Cintsa, South Africa

Several people we had met at backpacers suggested we go to Cintsa, so we did.

One of the difficulties we have found is finding information on places outside where you are. Tourism places only have information on their areas. That means you are not always sure how to get to where you want to go, and can't find out what there is to see and do until you are there. So to find out about somewhere ahead is not easy. Sometimes I find maps or pamphlets left in backpackers and they help us. As we cannot always get online we can't do a google search and find route maps. The small road map book we have bought is good for an overall view of routes around the country but it doesn't have much detail and crossing large cities like East London was difficult. There aren't always street signs on every corner but after a few wrong turns we managed it.

Cintsa is on the Wild Coast but the area was formerly known as Transkei, the name of the apartheid-era homeland. Our maps never refer to these new names that have been created for the tourists so you are never sure where on the coast they are talking about.

The Buccaneers backpackers had been recommended to us by several people so we managed to get a cottage there that we had to share with another couple. We had a fully equipped kitchen, a clean bathroom and a room with a seaview. There was also a nice deck looking out to sea where we could catch up on some reading and dry laundry.

Buccaneers is special because it is 40% owned by the indigenous people, the Xhosa. They also support a local school and other organisations that help locals.

We were able to have a communal meal with about 20 other people and try the typical maize and bean staple. The complex covers a large area and includes a camp site as well as cottages up a sloping hill with views over the lagoon and bay. There are lots of things to do such as horse riding, learning to surf, kayaking, fishing and you can even have beauty treatments.

We met a couple from Cape Town who were staying one night as they were going to see their son in Mosambique who was doing a dive master course. They both worked at the only nuclear plant in South Africa and were keen motorbike riders belonging to a motorcycle club in Cape Town. It was refreshing to meet couples closer to our age rather than the under 25s.

We shared our cottage with Aitor from Majorca, Spain and Amy a Brit. They were both nursing in Sydney and had been granted permanent residency. Both had been to NZ and were keen to go back during the World Cup rugby so we hope to be able to catch up with them again. It is surprising the number of people who want to go to the rugby next year and we hope they don't all turn up at our place on the same day.

We had a nice relaxing time at the beach and enjoyed the warmer weather at last.

Port Alfred, South Africa

Port Alfred is probably not every tourists destination but it was a convenient stop for us to rest. The only backpacker in the town was where we were able to stay but it was quite a strange place. The husband and wife had a 3 month old baby so the common area was full of baby things. The veranda had broken and ripped seats on which two locals sat smoking and drinking beer. They seemed more to be boarders than tourists or backpackers.



Although our room was clean and comfortable we felt like we were intruding on a family in their home so it didn't have that backpacker atmosphere that we are familiar and comfortable with. The two huge dogs felt more at home as they spread out on the available couches in front of the TV.



In the summer and at Easter the owners told us they fill up with 25 surfers and have more camping in the yard. It is not far from a popular surfing and fishing spot.



In the evening we decided to go to the town to eat and spotted a place with bar meals called Flyboys. When we went inside all the staff were dressed in hats and all were wearing sunglasses.

We had to ask what was going on and were told the theme of the evening was "Spy night". There were old black and white photos of aeroplanes around the bar and lights were covered with aeroplane tyres. The huge open fire was blazing and it was pretty comfortable.



Pies were the speciality of the house so we ate and chatted to an English woman, Julie and a Scottish guy called Jimmy, who live in the town. She taught all sports at the local high school and he was an electrician who was responsible for creating the tyre lighting. He arrived in the town 9 years ago, bought a house and still has no work permit. He is finding it difficult to find work with the present recession and can't afford the 5,000 rand for a permit to stay.



Jimmy was in town one day walking home from the shops about 10 in the morning and someone threw a brick at his head and he was left unconscious on the footpath for an hour or so. His wallet was taken and he still has a numbness and damage to the nerve endings in the left side of his face. In spite of this they both love living in the town.



When we drove around the town we saw a park with a sign warning against loud music, dancing and alcohol. Jimmy told us that the wealthy holiday home owners with property on the river complained about the noisy dance parties that the local black people had in the park and as a result the sign went up.



At about 9pm a huge flood of young people arrived in the bar and the music went up 10 notches. Julie told us they were men from the flight training school nearby. They come from all over South Africa to train here.



The area surrounding the town has a lot of chicory and pineapples. All in all it was quite an unusual experience.

