The tour has just begun on a great note and we haven't even left SA yet; a relaxing 2 days playing golf at Sun City. Today it was the Gary Player Country Club and yesterday it was the Lost City.

Its fair to say that this will be the last bit of non-stressful relaxing before the cricket part of the tour starts.

For most of the players, this will be a new touring experience as it was only AD, Corrie (now assistant coach) and Craig (the fizz) who toured the Windies before in '92.

The important thing for this tour will be to assess the conditions and the wickets as soon as possible and then to get into our stride and stay there for the duration of the trip.

Our strengths in the past have been our ability to adapt to the conditions fairly quickly. I recall this being the case in India last year and if we can do this in the Caribbean, I think there lies a great tour ahead for all of the guys.

From a personal point of view, I'm looking forward to the tour, as it's a bit different from the last few I've done, which have been Kenya, India and Sri Lanka.

I think this is definitely the scenic one, the one not to miss if you can help it! Even though you can't really pick and choose your tours, unless you're a legend like Jacque Kallis, this would be the one to pencil in for any future budding international cricketers.

I've had a short lay-off of about a month for the removal of a ganglion (a soft tissue swelling) in my right hand. The ganglion wasn't anything serious, just some swollen tissue that would flair up from time to time and cause a bit of irritation. Its totally healed now an thus I'm looking forward to getting into the nets over there from the word go.

I feel that from a cricketing point of view, I've been making good progress but my aim for this trip is to cement a permanent place for myself in the test and one-day team.

It's been a bit of a roller-coaster ride up until now and if and when I get the chance, I plan to take it with both hands.

This is not my first trip to the WI. I toured Barbados with the Free State team back in '96 when Franklyn Stephenson took us over there for some games. It was a great experience, the people are really friendly and it's just a pleasure to be in such scenic environs and to be able to do what I love most; playing cricket.

I'm taking my fly-fishing rod with me and if we have some free time over there, I plan to do a little fly-fishing. I find fishing very relaxing. Some of the other guys play golf, some go to the beach, some sleep while others read or watch TV.

The Caribbean Islands are well known for their fly-fishing potential. Its basically salt-water conditions and hopefully it can provide me with some feisty challenges and a few photos in the end.

This is Boeta Dippenaar signing off for CricInfo.

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