Jo on a horsie!

Knysna & Plettenburg Bay, SA

Whoops, seems that even with the ease of updating on a mobile hasn't made me keep it up!

The day after the last post, Jo jumped out of a plane at 12,000 ft! As you can see from the photo, she bloody loved it. When the big saffer guy was trying to put her off, she would still grin like an idiot and say "okay!" - was very sweet! I was very jealous as the guys at the hanger were all a really good laugh, and the sky pretty much no clouds at all. I sat patiently, and managed to get a few cool photos of her in the air and as she landed, which I'll upload in due course.
After the jump, Jo was hilarious, as all of her adrenalin wore off and she was really sleepy and dopey! We spent the rest of the day on the beach, then went for a run in the evening followed by some homemade soup and sausages done on the braii.
The next day was our last day in Mossel Bay, and we moseyed down to another beach at the point, then had to head back to the backpackers to catch the Baz Bus to Knysna.

We arrived in Knysna at about 6pm, and after chatting with a british couple, it turned out we were all in the same dorm, so as we were all starving, we wandered out together and had something to eat and a few beers. Turns out that the guy; Adam, is a PT too, and we are all avid gym bunnies, so the chatter was pretty boring to anyone else, but we enjoyed ourselves!
We got back to the dorm, and some locals were in the courtyard, and started making loads of racket at about 2am, so I gave them some grief and they finally went away - discovered in the morning that they woke everyone else up too, so it wasn't only me!

Next morning we were getting changed and a huge blonde bloke walks in the room, announces his name is Orin, and wandered if we wanted a free guided tour of the heads (the heads are the two huge rock faces which are only 200m or so apart, and the opening to the lagoon, which is deemed by the British Navy as the most dangerous approach to a harbour in the world, and has loads of wrecks in the mouth), anyway, we naturally said "yes", and so with 4 others, we piled into this guys 4x4, and off we went. If you try and imagine to standard rough-tough-saffer, this bloke was it. He was about 6ft 6, blonde, built like a brick shithouse, and with a really croaky voice. Turned out he was kicked in the throat in a rugby game a few years ago, and it crushed his voicebox, but I think it sounded cooler!
Saw some lovely sights, then Orin offered to take us on a township tour which goes through the town which was designated as where the "coloureds" would live by the apartheid regime. It is still very very poor, and resembled Ghana in a lot of ways, but it had things like running water in communal taps, which Ghana didn't.
We got back about lunchtime and wandered down to the waterfront, and looked around the town. There wasn't much to do to be honest, so we got some grub for dinner and breakfast and headed back to the backpackers... Until I dropped a jar of nutella on the floor and we went straight back out to the shop again to get some more plus some beer. Turns out my beers were about 60% the cost of Jo's Sprite! Outrageous!
We sat around and chatted with loads of people in the backpackers that night, then got woken again later on - stupid idea putting a dorm room between the tv lounge and the courtyard, but oh well.
Following day (Sat) we were getting the Baz Bus to Plettenberg Bay at 5ish, so we packed, checked out, and wandered down to the waterfront again for a coffee and some cards, then got on a boat trip out around the lagoon and up to the mouth. Was very nice, though the boat was a little covered over, and there was a group of about 20 Japanese people who must have collectively taken about 4000 pictures in the 90 minute trip - I pity their families and friends when they get home. Was nice and relaxed way to spend the hottest part of the day, though didn't see any dolphins or anything unfortunately.
Went and got a late lunch/early dinner at what seemed to be the only place open to eat in on a Sat afternoon and got chatting to a pair of Canadians who recommended a few things to do around the Crags which we'll probably do when we hire a car in Storms river.
Got back to the backpackers just in time to sit around waiting for the bus for almost 2 hours, then got to our backpackers in Plettenberg Bay at about 7.
6 of us got off and we all shared a dorm. There was Jo and I, 3 German girls, and an old guy called Stan from Brooklyn. Stan is funny as hell, and finishes lots of sentences with "man" and agrees with you by saying "right on". He knows his music though, so had some good chats with him.
When we arrived we headed to the Spar with 2 of the girls and got some meat and bits and did some steaks and sausages on the braii. The steaks cost about 2 quid each and were a) huge, and b) so tender that a crappy old normal blunt knife cut through them with ease. Was so good we actually did exactly the same thing for dinner last night again! We all sat around outside, chatting and having a few drinks, was really cool.
Yesterday, as it was Sunday, we thought it best to have a beach day as not much would be open, and we chose a great day! Plett has some lovely beaches, so we moseyed down with Stan and did a bit of swimming and lots of sunbathing and reading. Burnt the top of my legs which are still red-raw, so got the longer boardies on today. I foolishly told one of the german girls about one of the bits in Frozen Planet where a big wave is coming onto the beach and you can see the silhouette of a killer whale in it where it's coming onto the beach to get at the seals or penguins - she didn't go in the sea much yesterday because of that image in her head with a shark in the orcas place!
As I said, last night was much the same, chatting, drinking Castle and eating meat and greek salad. We planned to go for another run, but we don't know the area well enough, only the route down to the beach which isn't far enough, and a bitch of a hill.

