Day 416 – 420 South Africa 23/12/2011 – 27/12/2011, Milkwood Farm, George. Happy Christmas with Georgie, Phil, Thomas and their lovely family.

Having spent last Christmas by a lake in Turkey, it was lovely to be invited and made so welcome by Georgie and her husband Philip's family. With a special mention going to Phil and Georgie's very cute and extremely mobile 13 month old son Thomas. His big smiles and impressive crawling have been quite a feature of our stay.

Spending Christmas when it is the middle of, an albeit wet, summer is still something of a novelty. To add balance we had the Danish traditions of Georgie's aunt Janchen, to give us a taste of the Christmas that we are more accustomed to. Having a proper tree with real candles was very special indeed. This was obviously offset by a braai (BBQ) and a generous amount of time spent in the pool.

The weather, although generally warm, hasn't always been conducive to getting out and about. We have still managed to visit a large farmer's market, swim in the Pepsi pools and enjoy a morning at the strawberry farm.

Everyone has been terrific and we are very glad that we made the decision to leave the bikes behind.

All that is left is for us to say a huge thank you to everyone and a very Merry Christmas and happy New Year to all of our friends and family wherever you are.

Take care all we hope you had a fantastic time love Matt, Debbie and a very Christmassy Toad.

Day 99 Turkey 26/12/2010, Köyceğiz. Boxing day, packing and pomegranates.

Funnily enough, today felt very much like the day after Christmas does back at home. We both rather sluggishly got out of bed and went down to breakfast. We then went back to the room and failed to move until about midday. It wasn't entirely unproductive, I did get my blog entries written and we started to do some packing, but mainly we just rested.

The only part of the town that we haven't seen since we have been here is the beach, so when we did eventually venture out that's where we headed. It was very much a case of 'well we have seen it, now lets go back'. Perhaps in the summer it looks much better, but right now we wouldn't describe the beach as Köyceğiz's finest asset!

Having picked up some bread and snacks from a supermarket we returned to the hotel to complete the Boxing day tradition of eating all the leftover food from the day before. It was during this, that I now have to add Pomegranates to the list of food that can only be eaten whilst naked and in the bath. I know Terry Wogan used to claim this was the only way to eat mangoes, but having attempted to dye my clothes grenadine coloured, I feel that Pomegranates should also be eaten this way. It was very tasty and perhaps I was preparing it wrong, but unless I receive another free one, then I shall not be risking it again!

Heading out once again, we had dinner in a local restaurant and then went back to the hotel to watch the Dr Who Christmas special. Even in Turkey, using a bit of internet trickery, we didn't have to miss out on the latest episode.

Hope everyone is still enjoying the holidays, I shall be writing from the hills along the road to Fethiye tomorrow.

Day 98 Turkey 25/12/2010, Köyceğiz. Merry Christmas everyone.

Despite the fact that we are in a Muslim country and we are apart from our families we were determined to have a nice Christmas. Debs donned her flashing Santa hat and we went down to breakfast. The guest-house owner wished us Merry Christmas and from somewhere managed to find a small Christmas tree for us, complete with decorations. The day had started really well.

Back in our room we set about calling all of our family and friends via Skype; it was great to speak to you all and it sounded like you were all in for a wonderful day. If we missed anyone we apologise and hope you had a terrific time.

In high spirits, we spent Christmas dinner eating mezes, drinking Efes and playing backgammon in beautiful sunshine overlooking the lake. It may not be traditional but it was really nice.

Heading back to the guest-house armed with a bottle of wine, Debs was looking forward to taking a picture of the Christmas tree, only for us to find it gone. A very disappointed Debs trudged upstairs to our room, only to open the door and be greeted by a newly potted Christmas tree and bottle of wine! We cannot thank the guest-house staff enough, they have gone out of their way to make the day as special as it could be.

With the computer tuned to Radio One we listened to some Christmas music and enjoyed the wine. In Debs' case she may have enjoyed the wine a little too much, but hey it's Christmas.

We won't be moving on tomorrow, as we have lots of time to get to Antalya where Debs will be going home for a few weeks. Hope fully she will get to catch up with some of you.

All that's left to do is wish you all a very Merry Christmas, we will try and ring again around New Year. For now stay safe, lots of love Matt, Debs & Toad