Last couple of days has provided a good opportunity to see more of Capetown and reflect on my adventure (whilst walking along the seafront, I know, tough times!!). Took a bus tour on Thursday, great to see the city centre and places of interest like District six, The Castle of Good Hope, Camps Bay (where the rich and famous play) and the World Cup Stadium. Staying in another of the "Sweetest" guest houses, more luxury, which is lovely!! I am sharing the house with a Russian guy who speaks no English (only got to the fact he is Russian as I got him to point to his home on a map!!!) so weird, we have these random conversations where neither knows what the other is saying but he keeps talking to me in Russian so feel I should oblige!!!! Tried to use my translator app which is fine one way, I can ask stuff in Russian, but he's not very technical either so he can't use my phone to reply (I know, you'd think it would be as easy as typing on a keyboard!!). No idea how he is coping here everyday, but seems to be!

So, end of another amazing adventure, seem to have packed so much in!!! As it is the end of the trip, and I am home safely (so folks don't need to worry!), I can talk about one event that impacted some of my experience here. I want to put it in the blog more because I've had some good leanings from it rather than the event itself (which in the grand scheme of things wasn't that major).

Our first night camping (2nd night in Africa) on the 15th April was bloody freezing so took ages to get to sleep. We had been told that there were cows in the campsite so any disturbance would probably be them milling around (other than a caravan, we were the only ones there). About 2am, I was woken quite abruptly as the tent behind my head was bashing inwards with a lot of force (so much so, everything on that side was thrown across the floor). I sat bolt upright, then shouted, and moved to the other end in an attempt to get out and away from the cow trying to stampede my tent!! It stopped however, and on looking at the tent I could see it had ripped part of the side, I could see through the hole it had gone, and looked outside the door to see nothing there. Spent the rest of the night by the door, with it open, in case the cow came back, that way I could get out quickly!! Pretty bloody scary, and cold, although on the flip side, the stars were beautiful and I figured I could recall the story that a cow trampled my tent, when I got home!!! In the morning I told Meshack and showed him the damage, that's when it got worse. On closer inspection he said it wasn't a cow that ripped the tent, but rather a human had cut it (in 2 places, not 1 as I had thought). He then told me to check my stuff, which I did, to find my backpack missing. It seems they'd cut lower down to look in, then a larger cut near my head to grab the backpack beside me. The violent banging was them pulling the bag out of the hole. On reflection, I was lucky they were only after my stuff. Let's face it, could've been a lot worse, a man with a knife could have done a whole lot of damage had he wanted to! Looking around, we found they'd also cut Meshacks tent and taken my camera bag from the truck, which although didn't have the camera in (bloody lucky), did have all my chargers in for cameras, phone, power monkey...basically anything that needs power (bloody unlucky). That together with my backpack containing my camera lenses, batteries, memory cards, money, one credit card, and waterproof, meant I felt pretty stuffed!!!! On the flip side I did have my other cards, some money, cameras, phone and power monkey (albeit no way of charging anything) The police came out and took a statement, but to be honest they couldn't do much, well I didn't expect them to do much put it that way.....so that was my first "adventure" in Africa!!! What did I learn? Well....(forgive me, I know a lot of these are obvious, but are usually overshadowed by "It'll never happen to me" syndrome)

1. If you can't afford to lose it, or can't replace it, don't take it! (luckily I'm insured so should get something back).

2. If you insist on taking stuff that matters, look after it and keep it close. Without wanting to sound like a Risk Assessment Manager, I've not taken my money belt off since, unless I am in the shower, and then it's hung in sight. In the tent I also sleep with my phone under the mattress and my camera in my sleeping bag. Excessive, but I know I've made them as safe as possible. Everything else I keep in the middle of the tent out of arms reach (as much as it can be).

3. Don't trust others to look after your stuff. My camera bag was in the truck, which I had been assured would be locked at all times unless someone was next to it. It wasn't locked, and the guys had left it to take showers.

4. However crap it seems, there is always a solution. Although there appeared to be no shops which sold any form of camera or iphone charger in South Africa (or just not that Meshack or Shandle were aware of), we managed to get an old fashioned Nokia charger, which I have been using to charge my Power Monkey (all hail to the Monkey), which in turn charged my iPhone. This has meant I have been able to connect with people and also had a camera when everything else ran out. (Canon gave up about day 8 and Panasonic, the day after it happened)

5. My Canon cheapie battery is better than I thought. My iPhone camera is also better than I thought!!!

6. In the knowledge that my camera was going to give up at any minute, plus not having a decent lens to zoom in, I've taken more time to look at things rather than worry about getting the perfect shot or taking lots of pics. You do actually take more in. Let's face it, Barry had a much better time observing the hippos (grrr), than I did throwing a strop because I couldn't get a decent picture!!

7. I need therapy for my camera addiction!!

8. Travelling without my backpack and camera bag has been bliss, less to carry and worry about. I really don't need all the extra stuff that I deemed to be "essential".

9. I am actually quite calm in stressful situations (other than the hippos, grrr). I think the group would agree, I haven't made a huge fuss. I know others that would.

10. Thats the last time I'll be smug about not getting Delhi belly......got the South African stealing s***es instead!!!!

So, did it ruin my trip - NOT AT ALL - so many amazing things have happened since. I still got some fantastic shots and those I didn't are etched in my memory. We visited 10 other places after this, including 6 campsites, with no issues at all. In fact the worst problem was Shandle and Meshacks snoring! My lasting memories of this trip are only happy ones and to name but a few.............

Great white sharks appearing from the depths, lion roaring, leopard posing for pics, warthog dodgems, Zavvy deer, biggest bungy (and the fact I'm a legend for doing it), blue balls, Frys veggie food, Nigel Mansel driving, wire animals (must get one), beautiful bespoke hotels, glamping, Bob Marley, a million landscapes (later.....here I am), dead snakes, live snakes, snakes in trees, dodging snakes, bloody hippos (grrrr) and their lack of performance, bum rock, rock ladders, using my legs (hurrah), an idiots guide to avoid being eaten by wild animals, "Rock and Roll", "Home sweet home", snoring, Savanagh cider, Ice T, Choir leader with the voice of an angel, tin can guitars, ostriches on the beach, beautiful Capetown, Table Mountain dash, Marco's band shaking their booty, penguins everywhere at Boulders, blue spiders, roller coaster boat ride, The Middle East, marshmallows, horse racing, ram leading, sleeping by the sea, the Southern Cross.....

Once again, the trip was made so much better by the company I had. Thanks to Sue and Barry for sharing the adventure, lots of fun and lots of laughs (both with me and at me!!) and to Meshack and Shandle for introducing us to South Africa and cooking me the most amazing veggie meals!!

Right.....home for 3 days, then Gallapogas and Peru, 6 weeks down, ahhhhhhh it's going too fast!!!!!!