Yep I’m off again on a little adventure. As well as my sense of adventure, those of you know me well enough will also know of my childish streak too. So it has been a long standing wish of mine to get to the pointy bits at the bottom. What I mean are those two prominent pointy bits at the bottom of Africa and America. I mean when you look at the map of the world they are the two stand out features. Well they are to me anyway. So tomorrow I am off to ‘conquer’ the first one – the pointy bit at the bottom of Africa. I will be touring the garden route of South Africa from Cape Town to Port Elizabeth - with a guide and a group so don’t worry. Then as a little add on, and homage to my dad, I have tacked on a short trip to Namibia.

I haven’t really looked at the tour but I think there’s some wine involved. If I’m lucky I’ll see whales, penguins, flamingos (my dad called them flaming O’s), dunes. Anyway I’ve got 3 weeks on the other side of the world so join me on the blog as I report on the Hanford side of life.

(Pointy bit number 2 will have to wait a few years as it is not as straightforward. You have to attempt to get there by boat and I gather the sea is a bit rough.)

PostScript: I just realised that I have already been to a second tier pointy bit at the bottom of India in 2014 so technically this is no. 2 but you can’t change the title. A bit like a dating app for those who are lucky enough and honest enough to have never needed to try.

I’m in Cape Town after a long-winded 17 hour flying via Qatar. Probably not somewhere I would choose to visit. At night it is lit up like a Christmas Tree. But then they don’t need to worry being as they have oil coming out of everywhere

Today I visited Robben Island where Nelson Mandela was incarcerated for 18 years of hard labour with deprivation of comfort and contact. He kept his faith that the people of his country could come together in peace and unity and when finally released from prison he worked with de Klerk to dismantle apartheid before becoming president of his beloved country.

Climbed Table Mountain today and bloody hell that was the hardest scariest climb I’ve ever done. I was so embarrassed. My fellow walkers did it with ease and grace. I had to ask the guide for each foothold and handhold and hauled myself up using unique moves such as the frog (with my bum sticking out), the belly flop (as I flop myself up onto a ledge) and the carpet burn (on my knees).

But look how big and scary it was.

A day of driving to Cape Point today. As per usual I didn’t have a clue of where I was being taken. In my world it doesn’t matter where I am going if someone is being paid to give me a good trip then they know the good places and I’m happy to go with the flow. Anyway it turns out that it was a bit more exciting than that because I got to visit the Cape of Good Hope. Now when I was a child I learned that the names of the two pointy bits (obsessed I know) were Cape of Good Hope and Cape Horn. Now it appears that Cape of Good Hope (previously called Cape Storm but it was putting off sailors which is fair enough) is the South Westernmost point of Africa. The southernmost pointy bit is Cape Agulhas which is kind of a shame, but I will still be standing on it some time this week. Here are some piccies …

This was my last day in Cape Town and I whizzed around the Botanical Gardens and World of Birds which I was told was really good but actually found a bit dismal so it’s a photo day.

I’ve been staying in Stellenbosch for a couple of nights and this has come as a complete surprise to one who does little to no research. Stellenbosch is a large university town, smart, clean and dripping with colonialism. You would think you were in a European city with fancy shops, coffee bars, libraries and churches. It is safe and comfortable and smacks me in the face with the question ‘at what cost?’