Lamborghini Gallardo Lowveld event

Still a bit of a mystery how I managed to get a chair at the Lambo high table, but hey, pass the CO2 and wolf whistles. Three cars, three journos, a trip from Olivers to Graskop along the 'widowmaker' and back, with a stop at Elephant Whispers in Hazyview to pet an elephant named Tembo. There was to be a helicopter flip over the Blyde River Canyon but the weather came over all Welsh, so, bleak house, had to drive back with the roof down through the deep purple. What a disappointment...

The cars themselves - LP 560-4, LP 560-4 Spyder and LP 570-4 Spyder Performante - are all well into their model life, still fantastic to look at, still difficult to crawl out of. Gallardo is a Bolognese fighting bull and LP refers to the engine's location (longitudinally in the posterior). The 540 is the crazy kilowatt output and the 4 is the all wheel drive nomenclature. 

On the boil it is the devil in pursuit of fallen souls, a guttural howl to freeze the blood. In a tunnel, flappy paddling down a couple of gears, it's seat wetting. And when young Greg tore up the road's magnificent cambers, dodging the front-end loaders, all was perfect. 

Truthfully they're not as easy to drive in traffic as Pearl franchise owner Hilton Ralph would have you believe, the gearbox the main culprit. Set up as it is for hard-nosed, lairy, full throttle runs it takes a while to learn its foibles. In town, especially at stop streets, it's easy to catch the 6-speed auto box out, the result a heafty thunk. Still, I'm comparing it to a VW DSG. Compared to the old days of neutral before reverse and massive knocks between gears, it's a pussy. Performance is admirably eeek;  0-100 km/h in 3.4 seconds and 325 km/h in soft top Performante guise (with that nasty bit of sticky-outy carbon fibre whale-tail wing that costs R110 000).

Annie was right - sweet dreams.

Picardi Place pasta making course

Jaco Brand and Kobus Kritzinger run the venue/organic farm outside Rawsonville. One of the activities on offer is a pasta making course with wine tasting from Mountain Oak nearby (Christine Stevens). James Retief joined us. Part of the Breede River story for TFG Man. Lovely afternoon and morning.

Breede River/Slanghoek story

A Breede River story for TFG Man - farm workers rioting in the area but no problems. Eensgevonden Cottages beautiful in the evening light. Mountain Oak organic farm and winery wonderful, and Opstal, the restaurant, run by Ria Louw (pictured), a refreshingly simple place compared to the wine estate grand standers of the Stellenbosch area. 

Witsand, Kalahari, Navara dune driving

After the chaos of KZN ( too many people, too many bumps), the Kalahari a real balm - Nissan organised a dune driving couple of days at Witsand in their Navara. We arrived at the height of the protests at Sishen mine, meaning the airport at Kathu was out of bounds. Divert to small airport, convoy through to Witsand. The storms had begun, big purple black monsters filling the red landscape. The dune driving was a bit chaotic after the overnight rain, but the dune boarding was fun. Great seeing Richard and Jeanene again too - such genuinely cool people making things happen in the middle of an extraordinary landscape.

Best of all was the impromptu photoshoot at dusk as the storm came in. Electric, as they say.  

Durban and Sodwana Bay

Frustrating time spent chasing photography that wasn't possible in the endless rain and fog. Usually not a problem - take moody shots - but this time stories on summer holidays (diving and beach stays) demanded sunshine. So ended up at the Aquarium and Madame Zingaras. Decent shots at the fish prison but nothing useable for the stories. 

Garden Route rush jobs, Infiniti

A story on farm stalls followed by a feature on Sheridan Renfield at Sedgefield Classic Cars. Too rushed but the Infiniti was good fun. Pierre finally rid of Wian so that was good to see too. 

Garden Route rush

Something of a rush job with two stories in three days - classic Sedgefield and a drive in a lovely old 1946 Mk IV Jag, and a frantic up-and-down the Garden Route checking out farm stalls. Not enough time, mediocre pics the result. Kirsten at Thyme and Again was interesting though, and Pierre finally rid of the lazy, grabbing Wian in Plett. The walls are now purple.  

Greyton, Overberg

Frankly not my favourite town, all too Clarens. But midweek it was better, quieter, less Newlands. Genadendal was a revelation, the gardens out the back and the pear tree magnificent. Quiet, restful, bees and blossoms and all the cliches of an early Spring day. And no Range Rovers full of over-indulged, new parented tweenies on pink cell phones. There was a table of them in Abbey Rose on Friday evening, Grade 11 or so, girls already feasting on their entitlement, discussing the world's failings in a semaphore of gesticulated 'likes' and 'whatevers'.

Ireland

At the invitation of Tourism Ireland, the country's north and east - the new Titanic Museum (Titanic Belfast), Dublin, Derry, the cliffs of Slieve League, Donegal, Atrim and Letterkenny.

Along were Melanie Daly, Graham Howe, Elizabeth Sleith and Helen Fraser from Tourism Ireland. An interesting trip; the divide between north and south, Protestant and Catholic somewhat explained, the sun shone, the diversity was surprising and the food largely memorable. Highlights included a bizarre tour through the City Hall in Belfast by a camp automaton, the food at the Guinness Pumphouse (and Dean's Deli's risotto), the Folk Museum in Holywood and that tiny little labourer's terrace house, the cliffs of Slieve and the rooms at Harveys Point Hotel, Lough Eske, Donegal.

Zambia - Lower Zambezi National Park, Baines' Camp

The story was on Johan Marais and his elephant seminar, held at Baines' River Camp on the Lower Zambezi, over the river from Bumi Hills. It was a great trip - along were James Kydd and Garth Kingwill from Ranger Diaries and Bradford Keen (ex Cue) from the PR company. Much game seen, including the disturbing sight of a hippo flying off a cliff. We reckon it was being chased by lions. It landed on its head and as we pulled up in the boat, it died. Less gruesome were the countless elephants - memorable was the tree shaking incident which sent a hail of pods down on the Cruiser. The forests around Jeki were beautiful, as were the early morning blasts up river from the camp to get to the park. Alison and Colin Street came along as well; fun locals with a hut on the river intent on learning more about ellies. Great trip.