Table Mountain

Table Mountain, originally uploaded by nataliej.

When we arrived in Cape Town the weather was great, so we decided to make the most of it and headed up Table Mountain - obviously we took the cable car! The view at the top is amazing. Just slightly beating the view from down town Cape Town itself. At one point a little black lizzard scurried across a rock before disappearing into a crevice. After about an hour or so the famous table cloth started to descend, but we'd finished our sight seeing and Scotty was getting hungry, so we headed back down. Amazing.

Table Mountain, Twelve Apostles and the Lion's Head

Table Mountain, Twelve Apostles and the Lion's Head, originally uploaded by nataliej.

Vaughan and Scott

Vaughan and Scott, originally uploaded by nataliej.

My travel companions at the top of Table Mountain

We're here

Arrived at 11.40am - about an hour and a half late, but none of us
care about that we're just glad the plane took off at all!

Temperature at London Heathrow: -3C
Temperature at Cape Town: 24C

:)

30,000ft

At 30,000ft, night is slowly giving way to dawn, the sun ready about to appear from below the horizon. For the last hour or so I've been awake. Out of my cabin window I've watched the sky change as it first turned from starry night, through to the most surreal blueish glow, punctuated with pin pricks of light like a living advert for O2, then onto the blinding light of dawn.

My camera fails to capture the beauty of this moment, so it exists only in my head, these words acting as a jog to my memory.

We're on the plane

Huzzah

We've found our plane!

We've found our plane!, originally uploaded by nataliej.

Hurrah! It's here! Hiding at Gate 56 all along!

And the weather forecast is definitely improving. No more snow seems
to be forecast.

Looks like we might be in business.

Weird plug

Weird plug, originally uploaded by nataliej.

So it turns out that South Africa have their very own special plug. The pins are fatter than a European plug and crikey, that third pin is gigantic. It's like a British plug on steroids.

Giraffe!

Phew!

It's o so quiet...

It's o so quiet..., originally uploaded by nataliej.

...and here's the reason why. Our flight is still scheduled. But boy,
Heathrow is so empty! There's nobody here!

Waiting

South African Airways are still waiting for BAA to decide if our
flight tonight will still depart. Eeek.

On the road!

On the road!, originally uploaded by nataliej.

Ten hours before our flight is due to take off and we're on the road, braving the 'TRAVEL CHAOS' (as Sky News insists on calling it). The motorway seems fine... so far. But I feel this may just be the start of a very long day.

Flights

Well, if we manage to battle through the snow and make it to Heathrow *and* our flight isn't canceled, you can track the flight status here.

Am I really going on holiday tomorrow?

It's so strange, but I still can't believe I'm actually going on holiday tomorrow. I'm about to start packing (I've got the suitcase open on the bed), the holiday is planned out, I've done my research, yet the prospect of stepping onto a plane and getting off 6,000 miles later seems unreal. And it's going to be surreal leaving behind the predicted blizzard conditions of London and swapping them for the cloudless skies of Cape Town. Weird. Anyway, that suitcase isn't going to pack itself... better go.