Today we had brekkie, packed and have headed down the hill for Jo to get a wax while I sit here writing this with a coffee! Going to hit the beach for a bit, I'll hopefully find somewhere cheap to rent a kayak so I can go for a paddle in the sea, then later it's onto Storms River where there's loads of stuff to do! Going to rent a car one of the days so we can go to a nature reserve where you can ride a "horsie" as Stan put it and see 4 of the big 5 (not lions).
I'm still in 2 minds about the 216m bungee as it's about R700 which is about £55, so a bit pricey, but we'll see. I'd prefer to blow that amount on a day kayaking or kite surfing or 2 days diving off a boat.

Anyway, I think that's enough for now!
Hope all's well at home, will try and get pics up when I find cheap internet with good upload speed!

Mossel Bay, SA

It seems that internet cafes outside Cape Town are neither cheap or any good, so going to do a little update on the old mobly.

Had a nice second day in Stellenbosch, spent sunbathing, moseying around the town, and in a really posh but cheap cafe/restaurant. Stellenbosch as I've already said almost stinks of money, and it was a little sad to see in this cafe that the dozen or so waitresses were all young posh white girls, whereas the girls who prepared the drinks behind the bar that were taken by the waitresses to serve were all either black or "coloured" as they were once known.

Yesterday we took the Baz Bus to Mossel Bay. This took quite a while, from 9 til about 3, but the place we're staying is beautiful and huge! We've got an entire dorm to ourselves as there's barely anyone there at the minute. It's got loads of hidden balconies and hammocks, and I found a series of ponds that feed into each other with about 100 massive koi carp!
The weather was a bit pants in the evening though, so after a late lunch offer of burger and mojito for £4 followed by coffee (this made Jo a little nuts; she was half cut but buzzing at the same time, and just kept chattering nonsense!), we decided to go to the cinema. Got absolutely soaked walking there, and the only English language option was Sherlock Holmes 2, but at a pound each, you couldn't complain.

This morning I had a docs appointment as my ear is still playing silly buggers. The doc was an old dude, and really friendly. He talked me through the whole anatomy of the sinuses and ears, had a peek and discovered I've got a middle ear infection, so I'm on the antibiotics for a few days. Also means that I can't jump out of a plane tomorrow, so if we can book it, looks like Jo is doing that one alone.

Weather has cleared up nicely now though, so we're sat on the beach (as the picture shows!).

Next stop on Thursday is a place called Knysna, for hopefully some surfing, and more beach-time!

Hope all's well in the UK!

Wine Tasting, Stellenbosch, SA

Seeing as I now know how to update the blog with a quick email from our SA mobile, thought I'd test a photo upload.

We've got to Stellenbosch which is just full of vineyards, so we rented a couple of bikes and cycled a few miles to a huge market with loads of food and drinks stalls. We "tried" so much food and drink that we only needed to buy a very small falafel to share for lunch!
We've now cycled a few more miles out to a vineyard and very very posh hotel, sat tasting wines (5 small glasses for R30 which is about £2.50) and looking over the mountains and a beautiful lake with black swans meandering about. Making the most of our time in the shade; it's about 34 - 35 today, and we're feeling it a bit!

Anyway, that'll do for now!

Test

This post is just a little test to see if this mobile emailing posting malarky works.

