I'm Off To South Africa

Heathrow's Terminal 5 is quite an experience. Very space-ship like and its video walls made me feel a bit queasy!

I had a bit of time to kill before meeting up with my fellow travellers from BAS and consumed with boredom decided to open up the presents my Mum had given me for Christmas....oh and look.....a penguin torch! Thanks Mum....I love it...and I am sure, despite having 24hr daylight, I will find a use for it! Having met up with my team I had to surpress a smile when the new Base Doctor turned up looking like she was about to climb Mt Everest. I wondered if she had forgotten that our first stop was Cape Town with temperatures in the 30's. As you know I wasn't looking forward to the long flight but it passed pretty quickly as I amused myself making rose wine out of as many bottles of red and white wine I could get my hands on.

On arrival in early morning at Cape Town I presented the immigration officer with my letter from BAS explaining why I was on a one-way ticket and we were speedily boarded onto a bus and taken to our hotel.

Which turned out to be a former 19th century prison.... Nice touch! Some of the windows still have the bars on them. It's called the Break Out...sorry...the Break Water Hotel and is actually very comfortable. After the 12 hour flight the bed looked extremely tempting but I was determined to make the most of my time and become a tourist for the day.

After a bit of discussion we decided to make the journey up Table Mountain. One person decided to walk up it which in this heat I thought was a case of extreme showing off or complete insanity....I shall be keeping my eye on him!

The fixed grin on my face reflects the complete terror of riding the cable car up to the top of Table Mountain. It started off quite sedately but rapidly speeded up whilst turning 360 degrees (twice) in its 10 minute journey. But it was well worth the angst. The views from the top were amazing and the mountain top cafe did a very good South African beer!

Having decended and returned the hotel I decided against a nap as I know that once asleep there would be no waking me. We are in the Wharf area of Cape Town and the local restaurants look fantastic.

Mainly seafood places all with glistening tanks of the local catch just waiting for you to pick your dinner....but being allergic to seafood I was more interested in a nice steak and rich SA red wine....sheer bliss.

And the added bonus of finding out we were to spend another day here...apparently the Russians won't fly us out tomorrow. I'll get over it.