Early start (I probably need to stop saying this, just to be clear we get up most days at about 5am!). Good drive to the mountains, including a lunch stop where the guys cooked Zebra burgers for the meaties, and veggie burgers for me. (It seems the Linda McCartney equivalent here is a brand called Frys which do a huge range of soya products, result!!) In case you were wondering, Zebra tastes like beef but leaner!

The approach to the mountains themselves was spectacular. The range is huge with the pinnacle, the Amphitheatre, at about 10500ft. The campsite was a campers/caravaners dream (Richard Hammond and James May would have a field day here). Electric, kitchens, showers AND baths, washing machines and dryers. It's a sad fact but got very excited about the laundry set up and proceeded to gather a huge pile to wash (don't judge, but items such as my fleece had not been washed since Nepal and I had been wearing it in the day, and at times, to sleep in, so as you can imagine a commercial strength washing machine was a welcome sight, both to myself and those around me!!)

Had a nice walk to a small waterfall in the afternoon, a good climb, nice to know my lungs still work as well as my legs! On getting back we noticed the security guard had a huge whip, which he cracks to keep the baboons and monkeys away, seems to work, as didn't see any at all! Mish tells me that in Capetown they have taken to using catapults to launch stones at the baboons, which have become far more aggressive. Be interesting to see when we get there!

In the evening had maize pasta, not tried it before, tastes really good.

Day 2, we completed a 4.5 hour climb into the mountains. Nice walk, not too strenuous, a bit of rock negotiation when we got to the river but all in all great to be out, on foot, taking in the stunning scenery. Lovely just be able to stand and look and drink it all in. On the way saw a random crab in the middle of the path (bearing in mind we were a few thousand feet up at this point), hairy caterpillars (being an expert after Nepal, I didn't touch it), and saw a multitude of different plants and flowers (can't remember the names, plants look nice, but don't really do anything, so tend to keep my attention on looking for things with a pulse!!!), saying that, there were some beautiful aromas coming from the various wild herbs growing.

At our destination point we stopped for a rest beside a ladder going up the side of a rock face. Now, I initially decided to ignore this, but as it was there, and Barry had already scaled it like a rat up a drainpipe, I thought I should give it a go! True to form, going up fine, going down, wobbly legs, but another tick in the "combat my fear of heights" box. There were also lots of rock pools of varying depths (I had worn a bikini with the intention of swimming, but the path to the one deep enough to swim in was blocked). The colours here were amazing, the rocks - red, brown, yellow, green, and in some areas, black, the pools - Some bright green, some deep blue, were crystal clear.

Back at camp, I took the opportunity to do more washing, and take the afternoon off to ponder everything we had done so far. As an aside, just to give a hand update, (I know you must be wondering), they are pretty much as good as new. I imagine it's what a chemical peel feels like, blistering, then skin falling off, followed by fresh, new, soft skin! A long, painful journey, helped by Rachel, Rachael, Trudy, Angie, Roxanna and Louise. Can I just say Soap and Glory Hand food (thanks to Louise who gave me practically a full tube, which I have used every day), is AMAZING stuff!!!

Had a great conversation with Shandle and Mesh about work (theirs, not thinking about mine, if I can help it) and English winter verses South Africa (not too dissimilar, both bloody freezing!) We also discussed the merits of leaf blowers. Mesh's theory is why use a blower to do the job quickly, then be given something else to do, when you can take aaaaalllllllll day, just raking the leaves. Think I need to take a leave out of his book!

Nice evening in front of the fire, before a very windy evening, when I thought my tent might blow away (obviously it didn't!)