WA - Freo

Ah, back to the dodgy YHA backpackers (though it was a much better room)… as we arrived back a bit later than planned so we took a walk down to the park and had some packed lunch with the seagulls watching us enviously. There was a nasty little one who kept chasing all the other seagulls away, so when he was busy being mean to one gull, we fed a different one some scraps. This turned into a bit of a brawl between the gulls, and those familiar with “Finding Nemo” would recognise the chorus of “MINE! MINE!”. When we thought we’d stirred up a big enough fight, we left, only to be followed by about 50 screaming seagulls. We chucked them the remainder of our sarnies and pegged it ;)

The nearest place to seek refuge was the Little Creatures Brewery, lucky us ;) This is a nice little pub on the harbour, which brews its own beers on site, and is well known across Australia (despite only really being sold here in Freo). We stayed here most of the afternoon, trying out the 4 different beers and then trying them again to find out our favourite – Ev liked Pale Ale and Marc the Golden (there was also Amber and Pilsner). Of course, we also had to stay here until the gulls had gone ;) So, we got chatting to a few locals, the sun came out, and we had a nice relaxing afternoon, which almost turned into a nice evening as well until Ev prised Marc away ;)

Next day we headed over to Rotto (Rottenest Island) and the weather was perfect, though a bit too hot. We hired bikes on the Island and ended up cycling all around the island. Our first meeting with the locals was not all that pleasant – we’d seen a few “bob-tail” lizards, and as one crossed the road, Marc rang his bell. The lizard retaliated by hissing and bearing teeth!!

We made it out to the tip of the island (about 12km), which is pretty far in the heat, into the wind and up/down hills. It was worth it though as we got some pretty good views. We didn’t see dolphins or whales though, and the school kids laughed at us when we said we hadn’t seen any quokkas yet…

Quokkas are basically mini kangaroos – little marsupials the size of rabbits, which are cute, cuddly and extremely common. The teachers suggested we look under shady trees, so we went on our way. About 10mins down the road, we found some with babies. They were really tame and we fed them some leaves. We then found them under every other tree we saw ;)

We then reached the lighthouse base, and Marc being Marc decided to cycle all the way to the top whilst Ev waited at the bottom. Ev watched quite a few other couples attempt the cycle up the hill, but they were nowhere near as fit as Marc and only made it half way before coming back down ;) There were some pretty good views up top, and Marc got some uncharacteristically good photos (e.g. no fingers, heads, etc in the way). The ride back down was fun…

We then headed to the beach for our picnic, but being a bit fussy we ended up back at the very first beach we saw. It was worth it as this beach was secluded and a good sun trap. We soaked up some rays, which was most needed after our 25km cycle. Marc went snorkelling in the chilly sea (the Southern Ocean currents too cold for Ev), and saw loads of fish.

On the ferry back we ended up sitting outside, and got absolutely soaked by the spray. By the time we considered going inside it was too late…

We then picked up our gear, changed, and headed to Coolibah Backpackers in Perth…

WA - Dolphins

The next day we had to take the car back, but we got back a bit late, and had to pay with the wallet. It was worth it though, as we drove back via Bunbury.

What’s so special about Bunbury? The dolphins :-D

We arrived here at about 8:30am, and looked around the bay for the dolphins which are said to be here at this time. We saw the aquarium, and some people on the beach, but didn’t think much of it. Then we heard some other people in the car park mention the “D” word. We strained to see over the fence, and couldn’t get a view of anything in the water, so didn’t know what they were talking about. Ev suggested we pay to go through the aquarium to see what was going on, but typically Marc “tight arse” Thornton wasn’t loosening the purse strings that easily.

Marc saw someone walking their dog on the beach, so we did a circuit of the car park to find the way down. We found an entrance, then did a quick dash for the beach, and there they were, two adult dolphins and a calf swimming about 10ft from shore, swimming passed about a dozen on-lookers already in the water.



There are volunteers who monitor these beautiful creatures, as at about 9am everyday the dolphins come into the shore. Marc asked if we could go in, and they said yes (we still don’t know if we should have paid at the aquarium;) Unfortunately, Evelyn wasn’t wearing the most appropriate clothing and had to roll up her jeans as high as she could, in true touristy style.



So, they let us walk into the sea, to our thighs (2-3ft) and the dolphins came and swam in front of us, within touching distance (no touching allowed though). We were lucky to see the calf which was full of energy and did loads of jumping, splashing and speedy swimming.



