Friday 6th June 2008

Sadly, today is our last day of our 59 day safari, but thankfully, this morning was our last crack-of-dawn wake up, once again rising in the dark hours of the early morning to near freezing point conditions so that we could get to Cape Town at midday. Even though the famous back drop to Cape Town, Table Mountain, was covered in clouds you can see why people say this is one of the world’s most beautiful cities. It has such a dramatic setting, nestled snugly around the base of the huge rocky cliffs, looking out over the Atlantic ocean and it has a great vibe to, as far as cities go. We checked into the Ashanti Lodge and got a 6 bunk dorm room all to ourselves. After we settled in, I went down to “the waterfront” (a bit like Darling Harbour in Sydney, or Fremantle/Hillarys in Perth but with unbelievably talented African buskers) and saw the movie “Iron Man” with Elijah & Mahalia while Kaz & Maddi went to the hairdresser. As this was our last night of the tour we all went out to a fabulous game meat restaurant for a final meal with the tour buddies. We ate wart hog, ostrich, springbok, crocodile, kudu, and eland. We also stayed up late playing pool and saying goodbye to all our new friends. Pete.

Thursday 5th June 2008
Today we continued south and camped in a vineyard where we quickly threw up our tents and headed to a beautiful lawned area for some wine tasting. We obviously enjoyed it as we bought 3 bottles of Pinotage & 3 Shiraz-Merlot. Yes, it was another freezing night, our last in the tent. I suspect that the sleeping bags we bought in tropical Kenya weren’t designed for the south west coast of Africa!
Wednesday 4th June 2008
After a short drive we crossed into South Africa today and canoed 8kms down the Orange river in blow up rubber canoes. We splashed around, some more than others (John and Jubin, the 2 doctors were the worst; they even capsized the guide) and 2½ hours later pulled into our campsite on the river soaking wet and shivering only to be greeted by cold showers. I liked it! Pete


Tuesday 3rd June 2008
Yet another LONG drive all the way to view the sunset at Fish River Canyon, (Fact-It’s the 2nd biggest canyon in the world and it’s in an arid environment which is easily effected humans.) I missed the sunset because I was too busy walking around the lip of the canyon, but, Dad saw it and said it was spectacular! Camp and bed. Again, another FREEZING NIGHT! Maddi xx

Monday 2nd June 2008
Today we drove all day into the Namibian desert. Yepee!!! It bought back memories of Egypt, the sand went for miles! When we arrived everyone else did a 2hour desert walk to learn about what can live in the sandy world, but we were worn out from an early start so we stayed behind to do some Maths. Later on we joined them all again to climb ‘dune 45’, a 300m high red sand dune for the sunset. It was a big walk up but on the way down some of us... Ran, Skipped and somersaulted to the base, it was so fun. Got to camp and it’s a FREEZING NIGHT! Maddi

Sunday 1st June 2008
This morning we went sand boarding. After arriving at the sand dune we put on gloves and elbow pads and headed up the dune, it was a lot harder than what I thought. Dad went first and looked like he did it every day, Maddi went second... let’s just say that she had sand for breakfast, Elijah third, so light he went to China, , and me... I wasn’t too bad. Mum did both lie down sand boarding and stand up boarding, dad, Elijah, Maddi and I just did lie down sand boarding. Dad’s got a lot of cuts on his face, and a really sore coccyx but that’s all. He wiped out at 75kms per hour! Mum and I also got up to 75kms, it was awesome.

We went home and got ready for Quadbiking which was only in a few hours. When we arrived at the Quadbiking place, we put on helmets and were taken to our bikes. It was sooooooooo fun after we stopped going slow to get used to the bikes. We went full power for about half the time. When we went back we went to the Italian restaurant again it was too good not to return. We then went to bed and had a good sleep after a long day. Mahalia
Saturday 31th May 2008
I’m in the dorm by myself because lots of people are either: Paragliding, looking in the local shops (That's what Mum, Dad, Elijah and Mahalia are doing), or jumping out of an aeroplane and I didn't want to do any of them because I figured we have a big day tomorrow. It’s been so nice to just be in the one place for a few days! Well the rest of the day is just a guess: Lunch in about an hour, more relaxing and then bed. (PS Dad found a book he’s been looking for since Uganda too. We also went to the aquarium at feeding time which was really cool.) Pretty easy, uh? Maddi