NB. Have you read the post from Pretoria 6.5.06 Cape Town 11/5/06 …… We have arrived in CT save and sound! We hired a nice Nissan saloon and spent a day and a half driving down. We stopped at a place called Kimberley which was very much a stop, sleep and go situation, so we can’t really tell you much about it! It was dark when we arrived and just dawn when we left – you can tell we were on a mission to get to CT super quick! The scenery as we drove was very flat and arid semi-desert, which did get a bit monotonous after awhile. However, our interest was greatly lifted as we spotted our first really wild animals of the trip! Lots of rock dassies (very large hamsters who live around the rocky bits) out in the early morning sun, and then ostriches hanging about just off the road (they are pretty big birds I can tell you), then a meerkat exhibiting its ‘on hind legs looking around’ pose perfectly! So from then on we were driving around as if on a safari drive straining our eyes to see what we can see! As we got further on towards CT the landscape becomes more mountainy and the road twists around the rocky outcrops, we like that, makes the driving much more interesting! Then we find ourselves in some of the wine making areas and for miles there are lovely vineyards with people selling grapes along the side of the road, very nice! The plants are all very luscious now and it is a beautiful region and we will come back this way to see more and taste some too! Now in CT we are staying in a hostel called the Big Blue (Rach and Jas know this place!) which is right near the coast and we can walk down to the Waterfront in 10 minutes where there is a lovely area of shops, restaurants, cinema (Hoorayyy got to see MI:III yesterday which I am very pleased about!) and generally a nice place to hang around. We’ve got straight on to the truck hunt and have been driving around all over the place to look at what’s available. Three days in and things are going quite well, we’ve found a Landrover Discovery that is completed kitted out with everything we need for the whole of our trip and we are going to take it out for an extensive test drive to see how it goes. Fingers crossed it works out because it would save us the hassle of buying everything separately. It’s early days yet though and there are a few other options as well but this is by far at the top of the list at the moment. This morning we took a rest from the hunt and got up a 5.30am!!!!!! Jas’s idea to go right down towards the southern most part of the Cape and see the sunrise over the bay where the penguins are. I was a little dubious about the early, early start, but was totally impressed when we got to Simon’s Town and parked up near a sign for penguins and got out of the car to see one of the little things running around the car park! They are very cute and we walked along to the waters edge where there were loads of them bobbing in to and out of the water. There were also a few that had chicks and they were lovely to see. You could sit and they would walk right past you it was great! After Jas managed to drag me away from the cuties, we went on to Table Mountain National Park where the actual Cape of Good Hope is. It’s a lovely drive through the park, lots of greenery and rocky hills and cliffs. We went down to the sea and did some expert tracking of Cape clawless otters (those of you who know about Jas's odd week-end habits know about this!)and while we walking along the beach enjoying the sun (it is really hot and the locals are saying it is very unusual because it should be quite cool this time of year – so much for acclimatising, we’re straight in to hot hot hot!) when there were suddenly 3 baboons joining us! They casually trot by not bothering to give us a second look, whilst we stare at them completely impressed at how close we are to them! Then we went for a walk to the Cape and took some touristy photos of us to prove we were there and during the walk back saw some elands (big antelope) and ostriches, that we decided to give a good berth just in case they wanted to come and see us up close! It was quite an odd sensation walking about when they are only 20 metres away! By the way before you all get worried, this park doesn’t have any of the big 5, so walking around is quite safe, we just need to check around our feet for the snakes!! Now we’re going to head out for some well earned grub, an excellent Mexican is just down the road, we went there yesterday and suffice as to say we’re going back again tonight! Love to you all, hope you are all very well and hope you’ve enjoyed the first ‘in country’ instalment of Kate and Jason’s on tour tales!!