Tuscany Guesthouse Wilderness

... for nine days and we had such a wonderful time here. We visited the Birds of Eden free flying sancuary (largest in the world) and Sonja did the bungee off Bloukrans bridge over Storms River, the highest bridge bungee at 216 metres!
We watched wales at Plettenburg Bay, hiked to Salt River which is possibly the most beautiful place I have ever seen, had a lovely Italian meal at Enrico's and had some very crazy nights.. One in particular was a ...

... Africa, there were lots of trucks using this border post. As we made good time we decided to miss out one of the camp we thought of using and drove down the N2 onto Umlalazi Camp which is situated on the coast.

We arrived at 1.15pm and as the office didn't open until 2pm we had to wait a while before we could book in and pitch. It is a nicely situated camp, with a short walk to the beach and it is part of a nature ...

... had been quite the late one again. We just chilled out on the loungers in the hostel where we chatted to some other guests while we waited for our bus which was due at about 3.30pm. We met some truly interesting people at the hostel and again I was reminded of how lucky I am to have the life I have and of how lucky we are in Ireland. I had been getting a bit fed up of traveling but thankfully I have been knocked back into being grateful for what I'm seeing and the truly amazing people I am meeting.

... deck in a wood fire oven. We had a veggie pizza that was so delicious! There's nothing like good food and a pretty sunset. Another night, we went out to eat at a small restaurant. I ordered these shrimps (or prawns) that had a peri-peri sauce (spicy) and they were so good! That night, we had a few drinks with the other fellow travelers around the fire. We spent our days walking along the beach or relaxing in the sand. It's a great place to re-charge your batteries.

... of the Cape peninsula. We wanted to get away from Capetown to try and escape the ferocious wind that had been driving us crazy. The only problem was that it was actually worse in Muizenberg and it was a struggle to even be able to sit down on the beach! Eventually we had to leave Muizenberg because it was just too windy so we decided to check out two special beaches - Boulders Beach and Foxy ...

... interesting. Scotty: You don't want to go there. It's where the caffers drink. Paul: (as I stand up and drink the last of my beer) Are we going now? Brad: When your ready. Paul: Let's go. Scotty: (looking at me up and down now that I've stood up) Damn, your big. I'm glad your not black. Paul: (slapping Scotty on the back)Yeah, right now so am I. If I was you might want to kill me. They can talk about the "Rainbow Nation" all they want, but what I learned from this ...

... for a wander around the streets and markets of Cape Town following a slap up lunch. I treated myself to a Gourmet Burger place (i know, i know - how authentically African !) and reveled in the guilty delight of it. As i strode out of the restaurant into the gentle afternoon sun (30 degree's) i thought 'damn, life doesn't get much better than this''. I celebrated with a stretch and a **** and promptly shat my pants. I froze, not quite believing what had ...

... goodbye to Cindy we headed for Pietermaritzberg to meet Mark and work colleagues who were having Friday drinks after work. We ended up in a university bar having lots of wine and burgers. On the way home I drove with Venessa and Doug drove with Mark in the Bucky (ute/pick-up. At some traffic lights, Mark allowed a heap of young guys to get a lift in the back of the ute . Its perfectly legal in SA to ride in the back of a ute! Fun.

... a number of people on the usually quiet beach and it did not take Jared long to develop a friendship with one of the other kids on the beach. Together they bounded in and out of the warm water of the rock pools lost in their own world of make believe. The little boy was from Canada and according to his mom was so fascinated with the soft sand on our beaches, the first thing he did when introduced to a South African beach was engage himself in making sand ...

... am so impressed by the bright yellows, pinks, reds and purple flowers that are in full bloom. It's almost winter and although it gets frigid at night, there are still flowers galore. The walk back to the canoe was much shorter but the paddle back took it seemed 3 times as long and I was trying harder. Humph. Maybe because the sun was going down but as I walked home along the train tracks, I could see that the almost full moon was already taking stage low in the sky.