Got up early this morning and headed down for breakfast in the hotel. I had eggs benedict, coffee and some orange joice to get my day started. The reason for the early start was that today was my wine lands tour and the tour were picking me up at 08:00.

On time the guide picked me and and drove around Cape Town picking up at another 4 other stops. We then headed on out of town. The guide gave us all some really good commentaries and passed on a lot knowledge and information about wine, the regions, and it’s history in South Africa. Also along the way she pointed out some interesting areas of the countryside and people.

The tour had three different wine tasting stops all together, and a tour stop in XXXX. The first stop gave us a good guide to the wine we were tasting and included a brief tour of the facility and a guide to the actual wine making process for both the white and red wines. They also had a cheese making facility on the farm and we got to try a number of great wines and some cheeses, that were English style cheadar. The various wines were really good and had a lot of taste, which was backed up by the great cheese.

The second stop was a quick tour of SalXXXXX. We were all dropped off and told of some interesting places to go and see and we all headed off in our own directions. I toured a couple streets taking in the different cultures and wares for sale. I then headed off an took a cup of latte, before heading off and getting onto the bus again.

The next stop was another wine tasting and lunch. This place was in a very pictuesque location that offered some great views. I do have to say however, that the guide to the wine was not of great standard and unfortunately the wine was not as enjoyable as the first stop. The wine just didn’t have a lot of flavour and did nothing for me. We all decided that we would have lunch there, even though we did have the option of being taken into town and having lunch there instead. I have the stir fry beef and have to say that it was excelent.

After a brief drive through tour of the town we headed on off to the last wine tasting location, which also had some stunning views. In the very far distance we would see Table Mountain, well we would have if it wasn’t completeley consumed in clouds. It was also the location of some of the best wines we tasted, they also provided us with a taste of some 2 whites, 2 rosé wines, 3 red and also a desert wine. All but one of the rosé wines were fantastic, and the desert wine was a good sweet way to end the wine tasting. We then all had a quick look at the glass blowing factory they had on site before heading back into the bus and back to Cape Town.

The weather on the whole tour was partially cloudy with some light winds, and I think we got the best of the weather for as when we returned to Cape Town it was dark, damp, cloudy and misserable. This however did clear to the end of the evening and I got a great view of the sunset outside my hotel. It litterally set directly outside of my hotel window, and I think I got some great photos.

For evening meal I headed off to Paranga which was just along the road. I decided to go for steak tonight, given all the fish that I had the night before. Turned out to be a very good choice, and I also had a glass of wine from another local supplier, and because I was feeling indulgent I had a desert of ice crean and chocolate. Yum!

I again headed to Baraza for a quick cheeky beer, but it was dead in the place so I only had the one and headed back to the hotel to get packed for the trip back to Durban in the morning.

Got up early this morning, shouldn’t have bothered as the weather was blooming awful. It was raining, heavily overcast and very windy. I decided however to try and give my plans a try, just in case. So I got down stairs and got a taxi over to the Victoria & Albert (V&A) Water Front. I wanted to go and have breakfast at Societi Bistro, which I did. The breakfast was really good, if very quiet as there wasn’t anyone else around.

After breakfast I had a little wander around the V&A shops and stores. I then headed into the Two Oceans Aquarium (TWA). The TWA allows you to watch Cape fur seals and penguins. It also has a predator exhibit that is home to the ragged-tooth shark, loggerhead turtles and shoals of yellowtail. It was good and I recommend to others to go.

After that I thought that I’d try and see if the ferry was running to Robben Island, which is mostly known for the place former South African president Nelson Mandela was imprisoned for 18 years. It was a place of exile and imprisonment for 400 years. However, because of the bad weather no ferries were running. Not unexpected but still disappointing as I would have been more than willing the brave the rough seas.

I then bought a ticket on the Cape Town City Sight Seeing bus (CTCSS) which is a very cheap and easy way to get around the interesting parts of Cape Town. It only cost me R120. I hopped off the bus at Cape Town Tourism on Burg Street. I then proceeded to wander around a little and eventually headed into the Castle which is opposite the Grand Parade. I had a wander around that as it was quite interesting to see details of the Boer War and the conquering and colonisation of South Africa.

After heading out of the Castle I headed up along “Lower Plein” and around into “Paddock” and the Company Gardens. Moving through the gardens I ended up at the top of “Long Street” which is a straight road that runs from the foreshore op towards the mountain and is one of Cape Town’s oldest. It was here that I stopped off and had some lunch and a coffee.

