Last night i ate half a zoo!

So our Cape Point peninsula tour was really good. We got driven round the coast around Cape Town, including a boat trip to see some seals at one place. We then went to see the penguin colony at Boulder's Beach! They are really funny, especially when they run.

We drove on to the Cape of Good Hope National Park, where we picnic'd then went for a cycle ride along the coast for about 7km. Then (at the most South Westerly point of Africa) we hiked up a coastal path. Saw some ostriches roaming about, and some beautiful views.

Back in town, we moved hostels. The one we've been at was really nice, but we fancied a change of scene rather than stay in the same place for 2weeks. In the evening we went out to a pub with a couple of people from the hostel, which was fun. We think a Public Safety guy was trying to sell us drugs at one point though!!
Yesterday we went to a museum about the World's first heart transplant that happened here in Cape Town in the 60's. It was quite interesting, and cool to see the actual place it happened (and the actual hearts, preserved), but it was a slightly weird museum overall!
Yesterday evening though, we had the best meal ever! We went to a place called Mama Africa, which is set out all traditionally and all the guidebooks rave about it, so we'd been looking forward to going there. We were initially a little shocked at the 195 Rand pricetag, before realising that is only about 15 pounds - we've just been used to the cheap prices here! Still, 15 pounds for a once-in-a-lifetime meal is pretty good! We both had the wild game mixed grill. This is it:

This included crocodile, springbok, kudu, ostrich and game sausage, plus bean curd stuff and pap. It was sooooo good!! My favourites were ostrich and springbok! There was a marimba band playing at the restaurant too, so it was just an amazing night!
Today we went to Robben Island on the ferry. It has a long history as a place of banishment and confinement - by the Dutch, English and South Africans. Of course it's most famous prisoner is Nelson Mandela (and we saw his confinement cell), but it has also has history as a leper colony and place for confining the mentally ill. We had a coach tour around the island, then a tour around the prison by a guy who was actually a political prisoner there for 5 years, having been arrested in the student uprisings in '76.
Love to everyone! xx

Lyd's latest

Ok, last couple of days...
On Sunday we went to a methodist church around the corner - a traditional service with organ etc, so it was different to what Caroline and I are used to, but people were very friendly, and the preach was interesting - looking at Biblical examples and principals of political power. Hardly anything is open on a Sunday here we discovered, so we ended up going to a Jewish museum (going through a security check to get in, including bag search and scanner!). First synagogue in South Africa, various artefacts, and interesting info about Jews emigrating here from Lithuania. We then went to a Holocaust memorial centre next door.
Went to go to the cash machine by the Supermarket in the Shopping Centre, which was a strange experience, as everything except the cash machine was shut - even the escalators were turned off!
Got a world phonecard, so I phoned home in the evening on the payphone in the hostel - spoke to my mummy and daddy :)
Yesterday we had our wine tour! Group of 7 of us - us, 2 guys from Texas from our hostel who are now driving up to Zambia through Botswana and Namibia, 2 teachers from Canada, a Swedish guy who works with drug addicted youths, and a Spaniard who apparently works with matador bulls! Drove through Cape Town with a local band playing in the bus (well, not actually playing in the bus...you know what i mean!), and went to 4 different vineyards, learning about wine making, tasting lots of different wines and champagnes, eating some (lots of) amazing cheese and having a nice lunch at a restaurant in a valley. Felt very much on holiday!
Here are a couple of vineyard shots:


Today we went to the South African National Museum, which turned out to be basically a natural history museum! There were some interesting things about traditional tribes though. After lunch we went to the castle here - oldest building in Cape Town (1600s ish) which is Dutch, and had some rooms set out from various century styles. We had coffee and cheesecake under the colonade bit, with Table Mountain in the background. Very nice. We then went to the District Six museum, which is about a district that was segregated under apartheid, and then people were forcibly removed from there. Interesting.
Tomorrow we go on a tour to Cape Point, which should be good!
Been away 5 weeks now!
Love to everyone.

