Wakeboard camp

We left Cape town Monday week 4, for a 90min drive north to the Misverstand dam. Everyone was sad to leave as it had become our home for the last 3 weeks, but we've all promised to go back sometime. The dam is an incredible loctation, in the middle of nowhere, such a contrast to Cape town. We were greeted by Andrew Bourne, our wakeboard instructor and South African pro, and his gentle giant friend Mike. We went straight out on the water in his AMAZING boat with the loudest sound system in the western cape! George started off by intimidating us all with his wakeboard talents, and Annie, Enzo, Vince and Marisa followed suit. Andrew took us beginners (Maddy, Hattie, Genna) out for an evening session to introduce us the sport without the pressure of 10 pairs of watchful eyes! We all soon got the hang of it and caught the wakeboarding bug.
Our days were spent chilling on the boat, or the party/love island (more about that later!), and taking it in turns to wakeboard/wakeskate along to awesome tunes which have now become anthems of the trip. We would have love to see Andrew wakeboard, and for him to coach us whilst riding beside us, but unfortunately he injured his knee a couple of months ago and wouldn't be back on his board for 6 months. It must be torture for him to watch us without being able to do it himself.
As mentioned above time was spent on the party island, which doubles as a chilling venue when theres too much weight on the boat, and a back breaking adrenaline fuelled activity when being dragged at high speeds behind the boat, and occasionally taking off into the air! IT's like a big inflatable pancake, and I think George is still having nightmares about being thrown off it from 5 metres up and doing a few backflips before hitting the water head first. He still asks Maddy for a daily massage. Another reason George, Enzo and Johnny aren't big fans of the party island is due to their horrific ordeal on thurs afternoon, when they were stranded in 40 degree heat with nothing but each other and some inquisitive sheep for company. Somehow they were still alive after 6 hours (2 hours) while the girls were wakeboarding and Marisa and Annie were pulling off some seriously impressive tricks, wake to wake and olly 180 respectively. The boys were found drifting halfway down the river by the girls who were unaware of the afternoons events, which of course had nothing to do with them stealing our chocolate the day before. They still guilt-tripping us about it now. Hypocondriacts.
The evenings were spent Braaiing on the terrace of our riverside abode and chilling on the boat watching the stars. On friday we went for midnight wakesurf, where we surfed the floodlit wake of the boat on Enzos surfboard. Altogether another pretty awesome week.
After getting up at 4 on saturday morning we are ow on our first leg of the road trip at Vic bay, doing the highest bridge swing in the world was a good way for Enzo, Annie and Maddy to wake up after 3 hours sleep and a good way to nearly pass out for those left watching!
**Maddy and Genna**

mehh

Day 20
Location: Braai at Lodge
Person: George
"Does it scare you that I'm really rather turned on by this marshmallow?"
(yes it does)

Day 21
Location: Steers
Person: Genna
"Oh god, we still have to buy surf boards, go surfing AND go out" (group sigh) its a hard life

Day 21
Location: Lodge bar
Person: Maddy
"Yay, we get to buy lunch at a service station tomorrow!"

Day 19
Location: Supermarket
Person: Maddy to George
"I was looking for rice and i found you and got excited!"

Day 21
Location: Lodge bar
Person: Hattie
"Right. I'm off to find a condom." (Mr + Mrs King don't worry, it was for an unconventional use!)

Day 22
Location: Breakfast bar
Person: Annie
"Look, I'm shaking!" (holds out hand) "Oh no I'm not" (takes hand away)

Week 2&3

Last time i wrote we were just about to climb table mountain with incredible conditions. It took 4 hours and near the top there are reservoirs that we swam in to cool down. From the top i saw some of the most amazing views I've ever seen, and you can see them on some of the pictures i took from the top. http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/enzocav
I decided to group these two weeks together as surfing and kite-surfing both depend on the weather, so we just take each day as it comes. The wind in Cape town is so crazy, so the conditions for both are quite good. In fact, 1 mile down the beach from where we've been surfing, the biggest wave ever ridden...got ridden - 80 foot! I can't even imagine that as the biggest we're on are about 4/5. But I've improved loads and even bought my own board! It turns out that Kite surfing isn't as hard as it looks, we all got up on boards for a while. But when it goes wrong its not fun, i got drifted a mile down stream and had to get rescued by the instructor!
As both the activities are out of our control, when the weather's bad we get a few days off so we've been doing lots of other things as well. One day we went up to the vineyard country to sample some wine. We went to three and in all of them they sit you down, explain all about the wines then give you as many bottles as you want! And the best thing...you don't pay anything to do it!!! Our Saturday night was sorted! On another day we went to an African flea market. There were so many amazing things crafted there, and all these family's of children dancing around everywhere, but as soon as any of the stall owners see a foreign person coming they never stop harassing you! We also drove to a cable wake-boarding place. I've never done this before and its so different to behind a boat, nowhere near as good. On one of our nights off we went to a festival that was on, and another night we went to another but it was more like a party on the beach! And on all our other days off we make the most of the beaches here and get very competitive at bat and ball!
Today is our last in Cape Town and everyone is so sad to leave. Its definitely one of the nicest places I've been, and it would be an amazing place to live. But we're also excited to be moving on, this week we stay in a house at a wake-boarding camp which sounds fun, especially as the water is supposed to be warm-anythings got to be better than this water though, its colder that England's sea in winter here!
Remember to look at the blog and the pictures!
xxxEnzoxxx

More quotes!

