The Barrydale Karoo Hotel

... say they smoke it because it tastes nice. The boy gets out a guitar and I get out my harps and we have a bit of a jam, neither of us know anything the other knows so he just strums chords and I play the blues, Marianne says it sounds pretty good anyway.

When we've played for a while, we all call it a night because they all have work in the morning and we have to drive back to the coast.

During the night it rains pretty hard and the rain on the tin roof wakes us all up.

... the Reserve, following the directions of the person who owned our guest house, since there were no signs to direct you otherwise. But after a while on a road clearly meant for 4X4s and not our little sedan, we made it to the Reserve (we learned from someone we met later that we were very lucky to not have gotten a flat tire). We were immediately stunned by how peaceful (yes, the guide books are right) and incredibly stunning the ...

... out an astonishing # of miles of caves. The first portion - accessible to visitors who pay for the 'standard' tour - is impressive enough - though compared to the caves we visited in Northern Thailand, they are presented in a much more commercial way, understandably given the # of visitors. There is another tour though - the 'Adventure' tour for the more intrepid. NOT ME, said I, right from the start. Given my propensity to claustrophobia, this was not an experience I had on my ...

... country kitchen type serving rustic and wholesome food. Steve had springbok carpaccio and I couldn't resist the sushi plate. The carpaccio was lovely and lots of it and the sushi was just ok but I should have expected that given we weren't near the coast but I just wanted sushi! Main courses were very good. I had a steak that was huge and cooked to perfection and Steve had kudu, sprinbok and ostrich also cooked to perfection.

After Outdshoorn, we were on out way to the Stellenbosch wine country. We heard about a charming little city on the drive down to Stellenbosch called Swellendam where they had an increasingly popular boutique winery producing exclusively natural fruit liqueurs. The area surrounding the winery was so picturesque with a huge mountain that looked like Yosemite's Half Dome in the background and lush landscaping and colorful flowers and other ...

We arrived in the early afternoon to a STUNNING beach house in Wilderness, the appropriately-named village nestled in thick woods on the edge of a breathtaking beach stretching for miles. But the weather was, well... disappointing. The backpackers was honestly the nicest we've ever seen. Four stories, hard wood floors, and verandas with the most to-die-for view of the ...

... of Dutch South Africa, well the founder of South Africa really and as such, you'll find streets, buildings and stadiums named after him where ever you go in Southern South Africa which he after all colonized. So each time a South African talks fervently about a "National Monument", I hold my tongue, look very serious and bite back the laughter that threatens to well up. Well I suppose in London we don't have many buildings still standing that are older than the ...

... 6h 19 min), tako da se je na koncu ze precej vleklo. Danasnji rezultat naju je porinil se malo po lestvici navzdol, tako da o rezultatih ne bom vec pisal, cisto posteno povedano si najine trenutne uvrstitve niti nisem poskusal zapomniti, vem le, da bova jutri se startala iz tretje cone, torej se vedno v prvi tretjini. Jutrisnja etapa bo spet zahtevnejsa, plezalna, moram pa priznat, da je se nisva natancneje studirala in bom s statistiko ...

... The actually put a paper bag on their heads (ostrich thinks he disappears and nothing can happen to him) and once they remove it, that thing runs and runs and I was so glad that one of the guys was holding on to his wings to keep him steady and so as not to let him run too fast (they make 70km/h)... wow! Then a wildlife park, a bit sad because it's like a zoo. The animals are well-kept and have plenty of babies so they ...

... with laughs galore as Amy tried to hang on. Definitely a fun memory. At the cheetah park we got to see a lot of different animals including tigers, lions, etc. But the highlight here were the cheetahs, including about 10 little tiny cubs. Matt got the opportunity to go in with the cubs and pet and take pictures with them. Way cooler (and tougher) than the average housecat!