Swaziland is a 6 hour drive North West of Durban, the border is a totally different experience to Lesotho. There are no shacks in site, just monstrous new buidlings and lots of officials and police. Hawkins manages to annoy three of them, so I worry we may not be allowed in. First he decides to stop 500m from the junction so a police man tells him it's an offence to park in the middle of the road, they don't know that Hawkins has some weird phobia of stopping close to cars, traffic lights, junctions... Next he pulls up next to another police man, and uses his multi tasking skills to close the window in his face rather than open it wider, this has already been a problem at all toll booths where he can't open the ... read more

After a wander to a Hogsback waterfall and the confirmation that this is where Tolkien got the hobbits idea we venture onwards to Lesotho. It's about a 6 hour drive, some good roads some potholed for 50km... The Lesotho border is a breeze with two shacks for passport stamping and one man on the barrier. The Lesotho main road is tarmaced which amazes us but the road to Malealea is dirt track, I am nervous after the previous night's terror but it goes surprisingly well. We approach the village just before dark and have only seen a few shacks for the last 30mins so start to become nervous that there may be nowhere to stay, at least we have the van. At the end of the road we find the gate to the lodge, this opens ... read more

As we enter the pen, the guide says if the male gets aggressive just dive to the floor and he'll run over you or sit on you. But don't worry I have a thorny stick to hopefully prevent that... We are at Highgate Ostrich Farm in Oudtshoon, they breed Ostriches for their meat, feathers and skins. We are visiting the breeding pens, these hold a male and female pair who mate for life. These are the lucky ones as their job is to breed and bring up the chicks. Other fields have groups which will also breed but their eggs will be taken away, hatched in incuators then given to the breeding pairs amongst their own young. The ostriches can't tell the difference between their own young and anothers so this works well. Not only do ... read more

Finally in Cape Town, it's been 10years and looks very different but most of the old haunts still exist. After an awful night in a desolate campsite between the snow capped mountains of Worcester, we decide to forgo the cost and check into a hostel, the luxury of a bed and a hot shower are delightful. A scenic drive around brings all of the memories back, Signal Hill to see Lion's Head and a panoramic view of the whole city including the new stadium, we also see Chris Hollins from BBC Sports News but he's quite grumpy so the England Band can't convince him to get me on the telly, boo! Then off down the coast to Camps Bay for a great fish dinner in one of the beach front bars. My Aussie mates are in ... read more

I have a hangover, Hawkins has been up all night, good job Rustenburg is only 2 hours away and we have a sat nav! The drive is pretty uneventful, changing scenery though, more mountainous and then a great single lane road across a lake, We could have easily been in Italy. We get to the camp site, based in Kgawse National Park just after 4, perfect for the opening game kick off but the TVs can't find reception since some genius tried perfecting the satelite dishes... So We listen to the game on the BBC World Service with the Brits camped next to us. Football on the radio is a strange concept, the African commentators get over excited and take ages to explain what has actually just happened to create their excitement, which is usually nothing. ... read more