Blogs from False Bay, Western Cape, South Africa, Africa

After one last breakfast in Cape Town, we checked out of the hotel and waited for Ben to pick us up for a quick drive in the morning before heading to the airport for the long flight home. Ben took us for a drive around False Bay to the town of Stand and Gordon's Bay. Driving high above the bay, we had a beautiful view of False Bay the the surrounding area. We headed back down to town we passed the church where Ben and his wife, Elna were married and the many white sandy beaches. Once in town we stopped for one last coffee with Ben before heading to the airport. As we drove back to the airport we passed South Africa's movie studio with a variety backlot sets. At the airport we said our ... read more

We went back to Jeffery’s bay for a night as it was on our way to Cape Town for Christmas and New Year’s. Nina’s was our obvious target as we hadn’t posted any pictures or blogs for a while, so spent a relaxed evening doing so. It was just after the girls left that we realised we are spending our money and fast. That evening we shared a pizza and a slice of cake for £4 to get into a rhythm of being careful of where we spend our money. At least Mozambique will be a lot cheaper. We left Jeffrey’s, along the Garden route, towards Knysna where we are staying for the next couple of days. We could told Knysna was a place we had to go, from our new friends, that we made in ... read more

We are loving Africa. Great people and amazing scenery. While in J'Burg we did visit the Apartheid Museum, and a few historical landmarks in Soweto, which was an eye opener. Leaves you a bit shell shocked by how people could have thought the whole idea of racial segregation was a good idea! We then jetted down to Capetown where we went up Table Mountain by cable car (again!!!!!....Sarita tells me this is the last one for the holiday but she has said that before) and we visited Robben Island where Nelson stayed for a while (18 years). Then we hired a car and hit the Garden Route, armed with our camping gear and saw some beautiful scenery, did some camping, some hikes and I got some surf in.....hooray! Sarita had a go at surfing too... she ... read more

We went to see the African Penguins at url=(http://www.virtualtourist.com/travel/Africa/South_Africa/ Province_of_the_Western_Cape/Cape_Town-2225504/Things_To_Do-Cape_Town-Penguins_Boulders_Beach-BR-1.html/Boulders between Simons Town and Cape Point. The penguins were adorable and the beaches charming. Afterward we went to the Cape of Good Hope and Cape Point. This was incredible. Probably the most beautiful place I've ever seen. The water was sparkling blue. There was a beach in between the two capes. It was down beneath all the mountains and cliffs. The sand was very white and clean. The water was freezing, but we still put our feet in it and sat for awhile on some rocks looking out at the water. You could see seals surfing the waves. It was very peaceful and I was very happy to be there with Dale... On the drive back there were dozens of baboons in the streets. All the ... read more

Stuart and Nicola had kindly bought us a skydiving experience for Christmas - we can say kindly with hindsight - so we were pleased to drive up north of Cape Town for about an hour in glorious sunshine and clear skies. Obviously we had little idea of what to expect but after we'd signed a form each Ed was put in a harness and told to head towards a little plane. It took 6 people besides the pilot, 3 staff and 3 'victims', and was very cramped. The views were just incredible as the plane limped up to 9,000ft (we think) circling out over the crashing waves of the ocean and with Table Mountain clearly further south. The instructor for the tandem skydive clipped himself to Ed's harness and then gave the 15-second safety briefing, ... read more