The Pregnancy Ironman - Trimester 3/The Run

The Finish Line is in Sight!

So now I'm well into the 3rd trimester and have finally finished work and started my maternity leave. Just like with the run leg of an ironman, trimester 3 is just about getting to the end for me.

For the past few months I've been working in paediatrics at a new hospital, Princess Margaret Hospital. My training has pretty much been put on hold for now because I don't seem to have much time or energy when I get home from work. My new job usually starts around 7am and I finish anywhere between 5pm and 10.30pm. Add in an hours drive each way and I'm usually just about ready to jump into bed by the time I get home. I was starting to get quite worried about lack of fitness and so was a little relieved to find out from my midwife that I had become anaemic. My pre-pregnancy ferritin (iron) levels had been above 300, now they had dropped to 8! It certainly seems like I'm growing a little Iron-man!

Most weekends I've managed to do a long walk on the trails but I'm definitely feeling heavy and unfit! One day a couple of weeks ago I went for a walk around King's Park. I was feeling pretty proud of myself for walking a good 8km or so. Then as I was walking up the last hill back to the car park, I got heckled by some random guy. I happened to be wearing my Busso IM t-shirt which had 'Swim-Bike-Run" written on the back. This random runner was jogging up behind me and shouted "It says swim-bike-RUN not swim-bike-WALK!" I'm not sure he saw my huge bump as he passed me! I like to think he did and got embarrassed. Maybe next time he'll think twice before heckling!

Exploring some of the local trails

Still don't get tired of seeing these guys!

As the finish line approaches, we have shifted our attention to baby-prep! My first project was to decorate a nursery for the new baby. I wanted to do a mountain landscape as a feature wall. After looking at stickers and wall paper and not finding anything I liked, I decided to try painting it myself. The first job was to prep the walls by doing all the filling and sanding. Once the walls were in a better condition, I roughly drew the mountain shapes on the wall and chose my colours. Next stage was to apply the painting tape. This is the most painstaking part of painting in my opinion! It takes ages. The actual painting took me about a week because each layer needed 3 coats of paint plus a day of drying before I could peel off the tape and reapply to the next layer!

However I was pretty please with the end results. We then ripped up the gross old carpet and blinds and added in a nice new carpet, curtains and baby furniture and finally had a decent looking room. It was only after a week of hard work and spending a small fortune on a cot that Mum decided to tell me that the baby is actually meant to sleep in our room! Thanks Mum!

 

Wall prep = yawn!

 

Mountains ready to be painted

Getting there!

The finished product!

The next phase of Project Baby-Prep was to attend ante-natal classes. For quite a while my midwife had been trying to get me to come along to the ante-natal classes at the hospital. I did my best to resist. However Mum managed to persuade me that they were a good idea... and who knows... I might even learn what a baby sleeps in!

I imagined the class to be a bunch of hippies practising breathing and hypnotherapy techniques. My worst nightmare! Imagine my horror when I walked into the first class and everyone was sat on the floor on beanbags! The first 3 classes (we had to attend 4 in total!) required a lot of patience. Our homework involved practising 'labour positions' and coming up with motivational quotes! Yeah right! Clearly Chris and I were not the star pupils!
The last class was more useful as we actually learned how to look after a baby. I had to demonstrate "swaddling" a baby or as Chris and I call it "burrito-wrapping." My prize for doing such a good job... nipple cream!! Not for the first time I wondered what I had gotten myself into!

Fortunately, my pals came to the rescue and reminded me that having a baby has it's good points too starting with an amazing baby shower!

How cool is this? Created by the amazingly talented Kendall!

In other news, Chris and I were surprised with a new challenge.  One night we woke up to a massive crash. We couldn't figure out what the problem was until the next morning when we saw our tree had fallen down. The tree is massive (I estimate about 20 tonnes) and we had to get rid of it before the fire season as the dead tree would pose a huge bush fire risk. So for what felt like the next 4 weeks we spent a long time cutting the wood into chunks and burning all the greenery. We eventually got some professional tree choppers in to help cut down some of our other trees as I became quite nervous about one falling and hitting the house. Once the trees were down, I realised our garden was actually much bigger than I thought! So my next project became designing a new garden. The first part was to fix up a very neglected rockery on the front of the drive! The rest of the design will have to wait until I'm able to do a little more heavy lifting. Watch this space!

