Hi All and welcome to Cape Town – the first stop in our Ticket to Ride South Africa tour September 2009

I just thought I’d put up a quick post to let you all know that we’ve just gotten through sorting out all the final touches done here in South Africa as we wait in eager anticipation for our group to arrive in Cape Town tomorrow.

Everybody arrives at various times throughout the day so we’ll probably just spend tomorrow doing airport runs and settling in before we get this trip kicked off in true South African style with a delicious potjie dinner. We’re also looking forward to having Paul and Dene Botha come over and join us and give the guys a briefing on what to expect for the next 10 weeks in Africa.

The weather here in SA is a little balmy, but we’re expecting blue skies and clean waves for the weekend.

It’s all shaping up to be a classic start to another classic Ticket to Ride South Africa trip. I look forward to spending these next few weeks showing our new crew around my beautiful country with the help of my UK team-mates Nikki and Tim. So keep watching this space for more news and updates on the groups’ adventures, as we make our way east along the South African coastline

Bye for now

Bevan, Tim, Nikki

All of the September TTRide SA crew have landed safely in South Africa for the start of their 10 week adventure which will see them travelling through 8 locations from Cape Town to Durban, receiving world class surf tuition along the way, getting involved in a variety of community projects, and ultimately having the opportunity to qualify as surf instructors and surf lifesavers.

12 of the crew of 13 were all picked up yesterday from Cape Town airport, with Francis already being there having arrived a day early. There were a few tired faces but apart from the delay of Steven's bags (don't worry they will be arriving!) everyone arrived in high spirits.

Having been shown around the local Kommetjie area, the group settled down to a traditional South African braai (a bbq SA style) had a good chance to get to know each other, and were introduced to the Cape Town surf academy owners Paul and Dene Botha who between them boast more surf stories than you could get out of 20 braais.

Cape Town is an action packed start to the trip, and the next 10 days will fly by with them receiving a variety of surf lessons, getting a talk from top South African metrologist "Spike", climbing table mountain, aswell as visiting many of the other top spots aroung the Cape.

The first surf lesson is today, and rest assured there will be another update with photo's coming up shortly.

All the best,

The Ticket to Ride team