Addo Elephant Park, South Africa

In our provisions for Addo was a huge bag of oranges and when we got the the Matyholweni gate to enter the park there was a huge sign saying "No citrus allowed in the park". We handed the bag over and could collect it on our way out. We were trying to work out why it was not allowed but couldn't think of anything obvious.

The park is divided by a road and we didn't see any animals in the first part of the park. No sooner had we crossed into the second park when we saw dozens of elephants. There are over 500 according to the literature.

The accommodation area has a huge electric fence separating it from the animals in the park. There are various types of accommodation available as well as a petrol pump, small shop and restaurant. We pitched our tent in the camping area which has a tent area and larger sites for campervan and caravans. There was a kitchen with 3 cook tops and a freezer but no fridge. No crockery or cutlery is provided so we were able to use our own having carried them this far.

The ablutions were very clean and comfortable even providing an area to do laundry. Our camp site had its own bbq and we had to pitch our tent on the gravel. In such dry conditions I could never imagine our park rangers providing bbqs for visitors for fear of the danger of a bush fire.

After the park closed for the night we were able to watch the birds in the bird hide overlooking a pond. There were dozens of weaver birds going in and out of their nests and sunbirds eating nector from the flowers. As the sunset on the animal hide we could see a few bucks and Egyptian geese but not much else came to visit.

We really enjoyed driving around the park and were able to tick of quite a few animals on the list they gave us. We would get up early and drive about and then return for breakfast, shower, do our laundry and then head out again with our lunch in the car and return just before the gates closed for the night.

There is a board near reception that lists the animals spotted that day and where they were. So early in the morning we would head for the spots where the lions were seen. We got lucky and as we drove along we met a huge beautiful lion just as he was coming out of the trees at the moment we passed. He towered over our little car and he and I were eye-to-eye through the passenger window and that got me gasping. We turned around and followed him along the road and then he sat and looked at us giving us his best poses. What a buzz!

Another day we saw a young warthog being attacked by two jackals. One jackal would bite at the hog's left hip and the hog would turn towards the attacking hog. While he was doing this the second hog would bite his right hip and so it went on until the jackals were able to drag the hog a few centimetres and tire him out. At one point a large warthog went over to the injured hog and sniffed him or licked him while the jackals hovered nearby. However he left the young hog to his fate and the jackals continued their torture. Later we returned and there was nothing left of the hog and no jackals either.

There were several senior South African folk in the camp as there was some discount for them and we would chat with them when we met in the kitchen in the evenings. As we unpacked our food we found one orange that had fallen out of the bag so we quickly consumed it out of sight of any of the staff. The nights were quite cold and sometimes misty but it warmed later in the day.

We were able to read about the history of the park and found the reason why we were not allowed any citrus. In 1931, there were only 11 elephants when the park was established. The fencing was inadequate and the elephants annoyed the local farmers. The park manager began feeding the elephants oranges, hay, pumpkins and lucerne at set times to keep them in the park.

When the food trucks arrived the elphants would run behind trumpeting and grabbing the oranges from the trucks. The vegetation around the feeding areas became decimated as the elephants wouldn't move away in case they missed the feeds. Levels of aggression between elephants rose and many were injured. They showed signs of stress by the secretions from their temporal glands when competing for oranges and as a consequence feeding citrus was stopped in 1979.

We were glad we found the rogue orange before some old elephant with an amazing memory could smell it and chase us trumpeting around the park.

Jeffrey's Bay, South Africa

We had read that there would be a surf competition at Jeffrey's Bay so we booked into a new backpackers across from the surf area. As the weather, and surf, had been so good the competition started and finished in 4 days so it was over inside the 11 days set aside for it.

Jeffrey's Bay is a lovely beach with some rocky parts and lots of vegetation near the high tide mark as well as little parks with parking. There are also many huge multi-storied holiday apartments which unfortunately spoil the atmosphere. It is obviously a busy place and the locals told us that summer and Easter are their busiest times so many places must be empty for a large part of the year.

The beach suffers quite a bit of erosion and the locals have tried to hold their front yards together by making walls of sand in enormous sacks that look pretty ugly.

We were having a lot of difficulty using the power pack for our notebook and hunted out a computer shop. they tested it and felt that with the fluctuation in the electricity supply the current may not have been sufficient to charge our computer.

Being a holiday place we were able to get a cheap supply of secondhand books to read. There were no shortage of restaurants and were able to try some delicious line fish at a Greek restaurant.

