Good photos. I lived in Cape Town all my life, moving to England in 1991. Blouberg and Milnerton Beach was my local surf spots. Brings back very fond memories those photos do.

Cheers
John

 

JohnP001

you must be mental for moving over here don't tell me you did it for a woman?

tell me your story if you don't mind - about why you came, if you want to go back, plus and minus points to both places etc

 

That's a very very long story, and would take me hours to write up. I moved over here with my girlfriend at the time, who I’ve since married. I can tell you quite a lot, as my brother still lives over there. Best told over a few beers.......

 

JohnP001 fair enough mate. i'm planning on having a braai in the summer with imported meat etc, maybe you can come along and show us how it's done?

 

Sounds good to me. I've already built my braai out of a half a 44 gallon drum.

 

what wood do you use over here?

 

I’ve tried a variety of local woods, and unfortunately none of them burn to an acceptable long lasting coal. I’ve found the CPL lumpwood charcoal the best, and if I need a longer lasting heat for a lengthy braai, I scatter a few Australian heat beads amongst the coals.

As you would have probably gathered, a South African Braai is usually a very social event, standing around a nice big wood fire drinking cold beers and talking. Not quite the same in this country, standing around a gas BBQ.

Cheers
John

 

as i suspected john. i thought that no wood would do and charcoal would be the best bet.

i don't see the point of gas bbq's at all - you may as well just cook indoors

 

got my delivery of monkey gland sauce, boerewors and ostrich steak today from https://www.bokkefoods.com/

can't wait for tea tonight

 

Nice one. I'm sure you'll enjoy it.

 

me too john, thanks for the tip

 

Superb write up! Thanks for taking the time to do that

That Volvo, now you say that, was a white one used in some popular old TV show? Before my years, but think I've seen it on one of those top 50 tv cars or summat.

 

digita1dragon The Saint - Volvo P1800 with licence plate ST1

 

great story m8,
didn't think SA was like that I thought it was like Iraq!!!
Just my impression after watching it in turmoil every day on the news in the 80's


steve

 

thanks steve

i think that like britain, there are areas that are vastly different. just like there's areas of manchester, london etc that you would not go to, so there are areas of SA. from what i understand, Jo'burg and around is not as nice as where i went around cape town and the west and north west of the country.

 

Thanks for the link,

just made some orders.

Biltong and some orange crush which I was brought up on and steers sauses. hhhhhhhhhhhhhmmm

 

got my suppley today, muching on some biltong now

Fuck me you forget how nice

 

had my ostrich steaks (with lemon and pepper) and boerewors (with monkey gland sauce) tonight

they even had savanna dry in tesco - although brewed in SA, the 'export' was only 5.5% compared to the 8% of the genuine article

 

We went to Cape Town, sadly, under quite poor circumstances as Nicole's father died of a blood clot due largely to teh flight over here.

We went there to Scatter his ashes with his fiance in the place he had worked all his life to retire too. Thankfully, we did get time to visit a few of his favourite places whilst we were there...

The view from my 747 400 window on teh flight over...


And again as we reach African airspace:




The poverty mixed in with lavishness was astounding and genuinely brought a tear to my eye.




Various shots of table mountain.





















And one of its inhabitants...


A secluded and stunning beach where we scattered the ashes... Seals were swimming freely here...








The sort of place £100K will buy you.


Home time...


Various views from inside the plane on teh 12hr flight home.










A truly stunning place and we hope one day to go back under better circumstances and see far more if it.

 

thanks for sharing your pics and story as well stu

cape town in particular is a fabulous place - such a shame that you and nicole had to visit under those unfortunate circumstances.

they say that if you've been once, you will go back. i certainly hope to, and it sounds like you do too, so it must be true

you're right about the property there at the moment - lovely places by the coast in the warm weather for the price of a flat in a ghetto over here. what the hell are we doing wrong to deserve to live like this?

i would consider investing in a place there, as it's so easy to visit. you can leave work on friday and take the overnight flight to be there on saturday morning. as there is only 2 hours time difference, provided you got a good night's sleep on the flight (if some bugger taking pictures didn't keep waking you up with their flash ), you could have a brilliant weekend there and be back for work on monday morning.

i am not totally convinced that the country won't go the same was as zimbabwe though, and all the property gets taken away from the 'white immigrants'

 

Cool pics stu

 

Looks an amazing place.. My mum and her SA bf was there last month annd the pics they tok were amazing.

 

I got some monkeygland sauce in the post this morning
I can only guess it was Nick sent it, thanks

 

Just one word for it: WOW.... !! Never new much about south Africa, but with this very extensive story and those lovely pictures the first thing that came to mind was 'what a hell of a job you've got nick"!

Very nice story to read and if ever one gets the oportunety the must go there, what a beautiful country. Love the cortina pictures!

Cheers, Wim

 

thanks a lot wim.

actually, most of the time i am stuck in the control room of the wind tunnel without even a window to see outside, so it's not always that glamorous

 

Stu - I'm flying with BA in a fortnight.. Was your plane quite full? As when i booked seats online it looked fookin empty

 

Smit i flew BA and the 747 was absolutely full

luckily, i had an economy plus seat with plenty of room

 

Mine looked empty online and it was rammed to capacity.

 

they are amazing pics mate

 

I went to cape 4 years ago, stunning place and some amazing views and scenary.. I travelled all the way across the south coast almost as far as east london.. Weird thing about this pic I have one similar lol




Would love to go back..

 

thelynx nicer legs than mine

isn't the blue sky amazing?

 

Lol thanks but there not mine... Thats the girl I went on holiday with