Day 10
Location: beach
Person: Enzo
"That seal is pretending to be a shark"

Day 11
Location: Windsurfing
Person: Johnny
"Bananas are the key to success" (Vince should be worried)

Day 15
Location: Pepper van
Person: Vince (re: valentines day)
"I have a mule to spoon with, no girl can beat that." (Johnny (aka The Mule) should be worried)

Day 15
Location: Pepper van
Person: Vince
"Crikey, moses!"

Day 10
Location: Kitchen
Person: George and Enzo
George: "I'm worried about what the girls in the strip club will be like"
Enzo: "Errrr, Hot...... and....... naked"

Day 16
Location: Caprice
Person: George (about Johnny's chest hair) and Johnny
"That's his sexy man bush"
"It needs a little trim"

Day 18
Location: Caprice
Person: George (about Vince)
"He's the kind of guy you feel really comfortable around because his jokes are so crap"

Day 19
Location: Backpackers
Person: Marisa
" (tbc)

Wierd

I promise everyone that these were very funny at the time!
Enzo

Quotes Updated

Day 8
Location: Hostel bar
Person: George & Hattie
Hattie: "I'm going to finish my drink and go to bed"
George: "Fuck You, no no no no... if your going to bed give me your drink!"

Day 8
Location: Hostel bar
Person: George & Enzo
Enzo: "You're out like a light tonight"
George: "I'm not out like a light i'm on like a light, shining brightness on the world."

Day 8
Location: Hostel bar
Person: George, Enzo, Maddy & Johnny
Maddy: "George you're going to be sick."
George: "I'm not going to be sick!"
Enzo: "You kind of reach a stage of not getting any more drunk don't you?"
George: "What are you talking about, I'm about to be sick!"
(George is sick in ice bucket)
Johnny: "Ice anyone?........ Don't mind if I do!"

Day 8
Location: Hostel bar
Person: George
"Vomit is the continuation of the absolution of interest"

Day 8
Location: Hostel bar
Person: Vince
"That's the result of 8 generations of inbreeding, right there" (points at Johnny)

Day 8
Location: Concert
Person: Johnny
"Tickle, tickle!"

Day 8
Location: Barbecue
Person: Johnny & Vince
Vince: "G&T?"
Johnny: "When in Doubt?"

Everyday!
Location: Everywhere!
Person: Everyone! (apart from Annie?)
"Where's Annie?"

Day 10
Location: Vineyard
Person: Enzo (to Johnny)
"Our knees are really similar!"

Day 10
Location: Vineyard (in SOUTH AFRICA - 35 degrees)
Person: Hattie
"Does anyone have any fake tan?"

Day 10
Location: Vineyard
Person: George
"I don't get drunk I just get retarded when I drink."

Some of the most phenominally amazingly wickedly good quality quotes....anyways, ONWARDS!

Day:2
Place: Pepper bus, driving through Cape Town........(after a few drinks)
Person: George
"You know what, this place is just like Twickenham"

Day:3
Place: Breede river........(after a few drinks) speaking about Damien
Person: Johnny
(In Johnny, aka The Mule, voice, a strange combination of rasta and queens english...hmmmm)
"What a demented mongoose!"
(About Hattie when she walked into a table)
"Woooow that sounded like she walked into a giant woodpecker!"

Day:5
Place: Sushi restaurant
Person: George & Genna
Genna: "I don't like fish".
George: "You don't like fish?"
Genna: "No".
George: "Really?"

Day:6
Place: Beach infront of the strip.
Person: George & Enzo
George: "The sea's not salty at all here".
Enzo: "Yes it is".
George: "Maybe its because I just ate a strepsil".

Day:3
Place: Mojito bar on the strip.
Person: Brad & Enzo
Enzo: "Why do you call Vince Chinchilla?"
Brad: "'Cause he's small, furry, and has rodent features".

Day:6
Place: Gondola coming down from Table Mountain.
Person: Johnny, while caressing Marissa's 'socks'.
"So are these real socks then?"

Day:5
Place: Pepper bus at the Breede river with the dog (Vincent) chasing the van
Person: Johnny
"I'M GOING TO ******* BREAK THIS DOG!"