So lucky it missed the house!

I think Chris was enjoying this more than me!

The first of many bonfires!

Chris bought me a "push-present"...I wasn't impressed!

Chris getting creative with the logs!

Free fire wood!

So you are probably wondering how Chris is coping with all this pregnancy stuff. Well unfortunately it seems pregnancy has been harder on him than me! He has definitely had his fair share of 'sympathy symptoms.' It started off with nausea and headaches (although his always seem to follow a few beers/whiskies!). Then he suffered with a bad back... fortunately he was able to book himself in for a lovely massage which he tells me worked wonders! Then the poor guy suffered with terrible bloating which wasn't helped by that fact that all his clothes recently have become too tight. Apparently they have all shrunk in the wash! But I reckon the worst thing for him is the boredom from not being able to do as much as usual. In his own words..."I'm not good at all this relaxing!"

On a completely unrelated note... I will soon be releasing a book entitled "What not to say to your pregnant wife!"

So with just a short time before Mini Stack arrives, I will mostly be attempting to get re-aqainted with this:

 My old friend the turbo trainer!

Whilst Chris continues his battle trying to evict our unwanted house guests!

Percy the Possum

And finally I can treat myself to the latest instalment of Harry Potter! 

 

See you on the other side!

The Pregnancy Ironman - Trimester 2/The bike

2nd Trimester - The bike 

As I mentioned previously, the second trimester for me was great. No more nausea or fatigue meant I could enjoy training again.

By this stage though I'd lost a lot of fitness through reducing the intensity of my training so I decided to train more by myself as I could no longer keep up with my teammates. I also felt safer cycling on my own or in a small group... less chance of a crash!

Chris had signed me up for the Busso 70.3 Ironman last year and now I was in 2 minds about whether I should compete. On the one hand, I had already paid for it and most of the team would be down in Busso for a fun weekend that I didn't want to miss out on. But on the other hand I knew I couldn't race hard and I was starting to get a bit nervous about being on the road with other triathletes. Triathletes are not exactly known for their amazing bike handling skills (except of course F4L athletes!)

In the end I decided to start (I literally made this decision stood on the beach about 5 mins before the buzzer went off!). I could always stop at any time.

After the start buzzer went, I very slowly walked into the sea to start the swim. I purposefully went right at the back and right at the edge to avoid any collisions with the other swimmers. I swam so far away from everyone else that I must have done at least an extra 500m! At one point even the surf life-saver checked to make sure I was going in the right direction! But I got out of the swim in one piece ready to start the bike ride.

The Busso bike course is pancake flat, but unfortunately I wasn't comfortable on my super aerodynamic TT bike anymore. My very tiny bump made it impossible to sit on the tri bars. Instead I used my roadie and settled in for a loooong 90km. I had to ride the whole thing without getting out of breath or raising my heart rate. At first it was quite infuriating watching people pass me, but I soon started to enjoy life in the slow lane as I could take the time to check out the scenery and watch the other riders. I think I counted about 4 wee stops too!

I finally started the run with the plan to just do one of the three 7km laps then withdraw. However I was actually feeling quite good after lap 1 so I set off on lap 2. About half way through lap 2 I started to feel very nauseated again and got some pain in my pelvis. This meant I had to start walking. By now I just had one lap to go so I thought I may as well finish even if I had to walk the final lap! I eventually finished in a time of around 6 hours 40mins... 1 hour and 35 mins slower than last year!! But even though everyone had finished much earlier in the day, my team mates had hung around to cheer me over the line! A gesture very much appreciated!!

Very slowly finishing the run!

Pancake Stack's first IM!