The dolphins are wild animals and come here purely out of choice – as much to gaze at us, as us at them. They do get a little treat of 250g of fish (but they get nothing if calving), which is nothing compared to their normal daily diet.

This really was an amazing experience!!

WA - Margaret River

In prep for our travels Marc put loads of music onto MP3 CDs so that when we are doing our long drives we could listen to some nice tunes… However, whenever we put the CDs on, the car stereo flashed “DISK CHECK” for about 10 seconds. So we checked the disk and found nothing wrong. We were a bit annoyed having spent ages doing the disks. When we hit the road again (we were getting bored of Marc’s Kooks album and Evelyn’s James Blunt) Evelyn decided to try the disks one last time and you’ll never guess what happened… after waiting quite sometime with “DISK CHECK” flashing and us cursing the stereo the damn thing decides to play! Hoorah! In the excitement we missed our turn off, and ended up driving about another 20km before realising, whilst we checked all the CDs out.

En route to Margaret River we stopped off at various places to see big old trees. We met this old forest ranger who was really freindly and was giving us tips on where to visit. We tried following his directions to the cape penninsula, but couldnt find this lighthouse he told us about - we think its one of the games he plays with stupid tourists ;) The highlight of our drive was this big old tree 100s of years old, and people used to park their cars in it.

Margaret River itself is a bit of a surfers paradise, and has been touted as “epic” by some famous surfer dude. So needless to say, we did no surfing, but made our first stop the fudge factory and tested a few weird flavours, buying peanut butter and original.

After this essential stop, we headed down to Preverly Beach to set up at the surfers camp, and then headed down to the beach to watch the dudes “hang ten” and do some totally bogus moves. The surf wasn’t really all that (we’d apparently missed the big swell by a day), but the kite surfers had no probs and showed off a few tricks. We had a nice walk along the beach, watched the sun set, and then headed to the pizzeria. It was a BYO, so Marc nipped to the offy next door, and was gone for about 15mins after the shop offered some free wine tastings on some of the local brews.

After a nice dinner, we finally created our first proper fire. It was going in minutes, and burned for hours. What made it all the better was the guy in the next site couldn’t get his going… ha ha

The next day we made the right decision that this camp site was a bit grotty, so we moved on to a nicer place. It was so nice that we ended up staying an extra night. This place was on the river, had really good facilities, and had loads of parrots and ducks, with the main star, Wally the kookaburra.

Ev got well acquainted with Wally, and fed him some steak when starting our wine tour. Yep, that’s right, Margaret River is one of the biggest wine regions in WA, and our new campsite did vineyard tours. The tour was started with an Aussie BBQ lunch, before heading on to the 3 vineyards, chocolate factory, cheese factory, venison farm, lavender vineyard, before ending up at the local brewery. So it was a pretty full tour, and lots of booze tastings. Redgate was first up, and we got 10 tastings here in about 20mins, so they all kind of merged into one. Evelyn discovered a taste for dessert wines and white port (i.e. the strong stuff ;). We got another 8 tastings at Xanado vineyard from some ponsey French waiter. Next was the venison farm, which isn’t really our thing (poor bambi)

The 3rd vineyard was the best, and the wine “master” made the experience very entertaining with his wit and passion for wine. He saw himself as a ladies man, and immediately took a liking to Aihling (one of the Irish sisters in the group). The wines here were really nice with the “Lost the Plot” brand being the favourite, but unfortunately because the vineyard is so small he doesn’t sell outside of Margaret river ;(

After getting a bit tipsy, the chocolate factory was a great next stop, and everyone got more than their fair share of freebies ;) and we liked the chocy so much, we went back the next day and got some more freebies ;) Next was the free cheese, and then a nice cup of lavender tea and lavender scones in the lavender garden, but not before sampling some lavender beer and wines!!! We were seeing things in shades of purple after this!!! Our conclusion, lavender is a nice fragrance and should stay that way ;) Lucky we had the brewery next up to get rid of the taste ;) We got a paddle of 4 beers, all of which were English ale style – not ideal, but strong content and better than lavender!!

When we started the tour, the mini bus was quite quiet, but by the end there was a bit more rowdiness. We ended the day by going for dinner with Aihling and Sinead (the Irish sisters) who were on our tour and camped next to us.