Experience so far...

Arrived in Cape Town after a bum numbing 12 hours on the plane - I'm dreading the flight home already!
We have three weeks in Cape Town altogether, and the first week is a kind of chill out get to know each other week, so i thought it would be slow. But from the moment we got here we've been busy. The first and second days we took trips around the beaches of the town and visited boulder beach, which is a beach that's been taken over by...Penguins!! Thousands of tiny SA penguins blocking most of the sand of this beach! We also visited Cape Point which is the most southerly most point of Africa.
We then took a two day trip to the river Breede, which is about 3 hours north of Cape Town in the heart of the bush. We stayed in a camp on the river which was the most amazing place, the temp was 35 degrees and in the water it was 24! The shacks we were staying in were tiny thatched huts with two beds and a toilet, with outdoor showers overlooking the fantastic view! It had a trampoline, kayaks, rope swings and zip lines into the water, rock jumps as high as you could stomach and a 24hr bar!! And with most drinks costing 70p it got used at all hours!
On our first kayaking trip we saw a snake swimming across the river exactly where we had been swimming and our guide told us it was a puff adder. If it bites you, you have 8 hours to amputate the bitten area before the acid peels back your skin resulting in death...nice. That night the girls also found garden spiders in their shower and on their door, these aren't poisonous, but my god they look like tarantulas!! Vince said that it only going to get worse the further North we go, so you can imagine that we all can't wait...
We're back in Cape Town now and the backpack hostel we're staying in (its called "the backpack") feels like the ritz compared - electricity in our rooms and everything! Well apart from the 2 hour town blackout each day by the government to conserve power for the Football world cup in 2011 apparently! Everyone moves to the rooftops and sings! Anyway we're climbing Table Mountain today which is going to be a burnfest for all of our skin...the sun just doesn't take any notice of factor 60 and bellow.
http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/enzocav .
xxx Enzo xxx

What's been happening?

We started off with a plane journey....as you do.... then proceeded to be introduced by the recently met Johnny and Vince to the marvelous wonder that is the Pepper Bus.


It was really windy as we drove into Capetown and Table mountain had a thick "table cloth" on top which looked incredable.
As the sun began to set we went off to an stunning beach and relaxed with glass of champagne, watching a couple of people who clearly didn't have lives as they could have beaten the best tennis players in the world with a bat and ball...... Enzo then proceeded in trying to haggle for what he thought was a chair, little did he known, but the looky looky man was playing some kind of sick joke and was infact a table, a terrible tragidy that im sure we can all agree will haunt him into old age.
We then ended the day by having a couple a drinks in the cool little bar upstairs that Vince showed us. I however did not as i felt that there should at least be one sober person to look after everyone.......then after about two minutes of hard deliberation, i scapped that disgusting idea, and we all had a great evening.


We then spent the next day (2) travelling around the coast stopping to see the pinguins a single beautiful beach. We then continued this little adventure at Cape Point where the veiws were truely phenominal, and although we didn't manage to see one of the ever illusive Baboons, there was consilation in the fact that there were a rather large number of Japanese tourists who had clearly managed to see sense in climbing the mountain in suits. We then went down to the beach again for sunset before ending up in a beachsidebar on "the strip"and met Vince and Johnny's friends for a drink and ended up in a club called friction.....gooooooooood night.

The next day (3) was another beautiful one, and it brought a new Johnny, with all sense of rational normality appearing to have left him completely.

We drove for a few hours north, heading for the Breede river. The scenery in South Africa is truely amazing, you can be on convincingly tropical beaches, and then after a twenty minute drive be driving through vast farms, with huge rolling hills almost resembling Italy.

Along the way we stopped at a relatively small farming town, where instead of sampling the local food we had a take away, the heat was incredibly strong.

We continued and eventually reached the track leading to the Felix Unite camp, with Vince taking the 120kph sign as a personal challenge.
The Breede river is AMAZING, it was beautiful in every way and i reckon enzo did it justice so just read his post. One thing i can say is that we have distinctly established that Jonney is not a great fan of bugs of any shape or size.

After having travelled back to Cape Town we went to a sushi restaurant, with most of the sushi ending up airbourne. Then we went back to the bar that Vince showed us, and i went on the hunt for the "unbelievable loo" which previously had evaded me. As the evening continued and we lost marissa and hatti to a club called Marvel, the evenings power cut brought out a new side to the town with people singing on roof bars by candle light.
Anyways, another fantastic night and is now morning and i have a treck up table mountain facing me, wish us luck,
much love,
george.

happy times

firstly.....helllloooooooooha.... secondly, my foot is on fire, thirdly this place is amazing and i want to have it's babies, and finally im hungry..... xxxgeorgexxx