Itinerary

Only two more days here before we set off on our European road trip.  i can't believe it's the end of the season already and that it will now be some time before we get to ski again.  i think we should move to a mountainous country which has continuous Winter.  That would suit me just fine.  Antarctica comes to mind but they don't have many ski-lifts.

Natalie on the home run today with dramatically lit clouds to mark our arrival.

Anyway, for the interested few readers, on Sunday we're driving to Verona in Italy and spending the night somewhere near the town center.  The next day we drive to Plitvice (pronounced "plitvich") in Croatia and have a look at their waterfalls which now make up a World Heritage Site.  After two nights in Plitvice, we drive to Krk Island which is just off the northern Croatian coast in the Adriatic.  Natalie's booked us a fabulous hotel which advertises itself as being 5m from the Blue Flag beach.  i'll be taking a tape measure with me.

Ian on the home run today with dramatically lit clouds to compensate for his gorgeousness.  i think of all my gear that i won't get to use until next season, i'm going to miss my helmet the most.  i love my helmet.  Maybe i'll sleep with it on back home.

Then it's briefly back through Slovenia and a return to Italy and Lago di Como where we're meeting my parents for 5 nights of me, Natalie, and my Mum hiding under the table as my Dad attempts to communicate with everyone in Italian, including us, no doubt.  We're staying in a great apartment which apparently is really close to the villa they used to shoot the "recovery" scenes of the last James Bond movie.

After that the parental units take the quick way back to the UK while Natalie and i spend one more night in the French Alps on our way to the Schwarzwald (Black Forest) where we're staying for a few nights in an, as yet, undisclosed location.

Then a final sprint across France or possibly Belgium if we're feeling particularly daring and our return to the Uck.  We're only there for a few days before heading south again.  This time a lot further south - to South Africa, in fact, where we'll be mooching off our friends and family and generally making a nuisance of ourselves. 

In South Africa, i suspect a fair amount of tobacco will be inhaled, along with a correspondingly large amount of sea-water as i try and remember how to surf.  Surfing is with the feet sideways to the fall-line right?  Very strange. 

The best bit is that Natalie is also going to learn to surf and hopefully Paul's knee will be strong enough to do a bit of coaching.  We're in Sunny South Africa for three weeks and the middle week we're spending at the Tsitsikamma National Park, which is about 600km east of Cape Town, in a log cabin on the rocky sea front where waves have been known to crash 20m into the sky.

Then it's our return to England and, well, stuff.  Work.  Nine-to-Seven.  The Mill.  Can't say i'm particularly enthusiastic about this last part.  Perpetual holiday is infinitely preferable.