There is a lot of flat land in this area used for dairy farming and we spotted a vehicle covered in signs for 'Waikato milking pumps'. The Waikato is a dairy farming area near where we live in NZ.

While in St Francis we met a couple who had been on a protest march against a nuclear power plant planned to be built in the local area. In Jeffrey's Bay the protesters had signs up asking for more school buildings and better health facilities rather than the nuclear plant. Other signs complained about using an important and fragile flora and fauna area for the plant.

Traveling by car means that it is important that we get secure parking but the backpacker's book that we have doesn't always list the facilities a place has so we have to research them online or ask other travelers we meet.

We relaxed here and bought some provisions to take with us to the Addo Elephant Park, our next stop.

St Francis Bay, South Africa

Our friends Sue and Stuart put us in touch with Sue's sister who then put us in touch with her mother-in-law Sara. Sara was kind enough to invite us to have lunch with her in St Francis. It was a beautiful sunny day and we sat on the terrace and chatted.

Sara took us for a drive around the planned canal settlement. Our first impression was that all the houses were white and most were thatched. Sara told us that there were rules on what materials could be used on the houses and that they had to be painted white.

The original farm owner planned the canals and how the area would look. Later his son took over and in a more recent area he has allowed the houses to be painted in soft pastel colours as he was inpressed with the houses he saw in Portugal.

She explained that one of the problems with the original rule to have the houses thatched is that now it is difficult to find the raw materials growing and it is also difficult to find tradesmen who can do the thatching. Susequently the houses have slate or tiles.

We were shown the affects of the silting on the harbour where Sara's children learnt to sail and also went out to the port to see the harbour and the fishing boats. Later we took her 3 dogs for a walk. The great dane was pretty energetic even though he had problems with his joints. Sara was surprised how he was showing off to us and feared that he may not be able to get up the next day. We passed many porcupine holes on the walk. They hide in these during the day to keep cool and come out at night so we never got to see any. The coast was a popular place to get mussels and we saw shells on the sand.

Sara asked us to stay the night with her which was wonderful so we sat around chatting into the night. She told us of her plans to move to France to be near her son in Portugal and her daughter who lives in France. We saw the photos of the old barn and farm buildings that they were planning to renovate and convert into a house for her next to the daughter's house. It was an exciting project for her and her son would become a prune farmer, a less stressful job than the one he currently has.

It is typical that many South African families are spread all over the world and it is usual that the parents are in South Africa by themselves, so this was an opportunity for Sara to have all of her family in the northern hemisphere and much closer to her and when she became unable to look after herself they would not have to commute so far to care for her. We thought she was very brave and wish her well during this exciting adventure.

Storms River, South Africa

Headed along the coast for Plettenburg Bay where we stocked up with supplies for our stay at Storms River.

Storms River is a pretty small village with a few basic shops and headquarters for the park service and lots of guesthouses and holiday homes. Only the main road is paved and the rest are dirt and in the rains would be pretty boggy.

We checked into a rustic backpackers where we had a double room with an ensuite. The common areas in the hostel were pretty small and very dark but the wood fire was very welcome as we are still finding it pretty cold and it was raining on and off. We did have to share the fire with two of the owners' dogs who planted themselves in the walkway in front of the fire. One of the dogs had a toy that he would hold in his mouth and then nudge you until you threw it. There really was not enough space for the active dogs and the guests. There was a kitchen in a lean-to building on the side of the reception/bar area and as I cooked dinner I had to wear my raincoat and dodge the drips that threatened to extinguish the flames on the gas cooker. It really felt like we were camping.

We also had to use our sleeping bags over the bed to keep warm in the night as the quilts were only summer weight and the blanket provided was a mix of natural and synthetic fibres but not

very warm. We had tried to book online for other places but they had no double rooms so we were stuck with the rustic place.

Five kilometres down the road was the Tsitsikamma National Park where we were able to use our Wild Card, an annual card for park entries, park fees are higher for international visitors than locals. We walked the first day of the famous Otter Trail, a 4 day walk that is booked out a year in advance. We would have liked to do the walk but couldn't wait around for 2 vacancies and with the weather being so cold and wet it would have been no fun to ford the sea and river crossings. A lot of the trail was on rocks and sometimes it was hard to find the otter footprints painted on the rocks that marked where to go as they had been washed off by the thundering waves.

