Day 56 & 57 Homeward Bound

It’s home time!  We have loved South Africa - thankyou Cunard for rerouting the ship and bringing us to Capetown, we’ve loved every minute of it and left us definitely wanting to return.

We’re flying home with Turkish Airlines so going via Istanbul.  We caught our first flight at 4.30pm and it took approx 12 hours to get to Istanbul.  Once there we had a 3 hour window before we got on the final flight to London.  The flights were fine, I watched a couple of films - “Wicked” which was then followed by a George Clooney and Brad Pitt film called Wolfs (whoever came up with that title obviously doesn’t know the rule that f becomes ves when the word wolf becomes plural!).  Andy watched Gladiator II.

We flew to Heathrow  and were back home by lunchtime, exactly 8 weeks after we left on our big adventure.

It’s been a blast, we’ve met the loveliest people and seen amazing sights.  We now have an empty holiday folder so time for Andy to start planning the next big adventure!

A last selfie before heading to the airport

I don’t think Andy wants to go home

It’s been a fabulous trip.

Day 55 - The Final Pack

It’s our last day in South Africa today, and the last day of our big holiday before the 8,600 mile trip home.

There’s so much to see and do in and around Capetown, 5 days didn’t do it justice so we will definitely have to visit again.  With the big trip tomorrow, we decided to have a quieter day and after breakfast we hopped in the courtesy shuttle bus to Camps Bay which is 5 minutes down the coast.

Camps Bay is a lovely seaside town with lovely restaurants and shops.  We had a walk along the beach watching the ominous clouds which seemed to be moving towards the area.  We ducked into a restaurant for lunch on the beach front and watched the comings and goings on the beachfront.  We saw 7 men squeeze into the back of a covered pickup truck where they sat on bench seats and ate their lunch.  Acrobats stopped every so often along the pavement and did all sorts of tumbling, balancing and somersaults before moving on. One man appeared by the beach palm trees and started wrapping wire round the trunk of one palm.  He then went to the next palm tree which was about 10 metres away and wrapped the other end of the wire round it, to make a wire washing line.  We spent some time contemplating what he was going to do with his wire line - we thought perhaps hang some art work or craft of some sort on it.  Wrong!  Next thing, he whipped off his T shirt and proceeded to walk along the wire, stopping every so often to breath fire or do a jump, unfortunately for him he hadn’t attached his wire properly and one jump too many nearly did some damage to his Crown Jewels as he plummeted to the ground.  There was no deterring him and he jumped back up, reattached his wire and started all over again - walking along the wire from one tree to the other successfully this time!

We had a walk along the beach in the opposite direction after lunch, reaching a huge ocean filled salt water pool.  The sun wasn’t out today and it was quite windy so there weren’t many takers brave enough to go for a dip.  There was one man swimming when we sat down on the beachside bench but he didn’t stay in for long.  The next brave souls were another two gents, I think perhaps a father and grown up son.  The father was “rotund” to say the least and the son completely the opposite.  The dad stripped off and waded out into the pool, disappearing under the water for a dook.  The son (probably around 18years old) tip toed into the water, shivering as he did.  He ducked under the water and promptly exited the pool to warm up!

It was back to the hotel to pack this afternoon and then dinner.  This evening, in the restaurant we had the loveliest waitress called Nozipho, which means “many gifts” or blessings.  Nozipho told us all about her Zulu culture and each time she visited our table we had more questions for her which she happily answered.  In Zulu culture, 80% of the men have more than one wife, the women make beer for the men at home, women have a dowry of 10 cows when they marry and there is a Zulu king who decides what punishment will be inflicted upon people who do wrong - these were amongst some of the tiny insights we had into Zulu culture tonight!

