OVERVIEW

A quick over view of where we have been so far as we've taken a while to get blogging! So far the path has taken us from Cape town through the wine regions, and the bars when there was no more wine region! Via the garden route (the coast) onward through the 3rd world of the Transkei onto Durban. We then flew away from Durban as quickly as possible, to Johannesburg. Where we've travelled to Magaliesberg, for a wild and very wet wedding, and taken refuge in some very nice peoples house while we get our act together and decide what and how we're doing next!

WEEK ONE - CAPE TOWN

Cape Town was the ideal start to our tour, having left Pershore at -20 we were in need of some sun and cocktails! We eased ourselves into the 'Travelers" thing with a 4* hotel which Al thought was camping! After 2 nights of luxury and a bad hangover and being threatened to be sued by Doctor Tigger we moved on to Sheep's (alright Marinos') residence. They took us to Clifton #2 'Active beach', which was better then #3 the 'gay' beach, but I think we'd have been better suited to #4 'Poser beach'! There is a #1 but f*ck knows what happens there! We had a great few days catching up with Sheep who Al had not seen since school, both Sheep and his new wife were very accommodating and ensured our first few days on the run were trouble free!!

So next chapter Lou (aka Patsy) arrives with bottles of Champagne and fags galore (oh and not to mention a free hotel room, we also took residence in!) Of course she found it hard to stray from her duties as a professional socialite, I mean events co-ordinator, but somehow managed to fit in a few piss ups with us as well! The main event being the S.A. vs India cricket match where S.A. managed to loose suspiciously once again. I would never make assumptions but I think Wayne Parnell may be earning well at present.... but not from being paid to play well. We managed to sell the extra free cricket tickets and drink the proceeds that evening, and back to the hotel for (in the words of Lou) " WHITE WINE AND LOTS OF STEAK", although we all passed out bar Al before they arrived!

Now that Lou was no longer "working" we were free to leave CT and explore the coast and the wine regions. We thought that as we were on a tight deadline for Durban we best get a lot of driving done! .... we made it 45mins down the road to Stellenbosch, where we sampled a few wines at as many wineries before the sun went down. we literally stumbled in to the "Stumble inn hostel", upon which Al and I spent a good hour putting the tent up (Bit rusty in the set up leading to a few false starts). Following this harrowing experience we of course went to the bar. We continued the next day but we almost made our destination, of Sedgefield, but as both Al and myself slept on the way (not the wine of course....) we had to stop in the Robinsons valley. We finally made it to Sedgefield where we stayed with Al's family friends Tup and Lee. For some reason Tup got the idea we were big drinkers and generously insisted on 6 bottles of wine for our stay of 1 night.... even though neither of them drank to any degree. We were thus forced to down these incredibly lovely wines (all 6) and rambled into the dark hours of the night talking rubbish on the balcony. We then discover in the morning, he'd gone and bought us 2 more! A bit worse for wear we went down to a local market and food fair where we were glad of some bacon and eggs! We even managed one more bottle of wine (with gritted teeth!) before we headed out for Port Elizabeth.

Week Two - Rain, Rain and more rain

We said tar tar to Lou as she headed back for blighty (haha) and with some distance to cover and 1 driver, (as Al has been asked not to by the Isle of Man government) we set off. The drive was hilly, very wet, and took us through multiple challenges such as: Cows, goats, massive truck over taking other massive tucks on single track, bendy mountain roads, oh and fog! - the most confusing thing was definitely the down hill rain????? The tropical Wild coast beaches that I'd been promised didn't seem to be very appealing, and the only highlights of the trip was, spending the night in TP and beating Al another 10 times at s***head (a card game).

Durban's highlight, well actually its only acceptable bit, was the airport, oh sorry.... not forgetting that it flew us away from that wet miserable city that has seen better days! On to Johannesburg (our current location), we were greeted off the new trendy Goutrain, (that is nearly as good as the London tube apart from the 20minute waiting time) by Al's mummy and daddy who very nicely put us up for a night in an executive room at the Sandton Intercontinental (bit of a s***ty chain mind!). Having being plied with a bit more wine and not very well dined, we headed out for the bush!

Destination Magelesberg - that took a little longer than expected due to navigational difficulties and Al's mummy's driving actually made him appreciate mine! When we finally arrived, we were the only one's there, this gave us a chance to appreciate the tranquil setting, spectacular wildlife and of course the bar all to ourselves....before the wedding party and screaming children arrived.

The next morning Al and I took off on a game drive at some hour of the morning I've never witnessed before (YES 6:15!!!!!!!!!!!!!), but I was pleasantly surprised at the beauty of the mountains and the abundant wildlife. We didn't get to see any lions though, but I was kind of relived after the guide told us they had lately developed a tendency to jump up on to the vehicles, and had even picked up a 12 yr old for breakfast, being not much bigger then a 12yr old..... well you can guess!

On to the main event....The wedding! The bride was keen to have a proper old fashioned 'Bush wedding' in the afternoon in Africa.....Now anyone who has been or lived here knows that the thunderstorms are quite spectacular and tend to happen after 1 or 2 very hot days just like we'd had..... So as we sat in the forest, all glammed up (well some of us who's dress hadn't broken 15mins before the wedding and only had dirty travelling clothes to cover me) but other Ladies had nice designer frocks and high heels and gents in were also in suitable attire. We listened as the thunder rumbling ominously above us, placing bets as to when the downpour was to happen. The bride of course was fashionably late and walked down the rose petalled path, just as the first drops began to fall. As the registrar proceeded, so did the storm, both trying to outdo each other with "thunderclaps" and "serious thought".

The umbrellas started to break and the children started to cry (in many ways very much like an English wedding ....but the English use roofs) they just managed to marry before we all legged it for shelter of the waiting bush trucks! The scramble was like trying to find a life boat on the Titanic (Film), pushing old ladies out the way to save yourself! Fortunately we made it to a vehicle, but unfortunately every time it turned a corner the water swooshed in from the canvas over the open sides - fortunately it went all over Al who was sitting by the open side in his heavy sodden kilt, but unfortunately for me I was wearing a white skirt and blue underwear!

Due to the chaos of the bush the happy couple decided to re-marry in the warmness of the reception location as we all looked on... dripping and see through! Luckily my mother in law had such a big hat she'd remained pretty much unscathed, as had everyone in a 5 mile radius!

Anyway with the happy couple finally wed... again, we could get on and celebrate, which we did. I of course didn't get "drunk enough" and felt the need to bring an extra bottle of wine labeled 'Fat b******' home with me, and absolutely no re-collection of taking it!

A day of rest was well needed by me more than most, but after the fingers down throat and a few ibroprohen I was fine and back on the cider. So no long term damage....Hic!

We watched the elephants sploshing about for the last time, the hippos snorting and Charlie the crocodile trying to avoid being trodden on. We said goodbye to Mageliesberg with good memories and sun burn.

Week Three - The Best Laid Plans of Mice and Haze

This brings us to our current location, which is another of the family friends place in Jo'burg. Heather and family kindly took us in and fed us, while we have had to re-budget and plan our next steps to the Drakensburg mountains and Namibia.

Thanks for reading we'll try to update more regularly so there's not quite such a novel to digest!

Oh and btw miss you all xxx