We saw several blue duiker deer and dassies (rock hydrax) but no otters. On the return trip we got lost twice but John's good sense of direction soon got us back on track. Luckily the rain had stopped to make it a lovely walk.

The young man on reception was a Kiwi guy. He had applied to assist in an International Language school in Kenya but found the students were spoilt rich kids so he decided to travel and find odd jobs for his gap year (the year between secondary school and university). He would work on reception, run the bar, and cook the evening meal for guests who ordered it. This always included meat baked in the oven, as guests were always using the gas cookers, baked vegetables and home made bread. When we asked him about some of the walking trails he admitted he had never done any as he was stuck in the hostel on the bar all night and then sleeping.

We drove to Bloukrans bridge which is Africa's largest where we watched the jumpers on the 216 metre highbungy jump. Someone told us that a kiwi guy had set up the activity and we did see a huge Kiwi flag in front of an office.

On the Otter trail we met a group from the Intrepid Tours company and they invited us to meet them at their backpackers that evening. It was a lovely warm place that didn't make you feel like you were camping. Some of them had colds and had taken the option to have a room rather than stay in tents and several had bought hot water bottles for the trip.

One of the local canyoning operators, a black man from the village told us a lot about his life in the village. He recounted to us a story about a group of 9 lawyers who had done a canyoning trip in the early days of the industry. A flash flood caused them all to be tipped out and they all drowned and the park closed down any water activity operators for several years.

Each year he has to get a licence to operate and has to present all the paperwork showing that the guides are trained to International standards. They employ qualified staff from overseas and use them to train their staff and help run their operation.

He told us that they do a lot of work in the local schools to show the kids what kind of employment they could get in the tourism industry by involving the kids as much as possible and hopefully motivating them to stay at school and study hard with a plan for the future. Security is a lot less visible here and the hostel had no electric fences or high walls, just sticks tied together for a fence to keep stay cows out. The tourism operators get together and impress upon the young kids the importance of having a safe place for tourists and therefore ensuring a positive future for them by having a zero tolerance to theft etc.

Knysna, South Africa

We drove through George to the coastal town of Knysna.

We were able to contact the NZ High Commission in Pretoria about getting a new passport. We were able to download and print off the passport application forms from the internet and fill them in. Fortunately, we had regulation passport size photos with us which we had done before we left NZ as they are often needed for visas. We were able to send Lil's passport and paper work to John's brother in NZ. Our daughter would usually have done this for us but she was headed for Vietnam for a familiarisation trip. The NZ High Commission are able to have the passport sent with the diplomatic mail to Pretoria where we will have to arrange to pick it up later. Fortunately I don't need a passport everyday to get about the country so it will not be missed. As long as it arrives before my visa to stay in South Africa expires it should be fine. We did want to go to Lesotho but will change the order we do things to be sure we can do it later.

Knysna is a pretty organised modern holiday place on the coast. Before the world cup games the Danish and French teams stayed in the town to train and work on strategies. The streets and many shops were decorated with the Danish and French flags and colours. According to news reports the French did not enjoy the place and fought amongst each other. The Danish, we were told by some of the locals, helped fund 3 sports fields for the local black youth teams and got involved in the community. There were several comments from store keepers that they had not made as money as they had been lead to believe they would because the French didn't move out of their camps.

We were able to meet Wendy's uncle Stephen and aunt Olga and enjoy a meal with them at their place in Knysna. Stephen had done a motorbike trip through Botswana, Zambia and Malawi and John was able to get a lot of tips from him on places to go and things to do, which was a big help.

Stephen and Olga both enjoy mountain biking in the forest near their place and we enjoyed hearing about their adventures.

We were told that only about 10% of residents are contributing to the national tax pool so infrastructure support and development is difficult. The country doesn't produce enough electricity and shortages are common, even though some electricity is exported to Zimbabwe and many informal settlements hook illegally into the national grid. The price of electricity will rise by 23-25% per year for the next 3 years.

As the weather was warm we were able to do a long walk from Brenton-on-Sea to Buffalo Bay.
We were lucky to see dolphins playing in the surf. Further out to sea we could see the whales blow spouts but unfortunately they never came any closer to land to be able to see their bodies.

Knysna has many oyster farms so we were able to find a place on the waterfront to have a wee taste and they were delicious. The week before there had been an oyster festival and we seem to arrive in places just after their festivals. At least when we do this we can find somewhere to stay at a reasonable price.