Update on today, passed the PADI Open Water! The 2 boat dives were on a reef at 18m, and the second was also around 18m on a wreck of an old d-day minesweeping ship that was bought by the south africans and then sunk. Quite funny, as they used way too much explosive and blew one part of the ship completely to pieces! But was great fun, saw crayfish, red roman fish, shoals of silvertips (I think), loads and loads of starfish, a few puff adder shy shark, and a seal! Oh, and when I finished one of my skills I spun round and smacked my hand into a sea urchin who repaid me knocking him miles away from his mates by leaving a few spines in my bloody finger!

Anyway, that's it for now, just hope this update works!
Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device

Cape Town, SA

Jo looking thoughtful

As per the plan, we made it up Table Mountain after our tour of Robben Island. We got up early, had some breakfast and took the hop-on hop-off city tour bus to the base, and started walking up the gorge route which was supposed to take 2 1/2 hours. Jo also reserved the right to whinge as she doesn't like walking, but she did really well, and we overtook loads of people and only got overtaken by two fully kitted up lads on a mission, so pretty proud! Though we did notice there were about 4 times as many people walkinbg down the mountain as walking up. When we got to the top (after only 1 1/2 hours!) we realised why; the cable car is really popular and fast (only takes a few minutes), and because of this there's families, kids, and women in dresses and stupid shoes everywhere. There's also a full blown restaurant/cafe. It put the rustic cafeteria full of smelly and wet climbers at the top of Snowdon in perspective! We took a load of photos (pics to follow), including some really nice ones of Jo that I took when she wasn't looking.

Jo and I at the top of Table Mountain

We took the cable car back down (we'd done the hard work, so sod it, why not!) and got back on the bus anf went to Camps Bay which is pretty posh and a real beach resort with some beautiful hotels. We had a wander about and some lunch, then got back on the bus around the city, through the waterfront, and got off at the square just off Long St (where  we were staying). Busy, busy day, so we went out for a light snack for dinner and a few beers!
The following day was Sunday, and we went on the Cape peninsula tour which was another early start. We first went to Hout Bay and took a boat trip out to seal island, which is just an outcrop of rocks just off the coast, but was nice!
Then we stopped on Chapmans drive near the peak which looks down on Hout Bay. Turns out Hout Bay was designed when fully developed by the apartheid government, who put all the blacks and coloureds in a weather-beaten and hilly part of the bay at the base of a mountain, whilst all of the whites were housed in the middle, on the flatter and more sheltered ground with the beaches. They even had outside pools built on the beachfront for the blacks so that they didn't even share the same seawater. Pretty pathetic, but amazing that this was still enforced and people were being jailed for breaching such rules up until 1993... Anyway, it was very pretty.

Jo a kilometer up overlooking Cape Town

We then went to Simons Town where there is Boulders Beach which has penguins on it. Jo of course absolutely loved the cute little buggers. From there it was onto the Cape, and Cape Point and the Cape of Good Hope. These were both very windy with lovely scenery, and a little surreal being at the very tip of the entire continent.
Monday was spent sorting ourselves out ready for the next 4 days doing our PADI Open Water which is in Simons Town. Worked out cheapest to just move to a hostel closer to the station and pay the R100 (about 8 quid) each for a week long train ticket.
Tuesday and the first day of the course was pretty boring to be honest, just working through the dvds and knowledge reviews and quick quizes. Wednesday was spent sat in the shade at the base of Table Mountain in a military barracks going through the knowledge reviews, We then got kitted up (and dekitted, and in, and out, and in, and out, and in again for one of the skills) and did our swimming and skills for the rest of the day. Was a bit of a challenge, and the "hover" took a few attempts, but we did it. By this point, Jo wasn't enjoying it at all. The feeling of being underwater was unnerving her. We went to Mojitos again last night afterwards for some BOGOF burgers which are just amazing,
This morning was another 6.30am start, and our first open water dives. We did 2 shore dives, and got all the skills down. Unfortunately, Jo wasn't liking it any more than previously, and on the second dive when she was struggling to equalise and the controlled emergency swimming ascent she nearly threw in the towel. Luckily, our instructor; a nice saffer called Carel, gave her a break from doing that skill, and with his patience, got all the rest of her skills done, and even the one she was struggling with. Have to say though, she never really wanted to do it, she just went along with it for me, so I'm very proud she's got this far when it's scaring her so much.
We saw loads of fish, a few shoals of stripies, absolutely loads of starfish. There were 2 other divers in who came over and told us about a huge ray (about 1.8m span) on a wreck we were near, but we never found it unfortunately.
We got out of the water (carrying about 25kgs more than normal after being weightless for an hours is difficult though!) and we're ok, but I must have done something to my ear, as when we went to do the exam I was in agony. I was terrified I'd burst my eardrum, but think it's ok, feels alright now, though think there's still some water trapped in there somewhere. Will just take it easy on the way down tomorrow on the boat dives! Will also be going from 7m we were at today down to 18, so that will be good! Fingers crossed for some big rays and maybe a few little sharks!