After Busso I decided to do no more racing until after the baby is born. I managed to continue cycling on the road until about 24 weeks and a few of the F4Lers took turns in keeping me company (thank you Kendall, Steve and Ash!). After that I did a few more rides on the trails with Chris to keep me company. Chris took no pity on me being 26 weeks pregnant and took us on a 40km MTB ride with 37km of climbing!! After this is decided to stick to the indoor trainer. I probably could have done a few more trail rides but the Perth weather had turned really wet which made me worry about skidding and falling off. By now I had a medium sized bump to worry about!

My running reduced massively as it became quite uncomfortable to run with a bump. One day at around 27/28 weeks I woke up feeling great and decided to join the group run. I did a fairly steady 7-8km and thoroughly enjoyed it. Unfortunately I couldn't walk for 2 days afterwards! No exaggeration.. I literally couldn't get out of bed! I thought I had broken my pelvis. I diagnosed myself with symphysis pubis dysfunction (SPD) which is where the ligaments become stretchy and the 2 wings of the pelvis widen. It actually felt like my pelvis had split open! It took about 2 weeks before I could walk normally again, so I decided to give up running for the time being!

Winter had well and truly arrived in Perth so Chris and I took a short holiday to Broome to get some Winter sunshine. A friend from uni (who now lives in NZ) met us in Broome and we spent 5 days relaxing in the sun, swimming, playing tennis and generally just chilling out and catching up. We also decided to hire some 'fat bikes' and explored the coast line. 

We also took a short trip down South. Chris surprised me for our 1 year wedding anniversary and had booked a really cool cabin in Denmark which is about 5 hours drive south of Perth. The SW of WA is beautiful and we spent the Saturday exploring some of the local scenery. Chris also sampled some of the local produce... Limeburner's Whisky! We took the long route home on Sunday to visit the giant trees in the Karri forests. These trees are massive, they grow up to 75m tall! The tallest trees are used as fire lookouts and you can climb to the top on some metal pegs that stick out the side of the trunk. There are no safety measures in place and I can't believe people are actually allowed to climb! I managed to persuade Chris to climb to the top. I'm not scared of heights but even I was terrified! Chris didn't talk to me for about 3 hours after! It was a peaceful drive home! It was a great weekend, definitely a spot to visit if you come to WA!

View from The Porongarup National Park

Yes Chris had a taste of every bottle just to make sure he was buying the best one!

Climbing the tree! Don't look down!

The 'ladder' to the top! Thats right..no rope, no harness, no chance if you fall!

A new challenge for our next visitors!

Now onto the final leg! Trimester 3 coming right up!

The Pregnancy Ironman - Trimester 1/The Swim

It turns out pregnancy is quite boring! So now I have plenty of time on my hands, I thought I'd write a blog about what we've been up to for the past 9 months. Warning... there is very little exciting going on so if you're bored easily then stop reading now! 

I have decided that pregnancy is a bit like an ironman triathlon. Firstly, they both have 3 very different legs. Secondly, they are both very long! And finally they both go much smoother if you are fit to start with! (At least thats what I have come to believe from my one time experience!)

1st Trimester - The Swim!

So just like in triathlon, the first leg has definitely been the worst for me. Although really I think I was let off very lightly with only some minor symptoms of nausea and tiredness. 

In January I started a new job in Obstetrics and Gynaecology. Medics sometimes joke that they put something in the water at O&G hospitals and maybe they do because within a few weeks of starting, we found out I was pregnant. Last year I made the difficult decision to leave physician training to become a GP. I did this for a few reasons, but mainly because I needed a better work-life balance. Although I enjoy hospital work, the long hours and weekend/night work would make it impossible for us to have a baby. Especially living so far away from family! The final straw was not having access to annual leave/part time work (I'm sure I've moaned to everyone about being refused leave for my own wedding!!). So I decided to re-train as a GP. This looked fairly straight forward, I had to sit 2 exams then do 18months as a GP registrar in the community then I would be a GP. Easy! Until the college found out that I had only ever done adult medicine. This meant I also had to complete a minimum of 10 weeks working in paediatrics. Unfortunately the only paediatric training hospital in Perth is Princess Margaret Hospital (sort of like the WA version of Great Ormond Street). So as you can imagine everyone wants to work there! I enquired about a short placement but they could only offer a minimum of 6 months and this would be the second 6 months of the year! Great! So I took a job in O&G for the first 6 months as this was another area of medicine I had avoided so far in my career.

