Africa – 30th Sept 2008 – Day 29

The alarm woke us with a start today at 6am, even though we had not asked for a wake up call!!

We eventually rose at 7am when the building works opposite the hotel kicked off. Wehad breakfast at 8am and then tried to log onto the BA web site to check in on line. The wireless network was still down. The manager came over and tried his PC but the network was broken.

So, we checked that it was OK to walk down to town, found an internet café on the map, dropped anything of any value and went off on our travels. After 20 minutes walking, we realised that we had forgotten the BA login details, so we had to trudge back up the hill to get them from our room.

On the way back into town we received some very strange looks from the locals. They are not used to seeing a couple of Brits walking down the road. Some nodded to us another asked us for money. John gave a wee blind man 10N$ which will do him for the day.

We found the internet café which boasted that it was the biggest and best in Africa. We paid our 10N$ and tried to log into the BA web site and Johns email. Neither worked.

Eventually the shop owner moved us to a new PC and everything was fine. Even though BA had sent us an email saying we could book in on line, our flight did not allow for it.

John sent Audley travel yet another email complaining about sending us to a building site for our last days in Namibia. Much of our holiday has been great but they have managed to muck up quite a few things.

Just before leaving for the airport, John got chatting with a Newcastle lass who had just come back from a three week horse riding trek from Windhoek to Swakapmond. She really enjoyed it but 8 hour days followed by putting the horses to bed had taken its toll. She recommended a web site to us called www.inthesaddle.com .

At 12.30 the cab picked us up and stopped at some other hotels to pick up guests. Who should be coming to the airport with us but the English couple we met at Haub lodge.

We had a sandwich and drinks at the departure gate and bought some socks for Fiona and a couple of African candles. The flight was on time and everything went smoothly.

On arrival at Joburg, we collected our bags, walked to the domestic departures, checked in and waited for our next flight to Cape Town.

The flight went well. John had a young African chap next to him who had not flown before. John did his best to relax him, by telling him not to worry about any bumps!!

We landed on time, collected our bags and headed for the car hire office. We drove out of the office following the directions given to us by our next hotel.

However, we managed to get lost and ended up in the docks area. We retraced our steps and eventually found the road which took us to Camps Bay. We found the hotel, checked in and went to bed.

Africa – 1st Oct 2008 – Day 30

After a great nights sleep, we had a healthy breakfast and then headed out to town to try and book onto a Robben Island tour (where Nelson Mandela) was jailed. We could not book for today, so booked for a trip on the 11th of October.

After a coffee, we found some great African pottery and ended up buying a Fish and a picture.

We headed down to town of Boulder to see the colony of penguins. They were great fun to watch up close although they don’t smell so great!!

We then headed down to the cape (the most southerly point in Africa) via Simon Town. The cape was quite impressive. We walked down a trail, stopping off to see a beautiful beach (dai beach). The waves were huge and we saw some seals in the surf.

We eventually reached the end point of the cape (Cape of good Hope) when Fiona spied a huge black rain cloud heading our way. We rushed back along the trail reaching the car just before the heavens opened.

On the way back we came across some more baboons. Some idiots were feeding them out of their car. We had seem some earlier in the day. A baby baboon had climbed onto our car bonnet before quickly sliding off and hitting the ground!!
We drove back to our hotel and kept seeing some large Southern Right Whales in the bays.

We had a great meal at the Tuscany Beach Restaurant. Fifi had this amazing fish kebab on a small sword like device which allowed you to dribble butter down the fish. Fiona thought the Kingklip fish was the best she had had. John had a wonderful Paella.
On the way back we visited a near by town called Sea Point to get a couple of DVD’s to watch in our room. We watched a film called The Bucket List, a very nice film indeed.