Elizabeth's birthday this week - thank you to everyone who sent cards, e mails and presents. Elizabeth will reply eventually!

In the meantime here's a photo or two of the birthday girl on her new J-board.

It's the Heritage Day public holiday today, so as part of Elizabeth's birthday treat we're off to see Mama Mia at the opera house this afternoon. Yes, we did see it in the West End earlier this year, but the tickets are half the price of London here and it'll be interesting to see it performed by an African cast. And then we're off on holiday tomorrow. I cannot wait. A week of exploring the Garden Route and Klein Karoo, including safari, a tree top canopy tour, hiking through a canyon and a walk with elephants. We're staying in a range of B&B, tents, mountain cabins and forest lodges. Quite a lot of moving around in just a week, but the upside is that we'll really have seen southern South Africa by the end of the week, from seaside resorts to mountain wilderness with a game reserve or two in between.

Last week I took the day off on Friday and when we'd collected the girls from school at lunchtime we headed straight down to the Indian Ocean coast. Took the train to Muizenburg, and then walked along the beach to Kalk Bay. We had fish and chips from Lucky's in Kalk Bay and sat watching the seals before catching the train home again. Best snoek and chips around!

AWESOME! Apologies to those who have told me how envious they are of our adventure, (believe me, I know how lucky we are!!) but this weekend has been amazing.

We drove up the West Coast on Saturday morning, covering around 200kms to eventually get to Patermoster, an old fishing village. On the way we stopped off at the West Coast National Park, with the intention of viewing the spring flower display and doing a bit of walking. We did both these things, but the most exciting and unexpected thing was the game viewing. We saw: wilderbeest, gemsbok, bontebok and eland (all kinds of deer / antelope of varying sizes), ostrich, wild tortoises, vast millipedes and huge furry caterpillars, several species of birds of prey including eagles, kites and last night, a huge and beautiful owl, sunbirds, weaver birds..... and finally something I've never seen before - Cape mountain zebra. Just like ordinary zebra, but with brown and cream stripes. The pictures above are self explanatory apart from the one of the weaver birds nests dangling from the bougainvillea outside the bedroon window of our B&B.

The weather was glorious - first real weekend in spring, and already it's warming up. The girls eventually made it into the Langebaan lagoon, a huge sheltered stretch of water with an immaculate beach - but it's still the Atlantic Ocean! After swimming, rock climbing and generally messing about for a couple of hours, we headed a little further north to Paternoster, our B&B, and dinner in a restaurant right on the beach. Watched a spectacular sunset and then came back to the guest house for a dip in the hot tub and a chance to marvel at the vast and very dark South African sky, bursting with stars.

This morning, after watching the frantic nest building of the weaver birds from the comfort of our bed, we had breakfast and set off for Langebaan and the national park again, this time via the Columbine lighthouse. We stayed here an hour so Lottie and Elizabeth could scramble over the rocks, though we were almost blown away: the Atlantic pounds the rocks savagely on this exposed headland.

We walked the 9.5km hiking trail up to Seeberg point, a granite outcrop with wonderful views of the lagoon. Neil mused that the view reminded him of the north of Scotland - not that I've seen such a benign stretch of water in the Highlands. Not many ostrich up there either. On the hike we disturbed a large male ostrich as we rounded a bend. As they can be very nasty when threatened we stood still and after a few moments of staring at one another he set off at a gentle trot.

Neil has been poetic in his comparisons with the UK this weekend. Much of the route along the R27 up the coast is very flat: Cape Town comes a big surprise when driving south as the mountains suddenly rear up ahead of you. Occasionally there are huge rock formations and small hills with cairns on top. 'Rather like Salisbury Plain' said Neil!

And so the spring flowers. To see them at their magnificent best, you need to head further north, and this year the dry winter has dampened the display a bit, but even so the countryside is very attractive, dappled with incredibly deep shades of purple, orange and blue.

Finally, after a wonderful short break, home to CT and preparations for another week. Should just add that the music festival Elizabeth's choir performed in on Thursday evening was a superb showcase of young talent. The orchestra, made up of only three local primary schools, was outstandingly good, playing Coldplay's Viva la Vida as the finale, and absolutely rocking the venue. Our (unbiased, obviously) opinion was that Rustenburg Junior has the best choir of the schools performing. The girls sing like angels, and Elizabeth's teacher is very hot on technique - all those 7.30am practices pay off. However it's also the most formal choir. One of the other schools gave a rendition of 'I'm a pink toothbrush' to huge applause - you'd have loved it mum!

Lots of love everyone. Have a great week.

Quiet weekend after the week's activities. Elizabeth's choir has been involved in a local Eisteddfod ( a big deal in SA for some bizarre reason) and came second. She is performing again this coming Thursday, so fingers crossed once more.

We decided to celebrate the first day of spring with a long walk at Kirstenbosch on Saturday - the most glorious botanical gardens that merge into forest and eventually lead to a series of rouites all the way up Table Mountain. The 550 hectare estate once belonged to Cecil Rhodes who left it to the people of the city on his death, and it is a truly wonderful idyll. We had lunch in the tea rooms first, then walked about two thirds of the way round the pretty strenuous Silvertree Trail. The first couple of kilometres climb relentlesssly until you reach the aptly named Contour path. The going is then much easier as you follow the line of the mountainside, until eventually the path descends again back to the gardens.

