All is not sunny in Africa

- NOT !!
It's moving towards the wet season here in Kenya so I wasn't too surprised arrive to the pitter patter of wet stuff. To water down my enthusiasm for the next month's exciting adventure I was stiffed a further $50US for a new Kenyan visa. My supposed Multi entry visa of last month had been made invalid by my visit to South Africa or so they made out so I had to leave my passport at customs, recover my bag & dig into my pockets.

A nervous taxi ride through the Nairobi rush hour, Ressei & I checked into the Boulevard Hotel, close to the town centre & were greeted by a sleepy Ems who had had a rough flight out from London. The rain has made the warm temperature humid too, but not unbearable so we decided not to hang out by the pool.

We head out to the Masai Mara national park tomorrow

My month in rubber

it would appear that almost everything I've been up to this month has required the use of nyoprene of various thicknesses. Kicking off with Diving in Cape Town I've graduated from a 7mm one piece to a short sleeve 3mm in the warmer waters of the Garden Route. The combination of "shorty" wetsuits & t-shirts have left me with a really good "Bocca" (builder's) tan with neck, legs & forearms all making me appear brown, that is until my shirt comes off (- always was a vain kind of fashion king!)

So what have I been up to then......

Kloofing in Wilderness, Kitesurfing in Knysna & Surfing in Jefferey's bay. The only activities not requiring me to don a wet suit were Canoeing & mountain biking, but given the speed we shot down the narrow forest trails in Nature's Water national park I was wishing I'd had had some rubber pants on!!!

The Garden Route has been great fun & I've meet loads of fantastic people. Marcel had to head back to Cape Town to work but Ressie has put up with my bad jokes & travelled with me for the past 2 weeks.

- Island Vibe, Jefferys bay

Staying at the Island Vibe packpackers in Jefferys Bay proved a little to hard on both our livers so we decided to cut the surfing lessons & run to a quieter location. Without a set of wheels we shot over to Port Elizebeth to pick up a hire car & doubled back down the coast, visiting places we'd missed the week before such as Wild Tongue, Buffulo Bay & Knysna.
- Wild Tongue Backpackers

We picked up a fellow Island Vibe escapie- Helena & tried to detoxed in some slightly quieter venues ! Knysna was tranquil, but the hostels were all really grimmy & rude; Buffalo bay was a tumble weed town that had just the 3 of us staying there & Wild Tongue was arty & thespian as anywhere I've stayed but was a little too remote to stay more than a night. Ressie & I set sail East back to PE on thursday for an onward flight to Jo'burg & ultimately Nairobi which is where I am now. It's been a fun packed 10 days & I look forward to catching up with Sung in Buenos Aries & "Hanning Ten" on a future wave with a Jeffery's Bay surf dude!!

ps. Yes Mum - had my hair cut & no I haven't lost more weight :)

What do you do when the road trip gets a little dull in the bar?

..... you start to take silly pictures of each other - here's the crowd at Island Vibe Back packers improvising a fancy dress evening.



ps not all my blog entries will contain such master pieces of art & cultural importance !

Rattling around the Garden Route

They call it Wilderness & they weren't too far from the mark. The countryside is a haven for outward bound exploring so I've been making the most of it with Marcel & Ressie.

Each morning we head out in Marcel's motor (pictured above), that is when she decides she's going to start. This process can take anything between 5 to 15 minutes & all adds to the adventure mix as we work out what time we need to leave to arrive on time! There's a distict possibility that we'll break down somewhere given the number of noises the car random;ly makes but thankfully Marcel also owns a pram so have a back up plan should we break down in the middle of nowhere. All teh same we are making great progress & have been on time for everything so far! We've been out canoeing & trekking, swimming in this amazing waterfall & have started our first day of surf school too.

Yesterday saw us at the world's highest bungee jump. It lies just to the east of a town called The Crags & dangles those who pay 550R off a huge 216m high suspension bridge. Having been stupopid enough to part with cash a few years ago in New Zealand I opted to accompany Marcel out onto the bridge as a bungee buddy & watch him loose touch with reality. After a short period of unusal silence Ressie spontaneously decided she too was going to jump so swiped her credit card & donned harness.....she then spent the next 45 minutes questioning her sanity before we were summed to the jump site.