After lunch I headed on down to the Cape Town International Convention Centre (CTICC) and up around onto “Loop Street” and then “The Strand” heading along toward “Buitengracht” which is also known as the M62. It was my intention to re-catch the CTCSS and head on up to the Table Mountain cable car.

The bus was an open top bus and I could tell that there was no chance that the Table Mountain cable car was going to be open. This was confirmed by the guide. The bus on up to the cable car was soon battered by high winds and also engulfed by thick rolling clouds. The bus still stopped at the cable car station and we had a few minutes to have a look around at least.

By now I was actually starting to get wet and cold so I hopped back on the bus, which it’s next stop was outside my hotel the Bay Hotel. The view as we god down towards sea level was really cool but it was hard to get any decent photos.

After a relax in the hotel I decided to head out for some food and ended up at “The Codfather”. It’s a restaurant with a bit of a difference. The waiter takes you up to the deli and explains to you about all of the different fish that they have in for the day, and you then get to choose along with the side. I ended up having Swordfish, Butterfish, Kingklip (???? Not sure of name) and some calamari with rice. I decided to also have some red wine unique to South Africa, Pointage I think! I do have to say that the butterfish was fantastic along with the Kingklip but the swordfish was too ‘fishy’ for me . I felt like a happy and contented stuffed pig at the end.

After that meal I thought that I’d go for a quick beer and ended up having a couple in “Baraza”. In summer this bar must be booming as it is in a fantastic location and looks right out onto the beach. I could only handle a couple beers as the food and all the wolking in the day had tired me out so I headed back to the hotel and called it an early night.

Started this morning nice and easy.  Shane (Jason’s brother) gave me a lift to the airport and we had a coffee and a chat before I caught my flight.  The flight was delayed by 30 minutes but that was no worry as I wasn’t in any hurry.

I had arranged for a Mercedes from the hotel to come and pick me up.  Must admit that it’s the first ever time that I’ve arrived at an airport and one of those people holding up a card had my name on it .  The trip to the hotel was nice and gave me a good chance to see a fair bit of Cape Town on the way.  The driver was also kind enough to point out a few things as we went past.

I arrived at the hotel and was really pleased that the hotel was practically on the beach.  I was then shown into my room.  Wow!  What a view!  Absolutely stunning and the room was fabulous too.

I decided to head out onto the beach and had a bit of a walk, taking in the sea air.  Before doing that I decided to try and book my Winelands tour.  I had wanted to do it tomorrow, as the weather report was not looking good.  Unfortunately there were no spaces available, so I had to settle for Wednesday instead.  After a little relaxation on the beach, the sunlight wasn’t going to last long so I headed over to the local store and bought some light provisions.  I then decided to take it easy for the rest of the evening and spend some quality time in my quality hotel room.

I've started the journey to South Africa for Lyndy and Jason's wedding.  The journey so far has been so easy and relaxing, just the way I like it.  I left Birmingham on the 13:00 Virgin train, got the Victoria line tube to Green Park, then the Piccadilly line to Heathrow terminal 5.  Each and every step without any trouble and nicely relaxed, just the way I like it.  However upon getting to terminal 5, I took the escalator up to what I thought would get me to departures, only to get so far that you have to take an elevator back to the tube platform only to be taken then to the top floor!  How stupid is that!

My impressions of terminal 5 is that it is lovely wide open, clean and well laid out.  There are no real sign's around the place and instead they have loads of 'honkies' telling you where to go.  Being Scottish and practical, I see that as a real waste of money [especially as most of them are blokes or not so good looking women ].

I decided to have some dinner before checking in, and headed for the "The Five Turns" pub & restaurant.  Service was incredibly slow, despite there being hardly a person in the place, yet I've counted at least 7 people working here.  Took nearly 10 minutes get someone to even take my order!  Then when they did, most of the main menu was 'sold out'.  So ended up having some over cooked fish and chips, then decided to risk having some ice cream.  The ice cream came in a tub that you normally buy from a shop, and they are charging HOW MUCH for that!!!  Won't be coming back here again, or recommending to others!

Let's hope that the duty free and the flight is better   Blog again soon...

