Today I head to Germany to meet Jack and the Fitz fam. Hard to believe 3 weeks have flown by so quickly. A huge thanks to Andrew and Bec for sponsoring my stay in London for almost a whole month! Below are some pics from the last few days.

Kel and I on an Islington bar crawl where we were joined by Lawrence and Nikki for mojitos and nachos at Desperados (!):

Feasting on lamb kebabs at the Borough Markets in Southwark, a foodies' paradise:

Kel and I visiting an antique market in Angel:

Andrew crushed our hopes of bowling glory at the Bayswater bowling alley:

Spending the afternoon with the newly engaged (yay!!!) Nic and Danny, along with Tammi, Jared, Kel and Lawrence, sipping on strawberry Belgian beer at the Traflagar pub on the Kings Road:

The cruise is over and we are in Athens. It's less chaotic than I expected and has been a fun city to walk. We visited the Acropolis this morning (the above photo is the flag flying from its fort) and went our separate ways this afternoon. I came across Bin Laden's cafe and immediately knew it qualified for the blog...

A trip to the West End.

Andrew, Bec and I set out on the town on Wednesday night. Our destination was the Duke of York's Theatre in the West End where we were to see a play called "Embers". The play is set in Europe in the 1940's. Henrik awaits the arrival of an old childhood friend who he has not seen for a very long time due to his sudden disappearance may years ago. The undeniable drawcard of this play is Jeremy Irons who has returned to the West End stage after 20 years to star in Embers.

A couple of Londonisms at the theatre worth mentioning were being allowed to take your drink into the theatre with you and the rumble of the tube every few minutes throughout the performance! We ended the night with a Chinese feast including peking duck and crab at Mr Kong's in nearby China Town (thanks Andrew!!!).

Em, Delphi and I spent our last afternoon together visiting Oxford, the oldest university in the English-speaking world which oozes with old school charm and exclusivity. Unfortunately Em's father who is the Chichele Professor of War History at All Souls College wasn't in town so we didn't get to visit a college. Instead we spent the afternoon strolling through the pretty Oxford streets.

Mr and Mrs Macs.

My time in England has largely been spent catching up with friends and family. I spent 4 days last week staying with Em, her husband Guy and their daughter Delphi in Oxfordshire.


I met Em 9 years ago when we worked together in Scotland. After a few cold and crazy months up north, I decided to move to London. About a week after arriving in London I received a phone call from Em tellng me to get on the next plane to the Greek Islands. I left London 2 days later for sunny Kefalonia where I lived for the next 3 months.

A big thanks to Mr, Mrs and baby Mac for a wonderful stay.

I have to start by saying that Mum did a superb job picking this particular cruise. Not only is it quality onboard (a fact that has been consistently confirmed by other long time cruisers who, unlike us, have the ability to compare) but the ports are all fascinating and in parts of the world I wasn't expecting to see. Note that I didn't pay much attention to the itinerary prior to departure.

We've been to Dubrovnick (Croatia), Corfu (Greece), Alexandria (Egypt), Istanbul (Turkey), Kusadasi (Turkey), and today I'm sitting in Odessa (Ukraine). Tomorrow our final port is Varna (Bulgaria) before we arrive in Athens.

The only drama was that the authorities wouldn't let us disembark at Constanta (Romania) because we didn't have the necessary Visas (which we were told we didn't need at home).

My favourite was Alexandria (below). The cruise guide described it as a 'demented ant hill' before we arrived so we had prepared ourselves for the worst. However, we found an excellent driver, Mohammed (above), who took as around for the day. People, in general, were incredibly friendly and passersby regularly said 'welcome to Alexandria!' We stopped for a beer mid-morning and the owner asked me (out the back, not in front of Mum) if I would like to smoke Hash... I reluctantly declined due to the time of day and proximity of family.

Onboard Mum and Michael were invited to meet the captain last night. Mum went line dancing the night before in the night club, and Michael went (out of curiosity) to the friend's of Bill W meeting which takes place everyday. Unknown to us that is code for an AA meeting... no comment.

