Hello Fellow Blogers: Finally, I am able to log on to our site. We had a few challenges but it appears that this connection is ok. Our format for this will be a HE SAYS/SHE SAYS style as requested by some to ensure that some of us don't exaggerate too much!! ( wink wink ) HE SAYS It was a challenge getting here. KLM, our former friendly Dutchy airline has entered the dog house. Our flight from Toronto got off the ground 2 hours late and we couldn't land in Amsterdam because they had a snow storm. This meant about 3 inches of snow and this is the most they had received in the windmill capital in years. We missed our connecting flight to CapeTown which was due to leave at 10:30 AM as a result and we were rescheduled to leave at 8:00 PM. No big deal. We would chill out in downtown Amsterdam and try not to get into too much trouble in the process. The snow continued to fall and just as we were ready to board our flight which no longer was direct (they had us going Amsterdam to Nairobi to Jo'Burg and finally to CapeTown) they closed the airport. KLM would not field questions or anything and they shut down their system completely. So, over 2000 people were forced to find a chair or couch in the SCHIPOL airport. Lovely. All hotels were booked in the city and KLM gave us 10 Euro Vouchers for grub to eat. Big deal. We managed to find quasi comfortable seats in the Smoking Lounge and before long, we had Mr. Los Angeles, Miss England, Mr. Ethiopia living in Vienna and Mr. Iran as well as Bev and me hanging out talking about the world and how ths snow is ridiculous as apparently, the Dutch definition of a snow storm pales in comparison to the Canadian term. Anyway, an Indian dude from New Delhi approached me and asked if I was thirsty and our compadres and Bev and I were suddenly proud recipients of a fresh, duty free bottle of Johnny Walker. Furthermore, Miss England had a bottle of Rice Whiskey as she was returning from South Korea. We stayed up all night and made a direct flight to Cape Town and arrived at 4:00 AM on Thursday March 3rd when we left Toronto at 6:00 PM on Tuesday March 1st. Over 50 hours of travel to hit the tip of Africa. Well worth it though. My bags arrived on Saturday and Bev's on Sunday. KLM gave us 1000 Rand, like 40 CDN dollars to buy toiletries etc.... My tent was stolen (yup, robbed already) as my bag did the Nairobi, Jo'Burg route but we replaced it with a nice, S. African tent and have been camping since...... CapeTown is a truly unique city as it is a blend of Dutch, English and Black cultures. I'll try and get some photos on for you but had better give Bev her 2 cents worth now as she has been keen on doing a BLOG for a while now. Will write later and we're safe and sound in South Africa. SHE SAYS Hi everyone!! Seeing as I have emailed most of you already with a lengthy detail of our trip thus far I am not going to ramble on as I did previously!!! We left Cape Town yesturday and headed to Stellenbosch - as soon as we arrived we were already on a bus for an all day wine tour - absolutely amazing scenery - with the vineyards and the mountains all complimented by oodles and oodles of great wine!! All together a great day!! Today Laird and I walked around the town of Stellenbosch and marvelled at the Cape Dutch architecture. Truely a beautiful town - clean and picturesque. I dont however feel as though we have really started to experience AFRICA as everything we have seen up until this point has been Dutch influenced (Amsterdam, Cape Town and now Stellenbosch!!!) We should have just stayed in Holland!!! Looking forward to heading further up the gardend route this week and trekking further into more "native" towns and cultures. We both miss you all very much and are thinking about you often. Sorry for the delay with the "blog" - the site has been moody!! We will keep you up to date more frequently (as possible!) Take care and I will say "cheers" to you all right now as I take a swig from my Castle beer!!! Tootles xoxox Bev