Peter's Lifetime Trip Blog

20th Feb Heathrow Airport

Got to Heathrow 3 hours before departure, checked in with no delay no queues at either check in or security, was quite surprised as normally you have to queue and wait for both but obviously not a Terminal 5, called to the gate around 6pm and what chaos a Boston flight was boarding and Jeddah so gate 36 and 39 queues were forming which meant you could’nt get to gate B37 until they had all boarded, at about 7pm we were finally about to board got to my seat and what a surprise the seat with extra legroom turned out not to be even though the BA website stated it was, pushed back and taxi’d about 7:40pm a shortish taxi to runwayonce airbourne the flight wasn’t that bad a nice selection of programs but did’nt watch much due to evening flight.

Cape Town, South Africa, Sorry for lack of updates but due to poor internet there is nothing I can do and out of my control.

21st February
Landed in Cape Town 08:36 which was early as it was 08:50 but don’t forget that would be 06:50 UK time, what a temperature difference compared to home, baggage even came through which was good as wasn’t gonna be happy if it did’nt.Arrived at the house as as warned by a work collegue security is required so drove upto a gate and once activated opened and let us in, nice place with a pool and open plan with a swimming pool which is a must here, relaxed and rested for a while then went to lunch at a restraunt called Barn Yard which was quite nice as eating out is planned for every Sunday, went back to the house had a swim in the pool which used salt instead of chlorine which to me is much nicer.

22nd February
Decided not to do much today as the flight yesterday tired me out, so sat around the pool and snoozed as the humidity can make it very sticky, they have a 10 year old son which I had’nt seen since he was 20 months old, seems a nice guy and likes my gadgets so keeps him amused which is fine by me as I’m sure having someone else to talk to is nice and I can relate to somethings even though the age gap.

23rd February
Took a drive to Hout Bay which was quite interesting seeing the shanty towns that polute the place which is a shame but expected, the wind must have been force 6-8, took a walk on the beach and the sand hitting my feet felt like needles, the afternoon decide to go into Cape Town to see were I have to meet the Garden Route Tour bus walked about 30 minutes and wasn’t even halfway so made my way back as it started to rain, very busy place I must admit not as though I wasn’t expecting it, haven’t taken any pictures so far as nothing really worth taking pictures of but am sure the garden route I’ll take quite a few.

24th February
The decision was made today that staying at the Lodge the night before the Garden Route Tour was the best option, trying to get to Greenpoint at 07:30 at rush hour once I get to Cape Town was crazy, the cost of a taxi at 230 rand seemed crazy as a 1 night stay at the lodge was 100 rand and I’d not have to get up stupidly early as it started at 8am, was deciding wether to go to the mall this afternoon but the heat and myself not motivated thought better of it.

25th February
Was taken into Cape Town today to get some leaflets on the local bus tour as well as maps of the town and a visitors guide, was latter taken to a place called Green Belt for a walk, was a sort of green forest with lakes and a nice private Residence where Mark Thatcher has a place as well as other famous people, I am surprise how green this land is well especially wher I am staying, am very greatful of the hospitality of the people I’m staying with and of the people of South Africa so freindly, have been told that can change very quickly.

26th February
Today after breakfast went to Hout Bay World Of Birds for the start of my bus tour, which was 120 rand and you could hop on and off as much as you like for the day, went to quite a few places but decided not to get off as had seen a few of them already by car, only got off to see Two Oceans Aquarium at the V&A Waterfront which was different as would’nt have seen many at home of what I’d seen and they had penguins !!, the only other stop I got off was where I started and saw a few things besides birds as you’ll see from the pictures below hopefully.

27th February

Not Much happened today just relaxed.

28th February
Taken the the VA Waterfront for lunch and looked around, it’s like Brighton Marina is the only way to describe it, lots of shops and restraunts, from there was taken to a lodge called Ashanti in Greenpoint for the night before my tour as it seemed the sensible thing to do, not very impressed by it but was clean, was in bed late as 4 other people were in the same dorm and did’nt want to be constantly woken up, was anyway by the guy on the front desk at midnight all I can say is what an idiot he was.

1st March
Woke up at 6:30 to get ready as was told last night to be up and ready by 7am, I was picked up at 7:30 and picked people up on the way so made a total of 7, 4 of us were from UK, 1 from Germany and 2 from Denmark which was cool but the drive was quite long about as we stopped of at the point where the Atlantic and Indian Ocean meet before heading off for the Garden Route Game Lodge which was late afternoon but was nice, saw Zebra’s, Giraffe, Rhino and Cheetahs and well as a few others, had dinner there which was very well laid on, then taken to a Farm house to spend the first night.

2nd March

Up early to head for the early morning game drive in which we saw the Elephants, Lion and Lioness the game keeper was very informative , drove to the Cango caves which was tour guided not my cup of tea but was still nice to see and had luch at the Cango Caves if we wished but wasn’t that bothered, next stop was the ostrich farm where we all held a 2 hour old ostrich and met a friendly ostrich as we went through, was told by her that I would be getting a kiss which took me by surprise at first we were all given food in out hands and the ostrich took it, then show how flexible the neck was and some people there were told to hold food in front of them while the ostrich was behind, two of us wrer allowed to put food in our mouths and that was taken from us like a kiss, meal that we were treated to was Ostrich steak and sausage must admit if I wasn’t told about it I would not have known.

3rd March

Today we drove for a little while to a place where we took canoes out for an hour and a half which was nice and peaceful and very pictureque and had alot of fun splashing people as well as taking pictures of the surrounding area once done that then we headed to the Bloukrans Bridge but when we got there it was busy with 20 people waiting so we went onto somewher else, storms river mouth where we saw Baboons and walked across the suspended bridges onto a beach where the waves coming in where lashing onto the big stones, after that we headed back to the Bungy Jump site and I opted out as I am not good at anything that get my head upside down but one of our group did it and said it was briliant and being 216m I wasn’t surprised.

4th March

This was our second to last day and we did Zip Lining which meant wearing all this safety equipment and had 8 lines to cross, whats zip lining I hear you say well you have 2 wheels that sit on top of the wire and you ar fixed to that and you go fairly fast from one side to the other,logest one was 210m and was extremely fast but was something that all of us wanted to do again but at 350 rand decided not to and the time we had was not enough.

5th March

Early start 4am as it was the final day and the place where that shark diving was took 2 hours to get to, decided myself at over £100 I’d save my money and do the Great Barrier Reef in Australia as I think that is more value for money, we were asked about visiting the penguins but all of us said not don’t worry, we took the scenic route back to cape town I was the third person to be dropped of, had to take the very unsafe train well in my eyes but South Africans use them daily and arrived at about 15:30 at the station near where I was staying, am glad that it was over but have to say that I would have missed it if I did’nt get the idea from the people I’m staying with but also my travel guide, wqtched the first disc to Primeval which was very interesting as I’d never seen it before.

6th March

Got up early to watch it again just incase we had missed buts of it the day before, got hold of the second disc and watched that which was a pain as I had stated to the child we’d go Ice Skating I know ice skating in south africa seems strange but still he was excited but that did’nt happen, so maybe next time that maybe something that can be arranged if I hire a car I hadn’t hired a car as I was on my own and it’s not easy to navigate around wher I was staying let alone Cape Town.

7th March