First pictures from South Africa

Don't ask me why these are so weirdly in size, just clik on one and you'll get to the slideshow.

life is good.

Today I have been to the fantastic botanical garden of Cape town, Kirstenbosch and I FINALLY managed to get to see some animals. After Kirstenbosch I went to Duiker island by boat to see a colony of seals - unfortunately the sea was incredibly rough and even though since Honduras I've become used to boats the crossing was plain scary. None of the other boats went out btw...
In the evening I drank a coffee at a bar overlooking the Waterfront and then I had some very tasty thai curry. Now I'm "home", tomorrow I'll do a day tour to see PENGUINS! and on Monday I'll start an organized tour of the garden route...travelling alone in South Africa is possible and not even difficult but I've been warned so many times now by locals, that i decided to chicken out and opted for the group.
Just hope the people are ok, really DO NOT need 'cool' people overgrown Teenagers,  or... ok, Im fussy :).
I'll see what happens, it's just 6 days anyway.
And afterwards I have to go back do Cape Town, ***. Even though it's a beautiful city I remain a country bumpkin and would much rater sepnd the last days of my holidays (yes - afterwards WORK starts !) in a village or town on the coast. o.k., gotta go, got to pay my hostel bill and do some reading. READING! I'm carrying boooks with me which I bought in Quito, Ecuador last year, haven't got round to reading them at home.
Cheerio, Anne :)

greetings

from the southern side of the world, 10.000 km from home :); had some nice days in Cape town already, been yup table mountain but right now it's cold and rainy and things aren't working out the way i want them to, so I'm grumpy :). But nothing really bad has happened, just feel like i'm wasting time though even today I've done a very interesting township tour. o.k., gotta go, they're closing... hope u r all well.

If all goes well..

...I´ll be going to bed in South Africa tomorrow night.

Looking forward to a new continent, new experiences, work & new people.

been sick all day but getting better - lost one day for preparation :(
becoming nervous
why is there still so much left to do even if one tries to prepare well ?

last-week preparations...

Amongst other things I´ve been checking, reorganizing and stocking up on my travel medications today.

What I´m taking is:

-  antihistamins, because I´ve become terribly susceptible to insect bites in recent years
- two different kinds of pain killers, with anti-inflammatory capacities
- something against cramps (just learned that´s called antispasmodic)
- something against diarrhea
- something against travel sickness- which I don´t usually get, but I do get seasick and I hope I´ll be spending some time on a boat ;)
- never taken a sleeping pill yet but I ALWAYS take earplugs and my mp3 with me :). they work wonders on long flights and bus journeys.
-  a cream with cortisone - against insect bites and sunburn
- a disinfectant cream (which I didn´t get yet ...they gave me a spray, which is stupid to carry, at the pharmacy and I didn´t realize...)
- and an expectorant, because I´m kind of paranoid since I had pneumonia twice already.

I know lots of other stuff is recommended but so far I´ve got along with these quite well on my travels.

In the hope I won´t have to use any of it :).

Oh, and and an insect-repellent  (called "anti-brumm", contains DEET, the only stuff that really works in the tropics) and  a sun-screen with factor 50 :).

10 days to go...