Jeff

Sincerely hope that SA Customs don't read these updates! South Africa is not the place for bunging notes over the counter, I suspect Botswana, Malawi, Mozambique would be fine and it is mandatory for Zimbabwe in any currency but theirs!

Shirley & Vic, thanks for note, hope you are well. We miss the trees and vegetation of Cornwall but not the rain. Sat in the pool to keep cool between 1pm-3pm.

Ralph

Thanks for all the info. Hope your trip is going well. Weather here is glorious Rain Rain & Rain. Looking forward to hearing from you again.

Our very best wishes

Shirley & Vic

Hi Ralph and Angela,

Ralph, it sounds like you had a lovely trip back to South Africa. As someone who has been in the car with you on a long distance trip down to Cornwall, I can attest that you were likely shy, demur and with Mother Theresa like patience in your negototiation with the civil servants. I am sorry I missed it!!! In response to your paragraph below...

Of course, you may be saying why didn?t we organise a longer visa???don?t get me started. Suffice to say that you would need a personal reference from Nelson Mandela, loads of cash, the patience of Gandhi and a spare 12 months to fill in the paperwork.

I think a personal reference from Nelson Mandela and Gandhi (a current one no less) and spare 12 months to fill in paperwork would have been trumped by loads of cash presented to the right "official"...they aren't reading this are they?

Great to hear from you Pat, Joe & Alfie, and thanks for doing Dad's lawn. The locals would love to see some Cornish rain here!

Keep up the ten pin bowling

Hi Angela & Anthony.

Pleased to see you arrived back safely in S Africa. We received an email from your Dad earlier this month glad to see that he got back ok and that Cesa is looking after him. We are envious of you two touring S Africa. The postcards of the country on your site are realy wonderful. Enjoy the experience.

We will endevour to keep your Dads lawn short as long as we can dodge the rainfall. Hope to see you in the future

regards Pat, Joe and Alfie

Thanks Buzz, does the Lightyear refer to your age????

As Rob says Google Earth is an awesome bit of technology. Unfortunately whilst we could identify the tree under which our vehicle and trailer were parked, the satellite didn't detect the huge pile of bird sh*t that accumulated on both vehicles over the last month. Fortunately the guys at Upington Car valet service are far fitter than us and had the Discovery gleaming again in 2 hours.

Very difficult following poignant messages from Ralph and Ralph's father - so I won't even try other than offering very best wishes.

Ralph and Angela flew back to SA last night and will be back in Upington shortly (and very much out of pocket courtesy of SA Airways!!)

I promised Ralph to look at linking Google Earth to their travels because we spent some time tracking Ralph and Angela's pictures through Google Earth and it is absolutely fascinating and gives and added and sometimes awesome perspective on where they have travelled. If you want to have a look it and haven't yet (I may be the last one to do so which would not surprise me, even with my unhealthy obsession with the web) it is a free down loadable piece of software found at http://earth.google.com/download-earth.html - one word of caution - it's 14.1MB - so make sure you have enough disc space and you don't hang your pc or laptop for a few days while it downloads - when you have downloaded type in Upington South Africa - which Ralph and I did - and Ralph was able to identify the tree under which their 4 x 4 was parked while they were in the UK !!  I will see if it is possible to link their GPS system to Google Earth and update. BEST WISHES

Antony and Angela

Just using your message board to thank all of your friends who were so kind in assisting me at the time of Mums death and afterwards ,especially Pat and Roger,Jo and John and all your friends who sent messages of sympathy.

Dad & Cesa

Ralph,

I am very sorry to hear that your mother passed away. It sounds like it was a nice ceremony in a lovely setting. Take care of yourself and Angela.

Hi guys, so sorry to hear your news, and we hope you are both OK, if your down this way, we would love to see you both, we have now moved and our new place is out near Arundel, otherwise good luck on your return trip to Africa. and have a great time while your ovr here.

Hi Ralph and Angela

So sorry to hear you sad news. I hope you are both keeping well. If you come to our kneck of the woods before you go back on your fabulous travels, let us know and we will take you out for lunch/dinner - all expenses paid oooohhhhhhhhh! now i know you are used to it but and NO your not camping in my garden! If you need to stay over we can get you a bed!

Take care of yourselves.

Michelle