Front page story, 1st impressions, and tv soaps

Our first day saw us buy a local paper - mostly not very revealing to a Canadian but there was a front page story you will like.  An apartment dweller a few km away from our hotel found a Cape Cobra in her bathroom.  By African standards it was not such a big deal - only a meter long and way way down the list for most poisonous.  I'm quite excited about the Black Mamba - 15 feet long, able to reach speeds of 23 km/hour and able to raise itself 1/3 of it's body length.  A bite allows you to reflect on eternity for about 30 minutes.  They are fairly common from here to Ethopia.

The first impression of our group was a bit misleading.  They don't look too much different to the crowd at Jane's storyfest.  About an even split between "mature" and "young".  Fortunately we didn't start to talk big - they make us look like kindergarten travel-wise.  One guy has 95 countries under his belt and between the lot they have been just about everywhere.  And are very good campers I may add.

We also had the chance to watch a few South African soaps.  Alot of sex and every once in a while someone gets bitten (or threatened) by a snake.  I'm not too familiar with American/Canadian soaps so don't know if that is a global pattern.

We've toured a couple of wineries , which are set in the middle of miles and mles of grape vines on sloping hills .The wine industry is huge and provides something like 6 percent of the worlds total production.

Highlites of our tavels along the east coast include Cape Agulas , which is the southern most point in Africa; the Rocky Point penguin colony  and in Hermanus a pair of southern right whales. They were moving along the rocky shore lineonly a few meters out and did that tail thing ( and we think we have some great video).

We're now into beach area and are debating surfing lessons.

Cameleaon (sp?)

Workers at Stellenbosch wineries (Jorden Wines)