Next day we visited Bussleton which has the longest wooden jetty of 2km. There was a museum here which revisited all the tribulations of the jetty, as its almost been burnt down 3 times, and almost knocked over by a cyclone!! At the end of the pier, there is an under water observatory where you can see the fish swimming amongst the coral. It’s only 10mtrs deep here, so the brave can go snorkelling off the jetty, but the water was a bit cold.

On our way back we stopped off for chocy and cheese, before doing a mini kayak up the river. Unfortunately, the river was blocked off into sections, to keep the marron (a local type of crayfish) in, so we could only go so far…

WA - Bicentinial tree

The main draw to Denmark is the tall trees which you can climb. These old trees were used by firefighters, who climbed to the top to look out over the forest and guide people to where the fires were.

The Dave Evans Bicentennial tree, is a memorial, rather than an ex-lookout, but this tree is the highest in the area at 75mtrs. We're not too sentimental about these things, and thought if we're gonna climb this thing, and scare ourselves sh*tless, we've got to do the daddy of all trees ;)

As you can see from the photos, the climb isn't at all safe, and is best explained as a ladder made up of metal poles screwed into the tree!!! No safety nets, except for mesh on the outer side of the poles, no harnesses, no guides or instructions, no phone for emergencies - just a sign saying "climb at your own risk"!! Can you imagine this in our nanny-state of the UK????

At the bottom, looking up this giant, we ummed and ahhhhed, and eventually, Marc just went for it and started climbing. We thought that this initial climb would take the most balls, and once we were going the focus and determination would get up to the top. Just don't think about the

climb back down, or that a slip would be fatal for us and anyone else climbing below.

At about 25mtrs, there was a platform to rest, and a sign saying "That was the easy bit". Oh God!! There were lots of "don't climb further if..." and we made our biggest mistake and paused to read these. Then 1 min passed, then 2, then 3, and with every passing 2nd we were getting more nervous and less likely to climb further. Then we decided, less thinking and more action, and just went for it.

We, think the photos tell the next part of the story. When the tree was too thin for the winding "ladder", which incidentally was now swaying slightly in the wind (the top can sway 3mts in strong winds), there were more platforms with standard ladders. These if anything were more scary, as you had to lift yourself through a hole to a standing position, and when feeling slightly off balance, on a windy platform, you feel a bit unsecure ;)

The views from the top were awesome, though with the rush, we probably didn't appreciate them and they were a mere sideshow in comparison to the climb. As We looked down, we saw two lads begin their climb - they joined us at the top within a few mins. The climb took us about 20 ;)

View from the top

Spot our car...

Coming down was easy in comparison to the climb. Nothing seemed as high any more, and it was nowhere near as difficult as we had anticipated. In climbing down, you do have to look down to see where the next step is, which is a bit scary, but as long as you are careful with where you step, you're fine. This was definitely a step towards conquering our fear of heights ;)

WA - Denmark & Walpole

Our 2nd most exciting time in WA.

Denmark & Walpole are also known as the valley of giants, the giants being the humongous Karri, Marri and Jarrah trees. These babies grow for 300 years and top at about 80mtrs. These trees only grow here in south west Australia due to the unique climate and soils. Its not to be confused with rain forest as its a lot drier here, though it is similar with thick, dense canopies above, and very little vegetation on the forest floor, but still enough to cause forest fires in extreme heat.



There is so much wildlife here, in particular birds, and every morning we are woken to amazing chorus of the birds waking with the rising sun, which is one of the best ways to break from dreams. This doesn't make it any less annoying though, as 5:30am is damn early, and we need our beauty sleep!! So we generally try and sleep through the noise until the sun turns our tent into an oven - this is generally by 7am ;)

We can hear all these birds - parrots, kookaburra's, cockatoos, loriketts, honey eaters, etc - but we cant see if their colour matches the beauty of their sound as they are too high up. Even with binoculars, they are very hard as they blend in perfectly with the leaves...

Anyway, what did we do here. On our way to the tree top walk in Walpole we stopped off at the Green Pools and the Elephant Rocks. It was really beautiful to see how nature has carved the coast line. The rocks are formed in such a way that one side is rough see and the other is a perfectly calm bathing beach.




The tree top walk was good, though we expected it to be a boardwalk and a little less "man made". Still, it was a nice walk, with good views from the top of the trees. The walk was high, at 40 meters, and swayed in the wind.




