Day one. Cape Town and the Garden Route

7am and we shambled off the plane after 13 hours. The flight was cool - big thumbs up to Virgin Atlantic for keeping us entertained all the way over with loads of movies and TV etc on your TV screen (even if you’re flying back with the cattle in economy). We tried for an upgrade (again) but even offering a bottle of champagne didn’t seem to work. If anyone knows the trick to getting complimentary upgrades please let us in on it.

Roger met us as soon as we got through an unusually friendly passport control; normally these guys give you so much grief. We loaded up the jeep and headed off. Now the first thing you see when you leave Cape Town Airport is a massive sprawling Township (I think it’s called Crossroads). This place is huge. I was totally taken by surprise by this; not by the size but because it was right there as soon as you enter the country and it’s apparent that there is still a long way to go to bridge the gap between the haves and the have nots. Worryingly on the plane one of our fellow passengers was giving us the low-down on things to do in Cape Town and she told us “Just ignore it when you get out of the airport, it’s not the real Cape Town”. Seemed pretty real to me. I can see where that would come from though as my in flight guide to Cape Town didn’t mention this aspect of the city, only the jazz clubs and night time hotspots.

We weren’t actually going to Cape Town though, we were heading straight to Sedgefield, a little coastal town backing onto the Indian ocean. So we had an extra 5 ½ drive on top of our overnight flight. It’s good to be here and to be able to relax at last. Spent a fantastic afternoon on the local beach watching fishermen pull hammerhead sharks out of the sea.