south africa first days

arrioved after a 12 hour flight(boring and cramped), we were met by tony and barb at cape town airport and the welcome was as warm as we had expected. after a quick wash and brush up at the airport, we took the what should have been the short drive to table mountain, but as i have come to realise over the few days that we have been here tony,s sense of direction is shit and if it wasnt for barb we would have probably ended up in one of the local townships.
back to the mountain and after the short walk (sorry i meant lift ride) we stepped out at 1067 mtr,s above sea level to mostly brilliant views over the sea and cape town, after a short walk around the top it was off to the restaraunt for dinner, by our standards the food was nice and even though we only had the small plates the servers managed to get plenty on. by the time we went down the mountain the mist had formed over the top giving it its table cloth appearance hence the name.
getting back to the car again it was a short drive back to cape town and a walk and a cappuccino overlooking the harbour(lucky barb was navigating lol), after that we had a longer drive to stellenbosch to some self catering accomodation where we were treated to the south african bbq known as a braai ably prepared and cooked by tony and barb over a wood fire , dilicious.
around the acommodation we saw wildebeast, zebra,elan and spingbok and they all came within about 50 mtr,s of us at times.
after 2 nites there it was back on the road again to go to hermanus for the whale watching, and what a brilliant couple off hours that turned out to be, as we pulled into the carpark we looked out into the bay and about 100 mtr,s out was what i thought was a rock, no , it was a female right whale with its half grown calf next to it, and as we looked out we could probably see 10 more in the bay and further out they could be seen breaching and tail slapping, but it was to get even better ,as we walked out on to the point where the whale caller was blowing his horn the whales were actually coming in to about 40 mtrs out and these animals weigh in the region of 40 tons which is about the same as 10 fully grown african elephants(pics to follow). i found it quite a humbling experiance to be stood watching some thing so big and so gentle with its young and to think these animals were nearly hunted to extinction by humans and they are still hunted by the japanese for scientific purposes, cos i dont think these animals are daft as i got the impresion they were as interested in us as we were in them, and i must admit it gave me goose bumps just to stand and watch them, it has been one of the most impessive things i have ever seen, and as we went for another coffee there were some tail slapping out in the bay and it seemed to be a signal to leave as the whales seemed to leaving the bay and heading out further.back to the driving and after about 5 hours during which we were treated to some lovely scenery as we seemed to be following a mountain ridge all the way. it wasnt until we got to mossel bay that the scenery changed again this time it was a much greener look with tree,s and wooded valley,s and hillsides all the way ta knysna and the harding homestead. and again we werent dissapointed it is a beautiful house set in a really stunning location overlooking a large valley lots of native plants and animals which includes its own baboon troop , bushbucks and to many birds to mention , we have our own part of the building with en suite and he is now taking bookings for the 2010 season(ha ha ha). and as for food i aint been dissapointed yet as barb is an exceptional cook and all the local eateries are spot on and you certainly aint ripped off, and the staff are friendly and eager to please.
thats enough of that , now for the fishing tony is taking me to groot(great)bank on weds to hopefully get anything from cat shark and rays to great whites, but we could blank as tony fished an inter club on saturday anc never had a bite(somethings never change do they). but we are taking tony,s bait bitch, brandon who is a local up and coming under 21 who luckily listens to everthing his uncle tony has to say then he does the complete opposite and does well.
now providing i dont get pushed into the path of a gt white or fall prey to one of the wild leopards which are still here i will be back on on thursday to let you all know how we done.