Milkshakes, pots of tea and double choc chip muffins in the cafe seemed like a suitable reward at the end of the day.

On Sunday, we met up with some friends to take the girls rock climbing at the climbing centre at Observatory. City Rock is very close to Groote Schuur, the hospital where Christian Barnard carried out the world's first ever heart transplant. Lisa, an English woman, met her South African husband Chris in Cafe Rouge on Putney Bridge Road, nearly opposite my old house in London. She's been here for twelve years now, and is a fount of information. Chris works extensively across Africa and gave me the lowdown on Kenya. Their daughter Sophie is in Lottie's class, and the girls had a great time, gradually climbing higher and higher up the walls.

Then home to plan two birthday parties! We've decided to wait until after the school holidays at the end of September to try to maximise the number of friends who might be around. Lottie's birthday was a month ago already, but she hardly knew anyone at that stage and it seemed premature to try to arrange a party. So the weekend of 9th and 10th October is going to be super-busy with both girls having parties. Lottie has opted for a gymnastics party, Elizabeth for a rather ambitious African drumming, dancing and story telling do. I have found a local performer who now tours Europe (!) but is apparently willing to run a party for Libby and 15 friends. We're intending to transform the garden into an African village for the day. Just hope the weather is kind!

It's weird to think everyone at home is gearing up for the start of the new school year. Poor Lottie is going through yet another round of assesments as we approach the last quarter of the year here, but she seems cheerful about it all. We've been incredibly lucky not to be touched by any more strikes. The situation in CT is definitely better than in Joburg, where many schools have shut indefinitely and where hospitals are facing an absolute crisis. Nurses and teachers appear to have simply given up, and there are terrible stories of intimidation of those who want to work. Some hopsitals are in melt down, with even very sick people being turned away. The government has increased the pay offer to 8% (can you imagine!), and the nation seems split between those who are outraged that public servants are behaving so irresponsibly, and those who support their claim. Selfishly, I'm most concerned that my work permit extension gets through the blockade. I'm due to go to the US on business at the start of October and may not get back into SA again without a valid stamp!

This is our house in Cape Town, an oasis of calm I was delighted to return to this week, after 4 days in 'real' Africa. I've been in the poorest parts of Nairobi - the attractively named Pipeline and Jericho parts of the city. First impressions were of the kind of third world chaos we're familiar with from television: men pulling carts laden with goods (or rubbish), cheek by jowl with rickety buses packed to the rafters with people. Women carry sacks of grain on their heads and weave between the cars, buses, lorries and minibuses.

The traffic is chaotic: there has been no new infrastructure in Nairobi since the British left in 1963, and in the absence of a ring road, all traffic must cross the city centre. Roads are full of vast potholes, and there's no real sense of where the edge of the road is. So a highway intended for 2 or perhaps 3 lanes of traffic has 5 or 6 vehicles abreast, all crossing onto the opposite side of the road, travelling on the verge and then trying to squeeze into tiny gaps as oncoming traffic bears down on them.

Rubbish is only collected from the richer areas where people can afford to pay for refuse collection, so there are mini landfill sites along many of the roadsides. The smell is vile, but even worse when you happen upon rubbish that has been set on fire - a truly toxic reek. Huge marabou storks scavenge on the rubbish dumps: the size of a small child, they are eerie looking birds when they gather in the trees at dusk, or circle over the poor parts of town, like vultures waiting for their chance to pounce.

Immediately on arrival at the airport, you sense the difference between (in many respects) first world Cape Town and Joburg, and this, the most developed city in Africa outside of SA. There's a dingier feel to the place, the lighting is poor and the visa queue takes me an hour to clear.

This close to the Equator, there are no recognisable seasons, only wet and dry. August is cold, the taxi driver says - it feels pleasantly cool to me, as I had been anticipating feeling hot and sweaty all week. I'm in a T-shirt, the Kenyans are all wearing coats. I splash on mosquito repellent and hope for the best.

At the hotel the receptionist tells me about the new Constitution signed last Friday. It gives more rights and empowerment to women and children. Pity the chambermaids hadn't felt empowered to clean my room - it's 9.30pm on Sunday, I left Cape Town at 11am this morning and my room isn't ready! The hotel restaurant is open so I decide to wait for my room - by eating Thai food in Nairobi.

After 4 days talking to women about soap (some are so poor they go to a local kiosk and buy a slice at a time, carved from a big bar, unable to afford the few shillings a standard piece costs), I start the journey back to SA on Thursday. On the way to the airport at 6am, the city is already buzzing. I had decided to come back on Kenyan Airways, which is excellent - more legroom that South African Airways and, as ever, friendly and helpful people. Amused to see that the safety video was produced by Tyne Tees TV - sadly no Geordie voice over but instead the best Queen's English. Although Swahili is widely spoken in Kenya, English is the only official language making it an easy place to communicate.

Stunning views of East Africa on the way home. Annoyingly I'm on the wrong side of the plane for Kilimanjaro, but the vast savannah plains, lakes and extinct volcanoes below me are still amazing.