Myself, Chris and Koko had decided to go to Sanosaka today.  However, it also turned out that Wayne, Sandra and Mitch with Adrian also wanted to go, so we all got a lift and rode together for most of the day.  The powder and crowding over in Sanosaka was unbelievable.  It was also a cheap day for men on a Wednesday.  You have to take quite a few lifts and runs over and over to get through all of the three different mountain resorts.  The powder was really nice, deep and fresh.  We could have run all kinds of powder lines all day.

Mitch took us up and into a tree run that was just off a closed piste run (apparently this run has been closed for about 20 years, because of an accident all those years ago!).  The tree runs were so full of powder and you could choose your lines through, as long as you have loads of confidence.  Must admit that my confidence wasn't as high as it has been through the trees but is was all good.

The last run of the day was the best.  It was a really long ride down to the bottom and practically straight.  We all just pointed our boards down the slope and just went for it.  Really fast, if a little bumpy.  I'd recommend for people who come to Hakuba to go to Sanosaka often, as it was empty and had loads of powder runs to take.

Visibility: Sunny with cloudy spells
Snow: 12cm
Piste Condition: Loads of powder.
Wind: Light to moderate
Temperature: -4 to -12
Crowding: Light.
Lift Lines: Light.

This morning myslef, Koko and Chris had decided to hir out some Snowscoot "bikes".  It was amazing how cheap they were to hire.  Only 1000 Yen for two hours!  However, trust me, after two hours you are physically drained, so that is more than enough.

We all three headed up top with Stephen (who was skiing) and gave our first go down the slope.  I will say that I took to it virtually straight away, and was very quickly going down the slopes at speed.  Chris and Koko took a while longer but were really getting into it near the end of the two hours.  We did a few easy runs then hit a really steep part of a red run, and it was quickly obvious that none of us had ever ridden these things before!  By the end of the two hours I was looking for hit's, jumps and any kind of varied terrain and was really enjoying it.  The only thing I would say about the bikes is that it really gives you an upper body work out.

After lunch we got back on our boards and did some runs.  The weather was a really bad Wiches V**ina (= Cold, Wet and Nasty).  So we didn't do too many runs.  The powder was really deep and fluffy however, but quite wet.  I also wanted to take Koko and Chris down the off-piste run that I did yesterday.  However, when we got to the top of the run, I went first and immediately hit a drift up to my abdomen.  On trying to hike out, it was obvious that the conditions were quite dangerous so we decided to not hit the back country and instead head on down and catch the bus.

All in all a very entertaining day.

Visibility: Heavy clouds with extremely poor visibility
Snow: 22cm
Piste Condition: Loads of powder, and snowing heavy all day
Wind: Strong to gale force
Temperature: -6 to -14
Crowding: Light.
Lift Lines: Light.

Today started off a bit lazy and I just couldn't get going.  I headed straight to the top of Goryu and decided to see if the kicker we built was still in place.  The snow and wind had completely obliterated any signs of the kicker and also the igloo.

I headed on down through the 'alpinaglade' and discovered that the wind had caused a top level of icy conditions.  However there were still areas where the powder was nice and light.  I headed straight on down the slope and down the double black mogul run.  Wasn't that exciting and I just couldn't get motivated.

I headed all the way back to the top again, and this time I was some people I recognised go off into the back country, an area where I had wanted to go.  The only reason why I haven't hit this back-country is that I have no idea where it leads out.  So I headed down as normal, down the piste and when I arrived at the gondola I say some of the people who did the back country.  Hmmm.  This encouraged me to go up and give it a go as I knew that there had to be an easy ride out.

I hit the top of the back country and it was so worth the ride.  There was just so much light powder, the trees were nicely spaced, the terrain was challenging with loads of drops, hits, jumps and amazing carve lines to take me down the slope.  The bottom run out was actually quite scary.  There were loads of trees that you had to duck under, avoid, and all on a very narrow track with a big drop off to the side.

I met Stephen at the top a couple times as he had decided to dig out his Igloo as I did the run again and again and again.  Good riding, just a pity that there was no-one else to enjoy it with me.

Visibility: Sunny with cloudy patches
Snow: 2cm
Piste Condition: Light powder on top, some wind swepped and icy conditions
Wind: None to light
Temperature: -3 to -7
Crowding: Light.
Lift Lines: Light.

Headed out for a ride on Saturday as the snow had been falling all night, and I also had a forced day off in the week.  I decided to head on out over to Happo One as I hadn't been there for a while.