12 people caught a bug in Cairo and have been isolated - cruiseships are so paranoid about bugs - these people will never be seen again. We've been to shows every night and I've been in the cinema (Geisha, North Country) a few times.

But really, if I could only make one comment it is about the food. It never ends. We tend to go to the formal dining room for breakfast, lunch, dinner and while I held back for the first 3 days (for health and figure purposes) I have now embraced glutony.

London tourist.

Ben and I decided to set out on an ambitious day of sightseeing. After meeting at Buckingham Palace, we made our way through Green Park and Westminister and on to the Tate gallery, where I was disappointed to find that all their Mark Rothko paintings had been moved to the Tate Modern (mental note for next time)! We then made our way to corporate Canary Wharf where I was feeling a bit out of place (but rather comfy) in my jeans and flatties, before heading back to Oxford Circus to do a spot of shopping.

A Mallesons reunion!

London seems to be the hot place right now for ex-Mallesons employees. Kelly B organised dinner with some of the old crew for Mr Adamo's fleeting visit in town. Those who were able to leave work at a decent hour met at The Eagle (pub) for a bevy or two and a bite to eat. Not surprisingly, a few invitees were unable to make it as they were stuck at the office!

My first day in London ended with a delicious meal at The Greyhound - a smart gastropub in Battersea owned by Mark Van Der Goot, an old friend of Andrew's from school. We were treated like kings (and queens) and got to sample a few beautiful wines from the bosses' cellar. Yum!

On day 4 we boarded the Holland America Ms Rotterndam and departed Venice (pictured above). Wow! The ship is everything we expected and more. The food is overwhelming and I had to spend 20 minutes on the treadmill this morning just to allow myself to continue.

This photo is of us on our first night drinking very expensive French champagne (thank you Colin and Jan) and drinking a toast to all the family! If only you all were here.

Bars, restaurants, theatres, casinos, libraries, internet, tennis, pools, volleyball, basketball, stand up comedy, caberet, mahjong, 24 room service (included), nightclubs, art galleries (with genuine Picasso, Miro etc), wine tastings, gym, spa - oh, and did I mention that most people are over 50?

The guests are largely americans. Large americans. At dinner last night (which was 5 course a la carte) they actually encouraged us to have 2 mains. "Try the steak and the salmon sir". When I declined and went for pork with apple sauce (you'd love it dad) they actually brought me a second full plate when I had finished the first. I was almost in shock as I politely refused.

One key question has finally been answered. Alcohol can be brought onboard and drunk in the room. We only brought 2 bottles of wine, a bottle of scotch and a bottle of Vodka.

Today we are in Dubrovnik, Croatia. It is stunning...

OK... this is the point at which Nat and I go our seperate ways, and new guest stars are introduced. I picked up mum in London and we flew to Venice where Uncle Michael was waiting (literally at the ferry stop). Unfortunately from a blogging point of view Mum and Michael are not very good at taking photos so they are either of them, or me, but rarely all of us together!

Venice I have to say was mixed. Obviously the setting is out of this world, but the sheer number of tourists meant it felt a little like a floating italian themed disney land. There are only 55,000 venetians living on the main island and 15,000 tourists a day. The numbers of locals are dropping due to high costs and the pain of tourists so one day it could just be tourists, and locals who work in the tourist industry!

The gelato went some way to making up for it, and the more we walked (and I went my own way for 1 of our 4 days) and saw empty streets the better it got. I went to a very good modern art exhibition at the Palazzo Grassi (www.palassograssi.it) and this again helped to remove me from the ubiquitous tourists.

The 11 hour flight from Cape Town to London was a breeze as we slept most of the way. Andrew (Nat's brother) picked us up from the airport in his zippy turbo Mini - the Kalfus reunion was complete.

After a yummy alfresco brunch in Nottinghill and a quick tour of Andrew's flat in SW10 which Nat will call home for the next 3 weeks, it was time to farewell Jack at Paddington train station as we part company for a few weeks.

We spent our last day in South Africa in gaol 12 kilometres from Cape Town...

For nearly 400 years, Robben Island was a place of banishment, exile, isolation and imprisonment for criminals, social outcasts, activists and the unwanted.