The walk out was scary enough for me. Despite being safely cocooned inside the 200m long wire tunnel, that ran under the road. I felt less than secure as the flex in the see-through wire mess floor had my mind playing all sorts of tricks. Both jumpers really enjoyed the experience & I was quite sure, "thank you very much," that I was quite happy with both feet firmly on the bridge.

We head out from Platenberg bay today to Jeffery's bay (2hrs East).

The surf's looking good so we'll book ourselves into surf school & "hang 10" with the local surf dudes (I'm sure)........... man!

What on earth is Kloofing ??

& know you know !!!! find yourself in the Garden route, SA then get yourself along to www.eden.co.za

Marel, Ressie & I joined our guide & fantastic lunch maker, Chris for a day of what I'd call Canyoning. We met up at his Canoeing & adventure centre, based near the coast at Wilderness. We each kitted up with wet suit, life jacket, harness & stylish yellow crash helmet before driving up into the local mountains to the Nelson Mandella campus. There we dumped the Eden mini van & hiked off into the forest along old logging trails to a point that allowed us to drop down into the most stunning of gorges. Our day from there was spent jumping off cliffs into waterfall pools, abseiling down trickier rock faces & floating tranquilly through the narrow stone faces of "Eden alley," basking in the warm sun light that filtered in from above.

Green Elephants, Kitesurfing & saying goodbye to Cape Town

I hit the road East tomorrow, down the Garden route, to Port Elizabeth for my final 10 days in South Africa. I travel with my dive buddy - Marcel, who's decided to take a week off & explore the country & Ressie (a fellow Stellenbosh wine taster) from Colorado who, like me has packed in work to travel.

The past week has rekindled my frustration with Kitesurfing, refresh my wine taste buds in Stellenbosh's vine yards & reset my travel plans for the next few months, as I reconsider my whats, wheres & whens.

I've been staying at the Green Elephant back packers in the Obsevatory area of CT. The area's a picturesque mix of students, locals & back packers nestled at the base of Table mountain. There's a plethora of Dutch here, mostly all on post grad internships or masters research projects. After considerable arm twisting Marcel's house mates managed to get me over to Braai(BBQ) & then out to Cool runnings for the odd cheeky beer. Here we are pictured enjoying a few Carling Black labels on the Cape peninsula's Llandodno beach (a far cry from it's Welsh name sake).



Franco & Sue invited me over to Braai with mum's cousin Jenny & friends Friday night. I have to say a big "thank you' to all the Viotti's for their kind hospitality whilst I been here in Cape Town, it's really made my time here memorable. Thank you one & all, I've had such a great time, & I look forward to repaying the generosity you've shown me one day soon, back in the UK.

My last night in CT was Sunday. Marcel & house mates joined me at the Kirstenbosch botanical gardens, where a series of open air concerts happen every week. I'd decided to make an afternoon of the event & arrived early to stroll around the gardens & chill out in the sun.



Finally a little bit of South African humour to make you smile :) -I saw this on the back of some labourer's van, as we stopped on a tour around Stellenbosch.

110km Cape Argus bike race

The 30th annual cape peninsula race saw me don tight Lycra & crash helmet, rent a race bike & set off round the hilly course pumped full of Powerade & energy bars. 35,000 people take part & set off in groups of 500 odd riders from 6am until 11. My start time of 9.02 was delayed a good 15 minutes whilst race organizers cleared this headline making crash.


Apparently the +30C temperature was cool by comparison to past years' races but by the time I was forced to fix a flat front tire (just 5kms form the end!!) the heat of the day had waned my sense of humour somewhat. I had aimed to go sub 4hrs if possible so was desperate to change the tire & still cross the line in time. 2 young lads (no older than 7) wandered over to help me. They asked lots of useful questions like – “are the people that were behind you, now in front of you?” I just about bit my tongue, choosing not to suggest they rearrange a commonly known phrase 2 word phrase & had them pack up my knackered tire as I battled to get the new one on.

I finished in 3hrs & 52mins so was doubly happy to have both achieved my race time & improved my tire changing abilities! Franco & I treated ourselves to a couple of well earned beers at the end as we waited on the whole family (grandparents inclusive) to complete the grueling race. Marco joined me in riding in his first Cape Argus race.


Cape Argus Cycle tour

Diving on in

& so to the reason I came to Cape Town - I've dived on in & am now a qualified PADI diver! I've some underwater snaps on the way.

Sunset on Table mtn