I really do wish South African internet services were at a standard which was as high as the price. I mean if it was cheap then you could sort of accept pissy quality and say, “well what do you expect, it may be pissy but at least it’s cheap”. Well it aint cheap and it certainly isn’t fast or reliable. Someone is making a killing out there and ripping off the user! This rant is merely to explain why I never really bothered to update anything online while I was away. I got myself a R35/day, R2.50/MB Vodacom GPRS, 3G, HSDPA etc card and the best I got out of it was a stupidly ridiculous 14kbps, slower than dialup, connection. I gave up.
So now I guess this stands as yet another catchup session which I don’t really enjoy but I will try and do it anyway.
Right here, right now I give you the choice. You can take the blue or red pill:
(Click for more - catchup)
The last catchup had me sitting waiting on weather in the hopes that I could fly again soon and get all my hours necessary to get my PPL renewed. I kinda got into a bit of trouble taking my mate Mullac flying in a 152 with full tanks. We are both big guys and therefore too heavy to take a fully laden plane. My bad. I did however manage after that to get my required PPL hours and more, do a C172 type rating and clock up a few more hours now being listed as an air-taxi driver for mates taking people for flips down the coast. It awesome. Some incredible scenery and some awesome flying even if I do have to say so myself.
My wings dinner was on Saturday 24th night and that was an absolute blast. Scary stuff how pilots know to drink that much. I naturally assisted in the necessary task of punishing bar stocks but had to call it a night early (midnight) since I was flying again on Sunday AM. The rule: 8 hours bottle to throttle. Or is that 8 meters? Anyway I went home and had a good sleep but still managed a good hangover to fly with! If the CAA is reading this then I’m only kidding, I never touched alcohol the night before and was bright eyed and bushy tailed the next morning.
After PE I drove with Maichi down the Garden Route in the Eastern Cape which is absolutely spectacular. The weather wasn’t so great but it was still a whole lot better than it was the week before with the floods and severe damage that was caused. We stopped overnight on the way just outside Plett where I managed to toast my finger on the braai (BBQ). I guess I’m a little out of practice.
The following morning after near killing myself and my new friend “the blister” by trying to help haul a van out of the mud which had sunk overnight, we were on our way. Off down the coast again heading for Cape Town. One stop in little old Mossel Bay, where I used to live for a short time many years ago, proved to be a great place for lunch. It was so nice to see the place again and see how much it was grown. If you know the area you will know what I mean.
The rest of the Garden Route is spectacular. Just take it easy. Loads of cops, loads of road works right now, loads of strangely named placed and lots of wind ready to push you all over the place on the very bendy roads. If you do the drive, do it slowly, take it easy and take time to stop in at some of the attractions along the way. You will love it!
“River without an end”
Cape Town was really relaxing. It simply is a spectacular place to visit. The most magnificent scenery, bars and people. The cloud formation on Table Mountain is amazing and will leave any tourist in amazement. I have seen it many times but I am still fascinated by it all. It’s always moving!
The beaches are amazing and so clean.
The final stop on my great South African travels was the amazing, almighty Goedgedacht farm. The same Goedgedacht that I am doing the Hoox Xmas Pledge for. The place is a wonderful retreat and it is so inspiring listening to the passionate tales of wonderful doings and incredible plans for the future. You can’t help but leave there thinking that you can single handedly save the world.
As they say about all good things coming to and end, so did my holiday. A screaming match with Turkish Airlines proved futile and I ended up being screwed over my the airline. I will explain it in another dump.
Sunday 02 Dec 07:00 was effectively the start of my travels. I got here 30 hours later.
I’m back.
Many more rants about the shit here to follow!
Good to hear you’re back safely, if safe is the proper word for it there !! But the level of bitching would indicate you’re happy, so all’s well, I spose. Sorry we missed u in SA - us other hooks in Japan now, after an unbelievable weekend in the Hakone Yumoto Spa area about one hour away from Tokyo by shinkansen, [kodama (echo)] nogal !! Japanese Ken K, who took us there, together with Akiko, sends his regards BTW.
I like your catch-up sessions…they always come with pretty photos!
I see you even added some of the lively olive trees.