We did several forest drives between here and Walpole, which were made more interesting with the radio commentary. The parks have pre-recorded stories about the Forest, trees, wildlife, timber trade and aboriginal tales, which can be picked up by tuning the car radio to 100fm. This is a really good feature of the drive and should be done everywhere!!! Along the drive you can also go on short boardwalks to various lookouts and see the biggest and oldest trees.



Between drives, there are little craft stores where you can stop for a browse, and sample the locally produced food and drink. Of course, once you sample the honey wine and toffee, there's no turning back and we have a few souvenirs to bring back home, if they last that long, the best stop being the honey wine ;)

For one of our two nights in this area, we camped in the Warren National Park. This is just forest, and nothing but forest!! The site was in the heart of these massive trees, and 50mtrs away was a river cutting the forest in two. There was nothing at this site apart from a BBQ. There was no power, so we cooked in the light of dusk. We then tried to get a fire going, the park provides the wood so we don't chop down the trees and shrubs around us, but the wood is Karri wood, which by its very nature is designed to withstand forest fires ;) And with the size of the logs, a fire was never really going to happen, though we tried for a good hour or two!! It also didn't help, that we didn't have much kindling, as whilst this was with the logs, there is a real danger that snakes, spiders, and other nasties may be taking a nap in here.




The toilets were in total darkness, and whilst Marc stood guard for Evelyn, he got a bit scared and there are lots of photos of nothing as he used the camera flash to ward off any creepies ;) As mentioned above, the bird call in the morning was one of the best. Despite the lack of amenities, this added to the experience, and this has been one of the best camps so far, 2nd only to Okavango!

Western Austraila - Albany

Well, as the weather was a bit crappy, we decided to head down to Albany a week or so early. Our other motivation was whales - whilst we've seen some in SA, it is the tail end of the season in Albany, and there was a slim chance we could catch some more sightings.

So, we found a cheap car hire, and got one of the best cars yet - Nissan Corolla !!! Lots of space, and a bit of power. The only problem is the max speed limits here are only 100kph (62mph)!However, its not like Marc lets road rules stand between him and speed, so once passed the Perth suburbs (huge!!), we cruised at 126kph (78mph) down the open roads - unbeknown to Evelyn.


We know this so precisely as within an hour we'd been pulled over by a cop!! He was travelling in the opposite direction to us, so Marc thought we were safe, but alas, he had a speed gun on his car and turned round. Marc pleaded ignorance to the rules of the road, having only been in the country for a short time, the first time on Oz roads, used to UK driving speeds in mph, getting used to the car, etc etc. Luckily, this was a nice traffic cop and Marc was just warned. We didn't touch 101kph since as Evelyn nagged him every time Marc went over ;)

We got to Albany after the 4hrs drive, only to find out from the tourist office that there had been no whale sightings for 3 weeks ;( So, we headed up to the lookout point for sunset, and beautiful views over the bay.



Our next challenge was finding somewhere to eat!! After spending a few days out of Perth, we discovered that these little tourist towns don't operate on tourist hours, and shops shut by 4pm, and restaurants by 7pm!! The campsite recommended a fish and chip shop just down the road, by the sea, but could we find it??? When we did, it was well and truly shut!! Luckily, we found this newly renovated, nice pub by the sea, which was open. It had a nice log fire so we had a hot chocy by the log fire as it was cold and windy now the sun had gone down (not to different to something we do in the UK;). The pub food was a bit expensive, so we waited 30mins for a free table at the gourmet burger joint next door (presumably so busy as its the only decent eatery left open at 7:30 ;) It was a BYO as well (most Ozzy restaurants are, which makes for a cheaper night out), so Marc went back to the car for a couple of bevvies...

Next day, we headed to the whale museum, which had interesting, and sometimes graphic, displays on the old whaling industry here in Albany, which ended in '78. The tour covered things from the name of the Southern Right - called so because it was the right whale to catch as it floats when killed and contains a lot of blubber, and is in the Southern hemisphere - to the process of collecting the dead whales and getting them to land whilst keeping the scavenging sharks at bay, to the gruesome challenge of chopping up the dead whales. We also got to look around an old whaling boat.

After the museum we headed off to the blowholes which are caused by caves forming under the cliffs with holes forming an inlet of air, so as the waves smash against the cliffs you hear the blowholes, sounding very much like whales do. After this we heading back to the car up the steep hill... and came across our first iguana



Next stop was The Gap, where the natural erosion of the ocean has created a 24 meter drop into the ocean, and there is also a natural bridge caused by the erosion of the granite rock, quiet amazing to see.



