Last time Pete wrote I believe we were mid way through Namibia and about to enter the adventure town of Swakopmund. On the way we visited an area called Cape Cross where there is the most amazingly large seal colony. We were there at a particularly gruesome time as baby pups were being born quite literally before our very eyes. The ensuing scuffle for babies, including fights where the unfortunate pups were being thrown around and used like a tug of war rope, was hard to watch. All very unpleasant, but an amazing experience from a biologist's point of view. A huge number of pups were left alone and looked up at me with big brown 'take me home Janet' eyes. We drove on with most members of our happy crew breathing a collective sigh of relief and me gazing back out of the window! When we reached Swakopmund on the coast we took a dune buggy ride out into the dunes and through Naukluft National Park at sunset. We were out for hours throwing the buggies around the dunes so that the company could film a promotional video. We went to one place where there were "musical rocks" (high metal content) so I played Christmas carols on them whilst my unlucky victims had to guess the carol! From Swakopmund we drove onwards into the Namib desert. HOT was not the word. I'm not sure there is a word that means AAAAGGGHHHHHH! We climbed dune 45 (all dunes are numbered and apparently never move) at 4.45am to see sunrise. Harder than it looks, you can't fall down a dune but that also means it's bloody hard to climb up as well! And we took a guided walk through Sossusvlei to the Dead Vlei, stunning place. I was a typical scientist and spent ages studying the sand!!! I could actually collect iron filings out of the sand with a magnet. My lucky mother gets to see those as I sent a bag full home...I'll bet my students can't wait for that little educational prop! We visited Fish River Canyon which is huge and then crossed the border into South Africa and canoed down the incredibly windy Orange River (let me paint you a mental picture of what I mean by windy.... when going down rapids we actually had to paddle HARD otherwise we went backwards UP the rapid!!!). After one night in the wine country town that is Stellenbosch we finally jumped off the truck (only one day early) and entered Cape Town by train.... and suddenly life became a lot more expensive. We managed to catch up with Johan and Karin (Swedish friends we met in Kenya at the beginning of their trip) and have met up with Ben Schiller! Yeah - Benny boy! (Got your card Nikki and Andy - thank you - VWcamper sounds fab!!) So far we have been out to Robben Island and gazed into Nelson Mandela's cell, spent a happy few hours in the aquarium, eaten in the expensive restaurants of the Victoria and Alfred Waterfront, been swimming (or paddling in my case) in both the Atlantic ocean - oh my god it's cold - and the Indian ocean - lovely and toasty - all in the same day!, been to a rock concert in Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens, climbed Table Mountain (again the wimpy up the cable car version in my case!), and both climbed Lion's Head (far harder obviously than Table Small Hillock!!) and been to a lecture in the South African planetarium. Claire and Angiolo showed us around the city - stars that they are - so we had a really good introduction to the area. We (Pete, myself, Ben, Tony and Ainsley - 2 friends from the truck) are now in Simon's Town and have been kayaking with the penguins and seals today. Off to Cape Point tomorrow. All too soon our African adventure will be over. We have loved Africa and will definately be returning, certainly there is so much more that we want to see in Namibia. But from the emails that we have been receiving from Uncle Tony in Oz it doesn't sound like we'll have a minute spare to mourn the loss of this fine continent as there are numerous plans underway to keep us fully entertained for the duration of our stay. Roll on Christmas!!