Cape Town

We are having a lovely time in Cape Town. Up until today it has been absolutely beautiful weather, despite the BBC's predictions otherwise! On Thursday we went to St George's Cathedral - the oldest cathedral in Southern Africa, and where Desmond Tutu was bishop. From there we walked along Government Lane, with botanical gardens on one side, and important buildings (like presidential residence) on the other, with Table Mountain in the background. Along there we went to the South African National Gallery (5 Rand entrance - about 40p!). It was so sunny when we came out that we decided to take the opportunity to do Table Mountain - so many people told us to grab the chance if we got a nice day. So we got a taxi (a truly hilariously retro car!) to the cable car. The views from all around the top were beautiful, especially on one side where cloud hung around a mountain top. We had tea and cake at the cafe at the top :). Back at the hostel, we went for a wander, including some cool little shops and a bead shop where I got some nice necklace beads. Our hostel has a balcony overlooking the street, so we sat there, threaded beads, wrote our journals, then made dinner.
Yesterday it was another beautiful day, so we walked down to the V & A Waterfront (we thought there might have been a major historical miscommunication when we found that everything was Victoria and Alfred, but it turns out that Alfred was one of Victoria and Albert's sons, and was involved in the harbour here!) We wandered around the harbour and some shops, and went to a small Maritime museum. Really enjoyed some music groups that were playing around there - marimba and steel pans, plus sunshine really make you feel on holiday!! We bought tickets for going to Robben Island next week, and went to an amazing pancake place for lunch (with entertainment on the street outside, which was really funny).
The hostel is very busy at the moment, as lots of people have come for the Lions rugby tour (we saw their tour bus outside a posh hotel as we walked to the waterfront yesterday!). In fact, Caroline and I have just been watching the match (Western Province - Cape Town, vs. British and Irish Lions)on tv in an Irish pub along the road. We won (just). I'm sure there will be lots of celebrations in the hostel tonight!
We have booked lots of exciting things for the coming week in Cape Town - we are going on a wine tour on Monday and a tour to Cape Point on Wed. Going to Robben Island on Friday, and we have already chosen our museums etc for the days in between!
Will put up a few photos soon, but that's all for now folks!
Love to everyone xxxxx

hooray for internet cafes!

hello! sorry for being so long in giving an update - hopefully you will forgive me though if/when i manage to upload photos into this entry :)
So it has been a busy time since you last heard from me! Our 2 day adventure tour was great! It was us, plus 2 canadian girls, who have been in Tanzania for 4months teaching human rights for people with AIDS, or something. Our guide (Alfred!) picked us up from Durban and we drove about 3hours to a place in the mountains called Underberg. We stayed at a horse ranch here, and in the morning went horseriding from there up some mountains. It was beautiful, and totally silent apart from the horses, and the occasional squeal as our horses got ideas of their own!
this is my horse, and a bit of an idea of the scenery:

We had lunch at a restaurant, then drove into the National Park area and went on a short hike. Again, very beautiful, and we went into a small cave behind a waterfall to look at some bushman paintings. Apparently they're really old and impressive and important, but to be honest they just looked like some orange blobs to me!

The next day we went for a 4x4 drive (driver's name: Ernest!) up the Suni Pass. Absolutely amazing mountain views the whole time! Really really amazing. Photos don't do it justice - it was so awesome!

The road was windy windy all up the mountain, and right on the edge, and very rocky and bumpy (Ernest called it the 'African massage'). Occasionally spotted baboons or antelope-type things. We went through the SA border control, and then had 8km of no-man's-land before the Lesotho border! Lesotho is right at the top of the Suni Pass, and we went to a village there, and into a lady's traditional house to learn a bit about the Basotho culture. We also tried some home-brewed beer (awful) and fresh-baked bread (amazing).