The highlight of the day was visiting Two Peoples Bay, which is a national park. The main sites here are the two beaches. Little beach was just beautiful, white squeaky sands with large boulders and bright blue water, a little bit of heaven! As you walk along the beach you can actually climb the boulders and get a view round the corner to Waterfall beach which was a smaller version of Little beach, just exquisite.





On our way home, we got our first sighting of 'roo. Its quite funny to watch these marsupials hopping around, and they have the goofiest faces ;) However, this meant we had to drive back to the tent with more caution as these bouncing roos cause loads of accidents from dusk till dawn.

Tonight we went for a swim and spa at our luxury "Big 4" campsite, before cooking at our campers kitchen which had all the mod comms - microwave, fridge, freezer, BBQ, stove, lounge area (plastic chairs), log fire and TV!! We met our fellow campers, and it was nice to sit around and chat to some more normal people than at the hostels ;)

This town really talks up their famous rock called - Dog Rock, they've even painted a collar on it!!

Western Austraila - Freo

Freemantle - or Freo - is really part of Perth, and is a suburb about a 20min train ride away from the CBD. We'd heard good things about Freo, and our first impressions of the town matched this. It has a cute little town centre, with more character than the CBD, with loads of individual shops selling antiques, 2nd hand stuff, and other oddities. Freo seemed more homely and less touristy.

We arrived on Sunday, when the local markets are on. Here were loads of stalls selling arts and crafts, alternative medicines, fruit & veg, and Marc's fave - Liverpool shirts. With the Liverpool v Man U game on that evening, a lucky shirt was needed...

We then wondered down to the harbour area, and caught the tail end of the "Blessing of the Fleet" festival, which included the release of banger fireworks at apparently random intervals (to scare the bejesus out of you;) There were lots of nice cafes and restaurants by the harbour, but for now we went to the maritime museum. We arrived just in time to catch the final tour of the day, where our guide explained a bit about all the ship wrecks in the area, and the stuff which had been recovered.

The hostel was a bit weird. It was a YHA hostel, which is a chain, and if you buy an international YHA card, then you get discounts off accommodation and concession prices at some attractions across Oz and NZ. However, if this is the standard YHA hostel, I'm not sure we'll be back. There was nothing drastically wrong with it, but nothing was particularly clean, amenities were basic, and as everything was made of wood, it was a bit echoey and walls were not too sound proof. And it was weird because of the clientele - there was us, Asians having dinner with French, old nomad types, people with babies, and everyone was fairly sedate and there was not much noise. A complete contrast to Perth.

We sat down for our first home cooked meal in Oz, and it seemed we were the only English speaking people (the French girl gave our pasta stir-in sauce some disapproving looks). As luck should have it, on our way out to watch the game, we found some scoucers loitering in the lobby, so arranged to meet them at the pub for the game. The time difference here is 8hrs, so it kicked off about 8pm, though Marc wishes we'd have stayed to watch the evening fireworks (more "blessing"), as the lucky shirt needs time to bed in, and unbeknown to Marc, much luck cannot be expected on the first wear ;) The 'pool lost 2-0.

The next day, we had planned to visit Rottenest Island, but as the weather was overcast we decided to hire a car and hit the road to Albany....

Western Austraila - Perth

Need some sleep............

On paper, the flight from J'burg to Perth was good. We left SA at 16:30 and landed 08:00. However, the flight is only 6 hrs, and the time difference 8 hrs. And the flight was bad - the TV was a loop of the "Cars" movie (kids cartoon), food was dodgy, and not much room to sleep in. In short, don't fly with South African Airways!!!

As we say above, we landed about 8am, which is really 12am to us. To try and minimise the jet lag we decided to stay up all day, and get an early night and sleep in tomorrow.

We checked into Nomads Underground Backpackers, which wasn't a great choice. Its the largest hostel in Perth, so lacks a personal edge, and it was full of youngsters just looking to get drunk - similar to a uni halls of res. Still, we had a decent room with a TV and fridge, and it was on the ground floor which was a bonus with our backpacks ;)

So, the first day was pretty much finding our feet and exploring Perth CBD. Zombified, we headed out and were immediately impressed. We walked down the main drag (Newcastle St & Aberdeen St) with the pubs, clubs and restaurants on, which is 2 mins from the hostel - great;) This is where we saw our first Oz wildlife - some very colourful lorikeets chirping in the trees.

