Knysna - Jeffrey's Bay. Monkeys and Bunjy Jumping.

Wednesday 5 August

Outr first stop from Knysna to Jeffrey's Bay was Plettenburg Bay where we spent a couple of hours sitting on the beach in the hot african sun watching the whales entertain boat loads of whale watchers in the bay. I reckon Plettenberg Bay has just broken into my topm 5 best beaches around the world. One day, I am going to have to jot all these 'best of' lists down!

Next stop Monkeyland. Guess what Kieran wants for a pet now! Tom, a Canadian ' monkeyologist' took us on a guided tour of the 14 hectare rainforest where over 200 monkeys, from 14 different species leapt above our heads from tree to tree, or scurried from bush to bush through our legs or over our feet. It was great to be so close to the primates and monkeys we particularly enjoyed were the squireel monkeys, the lemurs and the gibbons. There is a strict rule of no touching, and because of this the monkeys do come really close. sometimes, the off pair of sunglasses or camera gets snatched. they got nothing out of us today! The hilight of this excursion was the 20m high rope bridge walk across the canopy where we can either look down upon the monkeys, or watch them at the top of the trees.

After Monkeyland, a short drive took us to Storms River and we stooped at the Bloukran's Pass where I had a little surprise for Dan and Kieran. The world's highest bunjy jump at 216m. Unfortuanely Kieran was too young, (even after lying about his age), but he was able to do the flying fox. Then we discovered he was too light for that. Such was his disappointment, theat we got round that by strapping him to Dan. That worked, and the 2 boys did the world's highest zipwire at 200m high and over 200 m long over the Bloukran's Pass. I can tell you that from where I was watching from the view point, they were just dots, the pair of them dwarfed by the shher height and size of the pass as they zipped down the wire.

Dan, then showing no fear whatsoever, with Kieran behing his cousin for moral support, then threw hinself off the bridge with nothing but an elastic band tied to his ankles to save him from a grisly and messy death. Now I did a bunjy jump some years ago in France, and I can tell you, that was nothing in comparison, so, fair play to both boys for doing the zip wire, and a big hats off to Dan.

It has been noted by the many people that we have met that Dan and Kieran are a couple of adrenaline junkies. My mission is now to find something that they are afraif of. If, at the end of the trip, we have enough cash, then I am considering them doing a parachute jump. I haven't mentioned this yet as I wont hear the end of it until they do it. But, if being tossed out of a plane at 10,000feet doesn't scare them, then I fear nothing will.