During the apartheid years, Robben Island's reputation for its institutional brutality was widely recognised. Numerous freedom fighters including Robben Island's most famous resident, Nelson Mandela, were forced to serve out long sentences in the most basic of conditions or their beliefs (see a picture of the high security cell in section B which Mandela called home for 18 years). Many of the political prisoners, initially incarcerated alongside common criminals and then later moved to the maximum security prison while the criminals stayed in a medium security prison, were subjected to hard manual labour in an attempt to suppress opposition to apartheid by crushing their morale.

Eugene (pictured below), our informative and charismatic guide, was arrested at 16 for organising a student demonstration against apartheid policies in the 1980s and spent 10 years as a political prisoner on Robben Island. He told us how apartheid's regulations even extended to life in prison, as "coloured" prisoners were given better food, clothing and working conditions than those prisoners classified as "bantu" (black), until the ICRC intervened sometime in the 1980s. The ridiculous methods for determining whether someone was coloured or bantu included an examination of the shape of their shoulders and the "pencil test" where classification was determined based on whether or not a pencil placed in a person's hair fell out when they shook their head.

Taming the lion.

With 2 hours remaining till we had to return our hire car after our trip to Cape Point, we headed over to Lion's Head, a rocky peak to the west of Table Mountain, and set out on a not so leisurely hike to the summit which involved climbing some rather frightful ladders at great heights.

Nat almost overcame her fear of heights but after 2 teary episodes she decided to wait while Jack climbed the remaining 30 metres to the top. A beautiful summit with 360 degree views of Cape Town which we recommend to all future visitors (see below).

One for the foodies.

We sniffed out some great eateries around our neighbourhood in Cape Town. This included the Cafe de Sud, a funky retro Cuban inspired establishment with fabulous moody lighting, cool tunes and the most delicious mojitos.


We also enjoyed nibbles to the soothing sounds birds chirping (played over the stereo) at Birds, a fab simple little gem of a cafe which is a haven for the chic designer set, and smoking mango tobacco as we reclined on cushions at the Baghdad Cafe.

Vide e Caffe on Kloof Street, a small cafe where the local urban junkies get their caffeine hit, also gets our vote. In addition to having some of the best coffee in Cape Town and a great buzzy vibe, it has a spectacular view of Table Mountain from the front bench. Not a bad way to start your day!

Road trip - Cape Point.

As we still has the car until 12pm on Monday we decided to set out on an ambitious day of sightseeing.

Following a 6am wake up call we piled into the car (which thankfully had not been broken into over night) and headed due South to Cape Point to watch the sun rise. Cape Point is the most south westerly point of Africa where the Indian and Atlantic Ocean are said to meet.

Unfortunately the funicular which takes you to the actual point did not open until 9.30am (2 hours after we arrived) and we were on a tight schedule. We, however, immensely enjoyed the scenic drive down the coast and the amazing road trip back via Chapman's Peak - a windy coastal road around the edge of a mountain range worthy of the early wake up call.

The Cape wine route.

You really need a car to get good feel for Cape Town. So we decided to hire a car for a day and do some exploring. Our first stop was the Cape wine route around Stellenbosch/Franschhoek, about a 30 minute drive outside Cape Town's city centre.

South Africa's best known indigenous red wine is the pinotage, a blend of pinot noir and hermitage varietals. We sampled pinotage at its birth place, a small vineyard on the outskirts of Stellenbosch.
We also enjoyed the garden paradise, including the historic camphor trees, squirrels and peacocks, at the Vergelegen Estate, a property (and now vineyard) with a long history.

Checking out the neighbourhood.

We spent our first few days in Cape Town exploring our new surrounds on foot to get to know central Cape Town and some of its more colourful inhabitants a little better.

We visited the Pan African markets and Green Market Square where, after much bargaining, we bought the obligatory wooden and bone handicrafts from the local stall holders (Jack's time in China proving handy). Let's hope we make it through customs!

We also visited the V&A Waterfont (a bit like Darling Harbour), the museum and art gallery where we went to the first exhibition of the influence of African art on Picasso's work ever shown in South Africa, and the colourful street of Bo-Kaap, home of the Cape Malays and delicious samosas!