Camps Bay

Camps Bay with the 12 Apostiles in the background (the mountains)

The saltwater sea pool

Day 54 The Impatient Ostrich

Today we went on a tour of the Cape of Good Hope. This lasted all day and our driver - Bogani - stopped at many places to tell us about them and point out things of interest.  We decided we’d like to stop at an Ostrich farm which ended up being highly entertaining!  There was a shop which had all sorts of bags, shoes, handbags, belts, purses etc all made of Ostrich leather (the second strongest leather in the world) - Andy had his eye on an Ostrich belt and may have bought one 😉.  There were also many things carved from Ostrich eggs - which are huge and very strong.

After perusing the shop, we were given a little bowl of food pellets to feed the Ostrich.  The farm had beautiful green fields and in one field were two ostriches called Bonnie and Clyde (we later found out their names were Bonnie and Clyde for good reason).  We were instructed when feeding the Ostrich to just hold your hand out flat with your fingers together and offer the pellets on your palm.  Andy went first and found that the male - Clyde - was quite gentle.  Bonnie, however, was very impatient and not very gentle!  It was my turn next, so I again opted to feed Clyde first.  Unbeknown to me, Bonnie was savvy to this and so impatient that she decided she wasn’t going to wait and when I wasn’t looking she whipped the bowl of food right out my hand and downed the lot in a one-er like it was a pint of beer, then chucked the bowl away when she’d finished.  We all fell around laughing when we realised what had happened.  Luckily Andy was videoing the whole thing and it’s made entertaining watching!

Next up was a trip to the lighthouse on the most south westerly point of South Africa - Cape Point Lighthouse on the Cape of Good Hope. Built in 1859 it stands 238 metres above sea level and is now used as the centralised monitoring point for all the lighthouses on the coast of South Africa.  The Flying Dutchman funicular railway whizzes you up to the lighthouse where there are stunning views out to golden beaches and the sea.  Some years after the Cape Point lighthouse was built they discovered that due to the bad weather, it was often in the clouds and not visible to sailors so a second lighthouse was built at a lower level.

One thing on my bucket list to do on our trip to Capetown was to visit the penguins.  Initially, Andy didn’t believe me when I told him there were penguins in South Africa, but he soon learned there are!  We drove to an area called Boulders Beach where the Cape penguins live in the wild.  A board walk has been built which is raised and runs along the beach so you can look down and see the penguins without  disturbing them.  Some areas of the board walk have bush growing right beside it and if you stop and look, you can see the penguins nesting a couple of feet away in amongst the bushes. When the boardwalk reached the beach area there were penguins everywhere and they didn’t disappoint.  They were full of character and whilst some stood still watching the world go by, others waddled down to the sea, some were just having a good old tail waggle, wing stretch, flap and a bit of a scratch.  I could have watched them all day.

Lunch was in a scenic little fishing village called Kalk Bay.  We ate in a restaurant called the Harbour House which had floor to ceiling windows and views out to the pier and sea.  The pier was a hive of activity with people fishing and although it was a Sunday, the fish market was bustling.

Andy thought it would be rude to come all the way to South Africa and not visit a vineyard so the final stop on the way home was to one of South Africa’s oldest vineyards.  To make it fair, as I don’t like wine, he opted for the Chocolate and Wine tasting experience…he tasted the wine and I tasted the chocolate.  My chocolates were all delicious I’m glad to report!

Whilst driving all the different places through the countryside we saw several wild animals: ostriches, baboons, Rock hyraxes (also known as rock rabbits) and penguins.

The beaches are all golden and seem to be endless.  It was the most wonderful day, topped off with me losing 2 crib games this evening, then winning 2 to pull it back to remaining 2 games behind, with 2 days left to even the scores.🤞

 Clyde the Ostrich 

 Feeding Bonnie & Clyde

 The impatient Ostrich nicks the food pot

Oh well!