Puff Adder Shy Shark

NB. Tried to upload a few photos, but seems that you get what you pay for with free internet, so I'll have to do it another day.

UPDATE: Found somewhere with a decent connection, so photos from Table Mountain above, and below of me in the water finishing PADI Open Water, and a puff adder shark we saw when down there!

Me looking my best

Cape Town, South Africa

Well we're now in Cape Town. What a city, really beautiful place, modern, friendly, and the intimidating Table Mountain looming over you at all times.

We left Ghana after a fairly unemotional goodbye from Auntie Love in Ghana, whilst Jo was still pretty weak from her illness the previous day. She was a trooper and got through it though. We took a taxi to the bus station and took a big luxurious coach to Accra, then asked an American couple if they wanted to share a taxi to the airport, which seemed like a great money-saving idea... until we saw all of their luggage. Cabman was undeterred, and somehow managed to fit 4 adults, 2 big rucksacks, and 4 suitcases in the back of a very old vauxhall Astra (mk 1). If it were painted blue, I'd have sworn it was the TARDIS.

Lovely flight with South African Airways, and was very impressed when I was given a beer and then offered "another drink to go with your meal", so I happily took a bottle of red wine too. 2008 Shiraz, and was sooo good. I felt mightily sophisticated until I realised I was watching Puss In Boots.

Got to Jo'burg for the connecting flight to Cape Town, but had to do the whole check-out, pickup luggage rubbish and then check-in all over again, but was fast and painless. Then had a coffee in arrivals. The airport is lovely, with a huge atrium in the centre where arrivals takes up the ground floor and is basked in light, but with a huge ceiling feature which looks like a pure white zeppelin has crashed through the roof.

Got to Cape Town, took the bus to our hostel, and was very pleased; its entrance is right on the high street, but you feel miles away from it in the courtyard.
Had a quick shower, and by this time it was 2pm, and we hadn't slept since 8.30am the previous day. Jo managed to get off but I couldn't, so after 5 mins staring at the ceiling, I went outside for a beer and got chatting to a couple of British lads who'd just arrived. Spent a few hours drinking in the sun, then Jo got up and we went for something to eat. I felt half-cut, but don't think Jo noticed :)

Next day we wandered around the city a bit, got our bearings, bought a SA sim for the mobile, and decided on what we were going to do.
Plan today was to go up Table Mountain, but the weather was a bit cloudy, and it rained, so we went out with the intention of just getting some breakfast. We then wandered to the marina/harbour area, had a look around, got a boat out to Robben Island where Nelson Mandela and the other political prisoners of apartied where held. We then had an early dinner, and booked our PADI Open Water course, starting in Simons Town on Tuesday! And Jo is doing it too! Can't wait! Also popped into Baz Bus on the looong walk back and booked a daytrip around the Cape on Sunday, and our travel tickets to get us around the rest of SA when we come to leave Cape Town!
Tomorrow the weather should be back to glorious, so we will be going up Table Mountain in the morning.

That's enough for now I think, so have good weekends everyone!

Green Turtle - Ghana

Ok, I'm not sure what happened there, but seems that the bloody great post I wrote yesterday vanished into the ether when I hit "publish". Oh well. Fingers crossed forattempt number 2... on a machine that doesn't even have USB ports... I wonder where you pu the coal in?

So after Cape Castle we went to Elmina which also has a castle for slaves that was run by the portugeuse and dutch. It wasn't quite as "nice" architecturally as Cape Coast, and but had some stunning views and equally harrowing history.

