I leave South Africa again, as the undisputed, ‘check mate’ mate, chess champ.Hopefully you o’s will be more of a challenge when i return! Correct me if I’m wrong but all together I played close to 50 games only loosing 4 , 1 to Grant , 1 to Pret and 2 to Sean. You all suck!

Our South African Trip was epic. Its a fantastic, optimistic , happy country. Thanks to everyone who put us up, we hope that someday you all will pass through our Hostels, and i hope its not too long until we return for another trip.

After a couple days rest with Alex and Nick , a little bit of bass fishing, and a whole lot of rain, we decided to head towards Richmond via the 4 by 4 route. My thinking was that we were only 2 grand away from a right off… in other words if we were going to damage the car, we might as well do it something cronic , as all it would cost us would be anther 2 G’s.

So we went the back way through Hela Hela ,or something to that ton. The road was just wide enough for our little tax and cut into the side of a hill.It was a great drive , and a part of natal i never new existed. We eventually made it to Richmond and our lunch time destination, The Oaks Hotel. The Oaks has special memories for me, spend most of my Christmas holidays up there. After a great lunch, and walk and a short visit to Grant’s folks we drove back down to durbs to complete our round trip.

After an epic week in Cape Town we faced a massive journey back to durbs. We drove for 2 days through the karoo, stopping off in some small karoo town. We did witnessed a stabbing, over dinner, nothing major, but it was i guess the highlight of the 2 day trip. The 2nd day started very early and we drove around the entire drakensburg and arrived at 10 pm in Donnybrook - Alex’s House. Mission.

Apart from the attitudes ,Cape Town was jammed packed full of highlights.We stayed with Pret, in a pretty central location, under the mountain. They have had some serious fires on the mountain that have left it blackened and denuded .Some guy had flick a cigarette out of his window while leaving the mountain, resulting in a massive fire and the death of a British woman.

Cape Town is a world class destination. From th beaches of Clifton and camps bay, to mountains behind it. There is too much to write about , so here are some of the highlights from our 7 days in CT.

Sunsets and cold beers on lions head.

Live music at Kirstenbosch

The wine routes of Stellenbosch and Paarl

Camps bay beach

Climbing Table Mountain.

Free food and drink at the Mount Nelson - thanks Marc. 

Massive power failures and black outs - made you appreciate a cup of tea and the effort it takes to make it.

Prets green influences

Last evening in Cape town