View from the lighthouse

View from the lighthouse

Cape of Good Hope - Looking down from Cape Point Lighthouse

Andy & Bogani on the penguin boardwalk

Penguins nesting

Penguins chilling on the beach

 Cutest penguin waddle

Todays windswept penguin selfie

Fishing on the pier

Wine tasting

Baboon in the wild

Rock Hyrax (aka Rock Rabbit)

Sunset

Day 53 Iziko African Museum

 

At breakfast this morning, there were two “traditionally built” African ladies sitting across from us.  Whilst I had some granola and Andy tucked into his sausage, bacon and eggs, I couldn’t help but notice the ladies who were both enjoying large plates of cooked breakfasts.  A wee while later, the waitress appeared with another plate…of 6 big sausages for the ladies table. I heard one lady offer her friend a sausage, but when she declined, the lady then ate all 6 sausages herself!  

After breakfast, we went into the centre of Capetown and visited the Iziko South African Museum where we saw all sorts of wildlife exhibits.  There were many animals I’d never seen before, or appreciated the size of them!  The buffalo and wilder beast were mahoosive!  There were also many full size models of sea creatures such as sharks and whales.

Next stop was a wonder through Company’s Garden which is the oldest garden in South Africa.  The garden was originally created in the 1650’s by the regions first European settlers to provide fresh produce to replenish passing ships rounding the Cape.  Vegetables are still grown in the garden today.  

Lunch was interesting.  We found a lovely eatery down on the V&A waterfront and ordered from the Tapas menu.  Our previous experience of Tapas has involved several small plates of bite size things to eat, so we ordered 5 different things expecting them to be little nibbles.  When the “tapas” arrived, it was 5 full plates of food.  Embarrassingly, we had to move tables because all the plates wouldn’t fit on our little table for two! 😅  Needless to say, we were rather full after lunch and slightly weary!

The day was finished with a wedding in the hotel - our second wedding of this holiday!

In the mouth of a big shark!

Andy and a big tree in Memorial Gardens

The huge giraffe 

Andy spotted an albino squirrel Company’s Garden.

Day 52 Table Mountain

We said goodbye to the Queen Anne today and set off for our 4 day stay in Capetown. We’re staying a few miles along the coast in a hotel called the Twelve Apostles.

We were collected from the Cruise terminal by a driver who took us to the hotel - about a 15 minute drive.  On the way he gave us lots of top tips re. things to see, which proved invaluable today.  One thing on our to do list was to go up Table Mountain…we were going to do this tomorrow or the next day, but Bo (the driver) let us know the weather forecast isn’t good for tomorrow so today is probably going to be the best day, so, that’s what we did. This afternoon, we headed to Table Mountain.

When you go to Table Mountain, there’s a big cable car that runs up and down the mountainside.  We didn’t have to queue for very long before we got in the cable car.  Around 20 people fitted in the large round pod.  Some people made a bee line for the side with the view up the mountain but this turned out to be a waste of time as the clever designers have put a circular rotating floor in the cable car, which means that during the 5 minutes it takes to travel up the mountain side, everyone gets every view as the floor rotates around.

Once on the top of the mountain, we exited the cable car and headed onto the enormous mountain top to find ourselves above the clouds and looking down on them. I don’t know what I expected it to be like but it’s actually quite rocky with boulders scattered all around.  Stone paths have been made for you to follow and there is a choice of three walks of varying lengths to do on the table top.  We opted for the longer walk so we saw the views in all directions.  It was a very sunny day but this was disguised by the wind - it was breezy 3,560 feet up there! I have since discovered that I should have put more sun cream on before leaving the hotel and heading up the mountain- I now have lovely white panda eyes and a rather red face.

The trip back down the mountain side had stunning views again, but interestingly the clouds had started to roll in from the sea and we watched as they burled over the top of the city, hiding it from view.

Back at the hotel I’ve been trying to even up the crib scores.  Despite managing to have one of the best hands of the holiday so far and winning 3 games in a row, Andy made a comeback and I still find myself 5 games behind, with only 5 days left to even the scores!

