Cape Town (Part 1)

Firstly I would heartily recommend travelling to South Africa by a direct flight rather than the route N and I took. Door to door it took 30 hours (including a 9 hour wait at Doha airport for the connection). Mind you going that route means that you can claim you have flown over Iraq (very close to Baghdad and Basra in fact) I was fervently hoping that there wouldn't be a friendly fire incident from a stray American missile. After a one hour stop at Johannesburg to let off passengers the flight carried on for another couple of hours to Cape Town. Of course now I can claim to have been further south in Africa than Pad as he failed to get to South Africa on his African holiday from some years back... so ha ha!!

On the evening that I arrived - N, her Mum (or Mom as they say incorrectly in that part of the world), G (her Mom's husband), L (sister), C (brother-in-law) and little c (baby niece) went to Moyo which is a vineyard near Spier for a super slap up dinner. You went up and selected your food from various "stands" where someone was cooking it. I gorged myself on a variety of South African delicacies including curried spring bok (yum!) Musical entertainment came in the form of various ethnic African groups including dancers. I also ended up getting my face painted with the emblem of a burning sun applied to my forehead.

By the end of the evening I was completely knackered and was asleep before my head hit the pillow!

To be continued...