Running with the Cheetahs: Following the Germans

(Lloyd)
The soundtrack of our trip a bit of a throwback, really tried to find something on the radio over the last few days but the music stations are appalling out here. They make Capital appear a rich cultural experience in comparison, and my hatred of Capital radio is well documented. Everywhere we go our hosts tell us about a German family that stayed the day before and were disappointed with the weather or were heading in the wrong direction. We, on the other hand, the welsh germans, were getting all the luck, we bid them auf wiedershen pet/butt

(Carys)

After a night of large thunderstorms and lightning - dad woke me up to enjoy the unusual weather- we had a lovely breakfast in our B&B and I chose continental instead of cooked, to have something different for a change. After another brief storm of rain and thunder, we set off on the four hour journey, the longest car journey of our travels.

An hour or so into the drive, we took a detour to Monkeyland! It was incredible, being able to roam amongst the monkeys and apes in natural habitat. Even before we entered the forest, there were monkeys just jumping about. Overall our tour guide said we saw 9 species out of the 11 species that live there. My favourites were the Cappucion monkeys - the mothers often had tiny babies on their backs. There was also a horrific moment with an eight legged beast, which crawled onto mine and mum's chairs and backs! I freaked out but not as much as i could have done. But i had the shivers all day after that! Once we left the enclosure and had a quick snack, we were back on the road.

We drove through many mountains and beautiful lagoons which were lovely to see on our long, otherwise boring, drive. We arrived at Mossel Bay and our home for the next two days. It had bunkbeds each for me and Bryn, a double bed, a kitchen, bathroom, living room and even our own pool with lilos! We relaxed there for a while and in the early leaving left to find some food.

We struggled to find a nice takeaway on Easter Monday, but managed to find a nice chippy, It was late by then and we were tired and hungry, so we enjoyed it ever so more after we returned to our room after a quick round of getting lost.

Right before bed Bryn decided to have a quick 'nighttime swim' and dove into our pool. He said it was freezing but it couldn't have been too bad!

(Lloyd)

Jeffrey's Bay was beautiful, our welsh hosts (pure chance) looked after us and gave us a hearty breakfast and a bit of Afrikan politics. We were soon on our way, filling up Zola (who has been a pretty good budd so far) and getting on the highway and heading west toward Cape Town. Soon we were in the Tsitsikamma national park and taking in breathtaking mountains, gorges, forests, the works. Our stopping point today was Monkey land, the best wifi we have had in days, and a few monkeys too. Most of them not African though which seemed a bit pointless, apart from the cheeky Vervets. Best bit of wildlife sighted in the cafe though as Chrissi and Carys became the entertainment for fellow diners who had been watching them for a number of minutes as a massive rain spider had been crawling up their backs.

On we went west, making a schoolboy error at the toll. I thought the toll lady was trying to sell me a dodgy heater (strange as it was 25 degrees) but it later became clear she was pointing to the meter in our car which meant we didn't have to pay. I'd already thrust 50 rand into her hand and sped off by the time I realised she was in fact trying to be helpful.

The sleepy lagoon side town of Knsysna would have been a nice stopping off point but wanted to get some miles under the belt and got into Mossel Bay around mid afternoon. We have a lovely compartment with our own pool and ocean view so all good, although the town a little more industrial than I had imagined. Took a drive down to the boardwalk for dusk, eventually found some fish and chips, and eventually (after getting lost on the way back to our appartment) settled down in our cosy home away from home to eat them.

I say cosy, that was until lights out, when it felt like an episode of Police Academy, as we had to shut a thousand locks, bring down bars over all external windows and cocoon ourselves away from the outside world. The love a bit of security down here.