Return To The Cape...Yet Again!: T Minus 3

News is fairly slow here in South Africa, as is the pace of life. Actually it's pretty damned enjoyable particularly when one sunny day fades into another sunny day. For me, there is little doubt that waking up to sunshine every day and the warmth that goes with it is a health giving recipe.

I am a morning person back in the UK and without fail, when I wake up, I am always happy and smiley. I think it's because of my ever increasing years. Quite frankly I am just grateful to find I am still breathing and therefore having the prospect of at least one more day ahead of me that I can enjoy with the person and the people that I love more than anything else in the world - family. I'm a very lucky and blessed person.

The problem however here in the Southern Hemisphere is that with the added ingredient of sunshine and warmth everyday, my happiness very early in the morning is doubled, nay even trebled and I can quite frankly, be unbearable. I must be pretty gruesome for people to live with, particularly when they come to life at the end of the day, a point at which I have turned into Victor Meldrew!
Apologies to my American family who probably haven't got a clue who Victor Meldrew is! I am happy to report that despite my malaise, we all remain on speaking terms and every day passes with lots of fun and laughter.

Talking of fun and laughter, I am hoping that is what Sarah and I have to look forward to when we join the British Airways crew abseiling off Table Mountain on Wednesday morning in support of Dreamflight. I hope anybody reading this will take the time to have a look at the following two links to see exactly what this charity is about and what it means to the children who are able to visit Disney. Watch them and you will clearly understand why Sarah is prepared to overcome her fears in order to raise funds for this amazing charity.

Huge thanks are due to those who have already sponsored our efforts and if you feel that you would like to support our fund raising on Wednesday, then you will find full details of what we are up to and how to donate by clicking the link below. The next thing you hear about this on my Blog will be on Wednesday evening when hopefully, I will be reporting on a very successful event and the safe return to terra firma, not only of me and Sarah but the whole of the British Airways crew of flight BA2065 who came up with this mad but wonderful idea. Oh and our personal photographer, Linda, will be there with us taking loads of photos to remind us exactly of what we got upto and these will be posted alongside the Wednesday dispatch.

I have got lots of other things to talk about, as well as jumping off mountains for charity and one of these is the Franschhoek Motor Museum, a total gem tucked away in the estate of a certain Johann Rupert.

We have now visited Franschhoek for seven consecutive years, each time passing the sign for this museum and basically ignoring it, assuming that it would be a very small, unimpressive affair comprising half a dozen vehicles including an Austin Allegro and a Ford Anglia! Wrong, wrong and wrong yet again!! How could we have been so stupid?? This place contains possibly the greatest collection of cars in the world and the word stunning would at best, be a massive understatement.

I mentioned Johann Rupert above and perhaps if we had known a little more about this gentleman then we might have been a touch less dismissive of this museum. To put not too finer point on it, Mr Rupert is slightly wealthy. Actually, he is rather more than that because he has wealth beyond anyone's imagination, not only being South Africa's wealthiest individual but one of the world's richest men to boot. He can afford anything he desires and clearly, one thing that he has desired over the years have been classic cars. It must be a heart breaker for other collectors at specialist auctions to find they are bidding against Mr Rupert. They are guaranteed to lose!

His collection comprised 320 vehicles at the last count and yet only 80 at any one time are displayed in the museum. The majority are in running order and they are rotated on a regular basis. We were left open mouthed at the display and the history that accompanied every vehicle and were privileged to get into conversation with a young man called Cheslynne Ruiters, an assistant in the museum, who ended up giving us our very own private tour which included very close up access to priceless motor vehicles much to the annoyance of other visitors who wanted to enjoy what we had! Cheslynne's knowledge of every vehicle was encyclopedic and added massively to our enjoyment.

I have added quite a few photos below which don't do justice to this museum. I can only end this post by saying to any readers who might be visiting Franschhoek, don't make the mistake that we made and drive blithely by the Motor Museum sign. Take the turning and enjoy a truly fantastic couple of hours.

My next post will be on Wednesday with a report and photos of our exploits on Table Mountain.