Our first day in Umzumbe was a chill out day. In the morning we had a lie-in, lazed around in our treehouse hammock and had a wander to the tiny local shop. At lunchtime we met a brummie couple in the kitchen and spent a few hrs chatting to them. We had a guided hike booked for the next day but during the afternoon one of the hostel staff told us we'd have to rearrange our departure time because they only had one car and needed to do some shopping! She also infor...

The next stop was Buccaneers Bay Backpackers in Cintsa, a small beach town several hours north of Port Elizabeth. Set on a sprawling hillside property dotted with cottages and with its own bar, swimming pool and volleyball court, the hostel grounds were huge, with stunning views overlooking the beach. We were staying in a 6-person cottage at the bottom of the hill but as there was no one else in it we had the place to ourselves! After stowing our stuff we went f...

It was almost strange leaving Hermanus we'd been there so long but the next day we caught the Baz Bus to a town called Wilderness. Arriving around 5pm, the Beachouse Backpackers was a lovely place with great sea views, but unfortunately it was empty apart from us and a group of 12 year olds who staying there on a school hockey tour! Wandering a few minutes into town we discovered Wilderness was very small place with not a lot to do. We hung around for a few beers...

After a week in Cape Town it was time to start along the Garden Route. At 7am the Baz Bus - a hop-on-hop-off shuttle service - arrived to take us to Botrivier where we were picked up our hostel and taken on to Hermanus. We were due to go shark cage diving the following day but on our arrival at the hostel we were told it had been cancelled due to bad weather. As that had been our only reason for coming to Hermanus, the news left us in a bit of a quandary. The nex...

Plush and half-empty, one of Emirates finest planes took us from Tokyo to Dubai in style before a five hour layover in a surprisingly drab Dubai airport gave us a sobering dose of sleepless reality. Dubai to Cape Town was somewhat less luxurious and twelve hours on a rickety old plane, packed to the rafters with seat-breaking fatties, felt like a lifetime of clock-watching! Over thirty hours after leaving Japan, we finally touched down next to Table Mountain, exh...