8/4/2016 Cape town Day 3

Today we went on an absolutely brilliant excursion to the top of Table Mountain by coach and cable car, with a fantastic, funny, caring and professional tour guide. We had a third clear sunny day with hardly any breeze, 30+C so we have been really really lucky today. This was made even sweeter because the tour guide saw that I was walking with a walking stick today and filtered me off into a group allowed to jump the one hour queue, go up in the lift to join the cable car with all the "gogos".  Khachik was allowed to come with me. Khachik did a phone video both up and down in the cable car, which incidentally rotates to give everyone a chance to see everything. There are about 60 people in each car, and 2 cars in operation. The organisation of the cars is fabulous and on the top of the mountain there are all sorts of facilities including internet cafes, bars and shops. So much to see up there - truly stunning and breathtaking views, very different terrain, three different types of stone I hear, unique wildlife (notably lots of little lizards, some pure black, some with turquoise heads), and the most beautiful birds I have never even seen pictures of.  Research required!

We stopped up there for about an hour for short walk, a coffee and a snack, and Khachik found internet to make contact home.  While we were doing that a couple who had already left the ship at Cape Town joined us. They said they were from Cheltenham, Warden Hill to be exact. I told them about my 11 years in Cheltenham, and mentioned Pate's Grammar School, of course they knew it.  They asked where we were from. When we said Glossop, they said they knew another couple on the same ship called Brian and Maria from Hadfield.   They have now also left the ship, without us getting to know them, which is a shame. Who knows we might meet up with them some time in the future.  However we might meet another of their contacts Tom Williams, apparently from our neck of the woods. Hope we recognise him from their description.

At departure time, the SA immigration team again found it necessary to take their time doing the face to face passport checks and stamping, which has resulted in almost 3 hours delay leaving Cape Town. The queues were bad, it was hot, bottles of water had to be given out in the queues to prevent dehydration. I think the best thing is to expect delays, and not rush out of the cabins to queue, but arrive at the tail end and pass through quickly.

Never mind, we've eaten now, met a lovely couple from New Zealand and are back in the cabin ready for a good night's rest.  Sea day tomorrow.  New art teacher! New sector.  Excited about Namibia on 10th April  Bye for now. xx

6/4/2016 Cape Town, sunshine and appetite back!

Thank goodness that storm has passed! We have felt hungry and eaten heartily this morning.   Last night during the storm we tried our best to behave normally (and not give in or lie down). We went to the theatre where Vince Earl "did a turn" as a comedian and cabaret singer, reminiscent of the working men's clubs I frequented in the 1970's whilst supporting  a couple of semi-professional rock bands. It was generally tolerable, but tarnished by quite a lot of outdated and offensive terminology and jokes about "the wife". All that unfortunately and embarrassingly belonged to decades ago in places like the Embassy Club. I tried hard to cut him a bit of slack because he must be in his 70's, although I appreciate that that's a poor excuse for racism and sexism. He probably cut his teeth on THAT Bernard Manning type of stuff. Also he was rolling about the stage with the stormy weather, so that can't be easy. On the plus side he told a couple of jokes about flatulence, some doctor/patient scenarios, and ageing which still managed to make me laugh. He definitely ought not to sing Willy Nelson and Elvis though, that's an absolute.  I would suggest retirement, asap.

Today is the extra day in Cape Town, because we were unable to dock in Port Elizabeth. We sailed in to Cape Town around 10 a.m. with the skies bright blue, and a flat sea. Table Mountain looks absolutely brilliant.  Several beautiful mobile phone pictures will soon be  available. As soon as immigration is done we are shuttling to the V&A Waterfront where we will potter and wander, and enjoy a bit of rest and relaxation, possibly with the assistance of a hop on hop off bus, but nothing too taxing.  Tomorrow and Friday we are still here, and these two days were already scheduled and we have with excursions booked for Table Mountain and Robben Island.



We are located at 33 degrees south and 18 degrees east today, temperature 20C.  That feels UK-normal for late spring to early summer, and very agreeable it is too.

At 11:30 there seemed to be a bit of a delay with immigration.  I couldn't say what or why, just that the announcements suggested it would be a long delay, and from our cabin balcony we could see hundreds of people coming back onto the ship, having failed to make it through immigration at all. I think it might be a good idea to paint table mountain while we wait.

Update:By 12 midday and our tannoy announcement suggested there'd been an administrative "issue" that hadn't been handled or communicated properly between the Port Elizabeth agent, the ship and immigration here in Cape Town. Ho hum. We might not be getting off until tea time. I am very happy we took our time this morning and have just been waiting quietly away from the understandable frustration and anger.  Instead we've been able to take in the views, do the crossword and watch a dcumentary about Emperor penguins on the telly.  I will post this now, and hopefully get the pictures uploaded when we get off the ship later and access decent wi-fi. So bye until later xx