The train station is 5 mins away, and then the shops begin. Its about 6 blocks, pedestrianised, of solid shops, which includes the cute London St, and the sky rise office blocks. It seems a surprising small CBD for such a large city.

We sat a cafe, for some lunch and to people watch, when we saw some interesting locals. Evelyn said "looks like there's a deal going down over there. Yep, definitely handing over a package". Then the police badge came out, and a few more undercover cops went over...very interesting viewing for our first day in Perth! But it all went down quietly and not much fuss was made. The cops were pretty good.

In terms of touristy stuff, we went to the Perth Mint to see some gold pouring, and learnt some interesting facts about the yellow stuff - its melts at 1100 degrees; it cool enough to touch within 2 mins; the schooners which hold the melted gold are recycled after 2 weeks of use and $1000's in gold are extracted from them. They reckon that there is $10m's worth of gold in the walls. If Marc was worth his weight in gold, then he'd be $1.9m, Evelyn would be $1.2m!

After, we jumped on the citi-cat - a free bus service which does a circuit of the CBD. It took us to the stunning Kings Park, which has great views of the city and the river. To get up there, you need to climb Jacobs Ladder - it has 242 steps, and the people of Perth come here often to walk/run up and down these steps to keep fit. Psychos!!



Kings Park has lovely gardens for walking around or just lounging. We sat down by a lake for 2 mins, and closed our eyes briefly and with our jet lag, and were virtually asleep in seconds ;) To try and keep us awake, we had an ice cream, and watched the parrots.



The main focus of the park is it's war memorial and ever burning flame lit by Queen Elizabeth. All the trees in the park have been planted in the name of ex-servicemen who lost their lives whilst fighting for the Australian Forces and it's quite sad to see how young most of these men died at.



The next few days were fairly relaxed. We spent a day at Cottlesloe beach, which is a really nice beach to lazy on, and walk along.

Being in Perth was seeming like the beginning of our travels, more so for Evelyn as SA is home. Oz is a complete unknown to us and we are now living completely out of backpacks and hostels facilities. Unlike in SA, we don't know anyone, so we begin our socialising. Its a shame we are at this hostel though, as we strike up conversations with people, most seem like idiots!!

Our first night out started at Mustangs where they have a different type of band on each night, the night we went there they had a swing band on. Evelyn really enjoyed it as there were two groups (from Perth & Freemantle) that actually go to classes during the week and get together on Fridays and dance. It's amazing to see as you feel like you've stepped back in time. After this we ended up at Black Bettys - the hostel was offering free beer for 2 hours and entrance to the club in return for $12, so seemed like a bargain (though Evelyn doesn't really like beer, she managed okay!!). There was a decent cover band playing, so we pulled a few moves on the dance floor ;)

One of the best things about Perth is the number of pubs in a relatively small space, and most of them have live music - which is great as we love seeing bands play.

Good-bye SA

We were sad to leave SA, after reuniting with friends and family and seeing so many spectacular things. We say that if we were to move to SA, then Simon's Town would be our top choice. If the SA government gets it arse in gear, we'll be back in summer 2010 for the World Cup!!

Well, here are some vital stats on the country

* Population – 45m (black 79%, white 9.6%, Coloured 8.9%, Asian 2.5%)
* Capital cities – Bloemfontein (Judiciary), Cape Town (Legislative) and Pretoria (Administrative) and unofficially - Johannesburg (crime ;)
* 11 official languages
* Currency : Rand / cents

National Beverages
Castle, Amstel, Black Label, Windhoek, Savanna, Forresters, Hunters Gold

National Delicacies
Boerwors, Drywors, Biltong, Ostrich & Crocodile (in some areas) , Bunny chow (Durban), T-Bone steak, Potjie, Koek Sisters, Fet Koek, Melk Tart, Milky Lane, Ghost Pops, Peppermint Caramel Crisp (Mikes Kitchen dessert), Korsmans Ice Cream (Benoni)

Prices (1 GBP = 15 rand)
Water/Coke = R5
Beer = R10
Wine = Supermarket R30; restaurant R70
Rump Steak = R30 - R60
Hair Gel = R40
2 course meal (inc drinks) per head = R70 - R100
Petrol = R6 per litre

Weird things we'd like to share
*You can't buy beer from a supermarket
*Parking is generally free, but you pay someone not to steal your car

*The roads have no rules (practically)

*Selling things at traffic lights is normal eg. bin liners, feather dusters, giant inflatable hammers ;)

*People cross highways (at their own risk)

*Some of the highways in Cape Town have extra bits sticking out where the motorway just drops off (not sure if this was misjudgement in linking the roads or due to not enough money to finsh them!)