No cobwebs at this daddy long legs!

We had a very colouful stay at the hip Daddy Long Legs Boutique Hotel in Cape Town. Situated on vibrant Long Street in the heart of the city, the hotel has 15 or so rooms, each of which has been uniquely decorated by a local artist, photographer, poet or musician.

Part of the fun of the hotel is staying in a different room each night, although Jack was not too pleased about having to pack and unpack so many times.

First we enjoyed the very elegant Protea Room (see above) inspired by South Africa's national flora, the protea. Then it as onto the Photo Booth (see below), which has 100s of small photos stuck to the walls to create large portrait of the artist's parents. Our final stop was in a room called "Please Do Not Disturb" which features a fully functional kareoke machine, microphones hanging from the ceiling and astroturf for carpet.

We spent the last three days driving the Cape's famous Garden Route - allthough to be honest nether of us had heard of it before we arrived in SA. The Garden Route is approximately 400km of spectacular mountainous, forest-lined and coastal road between Port Elizabeth and Cape Town.

We hired a car in Port Elizabeth and set out on our way, enjoying the spontaneity and freedom of our road trip and the breath taking scenery. We spent the first night at Mossel Bay, a coastal town overlooking the Indian ocean, before making our way to the picturesque town of Knaysa where we feasted on salad - a treat given the reserve's staple meat and cheese diet. On our way back to PE we visited the Tsitsikamma National Park annd the "Big Tree", an 800 year old tree not unlike the Big Pineapple.

Next stop, Cape Town...

On our last full day at the reserve we decided to visit the nearby Addo Elephant National Park, home to over 450 elephants.

Seeing and experiencing a national park was an interesting comparison to Amakhala, particularly given the stories we had heard about how parks such as Kruger have become overrun with tourists and aggresive rangers who do not respect the bush. The main dfferences include the fact that the roads are mostly tar and that the public take their own cars into the park which means that if there is a sighting cars line up to get a look. This takes away from the magic of finding yourself face to face with an animal in the wild.

The highlight of the day was getting caught in a traffic jam of sorts behing three huge elephants who had decided to take an evening stroll in the middle of the road.

Goodbye Amakhala!

After much deliberation we decided that the time had come for us to leave Amakhala a few days earlier than planned. Living in someone else's home for so long had taken its toll. The family we were working for were dysfunctional in a number of ways - very badly behaved kids, non-existant communication and very intimidating personalities.

Our last days included a BBQ (Braai) at the lodge at which the staff sang and danced up a storm to some traditional xhosa drum beats.

The taste of freedom….

On the weekend we had one of our best experiences at Amakhala as we were allowed to take out the game viewer (an open top Land Rover) for two hours to cruise around the reserve on our own. This was such a pleasure after having become so dependent on others at the reserves due to the lack of our own vehicle.

We took our time looking at the game – particularly the less exotic species, such as zebra and antelope, which the locals rarely stop to look at.

Hard Yakka. Hard Yakka.

We got stuck into some hard manual labour the other day. They are building a weir and it was one of the projects they have had in mind for us all along. We spent the morning moving rocks and it was pretty hard work (as you can see). The possibility of wild animals strolling by made things a bit more exciting. In the end, however, all that we saw were some bushbuck.

One of the most interesting things here is the black/white relationship. While a black middle class (and ruling class) continues to grow in the cities, we see a different picture here at the farm. The black staff cook our food, wash the dishes, clean the cars, maintain the land… do everything. But they are not invited to sit with us in the car, share meals, drink with the guests at the lodge - nothing. The divide is very clear cut. They are paid very low wages and one often gets the feeling that whites run these exclusive safari lodges with the help of more than just the local animals.

I (Jack) have been reading a historical account of the settlement of South Africa and it’s all about the Dutch arriving and working the land with black slaves. It’s very strange to be here over 300 years later staying with white people, still owning the land and employing blacks. It was difficult when we visited the local Xhosa community last time and someone asked us ‘Do black people also work for you in Australia?’