Wow, what a day! The overnight flight from London to Cape Town was fine. Didn't get much kip but no delays or luggage problems and was happy to forgo the personalised in-flight entertainment for an airline that respects its workforce (BA take note!).

Met off the flight by Denny from Marula travel through which i-to-i had organised me a day tour of Cape Town so that I could make best use of the little time that I had there.

We headed straight for Stellenbosch on the Western Cape to visit the Cheetah conservation programme at Spier. Good to see the work they do there and the cheetahs were magnificent. A bit too commercial for my liking though and it was a lot smaller that I had imagined.

Then on to some wine tasting where I picked up a rather lovely bottle of plonk to take back to the volunteer house later. A bit of a break for lunch down the road at a place where the ducks are allowed to roam free and you are surrounded by the Cederberg mountains. Beautiful.

Next stop were the penguins at Bolders beach. We took the coastal route there which took us past Khayelitsha, the largest township in Cape Town. The conditions people living there have to put up with are just shocking. Denny tells me that the government are having to pull down 40,000 of the new homes they've built people because the company contracted to build them used sub-standard materials so that they could pocket half the money which has resulted in a number of them collapsing and falling in on people. Shocking.

We go all round False Bay, through Strandfontein, Muizenberg, St James, Kalk Bay and Fishhoek before arriving at Boulders Beach. Turns out that Denny's mum was Phyllis Davies (the prominent communist and writer for the Morning Star) and her partner was Red Robbo (Derek Robinson, union official for British Leyland) so we had a good chat about trade unionism and working conditions in SA along the way.

Didn't stay long there as the wind was fierce and forcing sand into absolutely everything! The penguins we just amazing - hundreds of them bobbing about and nice to see them in their natural environment. Most struggling to stay on the ground because of the wind though, bless.

Then back to the volunteer house for our orientation from Isabelle from i-to-i. The house is great - huge and full of volunteers doing different projects across the city. Was good to meet them all. Dinner, shower then bed for us though as we had to be ready and out by 5.15am (that's 3.15 UK time!) for our bus to Port Elizabeth. Four of us heading out for that; Gemma + Alex who are going to help protect endangered animals in Jefferies Bay and Michelle + I who are on the same project working with the big 5 in the Kwantu reserve outside Port Elizabeth.

Getting up at that time was a bit of a challenge having not slept much on the plane the night before! But we're now on our way to PE. Should get to the reserve about 8pm and will start work tomorrow. Really can't wait....

Will blog more then.

Take care,

Jox