Dinner had something we’ve never experienced before……. The waitress came out and placed a little dish in front of each of us which contained dry ice - she then poured hot water onto the dry ice which dramatically created clouds billowing round the table before funnelling out little holes in the dish to reveal a small bowl of berry sorbet (which was delicious).  It was like a scene from a pantomime where a genie magically appears from a puff of smoke!

It’s now time for bed so I’m off to put some moisturiser on my rather red face and I’m really hoping I don’t look quite so panda-like in the morning! 

On top of Table Mountain

We made it to Table Mountain Top!

More views from Table Mountain Top

The clouds rolling in

Above the clouds

The hotel

A comfy seat 

Don’t look at the panda suntan

Dry Ice sorbet

When the dry ice had finished doing its thing, the dish had some berry sorbet in it which was rather yummy.  Andy had eaten most of his before we remembered to take a photo! 

Day 51 Cape Town

Hooray & hello Cape Town!  We woke up to beautiful sunshine and to find the ship docked in gorgeous Capetown.  It’s a short walk from the cruise terminal where the ship docks, to a fabulous waterfront area called the V&A Waterfront.  There are lots of fantastic shops and restaurants on the waterside and a huge artisan area called the WaterShed where I spent a couple of hours today, perusing the fabulous craft shops.  There were so many beautiful shops I could easily have spent many hours there.  Every shop we walked past seemed to pull us in.  Andy loved the wooden animal carvings and furniture made from recycled bits of metal (everything from clock cogs to garden tools were made into garden furniture and giant animals).  If it had been closer to home, we would definitely be adding some quirky items to our garden seating offerings!

We stopped for a drink at a bar right next to the pontoons where several boats were tied up - this proved to be a prime spot for people and boat watching!  Unbeknown to us at the time, many of the boats were for taking tourists out on harbour cruises.  Some were catamarans - twin hulled boats with masts and lots of deck space, some were like small people ferries with glass windows all round and the piece de resistance was……. A pirate ship with crew dressed as pirates! 😅. We watched families board the pirate ship, a school party of at least 20 reception age children board the harbour tour boat and numerous other people board many other craft.  It was like Piccadilly Circus on the waterfront! Most of the boats seemed to just go out for 30-60 mins, come back in and then be off out again - reloaded with more eager passengers!

Whilst all the boat action was going on, an African choir arrived on the shopping front next to where we were sitting and boy, were they fabulous!  There were around 15-20 people wearing traditional African brightly coloured clothes in the choir, but they didn’t only sing, they had a drummer with them and they all danced as well!  Their songs were just joyous, so upbeat and involved lots of whistling and cheering as well as singing, whilst the African dancing also happened at the same time!  The group were there busking so we made sure to put some money in their box when we eventually had to make a move and get some lunch.  

Andy had the biggest burger in the world for lunch - the clue was in the name..”The ultimate Bomb Burger” - it was mahoosive!

After a morning of shopping, people watching and lunch we headed back to the ship for a brief rest and to do the dreaded packing.  Little did we know there was more free entertainment to come…in the form of watching a huge cargo vessel manoeuvre itself into the dock right next to us on the Queen Anne.  It was a bit hairy at times 🙈 but the tugs did a great job pulling and nudging the mammoth cargo vessel into place.  It then opened up its 5 enormous deck cargo bifold doors, puts its 5 huge crains into action and spent the rest of the night lifting the cargo hidden in its bowels onto the harbour side.

This evening, we said tatty bye to Romulo, Arnold and Allen who have been our waiters whilst we’ve been on the Queen Anne - they were all so lovely. (Note to self, Emerson was also our waiter but he got a kidney stone last week and had to go into hospital).

The evening was finished off with a trip to the theatre to watch an African dance and drumming show which is brilliant.  There were masks, drums, singing groups and African tribal war dances amongst other things.  

It’s our last night on the Queen Anne tonight, it’s been a fun 17 days.

Metal animals made from scraps - Pumba!