Knysna has the largest Rastafarian community in South Africa. We were told that they grow enough marijuana for their religious needs and we have only seen a few Rastas with their typical dreds and green, black and red hats. Bob Marley is alive and well worshipped in Knysna.

We have had a lot of problems getting good internet access and every hostel charges a lot to access their networks. This pushed us into buying a mobile internet stick which works out more
economical for us. It is easier to read emails but the strength of the network is not always enough to do my blog so we are getting way behind and need to find somewhere to catch up.

Oudtshoorn, South Africa

Every time we try to get our tongue around the name of this place we get corrected but it sounds like goat shorn without the 'G' with some long guttural noises.

It rained at the start of our journey and that some of the locals told us meant more snow on the hills. We followed a route that Deon from Franschhoek gave us along the N2 highway through Swellendam and Barrydale. At Barrydale was a hot pool which was crowded so we didn't bathe.

We headed up the Tradouws Pass and into the Karoo which is a dry desert-like region. There were many ostrich farms. In the 1880s and 1900s many ostrich farmers made a lot of money from the feathers and today you can have an ostrich omelet (it wasn't breeding season while we were there so we couldn't have any), buy feathers, leather goods, dried meat (biltong), and decorated shells.

There are many feather baron mansions in Oudtshoorn and some are in poor condition but would have looked magnificent in their heyday.

We stayed in a rambling place on a hill and it had timber floors that creaked whenever you walked on them. The fire in the lounge was a treat as we could see snow on the surrounding hills and being an old place it was a bit draughty. The owner told us it was safe to walk any where in the town and we did.

In the hostel we met an Australian couple who rode from London and were headed to Cape Town where they would ship their motorbike. They managed to fit all they needed for the two of them on one bike and had been down the route on the west coast that we would like to take. They had already spent a year on the road. They gave us a lot of information on places to stay and places to visit. We found out that I would need more than the 11 pages that I had in my passport as many countries needed 2 full pages for their visas. We decided that we should organise getting a new passport.

There was a small TV room where we were able to watch Spain and Netherlands in the final World Cup Soccer game. Three guys from Catalan joined us as well as a couple from Denmark. The Catalan boys were dressed in the Spanish colours, noisy and very animated so it was quite and atmosphere in such a small space and a lot of fun.

The next day we heard that Hank Leishout had had a cardiac arrest while watching the game back in NZ. John had known him as referee when he played soccer in Manurewa and had met him again when he was on The Building and Construction Industry Training Board. Hank was Dutch and died watching his favourite team.

Betty's Bay, South Africa

The road from Franschhoek took us up a large pass with plantation pines. Near the top we saw several baboons in the middle of the road so had to drive carefully around the windy roads in case we came upon more of them. We could slso see snow on some of the peaks. We travelled inland through a huge fruit growing area with large packhouses and lines of workers' cottage dotting the hills.


We had a stop at Kleinmond near the beach and watched the local kids playing in the lagoon, while adults took their dogs for a walk along the beach.


We found a free book advertising lots of backpackers' places so were able to ring ahead and find a bed in Betty's Bay. The hostel had a 9 hole mini putt course and a huge billiard table to entertain the guests as there is not a lot to do in the holiday seaside town if you don't have transport and are not a keen surfer.


There was a huge indoor fireplace so Lil was in her element stoking it up to keep the huge common area overlooking the beach warm. The wind was coming off the snow and was surprisingly freezing even though we couldn't see any snow peaks from where we were.


There was also an outdoor pit and two wood barbecue areas so the locals could have a braai (br eye). We could never have such fires in a drought because of the risk of bush fires, but here it is the tradition to cook on embers outside whenever you can.


Betty's Bay has about 20% permanent residents and the balance is for the holiday makers.




We visited Stony Point and enjoyed watching the African penguins waddling about or snuggling up to their brown fluffy young. The noise they make is like a donkey and so they were called Jackass penguins but have been renamed African penguins. There were huge fences separating the birds from the holiday homes and it looks and smells like the protected area that they have made is helping increase the penguin numbers considerably. I would imagine that some of the locals find the noise and the smell a nuisance as the colony grows and tries to spread into their front yards. Scientists were at the site when we were there counting and weighing animals. They have constructed some concrete shelters to encourage the birds to nest and breed here and it seems to be working really well.


We had tried to couchsurf in Hermanus but didn't have any luck so took a drive to look around the town. There seemed to be lots of Brits visiting after the World Cup games and they were enjoying the walk along the rocky cliffs like us. We were hoping to spot some of the right whales that come to this area at this time of the year but didn't see any.


