Hoekie Guesthouse Paternoster

... 25 graden rond met een dikke trui en muts. Heel grappig, maar dat vinden ze waarschijnlijk van ons ook. Na de nodige natte onderbroeken, zijn we het restaurant gaan opzoeken. Het was een heel moeilijke keuze! Het eten was heel lekker. De kinderen hebben superflink gegeten. Ze waren een beetje uitgehongerd na al hun gebrul en geloop. Als dessert was het een ijsje wat Victor super vindt. Hij heeft het helemaal alleen opgegeten met de nodige interventies ...

It's overcast today when we leave Cape Town - a day later than expected as some may have noticed. The last few things we had to sort out turned out not to be that few but several, and they also took longer... ...but anyway, we're en route now: the beginning of the day was a bit stressful, which is a good sign: it was even worse when we left the UK for our European trip on board of ...

I arrived in the West Coast village of Paternoster with Ringo the Doberman in the back of the car, boyfriend in the passenger seat and the intention to enjoy a quiet whitewashed weekend in bed or the sea. First night we hit the Noisy Oyster for dinner, Ringo in tow. What started as chitchat with fellow Capetonians and the most delectable food my taste buds have ever been privileged to experience soon spiraled into a night of Amarula-fuelled Brazillian-style ...

Well, here we are in Langebaan after having had a really good cycling day in my opinion....a really nice road with just a few hills (that I can remember). About 7km outside of Langebaan we bumped into 2 of the local traffic police doing spot checks. It's encounters like this that are making this journey for me. These were 2 of the coolest traffic cops I've ever had the ...

... hours walking along the ocean to Fishoek and around. It was HOT but I like it that way. 5. On my way to Kalk Bay that day, a girl on the train had a book called My Book About Me (which I ALSO have), and she needed the signature of a man with a beard. That was me. It was hilarious. 6. I've been keeping up with LOST, which is exciting every time. 7. There was a huge group outing to a rugby game at Newlands a couple weeks ago. I'm glad I finally saw ...

... perpetuating the fight against my mortal enemy: The Farmers Tan if only one could still look cool with his or her sleeves rolled up over the shoulders!! We try to find times during the day to beat the heat... so that normally means hiding in the Library or working on the computers... but in the end the oven always wins and we all just bake away waiting for the sun to set! So that is school and roughly what life has been like since January 16th... however I do have some stories from ...

Second stop, Langebaan. RH: Langebaan is a little town 120km north of Cape Town where I lived for a few years. During those years I as some wonderful times and met some fantastic friends so I stop in my old home town was mandatory. Most importantly we were in Langebaan to see Nigel. Nigel and I go way back and the first time we met was at the annual Langebaan Raft race. Together with a few work ...

We were advised by a couple near Fish River Canyon to stay in Langebaan for it's Kite Boarding. Erik has been drooling to try this sport since we lived in Miami but hasn't had a chance to really give it a shot. So, off we went in search of some serious air! :) Langebaan is a "surfer town"...without surfing and a get-a-way town for people in Cape Town. We took daily walks looking for shells and odd sea life...the beaches ...

... Western Cape, but have been moving in from the Eastern Cape, which is a very poor province. The coloureds don't appreciate the job competition, so there's 3-way racial tensions. Anyway, back on the bikes; the towns are still 60-70k apart, which made day 2 a bit of a problem; we either could do 70k (not much) or 145 (too far, unless we have very favorable terrain and weather). We figured we'd shoot for the 145, but quickly became apparent that we didn't have a tailwind, and it was ...

... a lovely town right in the middle of it. This cheered us up no end and in no time we were in the middle of Franschhoek and it was every bit as pretty as the view from the mountain had promised. The only detractor was that the Huguenot Apartments turned out to be really quite horrible (even Richard agreed that it was creepy), but it was in the middle of town and was about all we could afford so we had to stay put. Despite the creepy apartment, we had a fantastic two days there ...