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Monty, just did the tandem skydive from 10,000 feet as the static line jump is only from 3,000 feet and there's no freefall.

Janice, I'll take you up on that.

Martin, I need Vic's details.

Toodle-oo

Life in a Goldfish Bowl

Off to the aquarium in CT (their photos), which has got to be one of the best I've ever seen.

Deep water spider crabs four feet across. I kid you not.

I then donned a wetsuit, kitted up and then dived into the shark tank (ragged tooths again, lot's of 'em).

Also, stingrays, baby mantas, green & leatherback turtles (huge!) and lot's of other large fish, some of which didn't seem to be doing such a good job of staying away from the sharks.

It's my last full day in South Africa today. I'll next surface in Sydney on Friday. Or is it Saturday? Gets confusing.

God, this is hard work.

Clifton & The Harbour

More pics (see the main gallery for all the CT images).

Clifton is very exclusive. There's hotels built into the sides of the cliffs that you can't see from street level, just stairway entrances protruding into pristine car parks. They've all got private beaches.

Gits.

Spent a few nice hours down the waterfront as well. Nice boats and the Nelson Mandela/Robben Island museum.

I've started planning my itinerary for Australia now.

I'll be in Sydney for a few days, then flying up to Cairns and the Great Barrier Reef for a week, then down to Brisbane for Cedar Creek where I've an Aunt that I haven't seen since I was about two or something like that. She lives on a farm in deepest Queensland, so that should be interesting. After that, back to Sydney for a few more days (mayb e travel around a bit from there) and then ready for NZ.

Stay well.

Camps Bay & Table Mountain

I'm really enjoying Cape Town.

Last night I did the town. I won't go into too much detail but it involved Long Street, a couple of swiss investment bankers, an Irish hen party (Dubliners, hic) and a schwarma with waaay too much chili.

Oh, and copious amounts of incoherentol.

Today, took a scooter ride out to Camps Bay along the coast about 10km and then took the cable car up Table Mountain.

Decided to walk down.

Ouch. feet hurt like hell, and I think one of my knees has decided it's drunk.

Here's a few pics. There's some more in the (new) gallery >>>

Cathy, see comment.

Movies Up!

At last a decent connection!

I've uploaded some photos and AVIs (made with my small camera, so don't expect too much!).

Use the links on the right >>>

Cape Town's nice. Food's really good and there's loads to do, budget permitting.

On today's agenda is either taking the cable car up Table Mountain or cage diving with Great Whites.

I'll fill you in later.

Unless I've been eaten.

Hope you're all well.

Cape Town

That sure is a strange looking mountain.

On landing, carted myself straight off to the Castle Inn (opposite the Castle, obviously). Never seen such a sh*thole in my life, so hotfooted straight to the nearest phone box to find another digs.

Sorted now at the Aardvark - clean, swimming pool, about 8 quid a night. You'd never believe the difference. Don't go to the Castle Inn, even though its highly rated in the search engines!

Anyway, first impressions of CT are very favourable. Much more cosmopolitan than Jo'burg (as is my wont, naturally). I'll start taking pics tomorrow.

Go West

Off to Cape Town tomorrow and away from the comfy bed for the rest of the trip.

Been great seeing family again, and they've sure kept me occupied whilst I've been here so far.

Here's a pic of St Francis Bay to whet your appetite for the Cape Town blog entries.

Hi Cathriona! How's the Far East trip going? In just less than two months I'll be back in Thailand for the regional tour, so any advice on cheap accomm etc would be very useful.

BIG thanks to my Mum & Baz, Janice & Gregg and those two teenage boys who never came out of their rooms, I forget their names. Hormones, eh?

I love you guys.

Hi Parita! You gorgeous thing you.
Hi Martin! Any news on Vic yet?
Hi Phil & Cathy! Any news on James in Hong Kong yet?

Right, how do ask for a beer in Afrikaans again...?

Oh yeah, "a bier asseblief"

Hic

Wet Again

This time at Phillips Reef, inside Algoa Bay.

Visibility not very good this time - at about 5m - and the water was more like organic 'soup'.

Weather here at the moment is not very good (rain, wind...), but then I guess you guys are not having much luck either from the looks of it.

Yesterday, took a trip to St Francis Bay, about 300km up the coast towards Cape Town. I'll post some pics of that trip up when this blasted landline connection gets faster than snail walking pace!

Addo

More wildlife pics.

This time from Addo National Park.

Elephants, warthogs and others too. Again, when I'm on decent connection, I'll upload more. There's also a pic of a shark egg that I found washed-up on the beach (I know the feeling). You find lots of them here.

For those of you that haven't worked it out, if you click on a thumbnail, you'll open a page with the full-sized image.

Still in the Eastern Cape. Going to hang around here a bit longer (well, it's nice. And cheap whilst I'm with kin.) as there's some prospective boat fishing and I can't pass-up the opportunity to tell you about the huuuuge ones that got away, can I?

p.s. I hear that running on the spot can warm you up a bit in cold climes. hehehe

Junglist Massive, Innit?

It's not really jungle but this is the (cliched) bit you've all been waiting for...

Me and O.F. spent the day (and night) going round a game reserve seeing all the, erm, game contestants.

We saw springboks, gemsboks, someotherboks, eland, giraffes, white rhino (the difference is not the colour, but the shape of the mouth), buffalo, wildebeest, lions and, well, look at the the pics. Just disappointed we didn't get to see the tigers or the lesser-spotted african panda. Nice eating apparently.

Fantastic. All up close and personal (and well-fed before our visit, thankfully).

Off back to Nelson Bay now to plan the trip to Cape Town where, I'm told, it's a tiny bit cooler than here.

Well, I suffer for you guys.

Plettenberg Bay from Up On High

Into the Western Cape.

Plettenberg Bay looked so nice that I decided to throw myself out of an airplane at it.

Decided that 10,000 feet seemed a good starting point to admire the view from, and that 230kmh was the appropriate speed to approach it.

You gotta try this one even more.

Luckily, I skipped breakfast.

Skydive AVI 01
Skydive AVI 02

Trees Are My Friends

That's why I spent the day sliding through the rain forest canopy from tree to tree to admire the foliage and animal life in the name of botanical and etymological research.

Actually, it was more for the 'scream-yer-head-off-while-going-flat-out-and-fecking-high-up-type-bonkers' thrill.

AVI HERE

You gotta try this!

Tsitsikamma

This is a national park with protected forests and coastline on the Garden Route on the border between the Eastern and Western Cape Provinces.

Spent the first day admiring the rugged coastline and eating some dire food at a campsite restaurant. I asked for a Caesar salad but the waiter came to tell me that they'd run out of feta and olives, but they could still make a Caesar for me if I wanted it without. Go figure.

The Old Fruit (that's my mum, Cath) had a ceremonial burial float of some poor shrimp-like creatures that had drowned in pink glue. Someone had attempted to rescue them by placing a solitary 'blade' of iceberg lettuce for them to use as a liferaft, but it obviously hadn't worked.

Ne'er mind, the scenery is spectacular and, as we have a self catering chalet, Old Fruit has volunteered to cook some of her old favourites.

Latest: Chicken salad. Chicken thigh stolen right off Old Fruit's plate by very large and determined seagull. Hilarious!

Mine was tasty though.

What?