We would like to have stayed on a bit longer at Betty's Bay but the place was booked out by a group of 28 youngsters to celebrate a 21st so that was a really good reason to leave.


The huge hills along the beach are covered with wild leucodendrons, proteas, heather and lots of other native plants that we didn't know the names of and looked gorgeous.

There was not a very good internet connection here so we were not able to any postings.

Franschhoek, South Africa

We loaded up our small car and with one backpack in the boot and one on the back seat headed for Stellenbosch. There had been a wine festival in the area over the weekend so the place was pretty quiet and wintry looking with its bare vines and leafless trees. John showed me the places that he had visited with the Drews.

Along the highway towards the airport was a huge area of makeshift houses which they call townships. The box houses were made of whatever could be scavenged, steel drums beaten flat, logs, wooden pallets, and all covered with black polythene to keep as much of the weather out as they could. Above the houses was a tangle of black electric cables that are hooked into the national grid to supply electricity. Where ever there is a space there is a clothes line to hang the family wash. Some townships cover a huge area while other are quite compact.

Passed some wheat fields near Stellenbosch and stopped in the city and visited the tourist office. We got a map of a walking tour of the old historic buildings around the city centre and went inside those that we could. We found the inside of the 'H' shaped houses interesting having been built in the 1680s. Protestantism was banned in France so 277 Huguenots fled by ship to the Cape of Good Hope and settled in the Stellenbosch Valley.

We drove onto Franschhoek and checked into a lovely guesthouse near the town centre. The owners were very chatty and told us how their daughter, in her 40s, was going to ride a horse across Mongolia for 10 days as part of the world's longest horse ride event.

They told us that the town was safe and that we could walk any where and not have to worry about security as we had to in Cape Town. We were able to find a restaurant in town with a big screen to watch Netherlands and Uruguay play.

Hides drying outside a tannery.

While the guesthouse was clean and had everything we needed it lacked heating and we have found it very cold in the uninsulated solid brick and plaster houses. As electricity is very expensive we have also found it difficult to read with the single low watt eco bulb that hangs in the middle of the room.

We visited the Huguenot Museum in the town and read about what life was like for the early settlers to Franschhoek as well as about the customs of the indigenous people.

Interestingly there are no fluoro-vested car guards in Franschhoek, and there are signs everywhere telling visitors not to give money to beggars and not to encourage begging in the town.

There was not much to do in town but we went to a restaurant owned by a Greek man and met a lot of locals. A couple of guys were engineers for a spring water plant, another man ran a tour company, and one was with the corrections department and head of the SWAT team. The man who was a farmer had to rush off and move his men on his farm. We found that a strange thing to do as we would rush off to move the animals!

We were able to sit with some of the locals and watch Spain beat Germany.

Repairing the Dutch Reform Church roof with reeds.

Lil in Cape Town, South Africa

I had a good flight to Cape Town with an hour's stop in the plane at Johannesburg airport. Air Singapore is well known for looking after single women on their flights and when I checked in I was told I would have a seat between me and the other person in my row of 3 for the whole flight. There was a guy from Botswana in my row and he was studying architecture in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and it was his first trip home to see his family after 3 years and he was so excited that he would count each hour that he got closer to Jo'burg until he fell asleep. When he woke he was even more excited.

There was a band of drummers and dancers as the passengers arrived at Cape Town airport and lots of flags and huge banners promoting the World Cup Soccer. John was waiting for me at the airport and we headed to the Avis counter to pick up our rental car. This took ages and the queues got longer and longer with tired passengers. The first car we got had a registration that would expire within the two month period of hireage so we had to wait for a second one. No sooner had we got the keys when the receptionist noticed that that registration would expire too. Finally we got our wee Picanto Kia and it was so small that only one backpack could fit in the boot.

We headed to Claremont where we met Mike and his wife Anya, and their 3 hyperactive dogs. They are friends of our South African friends Sue and Stuart from New Plymouth. Stuart used to flat with Mike and they were climbing buddies. WE were thankful that we were able to drop our gear and shower and head off to Matt and Wendy's engagement party at a restaurant at Kalk Bay.

The party was held in a ground floor bar/restaurant and we could see the huge wild waves crashing on the rocks outside the windows. Wendy said that in a storm the glass blows out and the place floods and then they repair it and carry on.