Then we went to the highest pub in Africa (2874m) for lunch, and a local Lesotho beer! Incredible views of the valley we had just climbed.
Back down the pass we headed back towards Durban, although Caroline and I actually got dropped in a place called Hillcrest, where we met David and Jean (and their 10month old grandson Noah). They are a couple that Caroline's friend stayed with when he was in South Africa. They are white Rhodesian, David was in the Pretoria SAS, Jean was a nurse, and they now run a Christian kid's outdoor activity camp charity, as well as a special needs school. They have their youngest daughter (19) still at home, and currently 2 guys from the UK staying at their house too. We stayed with them Sat and Sunday night, and just had a lovely relaxing couple of days, chilling out, eating good food, and chatting about our research, nursing stories, and South African politics, wars and history!
On Monday we got a lift to Durban with Meg (the daughter) who had finished her exams (occupational therapy) and was going into Durban with her friends to celebrate. We went to a sushi restaurant with them and had a nice meal, before going to our backpackers.
Yesterday we got the local bus to an Indian market (every single person we asked directions from or anything told us to watch our bags, so we were a bit scared!) and had a nice time wandering around the stalls there, buying a couple of bits. We then were walking along the street and i decided to get an icecream. An elderly Indian couple were running the stand, and asked where we were from. When we said England, they said their niece is a doctor there. When they discovered that's what we're going to be doing, they proceeded to give Caroline an icecream for free! (even though she didn't want one!) We then asked directions from them to a museum we were heading to and the nice icecream man walked us part of the way there, chatting away! We eventually found the museum - an apartheid museum looking at social history of Durban and some ANC activist people etc. Interesting. After lunch we walked to the beach and walked along, before getting a taxi back and making dinner.
Today we flew to Cape Town (cheaper than getting the bus!). Everyone has been telling us how cold it would be here, but it's actually really hot today! We found our backpackers and went exploring around the area - it's very central, and Cape Town seems safer than Durban. We found a cool sidestreet with little market stalls, and we had lunch. Wandered around some souvenir markets, which was nice. We soon got annoyed with all the sellers saying 'hello ladies!', 'look at this!', 'i'll give you special price!' though! Found a food shop to get some bits, then headed to the internet cafe!
In other news, I have a cold. I know - who goes to Africa and gets a cold?!
We have 2 weeks here in Cape Town - going to do things like Table Mountain and Robben Island etc, then we are flying to Zambia for about 5 days before we come home.
I'll hopefully do another update sooner than this past time!

A quick update

So Sunday was a nice day with Church and then a very yummy braai (BBQ) at Benson and Beatrice's house.
On Monday I was interviewing some people at another government social welfare department, which all went well. One lady started talking to me about the royal family after our interview - apparently people here love them! On Monday I also discovered an amazing chocolate here - it's caramel biscotti chocolate and it is a.ma.zing! I also introduced Rob and Debbie to the wonderful world of facebook!
Tuesday was my last day at CCP, so I took along some little cakes I made (with help from the kids). Went out for dinner with the family in the evening, to a place called Spurs, where I had some very tasty fajitas. Back at the house I rang home on Skype, and had a nice surprise of talking with Lizzy, who I didn't realise was at home at the moment!
On Wed I got a lift to Durban with Rob and Debbie, who were travelling down for a course on PTSD. It was strange to be leaving PMB and the house and family. They have been so lovely to me :)
Met up with Caroline and did lots of travelling sorting - we now have flights booked to Cape Town for a couple of weeks on Wednesday, and flights to and from Zambia for the end of our trip! Then we had the dramatic incident - Caroline tripped up the stairs and hit her knee. Thought it must've just bruised and grazed, but actually it was quite a gash. We took one look at it and realised it needed stitches! So we got someone from YFC to take us to the hospital. Very nice private hospital - we got seen and sorted very quickly (much quicker than in UK in fact!). All stitched and bandaged up, we paid up (will claim back on insurance) and went for a meal at a nice Mediterranean place, where we both had smoked salmon and cottage cheese salad - yumyum. Then we went to the Church that Caroline has been going to here for a 'Grill a Christian' questions event. Caroline has made really good friends with people there and they are really lovely. We went to a coffee place afterwards and just had a really nice time hanging out.
Today we did some more travel sorting - booking some hostels. Then we went to Umhlanga Rocks - just some nice rocks on a bit of beach. It was quite cloudy, but the sea was beautiful and we had some fun clambering on the rocks (Caroline a bit limited in her clambering by not being allowed to bend her knee fully in case she rips the stitches). Then we went to Gateway (the shopping mall) to buy some warmer clothes. It is winter here at the moment, and although I've been fine in PMB, and Durban is really warm, it is colder in Cape Town and the mountains in Lesotho, so we needed to get some things we hadn't quite come prepared for. So we went to 'Mr Price'! haha. It's like primark or matalan or something in UK.
Went to the Mugg and Bean coffee shop again, where I had a smoothie and we got 'flapjacks' which are actually not flapjacks at all - they're pancakes! We discovered this when one of the guys got them last night, and we tried to explain to our South African friends what flapjack is in England! They found it pretty funny!
Tomorrow we have a veeery early start, getting picked up at 5.15 to go on a 2 day adventure tour! We are going to the Drakensburg Mountains, hiking and pony-trekking into the mountains of Lesotho (although a slightly easier hike due to Caroline's knee!) and apparently going to the highest pub in Africa! We're staying overnight at a place at the foothills, and going on a 4x4 drive the following day. Should be good! Will let you know how it goes in my next update!
Thanks for messages :) Love to everyone xx