Thanks

Our last night in South Africa, indeed our last "proper" night of the trip as we'll (hopefully, snow permitting) be in the air tomorrow night. We'd just like to say a big "THANK YOU" to everyone who has made our trip possible. To name but a few:

• The Headteacher at Charlesworth School without whose enthusiastic blessing and permission would have made the trip a non-starter;
• The childrens' teachers at Charlesworth School who also gave their enthusiastic blessings and spent time setting work for the children to do whilst away;
• All our co-workers at Wise Owl making sure we still have a job when we return;
• Our relatives for being the airport taxi service and forgiving us for being away at Christmas;
• Alan and Tom for looking after our house;
• Everyone who has been reading our blog and sending us messages with news/travel tips and suggestions/gossip/trivia.

Thank you to one and all. We've had great fun, we have many wonderful memories - you all should do this some time!

PS Don't forget to watch this space for the second leg of the journey. Any suggestions for the tour name this time? On reflection this tour should have been named "Penguin Spotting with the Browns"!

Boring post for anyone wanting to do the same thing

Jenny thinks what follows is boring, so here's a few camel-riders to cheer you up first ...

Gentle reader, if you are considering following in our footsteps, we'd all say - do it if you possibly can!

Just to give you an idea, we've been averaging about £1,000 every 3 days (including not only accommodation and food, but absolutely everything else - even the rucksacks we bought before setting off). The main components were travel (which took about half the amount, including rental cars and plane travel, and accommodation (which took about a third). Bear in mind that we haven't been spending any money on food, travel, etc in the UK. With 3 children you would struggle to get the amount much below this, I think, although with 2 children you could save a bit of money by booking hotel rooms for 4. We haven't been roughing it, but we've cut costs where possible and I don't think have ever spent more than £100 a night for accommodation for a family of 5, apart from in Australia over Xmas/New Year.

Other advice: get Skype (mobile phone costs have been ruinous); prepare for lots of stressful lessons if you're teaching your children en route; PACK LIGHT (you can always buy things as you go along, and you should underestimate what you take); book the trip early (if you don't book it, you'll find excuses not to go, or else someone else will on your behalf).

4th Feb: Proper View of Table Mountain

What on earth is Andy doing, I hear you all ask? No, he's not being sick! That's us in South Africa's oldest vineyard ("Groot Constantia" - just celebrated 350 yrs) having a wine tasting. He's (pretending!) to do the right thing and spit it out! He didn't/wouldn't (waste good wine). Not sure we were their favourite visitors today. We don't know much about wine and they didn't look too impressed when the girls were laughing at me spitting the wine out (I had to, I was driving; you all know me, 3 sips and I'm anyone's!). We had a gorgeous meal there.

We drove up to one of the Northern Coast beaches where you get a fantastic view of Table Mountain. Probably more fantastic was watching the kite surfers jump the waves on their surf boards hanging onto a sail canopy. Some of them looked like real pro's! Pippa thought she'd like a go. Maybe in about 10 year's time!

Last full day tomorrow. I have this strange feeling that we're going to be spending some of it back with those waddly black and white things...

3rd Feb: Cape of Good Hope and More Penguins!

Had a wander around the Cape Point National Park. It covers a much larger area than I'd imagined. Bit wierd when paying our entrance fee. The 2 female attendants wanted to know if we were playing a CD. I though they were going to give us a warning and tell us to turn it off but they actually wanted to see the CD case and find out which artist was playing - they liked our taste in music apparently (we didn't get in for free though!).

We weren't the only ones at Cape Point - in fact there were quite a few coach parties there too which kind of spoilt it a little. Somewhere like that needs to be seen wild, without the hoards of tourists (yes, I know we are the very same!). We did get to see lots of marine life in the rock pools at the Cape of Good Hope (which is actually a bay - no baboons though).

Finally, we kept to our promise of taking Pippa to swim with the penguins on Boulders Beach where we'd been to see them a few nights before. Surreal. You just turn up, pay your entrance fee to go down to the beach. If you hang around long enough, some penguins decide they fancy a bit of a swim. As long as you're not too close, in they come! Katy was desperate to have one swim right next to her. Even though she was shivering, she stayed in until she achieved her aim. At a girl! Andy swam across the bay and had them darting past his thighs - well he would, wouldn't he!

Table Mountain on a Cloudy Day

We couldn't carry on many more days in South Africa and not have a photo of Nelson Mandela (for those school children reading who don't know who Nelson Mandela is - you'd better ask a teacher quick!). This not terribly good likeness of the man himself is at the new V&A waterfront in the centre of Cape Town (he is alongside the 3 other South African Nobel Peace prize winners - who can be the first to comment with the 3 correct answers, without using Google!?).

We shot up Table Mountain this morning (the cable car is very fast and has a revolving floor so that everyone gets a good view - what a good idea!). Was a little cloudy but when it cleared the view was fantastic. You can get perilously close to the edge to have a peer over. Saw some more of those overgrown hamster thingies - "dassies" (rock rabbits - closet relative is the elephant, really!). See top picture of a Dassie.

Had a quick look around the new flashy V&A waterfront - bit like Catherine's Docks in London/Albert Docks in Liverpool but with lots more shops and restaurants and less offices. We had a chatty chappie join us for lunch (uninvited) who kept speaking to us in Afrikaans and kept eating our leftovers - the girls found this very amusing and eventually had to leave the table with their father to go and have a good giggle elsewhere (leaving their poor defenceless mother to deal with him!).

Probably off to the Cape of Good Hope tomorrow and maybe back to the penquins so that Pippa can get to swim in the sea with them (well if we will make silly promises!). Hope you're all enjoying the snow back home. I think it was a cool 31deg here today, sorry!

PENGUINS, LOVELY PENGUINS!!

Hi Mrs Clayton and Class 2. Yesterday we went to Boulders Beach (near Cape Town) and we saw lots and lots of African penguins. You wouldn't believe how close you could get to them! You're actually allowed to swim in the sea with them - we are hopefully going to do this tomorrow!
I am looking forward to coming home. It will be nice to see everyone again.

28th Jan to 31st

Hi Ms Barford and Class 3!!! On the 29th of January we went on a canoeing trip on a river. I (Katy) went with daddy and pippa first, then we stopped at a grassy, tiny beach , very warm but a lot of seaweed (daddy stood on some).

On the 28th we went on a beach with lot of bluebottles (they give you a nasty sting) and plough shells, which sucked the blue out of the bluebottles. then went to fishermans walk. The sea looked like cream, then we had tea in restaraunt overlooking the sea.
Written by katy