Back in Brussels

Hi... Our South African trip is over, we've thoroughly enjoyed it and tremendously regret being back in the cold. Such is life... A few parting comments:

- We never found the little boy in the first picture of our blog. We never intended to look for him either since we weren't sure who he was. If he is the person we though he might be, we were told he had passed away, probably killed. Ironically someone predicted that this might be the case... Whether it is the boy from the picture, or not, is not to the point. What is, is the fact that had he still been alive today, he would have been younger than Marie and I. South Africa, for all its beauty, is unfair, more so than many parts of this world.

- On a slightly lighter note... Virginie mentionned that the "taking the piss" factor of the picture of me emerging from the water may have been lost on some of you... If so, I feel flattered and welcome your appreciation of my stunning looks...

Time to go... We hope to entertain you on our next blog... not too long from now.
Love, A + M

Our last week

Our last week has taken us to Cape Town and back again to Cape Town. Which in a way was the plan since we're flying out of here on Friday, but we planned to be in Stellenbosch and Franschoek today. Due to the weather taking a serious turn on us however, we again find ourselves in Aunty Michele's Copy Shop in Cape Town.

This is how this last week has been...

We got to CT on Friday - the weather was beautiful. We loved wandering and discovering this easy to get to know city. Aunty Michele was the perfect host showing us around and spending many great moments sharing stories of the past... Come Monday we headed up the West Coast, beautiful, but a little dissapointing as I'd expected more... The turquoise lake inWest Coast National Park was amazing though - perfect to swim in - but just a tad too cold.

Since we weren't wasting any time we pushed on and arrived in Clanwilliam by dusk. Tiny, but extremely cute, aside from falling ill here, we're glad we made it so far North. But, today we awoke to a slightly cloudy Clanwilliam and had planned to go back down to Stellenbosch. Unfortunately, the clouds got thicker and the rain came pouring down. We stopped for lunch in Stellenbosch, which we can tell is really beautiful, but after a depressing walk around in the rain we decided to call Aunty Michele and ask here if we could come back to heres :o) So here we are, back in CT, internetting cos it's raining...

Enjoy the pics.

And although I don't want to go home (I'll never grow out of that aparantly), I am looking forward to seeing my family and friends! x

Hey!

Marie summed up our last week, and with only 1 1/2 days left in CT, I believe this will be our last entry to the blog. It's probably time to sum it all up... Keeping a blog over 3 weeks has proved much more difficult than for our 4 months trip in South America. If anything, blogging was a break from the travelling... Here in SA, the last thing we wanted was a break from travelling... Still I hope you enjoyed our pics!

As Marie said, it's raining buckets and we've had to cut our trip up north short. I would like to thank everyone who provided us with beds, food, advice, fun times and great company over the last 3 weeks: Jos, Clyde, Michael, Carmen, Dale, Estelle, Dean, Melanie, Bradley, Jenny, Dianne, John, Michele and Mac! Thanks!

I still haven't made up my mind about anything... Brazil, SA... They both have so much to offer!

Highlights of this trip:

- Wild Coast

- Desolation Valley

- Route 62

- The Striptease River Trail in Tsitsikama

- Storms River Mouth

- Nature's Valley

- Whale Watching along the Atlantic Seaboard

- Cape Town (Camps Bay, Constantia, Signal Hill)

- Clanwilliam and the Cederberg Mountains

- And, despite the rain, Stellenbosh!

Higly Recommended hotels:

Morgan Bay Hotel - Morgan Bay

Villa Reinet B&B - Graaf Reinet

Bruni's B&B - Wilderness

Moermanshof B&B - Swellendam

Longhouse B&B - Clanwilliam

... circumstances forced us to abandon the last post - we're back and nearing Cape Town now. Here's an overview in pictures...

Sorry this blog has been so hard to keep up - 3 weeks are short and internet is sparse...

Skinny dipping in Tsitsikama Nature Reserve

Drinking river water in Tsitsikama Nature Reserve

Vigi's bed

An alternative route to the Garden Route

Nature's Valley

Storm's River Mouth

A Dassie!

Tree Hugger

Ginger Beer in Nature's Valley

Nature's Valley Sunset Fishermen

Bontebok National Park - by Swellendam

Bontebok
Refreshments in Wilderness

Knysna and The Heads

Find Arnaud!

Between two oceans...

If you look carefully... you'll see it's a field full of Baboons...

Our B&B in Swellendam... very swell!

Bontebok National Park - Cape Mountain Zebra

Last but not least, Arniston (not Arny's Town) - very cute, yet somewhat creep creep crieieiep... end of world.

FORGIVE THE MESS, HOPE YOU ENJOY IT ANYWAY, INTERNET STRESSES US OUT, GOING TO EAT NOW.

NIGHTY NIGHT

MUA

From the desert to the ocean...

We left East London and the last of Marie's friends on Friday afternoon - heading through the old Ciskei and up to the desert city of Graaf-Reinet, an oasis of peace and tranquility in Desolation Valley. We stayed at Villa Reinet (rated 9 out of 10 - the point lost due to carpet in bathroom), enjoyed amazing views from a very windy mountain top, had succulent kudu steak and entertaining advice from Sean and Colyn at Pioneers.

Internet cafe closed 25 mins ago, gotta go, to be continued.
Here are just a few pics.