Scrap metal Gorilla

V&A waterfront Capetown

Watching the harbour shenanigans

A light refreshment

 The cargo ship squeezing in beside us

Time lapse of the ship parking!

Day 50 Last day at Sea

It’s our last day at sea today and a day of talks, sewing and theatre!

First up was a talk by   - all about crocodiles.  We found out a bit about how crocs live in the wild, their anatomy, where they live, and finally we learned about crocodile farms.  

Croc farms were first introduced back in the 60’s when crocs had been hunted to dangerously low levels.  The farms enabled crocs to be reared, some of them released back into the wild and the rest were bread for the fashion industry.  Croc skin is the third toughest skin coming second only to kangaroo skin and ostrich skin.  The fashion industry has much to answer for.  We were told how the speaker went to a factory where luxury brand handbags are made (Hermes, Gucci etc).  The speaker looked at one of the small bags and inspected the croc skin it was made of - he could instantly tell that it was a lower grade croc skin and the farmer would have got around $20 for it.  The price tag on the small handbag was $47,000. 

Interesting facts I can remember: crocs can go for two years without eating - living off the fat in their tales; they live 70-100years; their teeth are hollow and they shed them revealing new ones underneath; they haves 64 teeth at any one time (alligators have 68); they exert 5000psi of pressure closing their mouth but have very little strength opening it; they have two eye lids, the second one comes over their eyes when under the water and this enables them to see very accurately in 3D.

The second talk was fascinating - it was by Zelda la Grange who was Nelson Mandela’s personal secretary for 20 years and with him til he died.  She spoke so eloquently about him, the travels they had and told many stories about him, his thoughts and funny stories of their travels round the world meeting many other kings, queens, presidents and ordinary people.  Truly inspiring.

The final bit of education today was learning about 3 historical Scots men in Africa - A Slave, a Slaver and an Abolitionist, what I can remember about the three Scotsmen from the talk is detailed below: 

Sir John Henderson 1605-1650 - the first enslaved Scotsman in Africa. Sir John fought in the 30 year war, survived and notably was the first ever Scot to visit Africa and become enslaved in Africa.  He was caught by slavers off the coast of Malta and transported to Africa.  From there he was sold several times, eventually being bought in a Zanzibar slave market by a Princess and they fell in love.  He then told her about his castle back in Scotland (Fordell Castle) and convinced here that they should go and live there. (He obviously didn’t tell her about the weather!).  They travelled back to Scotland but the princess died en route.  There is a portrait of the princess which was sold some years ago for a record breaking £75,000,000.

Richard Oswald 1705-1784, born in Caithness.  Became a Slaver - traded slaves, bought an Island called Bance Island in Sierra Leon as a slave post and built the first ever golf course in Africa on the island.  There is still evidence of the slave barracks on Bance island today. Oswald in the 1770s started shipping tartan into Africa which is still loved by African fashion today.  He then got a contract to supply tents to the British army worth millions of pounds.  He married a lady called Mary Ramsay, became very influential. He was worth over £100,000,000 when he died and left none of it to his wife or children.  

Dr. David Livingstone, well known for his explorations in Africa and getting lost a lot in Africa!  Very hard working, age 10-26 he worked in a workhouse for 14 hours a day then came home to study each night.  He got a medical degree from Strathclyde and then age 30 went to Botswana, where he explored all over Africa.  He had many adventures and got attacked by a lion but survived.  He empowered Europeans in Africa to stop slavery.  In 1868 Dr Livingstone got lost in Africa but he was eventually found.  April 21st 1873 he died.  He’s buried in Westminster Abbey but his servants removed his heart and it is somewhere in Africa. 

That was my learning for the day.

This evening I went to the theatre for a comedy production of Pride and Predjudice which was quite entertaining. (Andy didn’t fancy watching it).

It’s our last night at sea tonight - tomorrow we arrive in Capetown!

A last wee wonder round the decks

Ta dah!

Three Scots in Africa