To my surprise, I really enjoyed O&G. The hospital itself is really old-fashioned and reminded me of the hospitals back home. I felt the teams all worked together really well and I met some great people. I felt for the first time that the hospital actually cared about us and wanted to give us (the staff) a positive experience as well as the patients. After I told work I was pregnant, they were fantastic. I think the rota ladies tried their best to give me some easier shifts and I was given time off for scans and appointments etc. I decided this is definitely the place I was going to give birth!

I managed to carry on training throughout the first trimester, although I definitely reduced the intensity. I was still able to train most days of the week and felt pretty good. My obstetric friends had told me it was safe to continue training as long as I didn't over heat, I didn't get out of breath and I didn't allow my heart rate to rise too much! Great! This meant I really had to slow down and take things easy. I did the Elizabeth Quay sprint triathlon at around 8 weeks pregnant. I mainly did it because the Quay is Perth's new foreshore development and the triathlon was to celebrate it's grand opening. I didn't really race hard, I can't remember my time but I pretty sure I was somewhere towards the back of the pack!

Hmm, so I couldn't find any photos of the Elizabeth Quay triathlon but a blog needs photos! So here are few of my favourite tri pics that remind me I haven't always been a beached whale!!

Running with Peta during IMWA. Bad day for me made made better by helping out a friend! Now one of my favourite pics!

(photo credit: Dennis Tan - Paparazzi on the Run)

Teamies!

Looking awesome on the bike! I'll be back here soon! #unfinishedbuisness

From about 8 weeks onwards I started to feel quite nauseated which unfortunately was much worse with motion. The drive to and from work was the worst (I had to have a plastic containing in the passenger seat just in case!) but running and sometimes cycling also made me feel a bit queasy too. 

Fortunately, almost as soon as I hit the second trimester I felt like a new women. No nausea! No tiredness! Fantastic!

Just like in the ironman I survived the swim with just a bit of sea-sickness, now onto my favourite leg.. the bike!

The Honeymoon Edition - South Africa

As both Naomi and I had only a short time off after the wedding, we decided to only have a mini-moon in Broome after the wedding and a proper Honeymoon in South Africa over Christmas.

South Africa is somewhere I have always wanted to visit, and it had the positive of being one of the only international destinations easily accessible from Perth except for Bali!

As soon as work packed up for Christmas on the Friday evening it was straight to the airport with Lion King blasting out on the way. This would be a mistake it would be stuck in our heads for the next two weeks! It also made me feel sorry for the stinky Warthog Pumba, and this was now number one on my wish list to see! Poor thing always gets overlooked for Lions and other far less impressive animals! Anyway we jumped on the red eye flight to Jo'burg, and a couple of holiday Stormy Normies and a few hours kip later we woke up in the Rainbow Country. HAKUNA MATATA!

Naomi and I were aware of the crime in South Africa, and had planned to take extra care whilst travelling, but in the few weeks leading up to the trip every South African friend, any one who had travelled to South Africa and even anyone who had seen Nelson Mandela on TV were telling us horror stories about being mugged, car jacked or worse. Needless to say we were mildly paranoid when we finally emerged from the airport.