When we were finished in the castle some bloke who came and chatted to us before we went in came up to us again and handed us a shell each which he'd "personalised" with permanaent marker, and then immediately got out his football team sponsorship form. We said sorry, we couldn't carry them, and that we weren't going to sponsor and walked off. We decided against remarking that my shell was broken, and that Jos name isn't "Julian".
Got back to Autie Loves in the evening then the next morning headed to Green Turtle.
We took the tro-tro,then had to get a taxi as this place is a resort in the middle of nowhere by itself on the beach. When the drivers said 35 cedes we thought they were taking the mick,and haggled them down to 20. We felt a bit guilty when it turned out it was an hours drive,along roads which aren't meant to take a 300-odd-thousand mile Nissan Primera. But we got there, it was a little pricey for some of the food and drink, but as you have nowhere else to got for it, it wasn't a surprise, and it wasn't really that bad. 2 nights accommodation and food and drink over the 3 days came to about 30 quid each. And we had our own little hobbit-hut on the beach with 2 double beds too.
I was a bit ill out there, and I've got a load of little spots on my back and chest, but apparnetly this is a reaction to the Doxycycline in the sun. So I shall be hunting down Malarone or something for our next stint on the anti-malarials!
Had a couple of lovely days relaxing on the beach, then had to head back to Auntie Loves yesterday. As we couldn't barter for the cab, we had to accept the price, so we shared with 3 Dutch girls. Then halfway along the track (it reminded me of the ridgeway on the downs this road) we got a puncture. Not surprising with the girls big backpacks, plus all our daysacks and 6 people crammed in the car. Helped the guy change it to his spare which had a massive pressure bulge in the side, so I thought it was only a matter of time before it happens again, but we made it.
Got into Takoradi at about 4.30, went to an internet cafe, then home.

Today has been a bit slower than normal as Jo has caught a bug or something and was up all night throwing-up. She was tired out this morning and drained, so I got her some more water sacks and a can of coke to replace the sugars,and wandered into Takoradi alone for the first time to check on whether STA have replied conforming our flight change to tomorrow night. Also, to rewrite this whole thing again!

So fingers crossed, next update will be in a couple of days from Cape Town!

Ghana

First post of a new blog, so fingers crossed this works!


Landed in Accra on the 30th after a normal flight, apart from the landing where the right wing came very, very bloody close to the ground. We landed at 5am, and the sun was just coming up and it was 25 degrees!
Stayed at a hostel that day (and night) in Accra. It's not a very nice plac to be honest, with little to do, but luckily we were wiped from the flight and heat, so had a good sleep, shower and wander about, then headed to Takoradi to stay with Jo's old gap year school owner Auntie Love. She lives in a what we would view as a shanty town (I don't mean to sound ungrateful, but it's the best way to describe it) in very poor surroundings, but has room for us and was welcoming.
The following day we went into Takoradi and took a tro-tro (heavily overloaded minibus that looks like the love-child of all my dad's worst vans combined) to Busua beach. This is a sort of beach town with a few hostels, so we found a cheap double room for the night, dumped our stuff in the room and headed to the beach. We showered and deet-ed up to keep away the mozzies, and went for some food, drinks, and ended up in a little outside cafe thing sharing choc and banana pancakes with tea, playing Bananagrams.
The next day was spent on the beach which was PACKED due to the bank holiday, so had lots of chats with lots of people and kids. Ghanians are the friendliest people I've ever met, they just come up to you to chat and ask where you're from and practice their English. About half the time they'll then ask for money or something, but they are very happy just to see you. As white people it's almost like being famous - you aren't seen very often at all, and stand out a mile!
The next day (Tuesday 3rd Jan) we took a tro-tro to Cape Coast. This is where the biggest fort was built for slave export, and had 2 million go through it's "door of no return" out to the ships to the Americas. Not a good feeling being a Brit. Seems we have done very little in history to be proud of. The West coast of Africa was originally shared between the Portuguese and Dutch, and they paid the local chiefs rents for the land which they built forts, and traded with the locals for gold. Then we waded in to take people away as slaves, making a fortune from it, and kicking out the other nations!... I'll get off the soapbox now.

Anyway, we found a nice German run hostel in Cape Coast, and decided this morning to stay another night and go to the canopy walk in the rainforest at Kakum today and to Elmina tomorrow (another fort).

Ghana is lovely, but there isn't really that much to do to fill 2 weeks, so we've bought our flight to South Africa forward to the 10th, and will go to the Green Turtle (another beach resort) for a couple of days, visit the new site of Jo's old school (as it has moved since she was last here), and prob put in the next update when we arrive in SA, where we'll hopefully do our PADI open water, and do some rock climbing at Table Mountain!