The Journey South

The Journey South

After a lazy start and a very wet dog walk I  found myself loitering around the house and failing to find things to do to occupy my time so at about 11:30 I hit the road. 

Saying goodbye is never easy and although I was exited to be heading off I was really sad that I wasn't able to be bring Zoë with me. Despite all the bravado I miss her and the kids a great deal when I'm away. Hopefully once she's retired we can do more of this together. 

The journey to Heathrow was pain free and I met up with Louise and Cat in plenty of time to check in and get through security. Martin was a bit behind us and he met us in Wagamama in the departure lounge. He'd decided to upgrade his seat to Premium but we still talked to him. Pre flight was pleasant enough and we only took off a few minutes behind schedule. Our seats aren't too bad. I didn't have anyone in front of me and Louise moved to an aisle seat so I ended up with no one next to me either and I was able to stretch out quite well. After a couple of drinks, dinner and a film or two I tried to get some sleep. 

11 hours later we arrived tired and a tad stiff in Johannesburg. I only managed a couple of hours of kip so wasn't feeling too perky. We then had to clear immigration collect out luggage, clear customs and recheck our luggage for the flight into Port Elizabeth.  

It all went quite smoothly and then we had to kill a couple of hours waiting for the next flight. We managed to get within about 2 minutes of boarding the wrong plane at one point as we got sucked into the wrong queue but thankfully we avoided that and set off for our next stop without further incident. 

Upon arrival at PE we were met by the tour crew. A frantic bike building took place so that we could send the bike boxes off to Cape Town rather than carry them on the bus. 

A quick bus trip and we arrived in Jeffrey's Bay to find our hotel was even better than we had imagined. Martin an I have a beach view and as I type I'm watching the surfers doing their thing, it's a stunning location. 

We've fine tuned the bikes ready for tomorrow and plans are in hand for a Greek Taverna dinner tonight.