The weather was atrocious with full blizzard and white out conditions.  I got all the way to the top and couldn't see a thing.  I knew where I wanted to head and gingerly made my way over to "Sky Line".  At the top of Sky Line I headed to the very right and found what I was looking for.  On the very far right there are some brilliant tree runs.  With the threes there it also provides better visibility as there is a contrast between the snow and trees.  My confidence in my riding made for the tree runs to be much faster and a lot more scary .  I basically hit the same run again and again taking different lines through the trees.  I did actually clip a few trees on the way and cause a few snow slides (but in a very safe and controlled area!).

The weather and my now well worn jacket conspired to me calling it quite an early end to the day.  After 13:30 I was soaked through.  I headed on down the mountain and stayed in the Happo One Ski School to dry off a little.  By the time I dried off I was just simply too tired so called it a day.

Visibility: Complete white out.
Snow: 20-40cm
Piste Condition: Loads of powder with icy conditions underneath
Wind: High to gale force
Temperature: -4 to -14
Crowding: Moderate.
Lift Lines: Moderate.

Today was a back country kicker building day!  The night before we bought a few large Chu-Hi (Highly alcoholic fruit drink - like a Alco-Pop) and also made dinner.  So the back-pack was loaded and myself and Chris and Koko headed on to Iimori.  We rode on over to the gondola and then to the lift at the top.  At this point Chris and Koko found Stephen, so he teamed up with us.

We headed on up around the top of the mountain to where we had previously had chosen to build the kicker.  I started up the hill and started to build the kicker, with Chris joining me very quickly.  Koko headed off for a couple runs, as she was still recovering from yesterdays crash.  It took myself and Chris about two hours to build the kicker before we were ready to hit it.  It had a short but very steep run in, with a huge run out.  We then broke for lunch to let the sun hit the kicker and melt/solidify.

When we got down to the base spot, we found that Stephen had dug out a huge wind breaker/igloo (without a roof).  Through the day it got deeper and we had an area where Chris and Koko could prepare their dinner, and also dug in 'egg chairs'.  Real good job!

After lunch we then decided to hit it.  Chris went first and it threw him up in the air.  He did say there was too much of a lip, but I thought I'd go anyway.  As such, I made the biggest splash of the day.  The think just threw me and I splashed way down the slope on my back.  The landing was however so soft it didn't hurt.  Through the day we hit it again and again.  Chris had a few spills that cartwheeled him a couple times, and for what ever reason didn't manage to land any, including his 180 attempt.  For what ever reason the kicker just simply wasn't a kicker to spin off (YET...what about tomorrow  ).  I only managed to land the thing three times, each time simple but big and long straight airs, all other attempts resulted in a splash out.

After we had drunk all the Chu-Hi, Koko decided to head on down and Chris decided to go on a Chu-Hi run.  There was a problem here in that Chris had left his jacket, and his lift pass was in it.  It was about an hour before myself and Stephen had worked out that they weren't coming back.  In the mean time we decided to try rolling down the hill whilst videoing it.

The day was getting late and thre was a nice wind lip near where we had built the kicker.  I decided it was time that I hit the wind lip.  The first attempt I got up some speed and went for it.  The landing was a lot harder than I thought but then went real soft.  As such I stacked my first hit.  The second hit, this time again I hit it with speed and I thought that I was going to stick the landing, but on the rid out it got real soft and the nose went in and I flipped.

We were too tired by now and we decided to head on down.  I gathered up Chris's jacket and gloves that he left, all the empty cans, and me and Stephen headed down.  I stopped in at "The Pod" on the way down to wait for Stephen and had a cheeky vodka red-bull.  Myself and Stephen then headed on over to Iimori for the bus.

What a good day.  We hit the Onsen to chill.  I've really caught the sun today and the tip of my nose is burned...OOops.  Sun block on that all day tomorrow me thinks!  Still it can't detract from all the good kicker riding.

Visibility: Blue-bird.
Snow: Dusting
Piste Condition: Bullet proof and icy, with sun crust on top of any powder
Wind: Moderate, decreasing to none.
Temperature: 3 to -1
Crowding: Moderate.
Lift Lines: Light.

With the weather staying warm once again, todays riding wasn't that great.

In the morning the conditions were at their best, but very quickly turned into slushy conditions with all the blue-bird and sunshine.  We headed to the top of the Iimori lift and hit the trees straight away (myself, Koko and Chris).  We all had a lot more confidence in riding the trees today.  We were just crashing through and brushing the branches away.  Confidence was much better.

