With our calabash of water taken from the sea at the southernmost point of Africa, we headed down winding roads lined with Protea flowers, blue cranes, steppe buzzards and coffee shops!  We passed through towns and had everyone turning their heads to gaze in wonder as we trundled past.

We did eventually get to our next stopping point, Gordon's Bay.  Of course, other than being our "leaving date", the 24th May is also Alan's birthday, so we celebrated with a wonderful traditional South African dinner of Karoo lamb.  Yum!!

Our next port of call was The Strand, where we had booked The Mog in for a routine service. All went well until we were told that there was a small leak in the radiator; we had a choice to make - try and patch it or have a new core put into the casing.  We decided to err on the side of caution and had a "new" radiator fitted.  We cannot say enough wonderful things about Tina and Faadiel of Rola Motors - they were fantastic!!

While the Mog was "having treatment" we visited Cape Town and got all our paperwork sorted out.  We also met up with one of our Cape Town friends, Leon, for coffee.

And so, having visited every coffee shop in the new swish Somerset Mall, we made our way to the winelands of Stellenbosch, where we spent the night surrounded by some of South Africa's most famous vineyards.

The mariner at the Gordon's Bay
Yacht Club.

It was great to be back on the road and the next morning found us heading for The West Coast National Park and onto Langebaan.  Wow!  When you drive over the last hill and look down on the azure blue of the lagoon, teeming with flamingos, ibis, stilts, gulls and more, it is more than breathtaking - it's purely indescribable!  We believe that the park is misnamed however; it should be called the Tortoise Park as there are tortoises to be seen every few paces along the road!!  They, just like us, have their homes on their backs and don't go so fast.

And so, here we have stayed for a few days, enjoying sunsets over Saldanha Bay, watching whales frolic in the mouth of the lagoon, and generally just "chilling".