The next day was the final game for the boys so I tagged along with Wendy's sister Tracy and her friends. They decided to take the train and unbeknown to them so had most of the Cape Town suburbanites! The train was jam-packed, hot and chaotic. Sam and other passengers had to hold the doors closed at the stations as loads more people were wanting to board and there was no more space. It seems that everyone realised that the fan walk; a 2 1/2 km walk from the station to the stadium with street entertainers, food stalls and sellers, was a fun thing to do. Walking at night was something that the locals would not normally do but being a fine weekend day everyone was out and about. Unfortunately there were not enough trains and not enough carriages for all who wanted to take the trains. Some people were stranded at the station while up to 4 trains sailed past full.

Tracy's friends wanted to meet at a bar near the stadium and it became so crowded that we caught a 5 rand shared taxi with the locals to a bar at Seapoint which was deserted and had a huge screen where we could sit, eat and watch the game; Spain versus Paraguay.

My first impressions of Cape Town

lots of high walls with razor wire,

electric steel sliding gates,

grills and bars on every house window,

grills and bars on shop doors,

lots of dogs behind the gates and walls,

lots of security guards patrolling in company vehicles or on bicycles in the suburbs,

many black people walking along the sides of the road,

lots of sellers with flags, vuvuzuelas and other cup paraphernalia at intersections,

several beggars at the lights,

firewood in wheelbarrows, or tied in bundles, for sale on the side of the highways,

fluoro-vested car guards wanting money every time you park on private or public land,

white-painted houses with high facades and many with thatched rooves,

lots of small cars like ours,

four way stop intersections like America, and

traffic lights that are labelled 'robots'.

John drove us to Cape Point where we were rewarded with clear views along the rocky coastline
and were joined by queues of cup supporters all wanting to do the same thing. The baboon minders were out in large numbers on the roadsides with whips to keep the baboons away from people, food and vehicles. We meandered back through some of the coastal towns and over the hills past a lot of ostrich farms. The 'fynbos' are thin leafed plants and as we drive along there is a sage-like smell coming from the bushes in the heat.

We caught up with Johnnie and Clare and their two girls one evening and had a delicious meal in front of their roaring log fire. They used to live in Papamoa and after a stint in the UK have returned to Cape Town. It was interesting to hear about their business supplying low pressure shower heads to hotels as there is a water shortage and electricity has gone up 25% and will continue to go up by the same rate over the next 3 years.

We have bought a Wild Card which gives us a year's entry to any of the South African National Parks and will pay for itself in no time. As a lot of the accommodation is already booked up in the parks we have decided to buy a small tent so we can camp in fenced -in park camps. We already have a cooker and pots and hopefully the weather will be warmer further north.

Stellenbosch

Between World Cup matches Evan, Sam, Matt and John made a day trip to the Winelands area outside Capetown. Slellenbosch is Sth Africa's second oldest European settlement, established in 1679. It's now a university city and the centre of the most famous wine growing areas in SA. There are many examples of colonial achitechture including these H shaped Dutch style houses.

Just outside Stellenbosch we stopped at the Spier complex where there was a cheetah and raptor rehabilitation centre. I think the cheetahs were raised in captivity as they seemed very tame and you could enter their cage and stroke them. Matt knew of a girl who had been attacked by a cheetah at Spier and required 50 odd stiches to her face - the staff were reluctant to talk to us about this!

Sam trying to outstare an eagle.

Trying the local red and whites. I think Evan would rather have had a beer and Sam a Red Bull!

Around Capetown

Drove out to the Cape of Good Hope National Park with hundreds of other FIFA World Cup supporters. Lots of succulent plants and hardies like proteas and leucudendron. There was not a lot of wildlife around but saw small birds - missed the Cape Zebras. This is the view down to Cape Point.

Made the 7km boat trip out to Robben Island where Nelson Mandela and hundreds of other political prisoners and criminals were held. The island has been used as a prison for over 400 years. The guy in the picture was described to us as a political prisoner and he showed us around the complex. He said at the age of 15 he was trained in the use of explosives and he placed a limpet mine inside a military facility. When it exploded some 50 people were injured. Although he may have had political motive for his action it seemed to us to be a criminal rather than political act.

View of Table Mountain from the Waterfront area.

On the way up Table Mountain. 65 people fit inside this gondola and it rotated through 360 Deg. on the way up.

This is as far as John got to shark cage diving!

