Well, the infrequency of blogs will hopefully be eloquent in its suggestion that I am having too good a time to actually spend precious minutes (and Rand - crazy internet prices!) telling anyone about it all! But I will try to be brief.

I have met so many lovely people since arriving in Johannesburg last Friday lunchtime. Veronika & Matthias' friends Gary & Mercia looked after me, the poor lonely Englishman, in style. The meal at Pasha's in Pretoria was indeed memorable: new drinks, new animals on my plate, and lots of new people.

When Veronika & Matthias arrived the next day, we had time for a few beers in the airport before heading down to Cape Town on kulula.com, a most entertaining low-cost airline ("Now, superheros, if masks appear during flight, stop screaming and place one over your mouth. If you are travelling with more than one child, choose which is your favourite and say goodbye to the others.") where we were met by Mike. We were shown a great time in Cape Town, including a launch party sponsored by Sporting Life magazine where I found myself surrounded by the beautiful people at this end of the planet.

We WALKED up Table Mountain. I know, this is not the old, lazy-arsed me talking. But the scary thing is, I actually enjoyed it! But hey, since then I've done four hours of mountain biking (ouch my cheeks!) through indigenous South African forest, not to mention signing myself up for surfing lessons tomorrow. But I am getting ahead of myself...

Veronika, Mathhias & I have borrowed Mike's spare car (with attendant niggles like a starter motor that doesn't start) and are making our way along the coast up to Durban over the next week. The weather has been a bit shite recently, but hopefully that will clear up.

South Africa is a different world from the UK. I have to say that people's views on race relations here differ widely from mine. I suppose I just can't understand any culture that assumes other people are there to do your bidding, never mind one where those servants are all a different colour from you. That said, I hope South Africa gets over its recent racist past and that everyone can live in harmony and give each other flowers and hugs very soon.

Knysna (that's [n-eye-sna]) is recognised as the jewel of the Garden Route. It is indeed a charming town. I think I would have been more charmed if I could have taken my raincoat off more often. Luckily we had Mercia's mother Ingrid's restaurant to take away our cares. What a great place! If anyone is ever in Knysna, you've got to go to El Gusto for superior Mediterranean cuisine. Oh so tasty!

Right, I'm rambling again. Perhaps it's nerves about tomorrow's surfing lesson (well, the most worrying thing is getting into the wetsuit at this stage) but I'm going to stop now. In a nutshell, Africa is proving to be a fantastic place. I am enjoying getting to know Matthias & Veronika better, as well as meeting all their friends here. And I am enjoying exploring this huge, varied and nature-saturated country.