By Claire Taylor England women's cricket team

After 32 hours of travelling, I arrived home to a damp grey English winter on 3 February with just two and a half days to get ready for the tour to South Africa.

I was soon lost in a whirlwind of unpacking, washing, ironing and re-packing, but managed to find time to catch up with family and friends and take the dogs for a walk before the touring party met up at Heathrow for an overnight flight.

It was good to catch up with former skipper Karen Smithies

Last minute duty free shopping done, we had a quick meal and slipped into our 'skins', compression tights worn on long haul flights to decrease fluid retention in the legs and aid blood flow around the body.

On landing at Johannesburg we were greeted by former England captain Karen Smithies, who now works as a Cricket Development Officer, and a torrential thunderstorm.

We moved on to the High Performance Centre in Pretoria where the facilities are fantastic - two swimming pools and 72 acres of sports pitches, together with great catering and hospitality.

We played three warm-up matches before the first one-day international and three good wins against combined provincial opposition gave us a very positive start to the tour.

As a squad we were looking forward to stiffer competition and were keen to test our game plans in the internationals.

We haven't been able to see much of the country - busy training schedules and strict safety policies have kept us focused on cricket.

The first ODI was played on a low, slow deck at the university in Port Elizabeth.

Winning the toss, we elected to bat and were disappointed by our total of 151. The South African girls fought hard, winning on the last ball of the match.

From a disappointing game, my memories will be of Lucy Pearson scoring 22 from 24 balls - beating her previous best of three - and my catch at mid-wicket to dismiss Alicia Smith.

We travelled to East London by coach the next day - a quiet bunch who knew we'd let ourselves down and looking forward to an opportunity to make things right.

Another toss won, another opportunity to bat first - but this time on a quicker pitch with a lightning outfield.

Charlotte Edwards (102) and Lucy Newton (65) put on 142 for the first wicket and we were able to post 281-7, a total the South Africans never looked like challenging as Clare Taylor's first bowl on the tour brought her three wickets.

The watching supporters were treated to two "what happened next?" moments during the England innings.

Charlotte Edwards batted beautifully in East London

The first saw Newton given run out by the umpire at the bowler's end following a direct hit from Alison Hodgkinson.

But the bails were still in place after 'jumping' from their grooves, so she was recalled to the crease and given the single.

The second incident was a comedy of errors as the glass-like wicket saw bowler Shandre Fritz on her bottom, quickly followed by batter Edwards, who slipped as she turned to regain her ground.

There were chuckles all round after we'd ensured both players were OK.

We're now back at the HPC for the northern part of the tour, with three more ODIs in which to show our progress from last summer and prove our intent for next year's World Cup.