So, we arrived in Cape Town on Sunday evening and got the house we are staying in Kommetjie - It is amazing! The most beautiful house and right on the beach, just stunning. The people we are staying with are so lovely too - Portia and Andy. Andy is one of the worlds top big wave surfers - he showed us some photos of him on big waves and its astonishing - waves that are 50ft hight! The night we got there he had just won a big competition, and he's sponsered by O'Neill. If you type Andy Marr big wave surfer into youtube you'll see a fair few films of him! He lives and breathes surfing spending half the year in South AFrica and half the year in Hawaii - he's surfed with Jack Johnson out there!

The next day, our first full day in SA, we had our first braai on the veranda of the house overlooking the sea and watching the sunset. It was gorgeous. As we were drinking a few beers we saw a whale from the veranda and then later on when it was dark we heard a stratching, shined the torch round and saw a sea otter a few metres away eating cray fish! He just carried on eating, had a roll about in the sand - amazing and all on our first night!

The rest of the week has been busy. We've been to the 2 schools that Jamie's school is twinned with, ben to SImonstown to see the penguins, had a look round Cape Town and stuff. It is a really beautiful part of the world, especially where we are staying. The people are incredibly friendly and so interesting to talk to, I've certainly learnt a lot more about South African history and politics in our first few days here. The country has a long way to go yet, but everyone is united in that they want change and are passionate about it.

There has been a lot of trouble since we've been here with xenophobia against immigrants from other parts of Africa (not tourists). It's kind of similar to some British attitudes to Eastern European immigrants - people of the attitude - "they take our jobs, take our money" etc, only here it is far far worse. There have been riots and murders, 70,000 people displaced, refugee camps setting up all over the place, and these are people who are fleeing real persecution in other countries. It is very isolated, so as a foreigner you don't come across any trouble at all but it it all over the news, radio, papers etc, the country has never seen anything like it. And it was only a few years ago that these countries that the refugees have come from were housing black South African's fleeing apartheid. It is a very sad state of affairs and a difficult one to resolve.

Despite these troubles, it is wonderful here and we will be very sorry to leave, thought so excited about the next part of our trip. We are off to Namibia tomorrow which looks fantastic and very beautiful.