I am having trouble editing the map so will upload it next time. Wed 18 Another day without a sleep-in. Ah well it could be worse, I could be getting up early to go to work. Today we began our trip South into the mountains towards Mount Fuji, where the air is colder and the autumn colour is at its height. We were up early to grab a 7.30am breakfast near the Kamakura train station where we caught a bus for the 30 minute journey to the Hokokuji Temple. The gardens here were lovely with an amazing bamboo forest, lovely flowering [View Full Entry]

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Tue 10 I was chilled already, but the treat this afternoon took me down several more gears until I was almost flatlining. Although its more expensive than the street salons, I went to the hotel spa for an hour-long aromatic oil massage. The place is beautifully decorated and is a true tranquil oasis, with a very calm atmosphere. You are really pampered from the moment you walk in and there is no rush to leave either, as they have really comfortable day beds to lounge on while you build up enough energy to stumble back to your room. The first [View Full Entry]

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Tues 27 Oct to Tues 3 Nov I arrived back in the UK for a week after a very comfortable BA flight from Cape Town, in a premium class seat which was a far better experience than my next trip (see below for lots of whinging). But after breathing in the germs from several hundred fellow passengers, most of whom seemed to be coughing and sneezing, I picked up a bug en route and was not very well for the first half of my week back home. I couldn’t even drown the bug in alcohol as I had to drive. Despite [View Full Entry]

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Thurs 22 Oct RJ had organised an evening out with some of his work colleagues to a concert by a pianist & Afrikaans raconteur and invited me to join them. On the face of it not really my scene, but I am so glad that I accepted (in the spirit of trying new things on my Big Adventure) as it turned out to be a fabulous night. The show was at a cool venue in Camps Bay called Theatre on the Bay, with great views of the sunset from the dining room windows. The pre-show meal was not particularly great but [View Full Entry]

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Sun 18 Oct So, my treat tonight was dinner at Le Bon Vivant. It does the most divine food that is so attractive you feel you ought to frame it rather than eat it. It mixes unusual flavours and uses modern cooking techniques and has a similar reputation to the Fat Duck, Bray, England. I am sorry but you are going to have to endure a blow by blow description of the meal I had there. I suggest you skip this blog if you are hungry or are just having a sarnie at your desk. As I said, Franschhoek is just [View Full Entry]

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NB. YOU CAN double click on the photos to enlarge them or start a slideshow. Wed 14 Oct Anybody that knows me really well will be aware that wine is one of my top ten favourite things. OK, it probably makes it into the top 5. Therefore I am in heaven here in the wine country, with hundreds of vineyards, wine farms and wine shops. When I went to dinner last night the wine list (that guaranteed that all the wines listed were just from this valley) ran to several pages. Overwhelmed with the choice I opted for the house dry, [View Full Entry]

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Sat 10 Oct This morning I went with Maggie and her friend to a local tourism award ceremony at a really nice lodge with a long bar, comfortable sofas and warm open log fires at each end of the room. They served champagne and excellent canapes and gave two Golden Tusk awards to outstanding local businesses. From there we went to the Addo Rose Festival to see local craft stalls and food vans as well as several tents displaying roses of all types. The event was quite small - about the size of a large village fete - but was interesting [View Full Entry]

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Week 4 Eastern Cape Part 1 Warning - this blog will contain loads of animal photos Wed 7 Oct Bloody typical, the day I have to travel is gorgeously sunny and hot. Anyhow, managed to take in the rays all morning before Ady gave me a lovely lunch and I got a lift up to the bus I decided to use Intercape this time and boy was it a cut above the Baz bus. They had wide reclining seats and huge windows, with a conductress on board to get you checked in and also to bring round drinks. I was lucky [View Full Entry]

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Wed 30 Did some odd jobs this morning - went to the tourist information place where they helped me arrange a ride to Plettenberg Bay for later in the week Its a real shame that she felt the need to “warn me” that the driver was black. She did however also find me some interesting looking accommodation. I found a really well stocked book exchange shop where I took a couple of the novels I had finished and got credit against some new ones. It was a great place and exchanges are quite common here - I wish we had something [View Full Entry]

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Week 2 Cape Town and off to Garden Route Wed 23 An American couple from Seattle has joined us at the guest house and on the tours for the next few days. Although its a bit too early in the season for the spectacular wild flower displays along the West Coast, we headed up to see the area. We stopped at an ostrich farm where our guide explained the anatomy, feeding habits and reproduction cycles of the birds and showed us all of the products - meat, eggs, leather, feathers. We visited and hand-fed both male and females and saw some [View Full Entry]

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