There were lots of street performers out on the streets during the cup period.

Wherever the football crowds were there were vendors selling stuff. When you stopped for a robot ( traffic signal ) people were selling flags and scarves. These animal carvings were were by the gate to Cape of Good Hope National Park.
Many of the vendors were from Nigeria and Kenya - a long way from home.

This is a very small part of the sprawling township of Kyalitsia on the Cape Flats - tens of thousands are living in this type of informal housing. After the World Cup there has been a spate of xenophobic attacks. Local criminals took the opportunity to attack and destroy shops owned by foreigners, mainly Somalians in the townships. Many illegal citizens live in the townships having come over the borders in the north of South Africa. The authorities do have housing improvement schemes but are unable to keep up with demand. People who do get upgraded housing often build backyard shacks on their properties to rent to illegals. Only

10 % of South African citizens are ratepayers so there is always a shortage of money for Government projects.

Addo Elephant National Park

Meerkats.

Black Backed Jackal.

On Friday 25th June after watching Netherlands 2 v Cameroon 1 the night before at Green Point stadium, the Drews and Parkins all headed north to Addo, inland from Port Elizabeth. It was a long ten hour trip with a lunch stop in Plettenberg Bay. We were booked into chalets and cottages which was just as well because it was cold up at Addo.

The park was established in 1931 to save the Eastern Cape Elephant from extinction and is now home to more than 500 elephants. They say it is the only park in the world to host the " Big Seven ". They have added the Great White Shark and the Southern Right Whale to the Big Five list. There is a coastal section in Addo.

Went on an early morning game drive in one of the National Park vehicles and almost immediately saw two young male lions. Most of the animals had been sheltering overnight in the bushveld but as the sun started to warm them and us they slowly came out into the open. At first the backs of the elephants looked like brown mounds amongst the vegetation -we got excited when the first elephant came into full view but soon there were dozens of them.

Went for a second drive in our vehicle early afternoon and then again just before dark. A wonderful experience.

Matt Parkin and Wendy Drew

While the Parkin family were visiting Capetown, Matt and Wendy announced their engagement. Matt surprised Wendy by proposing to her on the third anniversary of their meeting. He asked her on Boulders Beach near Simons Town. There are penguins at Boulders and as they take a partner for life, Matt decided it was an appropriate spot to pop the question. Luckily Wendy said yes, as Evan and Wendy's father Terry had the bubbles on hand ready to celebrate.



Terry, Carol, Wendy and Tracey Drew were wonderful hosts during our time with them. Besides showing us all of the sights of Capetown they loaded us into their VW transporter and took us all the way up the Garden Route to Addo Elephant National Park. We came back at a more leisurely pace staying for a few nights at Plettenberg Bay. Carol is a real science whizz and keptme informed on the local flora and fauna.

Terry in action on the braai at Addo.

Cape Town, South Africa - FIFA World Cup

Flew out of Auckland on 17th June with Lil, brother Evan and nephew Sam with Singapore Airlines bound for Capetown via Singapore. Lil got off the flight in Singapore and spent a couple of weeks traveling around Singapore and Malaysia. The rest of us Parkins, being more interested in football than Lil were off to the FIFA World Cup.

We had time in Singapore to catch up with the Argentina v Sth Korea match. Met up with nephew Matt who flew in from London - we had a block of four tickets to four matches in the new Capetown stadium.

Didn't have any tickets for the All Whites matches but watched them on the big screen down on the Waterfront area of Capetown. That's Ricky Herbert on the screen after the 1-1 draw with Italy. After the fantastic All Whites performances lots of foreign fans saw us in our shirts and had their photos taken with us.

At the stadium we had tickets for Portugal 7 v Nth Korea 0, and Netherlands 2 v Cameroon 1 in the group stages of the cup.

Watching the All Whites play Paraguay 0 - 0.

Ronaldo played an excellent game against Nth Korea and was named man of the match. He failed to fire in later matches.

The magnificent Green Point stadium with its glass roof. No internal pillars to block the view and no lighting towers. The floodlights are around the inner rim of the roof. Seating 65,000.

Later matches we saw were Spain 1 v Portugal 0. Spain played wonderful possession football and went on to win the Cup.

Also watched Germany 4 v Argentina 0. That's Maradona looking worried in the photo. Saw 15 wonderful goals, many teams inside the world top ten and the eventual finalists, Netherlands and Spain. We even came away fans of the vuvuzuelas!