the usual brace of morays, starfish, the coloured things, the brightly coloured things and the duller things too.

Fruitus Maximus (the Old Fruit) and me are driving off into the wilderness today for a couple of days, so I'm guessing there be no interweb there so the blog'll be quiet for the next few days.

Apparently it's really quite spectacular where we're going, so hopefully should have some nice photos for you when I get back.

A few personal messages for you lot:

Phil - How you getting on with Live?
Cath - You'd love the food here.
Monty - Flat/Sam/Bills ok? .. and is my bike rusty yet?
Cat - where you now?
Cak - Whip that team girl (but don't feed 'em too much).
Martin - She's a lovely girl, go boy!
Everyone else - It's sooo hot here. hehehe

Downtown

To the city proper.

I spent an afternoon walking round Port Elizabeth/Nelson Mandela Bay taking in the sights and smells.

I've never been to this place before, but it was not like any other African city I've been to, but then Seth Efrica's changed a lot since the last time I was here.

There's lots of food shops (chicken giblets anyone?) and millions of taxis. These taxis are actually what we would call mini-buses/small vans and the normal rules of the road don't apply to these guys.

Keep to the sidewalk is my advice.

I took this picture of a street DJ called 'Manny' who attracted my attention from about three blocks away, as that was how loud his system was. Can't for the life of me tell you what he was playing though. Methinks 'twas one of those new-fangled distortion-based tunes.

He seemed happy enough anyway.

Nelson Mandela Bay

Port Elizabeth has been officially renamed 'Nelson Mandela Bay' which is fitting really as old Nelson's of the Xhosa peoples which hails from this part of the country. Liz, you've been sidelined.

It's very hot here unlike in the UK at the moment [insert schadenfreudische comment here].

Yesterday, I was given a tour of a huge civil engineering project on the coast, building the infastructure for a new harbour, and filling-in a salt pan where they process sea salt like they do in Maldon but on a bigger scale..

I've got dives booked for Saturday, when I'll be gurgling underwater at Thunderbolt Reef (deep dive) and at a wreck called the 'Haerlem'.

Looking forward to that.

Eating and drinking are my other hobbies of the moment, but the Old Fruit says she's going to take us down the Garden Route next week for a bit of tree-walking (I'll explain afterwards) and general getting-bitten-by-weird-things-in-the-bush type stuff.

Oh I Do Like to Be Beside the...

Bucket. Check. Spade. Check.

I'm moving on to Port Elizabeth today, which is on the south coast (Garden Route - pronounced 'root', not 'rowt' - Janice), between East London and Cape Town.

Hopefully, I'll be able to do some diving down there in the Indian Ocean as there's lots of wrecks and sharks and other hungry nasties swimming about offshore.

Big shout to my sister and Greg for keeping me fed up to my usual amounts and for helping to make sure that elusive sobriety remains elusive.

I've added another picture of the Gauteng (formerly Transvaal) region. Again, this is of the 'Cradle of Humankind' area where we all came from. According to local sources.

Must've been really sweaty with all that hair back then.

Luckily, I have evolved and don't have so much hair to worry about.

I'ts Official: I Cannot Play Golf

Just spent part of the day sweating (again) and pretending to play golf with my brother-in-law, Gregg.

It was more like an archeological dig than any kind of sporting activity though the scenery was absolutely breathtaking on top of a hill overlooking the valleys of the Northern Rand.

Unfortunately (for you lot that is), I did not take my camera along for the whole embarrasing spectacle. This will never happen.

The only thing that redeemed the experience was the fact that Gregg insisted cold beers were a necessary part of the golfing paraphernalia that needed to be dragged around from hole to hole.

Sorry, I mean fairway to fairway, as I didn't actually seem to see many of the holes in question.

Well, as they say, different strokes...

Ouch.

The Cradle of Humankind

Apparently.

Spent the day sweating (obviously) followed by a trip to Sterkfontein Caves (see http://www.sterkfontein-caves.co.za/sterkfontein.htm), climbing down into the bowels of the earth in search of 3.5 million year-old fossil remains and cold beers.

Found the latter.

Quite amazing really (the caves, that is). I'll post some photos when the camera's recharged.

Right, back to sweating. Better get used to it, as Australia will be hotter.

Apparently.

Latest: Just updated the blog with a picture of my sister and her husband at the Sterkfontein Museum.

Latest ii: Oops. Wrong photo. This is actually some models of early hominids like those found in the caves.

C'est Arrive in Seth Efrica

Well, the bike got shrinkwrapped, de-humidified and then abandoned to the elements. I left the flat in a bit of a mess, but, after Friday's going-away drinkypoos, methinks a few heads were in a mess too.

Apologies for shenanigans, Monty ;)

I made it to the airport much too early as is my wont, and now I'm in Seth Efrica. The weather's nice but we had an electric storm this morning (laptop got charged in 3.14 seconds!!!), and my sister's computer keyboard is of the variety that came with the original ZX-Spectrum, so typing's a bit 'hit and miss' (literaly).

I'm in Johannesburg for just over a week before moving on to Port Elizabeth on the coast.

Barbecued breakfast beckons. More later...

Last Minute Preparations

'He Who Must Be Obeyed' (a.k.a. Sam) must have an inkling about my impending departure, as he's set-up camp in my new travelling bag and is refusing to move for love or crunchies. I'll keep you updated on the 'sit-in' protest as the situation develops.

As for the last minute preparations:

Jabs, prescriptions, visas, water purification tablets, insurance and black pudding ("Clonakilty from that place in Clapham, love") for my mum.

On top of that, I've still got to put the motorbike in the back garden (yard???). Martin's helping with that one and we're going to vacuum seal it in a bag using a vacuum cleaner to - hopefully - keep the moisture out and avoid condensation. Innovative eh?. Well, we'll find out when I get back if it's worked or not and if I'll be riding round on a shiny Ninja supersports or a rusty old crudbucket.

Monty's back on Wednesday so I'm also in the process of bagging-up all of my clothes and other assorted - mostly pointless - belongings so there's hanging and shelf space for him (and Cat too?) whilst I'm away galavanting.