We arrived early and caught the Gautrain, a new rail line built between Jo'Burg and Pretoria for the 2010 world cup to whisked us away to Sandton, which was a relatively upmarket suburb on the fringes of Jo'burg city. Sandton and other upmarket suburbs are where the majority of tourists stay, keeping away from the city centre which has become rundown and dangerous. Still paranoid we left the train station and to some relief saw our hotel directly across the road. A quick run across and a few near misses with mini bus taxis and we made it... or so we thought! There were 2 Radisson hotels in Sandton and ours was a little further away. Back out we headed looking like typical tourists and we headed down the road a little further. With suspicious eyes we thought every car was going to stop and shoot at us or mug us. Anyway we made it the extra few hundred metres and could relax in the safety of the hotel.

Looking out over Jo'Burg

Back when we had a few less wrinkles Naomi and I travelled around Asia on one of our first holidays together and met Deb and Wayne, a really fun couple who were taking a long detour back to South Africa having spent some time working in London. We had arranged to meet them in Jo'Burg, with their two lovely kids, Jemma and Kayla, and were relieved to have a couple of friendly faces and some local knowledge to ease us into the SA experience. They treated us to a great tour of the city, stopping off for an amazing and stupidly cheap (compared to Perth prices) burger at Rocomamas, followed by our new favourite milkshakes at Mugg and Bean! We had a great day out and left a lot happier, and less paranoid about getting mugged on every corner!

We headed back to the hotel, and got an early night ready for safari the next day. We got up early and headed to Nelson Mandela square in Sandton where we had an amazing brekkie! We then jumped back on the Gautrain back to the airport for our short flight over to Hoedspruit.
Jo'burg is similar to many other big cities, it has its problems, it has its bad areas, but on the whole it was just a place where everyone lives, shops, eats and gets on with life. It doesn't have the spectacular tourist sights, or stunning cityscape, but it was a perfect opportunity to meet some old friends, eat some good food, and start our adventure into the SA bush.

Don't think this was lifesize!

Good brekkie at Remo's well worth a visit!

The flight to Hoedspruit was an hour or so, and we had a pretty clear view of the spectacular countryside as we left the city behind. We touched down at the airport, which was basically a small hut on the edge of a military base. We were met by our driver and then made our way into the park. The Lodge we were staying at, Simbavati, was one of a few lodges that shared the private Timbavati Reserve, part of the overall Kruger National Park. Before we had even left the airport grounds, we saw him, there he was, PUMBA!!! I must say he was a bit smaller than I had imagined, I kind of though it was about the same size as a Buffalo! Anyway ticked off the list, and then I like all others moved onto bigger and better things, where are you Simba?! (Sorry Pumba)! On the hour drive to the lodge, we saw Buffalo, Giraffe, Zebra and chuff loads of Impalas! We couldn't believe our luck.

Pumba

Impala - very common but still cute!

We arrived at the lodge late afternoon, and were whisked off for a briefing, basically letting us know that there are no fences, plenty of dangerous animals around, and the small african man waving a torch and whistle would almost certainly keep us safe walking us to our room! Hmmm! The lodge was awesome, the main area was a huge covered bar and restaurant area overlooking the river. The lodge had built a watering hole at the back, and we were told we had just missed the elephants coming for their afternoon drink! We were shown to our tent which was amazing, it was a simple Canvas tent with a huge bed, and an awesome outdoor bath and shower overlooking the river. It even had a little private deck to sit out on and go spotting!

Our Home!

We thought we would just be chilling for the afternoon, but we were told we had made it just in time for the afternoon drive! The jeep was awesome! It was a converted Landrover, with a spotter seat hanging off the end of the bonnet, and three rows of seats behind the driver. We were lucky and got the back row hanging over the back, ideal if we were being chased by a lion! The first drive was incredible, the guide Jimmy and spotter Collance, told us everything we needed to know about the bush and animals. We saw Impala, Kudo, Waterbuck (all types of antelope) but it wasn't long before we got a glimpse of our first big sighting. A Rhino... no correct that... a family of Rhinos! We were so excited to see these that we flew past a giraffe to try and get nearer. Naomi and I had both thought that we wouldn't get to see a Rhino so we couldn't believe our luck when we saw this family. Including a baby one! I had to stop Naomi from packing it up to take home. We couldn't afford the excess baggage! The luck continued as we saw two lions, elephants and plenty more impalas! After a few hours of driving around and getting bounced around, we stopped for a sundowner at sunset.