We then wanted to head on up to the top as we wanted to ride on over to 47.  Unfortunately it was closed at the top so we had to settle with riding from the top of the Goryu gondola.  Heading down we grabbed every drop and powder that we could find.  The conditions at this time were still great, so we headed down the 38 degrees mogul slope.  Everything was filled with powder so it made for an interesting run.  Hit the deep powder, hit a mogule, get out of control and repeat   Near the top however, Chris and Koko got a good video of Chris and flying powder through the trees.  At the bottom, there was the good dip and real nice powder to crash on through.

We then hit the Iimori park a few times.  Again, for what ever reason the confidence was up and I was hitting the jumps, rails and pipe-rails much faster and better.  This however went a bit wrong for one of us.  Koko hit the up-along-down box and unfortunately took a big tumble and landed hard on her knees.  This forced a coffee stop, while we checked out the damage.  Thankfully with some hot and cold treatment it wasn't too bad.

After that and some positive encouragement given to Koko we headed on up over to the gondola to the top.  This time the runs over to 47 was open, so we headed on over to the new 'breaking the rules' tree run.  Koko was taking it easy and was doing some videos and mostly followed the cat-track.  The run through the trees was great for me and Chris.  As the sun had been beating down on the slopes the conditions of the slopes had really deteriorated.  So when we hit the top of the 47 gondola we decided to call it a day and run all the way to the bottom.  Again, Koko was videoing so we decided to take the cat-track.  Man it was so slow!

Visibility: Blue-bird with occasional patchy clouds.
Snow: Dusting
Piste Condition: Variable, from hard pack softening to spring slush
Wind: None to light.
Temperature: 2 to -3
Crowding: Moderate.
Lift Lines: Light.

Today I didn't go riding.  My increasingly dodgy ankle is suffering.  So instead I walked down to Hakuba village with Stephen.  Went to the post office and posted a postcard to my Mum (*awww*).  Had pizza at the place next to the train station.  Headed back up to Echoland and then straight to the Onsen.

Hike in the morning.  Myself, Chris, Koko and AJ went straight on over to Goryu and straight to the top of the mountain.  We had decided to hike to the top of the Goryu mountain, which we proceeded to do.  It was a very, very hot day today to do a hike and it was a tougher hike than the last time.  The view from the top however on a blue-bird day made up for that fact.  I headed off first, followed by AJ, Koko and Chris followed up the rear.  The ride down this time was more fun, as I pushed it a little more than the last time.  Everyone had a good ride however, and AJ said that his heart was really beating through the exilaration (he hadn't done anything like this before!).

We headed straight on down to the Escal plaza by going the straight route down the mountain.  It was nearly lunch time and we had only technically managed one run .

After lunch we put some runs through the Iimori park.  I was getting more confident on the first jump and was getting to the point of not scrubbing any speed off.  My rail, pipe-rail, and other jumps were all riding well and I was even tempted to try the 'drum tap' jump, but chickened out and jumpy popped the air instead.

After that we headed on over to Hakuba 47.  Whilst on the hike I had noticed that there was an extra out of bounds, through the trees run that we could take that leads onto the green cat trail.  So we headed on over into it and experienced some absolutely great 'silk like' powder through the trees.  There were now some big drops back down onto the cat trail, so they were a bit knarly to undertake but still great.

We then took some runs around Hakuba 47 and also through the park.  The park has been completely re-shaped from the last time I went through and the jumps had gone from a good decent size up to massive.  Had my first big crash on the first jump.  Came in switch and had planned to do a front side 180.  Just didn't spin enough and landed a 90 and ended up going face first down the transition "scorpion" style.  Still, no damage done.

We then headed on back up to the top of the mountain so Chris and Koko could pick up their backpack.  We were all feeling pretty beat so we headed right to the top and walked around the cat-walk to our favorite powder field.  We all just straight lined it all the way to the bottom without stopping once.  Really exhilarating, especially given the speed we were getting. Speed is your friend!

Then end of a tiring but great day. 

Visibility: Very Good.  Blue-bird with occasional patchy clouds.
Snow: None.
Piste Condition: Hard pack.
Wind: None to light.
Temperature: 2 to -5
Crowding: Moderate.
Lift Lines: Light.

Visibility: Very Good.  Blue-bird morning, clouding over in the mid afternoon.
Snow: <2cm.
Piste Condition: Soft dry powder, but packed down in most places.
Wind: Light to none.
Temperature: 2 to -4
Crowding: Moderate.
Lift Lines: Light.