Here are some crazy pictures (when we were quick enough!)

dude crossing highway- crazy fool!

packed car at 120kph!

Sign at Knysna heads

Overloaded?

Where we stayed in South Africa

To add to our travel diary, we thought we'd add a list of all the places we stayed, and our favourites (paid for) are in red, see links for more details on them

J'burg (28th Aug – 5th Sept)
Craig & Charlene – 5 Nights - Great staying with friends & they had friendly cats :D
Backpackers Ritz – 1 night - Definitely not the Ritz

Acacia Tour (4th – 12th Sept)
Nata Lodge – 1 night - Camping
Waterfront – 2 nights - Camping
Chobe Safari Lodge – 1 night - Camping
Delta Lodge – 1 night (x2) - Camping
Okavango Delta – 2 nights - Bush Camping
Rhino Sanctuary – 1 night - Camping

J’burg (13th – 18th Sept)
Leigh & Werner – 2 nights - Great hosts
Warmbaths – 2 nights - Camping
Leigh & Werner – 1 night - as above

Kwa-Zulu Natal (19th – 27th Sep)
Stevensons – 3 nights - Brilliant peaceful location
La Loggia (Umhlanga Rocks) – 1 night (x2) - everything we needed on a small scale
Hornbill House (St Lucia) – 3 nights - great tours

Western Province (28th Sept – 12th Oct)
Airlie Guesthouse – 1 night - like stepping back in time, just leave on time though
Backpackers Paradise – 2 nights - Paradise backpacking! Great cycle.
Santos Express – 1 night - Bring earplugs!
Abalone Lodge – 1 night - Brilliant, luxury lodge.
Hermanus Backpackers – 2 nights - standard
Chamonix – 1 night - a step back from the busy life
Amalfi Flats – 2 nights - No thrills, but perfect location
Rocklands B&B (Simons Town) – 1 night - Great, would definitely recommend it
Charmaine & Neville – 5 nights - had cute little dogs (Yorkshire Terriers)

J’burg (13th – 18th Oct)
Leigh & Werner – 5 nights - Home cooked meals were delicious - thanks

The Wheels - SA

We've spent loads of time on the road, and in some cases the car has been like a 2nd home so we thought we'd write a little something about them....

Car 1 - Daewoo Sirion (3 Days - Benoni)

Basically a Toyota Yaris. High off the ground and quite compact, and only did about 100kph!!! Was sky blue and has a femine touch. Came with power steering, CD player, air con, central locking. In heinsight, we got real value for money on this baby.

Car 2 - Toyota Tazz (1 Day - Jo'burg)

Some disagreement on this one - Marc says its like the Honda Accord - all of the bad features, none of the good. Evelyn compares it to the Corolla. It had NO POWER STEERING !!! No central locking, but did have air con, cd player and a bit more ummmmmph than the Sirion. And was more manly - you needed some real muscle to turn this thing as it handled like a tank!! Came in silver.

Car 3 - VW Citi Chico (8Days - Kwa-ZuluNatal)

Bit more like it. Was a Golf GTI (old style) and went very nicely. Virtually brand new with only 1500km on the clock. We doubled the k's on this and at a decent speed given all the luggage - topped at about 160kpm. Stereo and air con were luxuries, but NO POWER STEERING. Dead easy to find in car parks, but scared the animals when on safari - was bright "internet explorer" blue

Car 4 - VW Citi (20 days - Western Province)

Just the standard old-style Golf this time - same features as above but with no air con & the radio got no signal. Did have central locking and alarm which was reassuring. NO POWER STEERING - got some real muscles now ;) This baby came with only 700km on the clock, and we've added over 2,000km. Was white, and has been an excellent fly swotter so is now polkadot yellow ;)




Car 5 - Kia Picanto (3 Days J'burg)

What crap! It had no boot space and you could barely see over the dash as the engine was practically inside the car! We got a free upgrade to this but would of prefered the lower grade Golf (even if that meant giving up the CD player, power steering, AC...)