quick summery of Cape Town so far.........

Robben Island - where Nelson Mandela spent 18 years of his life behind bars with hundreds of other "political" prisoners . Our guide was a former political prisoner so we got a very "real" insight into life there.

George thought he looked like Wesley Snipes and was very impressed.

Waterfont - Touristy and expensive.

Table mountain - Got engaged!!!!! views are amazing. Stayed in a gorgeous hotel in Camps Bay.

Cape of Good Hope - unfortunately the heavens opened up on this day. The locals are right when they say the weather can be very unpredictable.

SHARK diving in a CAGE. Amaxing experience seeing Great white sharks up close, which was a surprising calm experience.

tomorrow we fly to London then Edinburgh for our week in Scotland.

CAPETOWN and the Proposal!!

we finally made it to this beautiful city that looks really spectacular with Table mountain at the back and gorgeous beaches to the front.

The big news is that George asked if I would marry him when we were sitting at the top of Table mountain looking out on the world below! I said yes!

It was midday 26th May 2008!

don't forget to check out some of my other photos on flickr.........

http://www.flickr.com/photos/cherrybombing/

George's thoughts about the trip and about South Africa so far.

(1) Sitting in the middle of 30 mainland Chinese miners on a 13 hour flight can be a very smelly experience. I actually wore a surgical mask the whole way it was that bad.

(2) South Africa - beautiful country, shame about the people.

(3) Re (2) above - actually its not that bad, but South Africans are not the warmest people in the world (both black and white). And customer service everywhere is appalling - you'd think people would act like they care about their jobs with national unemployment over 25%.

(4) We survived Johannesburg, but still retaine a constant fear of being car-jacked.

(5) Kruger Park was awesome but leopards are really very hard to find. Stupid leopards.

(6) Ostriches can be dangerous, especially when you fall off them.

Stellenbosch.....wine, hiking, ostriches and the doctor (?)!!

we have finally made it to wine country - yippeee!!! this I have really been looking forward to, there are over 200 vineyards here and you just drive from one to another tasting the wine and eating yummy cheese!!

we have had an interesting 3 days since my last post though!!! At Storms River we decided to get some excercise after spending the last 2 weeks sitting in a car and went to do the 4km hike to a waterfall. George and I took the wrong road and ended up doing 9kms!!!!! Alot of it was climbing over boulders around the coast and was pretty hairy in places!! sufice to say I have survived...........

Then we went to KNYSNA for a night, where we did a bit of tasting of the local oysters................delish! then drove along the coast for an hour before we realised we have forgotten our laundry and had to go back!.............nice blue lagoon here, pity the water is so flamin' cold!!

Then we drove to Ostrich country where our list of "MUST DO's" started with eating ostrich and riding ostrich in that order!! the eating was really good...........words cannot describe the riding!!! I had no idea they could go so fast with someone on top, neither did George, especially when he fell off and ended up at the Doctors with a suspected fractured bone!!!! finally we found out he hadn't done any real harm and a painkilling injection in the bum soon sorted him out.........pics to come soon!!!

So I am now permanently driving as George recuperates and he seems to have become designated wine taster!!

we only had time to visit two vineyards today but after getting the taste for it we've decided to stay on and spend the day here tomorrow too - tough call.

Heading South from Port Elizabeth.

well after almost missing the bus and and then only just surviving the 17hour journey we finally made it to Port Elizabeth (photo)..............a nice seaside town with a relaxed vibe where we spent all Sat walking the beach and chillin' on the seafront. The evening was spent at a comedy show with South african comedians that were staying at the same hostel......
then it was back on the road again yesterday as we hired another VW golf, this one is easier to drive thank goodness! and headed to Jefferys Bay down the coast, SURFERS paradise.........where after todays lesson I realised its not as easy as it looks!! after being battered black and blue by the waves and my surf board I left the water to watch the pro's. george wasn't one of them (!) although I must admit he was getting the hang of it pretty well!

now we are an hour down the road in Storms River............an interesting name, not that we can see if its an interesting place yet as we always seem to arrive everywhere at night!!

So thats us now 1/4 of the way to Cape Town from Port Elizabeth along the Garden route.

Cheetah

Jo'burg

These photos were taken in soweto, in the township called Kliptown. The people we met were living in really poor conditions but were working hard everyday to improve life for themselves and their kids, which was really inspirational........

George felt right at home hanging with his "homies"!!!!

By the way I can only put a small snippet of the photos on this site but you can go my Photopage on Flickr to see some more;

http://www.flickr.com/photos/cherrybombing/

I'll be adding to it as often as I can

some more photos.............give me time, this takes a while!!!

the story so far.........

ok so its been a while since we've had access to the internet as we've been busy tracking wild animals in KRUGER national park.........we proved to be very good at this and found everything apart from the elusive leopard!!

heres a quick rundown on our adventure so far.......

we started in Jo'burg one week ago, staying long enough to visit the Apartied museum, the Soweto township and to be scared senseless!! it is not advisable to go outside your accomodation after 5.30 at night when it gets dark, which makes it a really hard place to get to know as you feel caged in most of the time. anyway Jo'burg was a real experience and was good to start the trip with a really thourgh introduction to South afirca's "colourful" history.

Then we headed to De Wilt Cheetah reserve as we heard that it was virtually impossible to find a cheetah in Kruger...........little did we know that we would! anyway it was cool to see them up close and personal, while getting to stroke one (photos will come as soon as I can get to a good computer!)

Next to Kruger via Groskop - famous for its savoury pancakes and the 3rd largest canyon - tres bien. This is where I nearly fell down the side of the canyon and ended up with very attractive bruises and cuts from my knee to my ankle...........managed to keep the camera safe though - thats the most important thing!!! our last stop on the way to Kruger was Pretoria the capital where all the government stuff happens - and a lot of well off white people live.

Kruger was amazing, we had our own car and just drove and drove and drove (in intense sun) to find the animals..........its was so flamin hot I started to halucinate and shouting stop for a rhino when it was acutally a rock, or an elephant that was actually a tree!

For obvious reasons you can't get out of your car when your touring around, so we signed up for a guided walk. Your guides walk you through the bush and carry guns to protect you - don't know how effective that would be against a charging herd of breeding elephants! this also involved a 4.00 wake up, whcih amazingly I was able to do. I seem to be able to get up easier on holiday than when working - funny that!!!

Over all my view so far on South Africa is amazing country...........people could be a little friendlier though, but I guess that has a lot to do with their recent turbulant past.

Now we are catching the Greyhound bus to Port elizabeth to start the next leg of our trip..............a 17hour journey. doubt there'll be much to report on that!