Well here we are again back in a bit of civilisation with internet access, first few photos are a reminder from Sophie’s last blog where we couldn’t load the phots, 
2nd of bar where we watched rugby, third view from table mountain over signal hill and town, first of beach at Muisboom kerm where we stayed briefly in tent until got scared and went to car! Pictures are bigger for people at Sophie’s ex-work (for you Gill get that eye test!)
Hello all,we are just about to leave South Africa for Namibia but have had a few good days to catch up on.
We finally got our air conditioning to work on our last night in the hotel,so instead of waking up sweating ,we woke up freezing.
We managed to go back up to Table Mountain even though its been a bit windy lately and so its been shut(southerly wind apparently).Gorgeous up there and think we found the spot that Chris proposed to me on.Aaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhh!Ironically we were freezing the last time we went up as it was foggy and raining,took our fleeces this time in preparation for climate change and it was boiling!
We had a stroll around looking up the cape and saw the view we missed out on last time.A tour guide walked by and asked if we had sun block on,quite cheeky we thought and lied and said we had.She was a bit like my old history teacher Miss Searle ,a bit ubrupt.any way when we got home we were inevitably bright red and felt foolish for sniggering at her.
Quite pleased that we had covered a good uphill walk to get to the cable car though and had a face as red as my nephews after a game of football(his nick name is beetroot ) for about 3 hours.
Did our first laundry session in hotel sink and put our clothes on our brilliant camping clothes line accross the bathroom(thankyou taylor simms and walnutetta).looked like the tinkers had come to town but the novelty of a line without needing pegs was very exciting and felt like proper travellers(who stay in nice hotels)
We were pretty nervous about the rugby and went to the V and A waterfront to watch it.Not many English rugby tops and was a bit worried about getting duffed in on the way to the match.We managed to sit by an english couple and had a small gathering of “swing low,sweet chariot”core group singers.lots of red wine later and we were part of the mad cape town celebrations,lots of singing,jumping around,flag waving e.t.c great atmosphere but not really our party,so after an exciting taxi ride home through steets nearly at a stand still,with car horns going nuts,we retired to bed.Good fun and what a time to be on hols in Cape Town.
It was our last night in a hotel and so made the most of its luxuries before inevitably hitting the road.have got a VW polo for the next few weeks.Brilliant,has a extendable drink holder and everything!
We set off with real enthusiasm about our first bit of travelling and left cape town and table mountain behind.Drove to Lambert Bay for our first night and talked of going for a swim on arrival.arrived about 4ish and it was not quite as beachy as we thought and it turned out that we had been there on our last visit.We found the gorgeous open air restaurant (Muisboomkerm restaurant,maybe on line)that we had visited before and popped in to see the boss Tersius.Last time we were there we had arrived just after a coach party and he had given us a free meal with the fish that was left.Really lovely memories of the owners generousity and photos of the beach were on our wall before we left.Anyway ,i dont think he remembered us but we explained how nice he had been and how we had remembered his kindness.He offered for us to stay on the beach to camp and even gave us a bottle of wine from his vine yard.What a lovely bloke.
We set up camp on the sand with the sea noise in the background and were in tucked up by 8. we were then up again by 11 and back into the car as we were really uncomfy due to no sleeping mats and i was a bit scared due to our isolation .And the tent kept flapping like some one was trying to get in!!!Slept ok in car,great seats you can put right back and up at 6ish for our next day as proper tracvellers.looking a little dishevelled now and need a tan to hide the bags under our eyes.Have now covered 440 miles in the car! and writting this in the town of Springbok!Onwards to Namib(as Taylor calls it) not far from the border.
Before i go i also wanted to say a big hello to Haribo who is blogging in and lots of love to you all.very exciting getting comments on blog,even though Nik is being rude about my husbands physique.
here is piccy of table mountain at it’s most striking
looks like have to do pictures one at a time, so here is the first beer in SA, thanks rich and sha
well the tall travellers have finally travelled 6277 miles to date, 7 of those walking up signal hill in Cape Town. quick thanks to mike and charlie for putting us up for the last night in uk and cooking olde english roast for us, we also enjoyed a final walk through a leafy autumnal wood with ned (the dog) which was v pleasant. no probs with flight in fact it was very unwarnyish we got there on time and didn’t spend a lot in the duty free, although i bought a cheapo travelling watch, sekonda don’t you know with a trying to be young watch strap! 12 hours in air, 4 movies and 4 bottles of red (small) each and we were in CT, very tired having had no snoozing at all. caught shared mini bus into town with members of Brentwood school touring cricket team and their south african p.e teacher who used to play rugby for western transvaal and played with mike catt when he was a schoolboy over here, first taste of strength of feeling the south africans have about WC rugby final tomorrow, they are as they say in salford mad for it over here. on way saw some zebras and wildebeests bizarre, got to hotel and my suprise worked, had been telling soph that we were in a hostel first night but we’re in the same hotel we stayed in when we got engaged, not same room though. so we arrived went to bed, very daring, and got up 3 hours later to explore. straight down to the victoria and albert docks, walking the streets (no taxis on this budget) opened rich and sha’s card and bought our first beer with contents i also had a chutney burger in memory of rich’s (thanks thommos), last picture is us drinking it. sat on the docks until it got dark drinking laughing and forgetting we were ever in work, seeing things like the middle picture with the cloud spilling over the edge of table mountain like a wave, b-e-a-utiful (that’s for you rich f). we also saw a seal swimming by victoria pier, just great. we also saw a big crane which we’ve enclosed for rich and walshie. next day we were up for breakfast and then straight back to bed for a prolonged snooze, we must have been very tired. when we finally hit the streets we were a bit more lively and walked through the company gardens (been around since 1652) past the museum and then decided on a whim to walk up signal hill, which ended up being a 5 hour yomp, soph loved that. still we deserved a big meal last night and unfortunately fell to socializing with CT finest (one of them a south african stage actor called claridge or something like that anyway), playing pool, bigging up english rugby and generally staying out until after our bed time. today very quiet start and bit of admin, looking forward to match tomorrow as is whole population, everyone is talking about it, in all papers, people in the boks jerseys it’s just massive over here and i’m so glad i’ve got my england top to wear tomorrow, cheers sammy and sarah. haven’t started missing people yet, but when we sober up it may happen – love to all
