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The campsite in Fiddlers Creek was fantastic, only 15Km from the border crossing and right on the water of the Orange River. I took the opertunity to go for a slow paddle down the river by Canoe, sometimes going to Namibia, sometimes going to South Africa!! A very pleasant way of travelling. When I arrived back at the camp, it was a hive of activity, all the tents and cooking equipment was being cleaned for the end of the trip, you would not believe just how hard Tanzanian mud sticks to canvas. Horrible stuff. As the sun set and dinner was cooked, we took full advantage of the camps excellent bar on the river front, this resulted in Lizzie attemting to headlock all the boys on the camp ground (sometimes sucessfully) and I woke up in the morning with the biggest hangover ever. Not good before the start of a very long drive south. The answer was to sleep in the bottom of the truck for the first half of the journey inside my sleeping bag, only coming out when we reached the first town with fast food for 2 months, I took full advantage of the KFC and felt significantly better after that.

The difference in roads was amazing, for the first time since I’d left the UK we were rolling along smooth tarmac roads with green cultivated fields each side of us, quite a difference from anything we had seen in the previous months. Our final night in tents was to be spent at The Baths in Citrusdal, a popular holiday destination thanks to its beautiful warm waters and facilities (including a TV in the bar for Rugby). Before we could enjy them we had the BIG CLEAN to carryout, that is everything on the truck was to be taken off, out bags to be packed ready to leave the truck, and everything cleaned till it sparkled - not a small job after a month in the desert. In the evening Lizzie found some of the local wildlife on the way to the toilet, a rather large scorpion.

As we packed up the tents for the last time everyone was quiet, maybe contemplating the last 2 months, or maybe trying to work out how to get that Malawian chair in to thier hand luggage, I’m not sure, but it wasn’t long before we were back in the truck for one last journey down the coast to Cape Town. As we drew closer Table Mountain apeared on the horizon, and amazing sight. We too quickly arrived at Ashanti Lodge, the Backbackers that was our ultimate destination, it felt very odd taking all out belongings off the truck and knowing we would not be getting back on. That evening we had one final meal together and enjoyed the fantastic wild meats on offer, but the evening was soon over and people disapeared, the last I saw of some members of the truck.

The holiday wasn’t over yet though, we still had Cape Town to explore, and started off with day long tour of the Wineries sourounding the area, not your usual trip either, this was the type of trip where you get a full glass of wine, you are expected to drink it, and the minibus is stocked with Cap Classique (Bubbles) we visited Villiera Wine Estate, Simonsig Wine Estate and Stellenbosch with lunch at the delightful Skilpadvlei Restaurant with fantastic food washed down with local wines.

The journey home was broken by the oportunity to take a swim in a small dam in a field, which I took full advantage of, not the nicest place I’d swam in, but refreshing non the less. As the Cap Classique bottles emptied, the trip back to Cape Town turned in to a singing competition, I think the people who hadn’t spent the last 2 months on the truck with us found this rather odd, but still it was great fun!

When we arrived back, we cracked open one of our wine purchases and enjoyed it with beautiful cheese from Stellenbosch wine estate, lovely!

Somehow I escaped a hangover and was up at the crack of dawn to walk down to the waterfront to get a ferry over to Robins Island for a very soboring tour around the prison and hard labour areas where Nelson Mandela was imprisoned. We were given the tour by a former inmate of the prison which added a whole new dimension to the visit. Looking out from the Island towards Cape Town offered the most amazing view of Table Mountain.

Cape Town is an amazing town, to walk around, it has interesting architecture, an enjoyable waterfront, and great shops with surf clothing at a significant saving over other places, it was in one of the main shopping center that we met up with a few of our truck travelling companions on the evening before we left Africa behind, we talked about the previous 2 months, the things we had seen between Nairobi and Cape Town, the animals, the people, the food we had eaten, the places we had visited and slept. I don’t think a single person round that table really wanted it to be over.