Naomi the safari spotter.

Sundowners

Back at the lodge, a 'boma' dinner was waiting for us. This is a SA style barbecue and was delicious! After a good feed and a few more G&Ts we went to bed to get some rest before our 5am game drive the next day!

Each day we had 2 game drives, one in the early morning and one in the afternoon finishing at sunset. Over the 4 days we saw the 'Big 5' as well as plenty of other birds and animals. The scenery was pretty stunning too!

Baby Rhino, Our first Big 5 spot

Lion - Number 2 on the big 5. Photo credit Naomi! I spent ages taking photos and they didn't perform, one snap from Naomi and oh I know lets put on a show!

Turned out Naomi was a good Hippospotamus! Big but not a big 5. Amazing that you could hardly see them below the water. You wouldn't want to go for a swim here. Also where the Hippos hid so did the Crocs!

Gloria! Hey Moto Moto!

Mr Buffalo - Number 3. A huge herd passed across the track.  Must have been over 200 surrounding us!

Stripy Horse!

Some of the cool animals weren't so big, but could push balls of dung many times their own size! The humble dung beetle!

Cool weird thing!

Kudu - Tasted yummy!

We stopped to have morning tea with the giraffes. It was awesome!

This is a waterbuck or a toilet seat!

Another big 5, The elephants all surrounded the car and one came right up to Naomi and made her jump! It turned out they were heading to camp for a splash and a drink!

One of the rarest animals in the bush the Wild Dogs!

Another lion spotted!

Naomi was now happy as this one had a Mane.

After seeing four of the big 5 within our first couple of drives we were all desperate to see a Leopard. Not to be disappointed, just before sundown on our second day we spotted one, it was just having dinner a tasty baby impala!

Another stripy horse checking us out

After our first Leopard spotting, we couldn't believe we saw another, this time it was stalking an impala. It was unbelievable to see it in action, using bushes and even our jeep to hide from the impala. In the end the Impala got spooked and ran off. The Leopard gave up on the chase, as although they can run fast, they can only run for 100m or so and then need hours to recover.

Back at the lodge we mostly just relaxed and watched the wildlife from our spotting deck whilst conducting an experiment to figure out which gin was the best at preventing malaria! Each day at breakfast time, the elephants would pop along to say hello! This was possibly the highlight of the trip! Another highlight was the amazing Boma dinner, a big open firepit around which we would sample some of the sightings from the day!

The lodge also had other visitors including a number of baboons! Naomi kindly reminded me everytime we got in the tent to secure the doors and keep baboon security at the forefront of my mind! Anyway one afternoon whist having my regular afternoon nap, I had failed to fully secure the tent and was rudely woken up by one of the cheeky buggers stealing the sugar from the tea and coffee shelf! I jumped out of my skin and needless to say Naomi thought it was hilarious!

After an incredible 4 days in Kruger, it was time to move on to Cape Town. This involved a 3 hour drive to Nelspruit Airport then a 2 hour flight to Cape Town. We only just made it to the airport in time after our driver felt like giving us a scenic tour of every dodgy town along the way! Fortunately we arrived just in time and a few hours later landed safely in Cape Town.

Cape Town is a fantastic city to visit! We stayed near the Victoria and Alfred (V&A) Waterfront which is a beautiful area of shops, cafes and restaurants overlooking the water. We spent a lot of time here trying different restaurants and enjoying all the street entertainment. One of our favourite restaurants was a safari restaurant where we tried various different  African game meat! Yum!

Naomi posing with some famous South Africasns!

I love a good brekkie in a pan!

Table mountain often forms a layer of cloud over the top which drapes over it and creates the table cloth.

Christmas in Cape Town!

The seals made a regular appearance at the V&A Waterfront.

After a couple of Gin and Tonics and Stormy Normys in the hotel bar it was time for me to show Naomi how to play the bongos! She needed extra lessons whilst I was an expert!

