I arrived in Cape Town a bit later than planned – Oz evidently has quite a strong hold on me! So that left me with just 4 days to explore a bit before hitting my 6-week overland up to Nairobi.

But I fit in a lot! I spent lots of time walking around – up to the Table Mountain cable car, down to the V&A Waterfront, up and down Long Street and around various gardens, just enjoying the sunshine and getting over a bit of jet lag. I managed to get up Table Mountain on my first full day, but as seems to happen with me and high-up landmarks (Machu Picchu, for example), as soon as I got to the top the clouds started rolling in…I did get a glimpse of the view though, and some good photos, before deciding that the cold mists of the mountain top were definitely something to be shelved in favour of the warm sun of Camps Bay! Which was beautiful. I even managed a swim, freezing waters and all, and spent ages walking along the stretches of beach – which were pretty crowded with people baking themselves, mostly older and in bits of swimwear far too small – nice!

My last day fortuitously coincided with the Cape Town Festival, a massive street party that goes on all day and all night down Long Street. Unfortunately the weather wasn’t really on our side, but that did make it quite funny, watching revellers dashing to fit under the awnings and into bars as the heavens opened! I didn’t really get into the swing of things until later on in the evening, as I had a meeting about my overland trip – more on that later – but after kicking things off nicely at the hostel (Cape Town Backpackers, with the wonderful Mama Fefe in charge – highly recommended), we hit Long Street and did a bit of damage – I don’t think my body has really forgiven me for living it up in Cape Town and only managing a few short hours of sleep in the days I’ve been here! It’ll be good to move on.

So tomorrow I take off on my Africa Odyssey – 6 weeks overlanding by truck from Cape Town up to Nairobi with 26 other travellers, 12 of them Aussie which makes me feel right at home! It seems like I’ve again been blessed with a good group – time will tell – and tour leader, another Aussie who can’t be more than 25. The age range is quite spread out from 19 to 45, and there are a bunch of different nationalities including Belgian, Dutch, Singaporean, Austrian and Danish, as well as a couple more Brits and the ever-present Aussies. I’m so excited about getting on the road properly again, and back into backpacking mode – it makes life so much simpler when you’re living with the minimum fuss – and minimum washing!

Internet is sporadic to say the least from here on in, so the next update will probably be in a week from Namibia. Until then…wish me luck!