After a night on the G&Ts and Stormy Normys we had a another walk around the waterfront again and found a cool bar where we could do some people watching. We found Kwak beer. This is a belgian beer that Team Slow introduced us to. I asked for two and got given the awesome glasses. I was a little surprised to find out that they wouldn't serve us though until we gave up a flip flop! Apparently this is a security measure to stop everyone running off with the glasses!

Cheers!

No shoe!!

The flip flop basket above the bar!

So we had a good few days exploring the city, but without a doubt though, the highlight of Cape Town was hiking up Table Mountain. We saved this trip for Christmas Day! We booked a guide to take us up the Mountain as we wanted more of a challenge than the usual easy tourist route. Well we certainly got a challenge! We chose to hike the Hiddigh-Ascenscion Route via Ferny Gully. Our guide Rhiann told us this was the most difficult but most scenic route. It didn't disappoint! We started off following an easy dirt track, but is wasn't long before we left the marked pathways and fought our way through the jungle! At several points along the route we had to rope up to climb some of the most technical sections. As some of you may know, Chris is not a huge fan of heights and before long he had gone very quiet. He spent approximately 11.5km of the 12km hike absolutely terrified due to the steep drops all around us! When we finally got to the top even Rhiann was impressed Chris had made it given his obvious fear. Chris commented "I thought I had hidden it well!" We spent just over 5 hours climbing up the 1086m and we didn't see another soul until we reached the very summit. It felt like we had the mountain to ourselves. At the top we treated ourselves to a warm coffee and piece of cake then took the cable car back down... all of us looking forward to our Christmas dinner!

Its a long way down!

Its also a long way up!

Amazing view!

Another Amazing View!

Still a long way up, and where is the path?

Nearly there!

The ropes are out!

Still nearly there!

We made it! 

Just under the tablecloth!

View out to Robben Island

We spent the rest of our days in Cape Town driving round the near-by attractions such as the local beaches and national parks. There is some beautiful scenery around, but my favourite park was still Table Mountain National Park. We headed back here for Chris's surprise birthday treat.... Paragliding!

View over the city

View back over the mountains

Trip down to Cape Point the Southern-Most Tip

Looks so inviting for a dip... but its super sharky!

The time had come to leave Cape Town and start our road trip along 'The Garden Route.' This is a 600km drive along the South West Cape. Our first stop was Stellenbosch, a famous SA wine growing region. It is a beautiful little town nestled in and amongst little valleys filled with vines. We booked on a "bikes and wine" tour and set off to see the sights. We had a lazy day in Stellenbosch to start with and visited a local winery. The next day, we set off for another birthday surprise. We sat down for a really nice brekkie before our bike tour, before Naomi realised we had come to the wrong station. A mad rush and a doggie bag of brekkie later and we rang up our driver and headed back to the correct start point. About 100m from our guest house!

After the extreme Table Mountain hike, we were a little worried that we had booked on the 'Adventure' ride, half expecting a drunken downhill mtb run... we needn't have worried, we were joined by two elderly ladies and the ride was a little cruisy... just what we needed to enjoy a few wines!

After Stellenbosch we made our way along the coast stopping of a Knysna, Plettenberg Bay, Jeffreys Bay and finally Port Elizabeth. We stopped of at a number of stunning beaches, went on a nice mountain bike ride, and joined in with the mental new year beach party... well we sort of joined in we drove through and had stormy normies in the hotel bar. It was a little bit too crazy for us cool kids!

We had an amazing trip and saw some great parts of this stunning country. South Africa has its problems, crime, inequality and incredible poverty in places, but it is blessed with stunning scenery and some really great people. I am already planning my return trip, Cape Epic maybe?

Stunning Beach in PE

Just one of the National Parks on our road trip

View from our guest house in Knysna

Mountain biking near Knysna

Another beach... tough life!

Dip the toes in... bloody cold!

More nice scenery

Cheers to a good trip